flirt with you for fun, not because there’s an audience?”
She snorted. “No.”
He stepped into her path, forcing her to stop walking or ram right into his hard chest. “Why not?”
A million reasons. She was too bitchy, too mousy, too soft, too hard, too round, too flat, too loud, too quiet, too country, too out of place in the world she thought she’d wanted to be a part of since she was a kid decorating her room with pictures of Harbor City. No matter the reason, she wasn’t the type of woman people flirted with. She was the one they usually ignored—except for Web. He hadn’t flirted; there was none of that between them, but she hadn’t felt that tug with him anyway. It really had been the weird kind of instant friendship that sometimes happened where after five minutes it was like she’d known him forever.
She was saved from any of that spilling out, though, by the knock at the door that had to be a cousin sent by Aunt Louise to find out what was holding them up—and, therefore, everyone’s dinner.
Hadley switched directions and headed toward the door. “We’ve gotta go.”
“I want to finish this conversation later,” Will said.
“It’s good to want things,” she responded as she yanked open the front door and nearly plowed into her cousin Marco in her hurry to put some space between her and the Evil Twin.
She didn’t run off the porch after that. She was a grown adult woman and didn’t run away from uncomfortable truths. No. She quick-walked because hamburgers on the grill meant baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and German potato salad along with no-bake cookies and homemade popcorn balls. It would be heaven on a paper plate. Her speed had nothing to do with getting out of the cabin before that man tempted her any more and she did something foolish. Nope. Not a damn thing.
…
Will settled in next to Hadley at one of the three picnic tables behind the main house. Everyone was talking and laughing as they carried their plates loaded down with food and grabbed a can of beer or pop, as all the Donavan-Martinezes had called soda, from the gigantic cooler. Well, all of the family members were, with the exception of Adalyn, who was standing off to the side of the house, talking on her phone and looking like she just might nut whoever was on the other end of the line.
“So,” Gabe said in between bites of a delicious-looking burger that was the size of a small country. “Hadley was telling us that you secretly wanted to learn how to be a cowboy.”
Of course she was. He wouldn’t expect anything less—anything to get under his skin. If she wasn’t trying to set his brother up for a seven-figure sucker punch, he’d probably admire her for it.
“I’m not sure those were my exact words?”
“Don’t be shy,” Hadley said with a sweet smile he knew meant anything but good things. “You said you couldn’t wait to learn how to be a real cowboy.”
Oh, she was playing dirty.
“That would be great,” Will said. “But don’t tell them all my secrets, darlin’.”
A hint of pink touched her cheeks, highlighting the freckles across her nose that he hadn’t noticed before. “Not all of them.”
“Oh yeah,” Knox said as he slathered butter over his corn on the cob. “Just the ones about your pure-gold toilet and ten ex-wives.”
Will almost flinched, but years of going toe to toe during cutthroat business negotiations when Holt Enterprises had been on the verge of collapse had taught him to keep his outward reactions in check. He covered with his usual cocky nonchalance. “Regular toilet and only one ex-fiancée.”
Next to him, Hadley stiffened. “You were engaged?”
“Only for a few months.” All but seven days of which had been a living hell once he’d realized how he’d not only fallen for a shark, he’d nearly lost the family business and most of his money. “Turned out she loved my bank account quite a bit more than she loved me.”
Hadley pursed her full lips and looked down at the half-eaten burger on her plate. More than likely she was trying to figure out how she’d have to change her run at Web, since it was harder to play a mark if someone watching out for them had been in the game before.
That’s right, darling. Get ready. I’m coming for you, and you might as well realize it now.