that demanding need in his voice, she held out her fingers to him. He sucked them into his mouth as he took over, lifting her and bringing her back down at a ferocious pace until he lifted his hips and drove into her one last time with a sound that was more a growl of satisfaction than anything else.
She collapsed against him and he loosened his hold but didn’t let go, both of them breathing heavily as they came back down to earth and reality. Hadley let out a shaky breath.
There. That was it. We’ve had our one last time and now we’re out of each other’s systems. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
But she didn’t want to keep moving, and that’s when she knew she’d made a horrible mistake.
Chapter Fifteen
Will’s hair was still damp when he and Hadley walked into the main house for dinner and game night. That got him a look and a hard glare from Hadley’s brothers, no doubt because her long brown hair wasn’t quite dry, either—and because of the barely-there-but-still-visible hickey at the base of her neck. He hadn’t given anyone a hickey since he couldn’t remember when.
However, sex in the barn had led to fucking in the shower, which led to a post-nap make-out session before a text from her mom had alerted them that they were late for dinner and to get a move on or miss out on chicken casserole with Bisquick biscuits. That was probably why everyone turned in their chairs and stared at them as they walked into the eat-in kitchen.
Hadley’s family was gathered around several tables of different widths and lengths that were butted up against each other and stretched from the breakfast nook to the dining room. It was an oddball mix that still, somehow, managed to fit together. He tried to imagine the hodgepodge of furniture in his grandmother’s dining room and not even in his most NyQuiled-up fever dreams could he. They didn’t do that kind of thing. The Holts had one table. It was very long, very wide, sat twenty, and growing up, he and Web had sat at one end to eat while their grandmother sat at the other and sipped a never-empty glass of white wine.
He and Hadley sat down at the farthest end from her brothers—definitely not by accident—and across from the only other empty chair. A quick glance around confirmed that Adalyn wasn’t there.
Hadley’s eyes cast to the side as she gnawed her bottom lip. As they passed the biscuits, the glass bowl of green beans with slivered almonds, and the large casserole dish decorated with bright-yellow sunflowers, she kept looking back at the door as if waiting for Adalyn to walk in. When she didn’t, Hadley pushed her food around her plate, listening to the conversation but not joining in as it whirled around them.
Needing in a way he couldn’t quite explain to distract her from stewing about what had happened with her sister, he scooted his chair close and lowered his voice. “I’ve never had casserole.”
Hadley turned toward him, her eyes wide. “They don’t have that in your rich-kid boarding schools?”
“We only had the finest steaks, rarest seafood, and most expensive wines.”
“You didn’t get alcohol at school.” She rolled her eyes.
“Didn’t get steak, either.” He couldn’t even imagine what that would have been like. The dean would have stood in traffic first. ‘The Gravestone School believed in the old-school break-them-down tradition. It was all lukewarm showers, room-temperature meals, and a rigid devotion to social customs.”
“That does not sound like fun,” she said, her nose wrinkling in sympathy as she grimaced.
“It could have been worse.” It could have been their grandmother’s house. “Anyway, Web made it fun.”
“Here, I gave you an extra helping.” Stephanie handed him a plate loaded down with a creamy, cheesy chicken pasta with veggies mixture topped off with toasted bread crumbles and two large biscuits. “Put honey on the biscuit. You’ll thank me later.”
Once everyone was at the table, they bowed their heads and said grace, and then he took a bite of the casserole. It was warm and filling and settled in his stomach like a hug. After everyone had their delicious first bite, it was all smack talk about game night as they ate with everyone steering clear of any wedding discussions. Adalyn still hadn’t come down for dinner, and while everyone was trying not to draw attention to it, her empty chair was a physical reminder.