having the time of his life. “I can’t.”
“Sure you can. You just take a cab and bam, you’re there.”
“You aren’t going to figure out how to fix this on your own. You’re fucking it up even more than you already have by wimping out.”
Fury and whatever he’d been drinking had him up off the stool on the inhale, then grabbing his brother by the shirt collar and hauling him up on the exhale. “Don’t tell me what I’m doing. I know what I’m doing. I’m walking away because she doesn’t want me.”
Web didn’t flinch. “Or is it because you just can’t stand to admit you were wrong about her, about how you feel, and about what’s really important?”
Important? Will had always known what was important. He’d been protecting his brother practically since he was born. That’s what older brothers did. They watched over the younger ones. They protected the family fortune. They made sure that they always won, they were always right, that nothing bad ever happened. Like their parents dying. Like going to boarding school when they were so young. Like falling in love with the woman he’d thought was out for his brother’s money and then accusing her of being a gold digger to cover up his feelings.
Fuck.
He let go of Web and slumped back onto his stool, realization like a million-pound weight on his shoulders.
“I failed at everything. I’m sorry.”
“My God, you’re an idiot. You’re one of the most successful people I know, but you can’t control everything. Anyway, you’re my favorite brother.”
“I’m your only brother.”
“What can I say, I have low standards.”
But Hadley didn’t. “How do I make this up to her? Diamonds? That’s what our grandmother always wanted.”
Web grimaced. “Oh yeah, nothing shows affection and esteem like sparkly things.”
“That was about as close to a nursery rhyme as she ever told us,” Will said, covering the shot glass with his hand when the bartender held up the mystery bottle again.
He’d spent his entire life thinking that buying someone’s affection was normal, and then he met Hadley. Seeing her with her family was like stepping into another dimension. For them, it wasn’t the money that mattered but time and togetherness. Even with all his money, he couldn’t buy that. Hell, even if Hadley had his money, she’d probably spend it on helping her family’s new business, charities, and getting out to see them more often.
Something settled in his chest, a certainty that he knew what he needed to do next.
“I gotta get to that fundraiser,” he said. “I have to get Hadley back.”
“Finally.” Web held up his car keys and jingled them. “Let’s go.”
The Porsche logo on the key fob caught the light and on the next heartbeat, Will knew exactly what he needed to do to show Hadley he understood exactly how wrong he’d been about her. The chances of it working might be slim, but as a space cowboy once said, never tell him the odds.
Fuck the odds. He had to believe this would work.
Chapter Twenty
Toes pinched from the shoes she’d borrowed from Fiona and wearing a cocktail dress tailored via safety pins, Hadley kept her chin high and her steps steady as she walked by the coat closet—yes, the coat closet—at the hotel ballroom. Of course, up until that moment, she refused to notice the coat closet. She’d barely even glanced in that direction. Certainly, she hadn’t found an excuse to walk by it multiple times while working the floor at her very first fundraising event run by her fledgling company.
Nope.
She’d stayed clear.
And that whisper of “maybe he’ll show here, since he never appeared on your doorstep,” could just shut up already. Will was out of her life and good riddance to him. It wasn’t like she missed him or thought about him or dreamed about him every single night.
She didn’t.
Not.
At.
All.
He’d left. She’d blocked his number. Life went on.
Still, she searched the crowd in the ballroom, looking for the absolute worst man who she still loved because emotions were a bitch. If she could, she’d have hers surgically removed. Scientists really needed to get to work on that one. Maybe that could be her next charity funding recommendation.
Shoving all thoughts of Will into a deep, dark hole where they belonged, Hadley worked the room, talking with donors and influencers about the Holt Foundation Fund and the work it was doing to support Harbor City’s charities. Then the band started playing the first notes of a song that stopped her in her tracks. It