The shyness of her question caught me off guard. No, I couldn’t control myself around her. It was why I should be at the barn yelling a quickthanks, see yabefore minding my business. Yet I was within feet of her and it was still too far.
Bethany banged out the door. “Did you hear that she’s going to be playing at the bachelor fundraiser?”
Dismay stained my tongue. June was going to hang around a ton of bachelors? Was she going to bid?
She shook her head. “No, not the auction.” She held her hands up. “I’m playing in the park for fun, remember?”
Bethany’s mouth rounded into an O. “Riiiiight. There’re no bachelors.”
Hannah charged out. “No batch lores.”
June shrugged. “I can’t play for money without involving my team, so I’m just gonna play and Wilna’s going to get as many people as she can to come and donate money for the goodies she’s going to have there.”
Many a bachelor had been lured into the auction. Most had donated their time and their muscles andwould do a day of work, but I’d heard last year’s auction had been a flop. Women had given up on another Bailey stepping onto the block.
“Wilna keeps asking Daddy to do the fundraiser,” Bethany said.
June arched a brow at me. “You never participated?”
My cheeks heated. For the last three years, Wilna had asked me what kind of bachelor auction it was when the most eligible bachelors in town didn’t participate. No way was I wading into that mess. I wasn’t getting some woman’s hopes up that I actually had a heart to give. “No. I never did.”
“She begged,” Hannah announced with utmost authority. Both girls had overheard the conversation in the grocery store when a tiny elderly woman ambushed me in the cereal aisle.
June’s light-brown brow quirked. “If only Wilna knew begging wasn’t the way to make him say yes.”
I narrowed my eyes. What was she getting at?
Her smirk turned sly. “Wilna should’ve tickled you.”
Shit.
Bethany giggled. “Daddy’s not ticklish.”
“He’s so ticklish,” June argued.
Shit, shit, shit. I could’ve gone a lifetime without this secret being unearthed.
“No, Mommy tried.” Hannah jumped in to support her sister. They might adore June, but they’d fight her on this.
Confusion filled June’s expression as she looked at me. “Did you, like, grow out of it or something?”
“Or something.” Any chance that would be a good enough answer?
Bethany crossed her arms and kicked a hip out. “Mommy used to say he’s a brick.”
Kirstin had meant my emotions, but I kept my mouth shut.
June studied me. In a heartbeat, all three girls were regarding me with crossed arms and cocked hips.
“Which is it, Rhys?” June asked, her tone half-teasing and half-serious. “Are you ticklish or not?”
I worked my jaw back and forth. My mouth would be better staying shut around the girls.
June tapped her fingers against her upper arms. “Because I remember how you used to squeal like a stuck pig when I tickled your armpits. You would jump so high when I touched your sides.”
“Daddy used to squeal?” Bethany giggled.
“Jumped so high,” Hannah mimicked June’s taunting tone.
