accordingly.
“After Dad died…” No, it was time to use the words. “After he killed himself, well, it was easier to act as if everything was fine rather than to admit how sad and hurt I was.” She’d gotten lost in the strangest things, like rearranging the fridge to accommodate all the casserole dishes people dropped off or playing round after round of Rummy with Knox. “I loved Dad, and it felt like the worst kind of betrayal to be mad at him. I was old enough to know he’d been very sad for a very long time even if he tried to cover it with jokes and pranks and surprise trips for ice cream. Showing how damn angry I was didn’t seem like an option, so I didn’t.” She’d become perpetually peppy and positive. Everything would work out because of the sheer force of her will alone. “After that, it just got to be a habit. I didn’t want Mom to worry when I went to Harbor City, so I spiffed up the truth.” She glanced over at her mom and offered up an apologetic look. “I took on this fake-it-until-you-make-it philosophy about everything—even when it came to my family. I lied to all of you.”
Weston sat down on the corner of Gabe’s desk. “So the nonprofit consulting job?”
“I had that,” she said. “I just happened to be at the very bottom rung of the ladder, and then I got fired.”
“And you don’t have an apartment?” her mom asked.
“I do, but it’s tiny, and I have a roommate.”
“And the guy out there who looks at you like he can’t wait to carry you off and do things I won’t mention in front of Mom, Gabe, and the boys, he’s pretend?” Adalyn asked.
“No.” She glared at her sister, whose expression had changed to one of smug I’m-right-and-you’re-wrong that only a sibling could give. “He’s real. He just hates me.”
Gabe lifted a dark eyebrow. “Huh.”
“Sounds to me like yes, you’ve been lying to us, but the bigger issue is that you’ve been telling a helluva lotta lies to yourself,” Knox said as he looked at her like she was the world’s biggest dumbass.
What in the hell was going on? She’d fucked up, but it wasn’t because she was being willfully obtuse. She’d been protecting them.
Hadley looked from one member of her family to the next. “What are you talking about?”
“We don’t care how fancy you are in the big city or if the guy you are obviously head over heels about is fake,” Adalyn said. “We just want you to be happy. Are you?”
Swallowing the urge to spill even more feelings onto the floor in Gabe’s office—what was it about this room that always seemed to encourage confessions?—she ignored her sister’s question. “I didn’t come back here to deep dive into my brain but to apologize for making you feel like you had to throw this big wedding to impress me.”
“So you’re good with me holding a bouquet of wildflowers out on the prairie with Gabe singing Elvis?”
Hadley laughed. The mental image was too funny not to. “I’d recommend against the Elvis part, but if that makes you happy, then yes, do that.”
Adalyn’s smile faltered and then disappeared. “What if I’m not sure what makes me happy?”
“Does Derek?” her mom asked as she sat down on the couch with her daughters.
“When we’re together, yes.” Adalyn let out a heavy breath before her chin went all trembly. “But when it’s like some kind of missed connections personal ad for the guy who is my fiancé? Not as much. It’s probably just wedding nerves.”
Her strained chuckle did nothing to lessen the impact of her words.
“Are you sure?” Hadley asked.
Adalyn shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You know we’ll support you no matter what,” Knox said. “It’s the Donavan-Martinez code.”
Gabe nodded. “That it is.”
After a group hug during which she may or may not have cracked a rib—Weston still acted like he was the younger brother from hell sometimes—her brothers left with Adalyn to raid the fridge and inhale the leftover casserole. Judging by the stay-right-here-a-minute look her mom sent her way, Hadley was not invited to join in on the gluttony.
“So what are you going to do now?” her mom asked.
“I don’t know.” Hadley sank back against the couch and let her head drop to her mom’s shoulder. She hadn’t sat like this in forever and had forgotten just how nice it was to let down her guard around her family. “Fiona—who, surprise, isn’t just my friend but also