And—on top of all that—there was the fact that he was the reason she was now unemployed.
She cut herself off before her temper went into countdown mode.
Let it go, Had. The second-best part about spending a week in Nebraska is not having to see your bestie’s completely horrible, absolutely awful, no-good twin. The first—obviously—would be your sister’s wedding.
Adalyn deserved to have the kind of happily ever after she’d spent her life wanting. Hadley could understand that, even if rolling over in bed to get blasted in the face with the same guy’s morning breath day after day, year after year, decade after decade was definitely not in her plans.
Hadley dreamed of adventure and freedom and total self-control all the days of her life.
But she didn’t have time to dwell on that amazing thought right now as her gaze snagged on Web’s tall frame coming through the security doors.
Her welcoming smile turned to outright amusement as the sight of him finally processed. The black cowboy hat that almost sat right on his head. Wrangler jeans so new, they still had a crease down each leg hugging his muscular thighs. And the boots? Good Lord. He was wearing the fancy, shiny kind that showed up only at movie premieres and would never see any actual work on branding day.
If there was a soft-focused holiday movie about a heifer with magical matchmaking abilities, the cowboy hero would look exactly like Web. He didn’t even begin to look as if his clothes had come from Feed and Steer, the store where a rancher could get his entire wardrobe, a fully automated roping shoot, and a gallon of supplements to encourage the cattle to stay hydrated while increasing their food consumption.
She shouldn’t laugh—Web was a child of Harbor City’s richest of the rich and obviously was trying to fit in the best he could. His heart was in the right place. Still, her lips twitched as the giggles bubbled up inside her.
Get ahold of yourself, girl. This is your best friend. The guy who flew across the country to stand by your side. Don’t make him feel bad for cosplaying the kind of cowboy who exists only on TV.
“Hey, cowboy,” she called out, her voice giddy with unreleased laughter despite her best efforts.
Web turned his head, spotted her, and tipped his hat like he was Curly in an Oklahoma! revival, then headed her way, a sly grin on his face.
That’s when her oh-shit senses started buzzing. As he swaggered through the crowd, that warning sense grew from a low hum to a full-on-earthquake. Heart hammering and palms sweaty, her left eye started twitching as she held tight to the one truth that she had to believe: This couldn’t be. This abso-fucking-lutely couldn’t be.
She squeezed her eyes shut and forced out the oxygen that had been trapped in her lungs.
It was just a trick of the light or her pre-family-gathering jagged nerves playing her. That had to be it.
Please, whoever is the patron saint of women just trying to make it through the day without committing murder, deliver me from this vision of a totally fresh hell.
She opened her eyes right as he stopped in front of her. Searching his face for the tiny little markers that differentiated Web’s face from Will’s, she held on to that little ribbon of hope that everything hadn’t suddenly gone pear-shaped. Then she noticed the tiny mole by Web’s left eye was missing. Maybe she’d always imagined it had been there? She took in a deep inhale and was hit with the unique mix of musk, leather, and the kind of trouble mothers had been warning their daughters about for generations. It was a uniquely Evil Twin scent. There was no way she could deny what she’d known the moment she’d seen him move.
This wasn’t Web.
It was Will.
She stopped breathing, the world stopped spinning, and every one of the forty bazillion people in the crowded airport disappeared. It couldn’t. They wouldn’t. Holy fuck, her stomach was knotting up at the realization that she was now in hell.
He gave her a slow once-over that, despite knowing better, made her body wake up and take notice—stop it right now, boobs, or it will be all uncomfortable sports bras for you until the end of time—and punctuated it with a half smile.
He tipped his cowboy hat like a man who’d practiced it in the mirror. “Howdy.”
The way Will said it with that rough rumble that on anyone else would be sex