AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, I don’t know what you said just now. I’m just going with forbidden romance. That’s a lot more exciting,” Chloe says.
“Right?” Holley agrees, egging her on, the traitor.
“Whatever. Call it whatever you want. I’m getting a Coke from the vending machine.”
Garrett frowns as I walk away, but I figure it’s for the benefit of everyone. If my dad’s still watching, it makes it look less suspicious.
And if he’s not…well, it gives me a minute to compose myself over the fact that this situation is awkward as hell and at least partially of my making.
Okay, mostly of my making. Garrett has tried to get me to come clean more than once, and I’ve been the queen of avoidance.
Still, not being able to hold Garrett’s hand or give him a hug before he goes up on the bachelor chopping block and gets farmed out to one of these rabid women is a whole different form of medieval torture.
Gah. I should have begged off this thing. Said I had a facial or work or, I don’t know, a colonic to go to. Anything other than coming here to watch it all go down in person.
Holley’s hand grabs me by the elbow and spins me around, just as I pull the Coke out of the machine.
I startle at first, but when I see that it’s her, I relax.
“Um, yes, can I help you, traitor?”
She laughs. “Garrett sent me to check on you. You left in a weird way.”
I snort. “How does one leave in a weird way?”
“Um, the way you did…back there.”
“Shut up.”
“No, really,” she pushes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Uh oh.”
“Oh, stop. Not you with the whole ‘fine’ thing, too.”
She tsks her lips. “Honey, I invented the ‘fine’ thing. I’m the reason the whole ‘fine’ thing exists.”
“Whatever. I’m just ready to get this over with.”
“Well, that’s good. Garrett had to go with the guys to get ready to come out all sexy and shit.”
I frown, and she laughs.
“Yeah, you’re fine, all right.”
I shake my head. “It is what it is, Holley.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
I wave her off, and she shrugs, walking me to the back of the crowd and looking up to the stage as they make moves that appear like they’re about to get started.
Ben Mills runs by us on his way across the room, apparently done manning the door, and waggles his eyebrows.
Holley cranes her neck to watch him go. “Who was that?”
“A puppy named Ben.”
“What?”
“He’s just a little baby, but he’s a cutie for sure.”
“For real,” she agrees on a giggle. “Do they have a hotness test just to get on the team or something?”
I shrug. “They have a fitness test. I think that’s it. They all have to have good bodies because they have to be in great shape to do what they do.”
“I’ll say.”
I shake my head and laugh. “Would you like to bid on one of them?”
“Are you kidding? No way. I’ve got my own hottie. I also have a nine-month-old who’s still sleep training. I’m just not getting a good sleep/sex balance yet.”
I chortle. “I didn’t know there was such a thing.”
“Oh, there is, definitely.”
“Well, you know…I could watch Hadley sometime. If you and Jake wanted to have a night alone—”
“Say no more. I will take you up on this with no questions asked at your earliest convenience.”
“You’re something else, Holl.”
“I know. Jake tells me all the time. I can’t seem to help myself.”
I open my mouth to tell her not to change, but the sound of the microphone squealing overpowers me and makes me stop before I can start.
“All right, okay,” my dad says over the microphone for all to hear. “Jesus, Simp, I got it.”
I suck my lips into my mouth to silence my laugh, but Holley lets hers fly.
“Your dad is hilarious.”
I sigh. Other people always find parents hilarious when their children get embarrassed.
“Sure, he is. Laugh out loud.”
Holley snorts. “Man, you’re in a mood today.”
I roll my eyes. “And you’d be in a good mood? I mean, do you see what’s going on here?” I ask as my dad says something about the first guy coming on stage.
“All right, ladies,” my dad continues. “It’s Nate Verros, here to make your fantasies come true.”
The crowd cheers and hands go up in the air, but I know for a fact it’s not the bachelor I care about, so I only half pay attention. Plus, listening to my dad say the word fantasies over a microphone is the kind of thing that makes me want to throw up in my mouth, grown woman or not.
“Okay, I’ll give you the mood, but can you at least acknowledge how fun it is that we’re at an actual real live bachelor auction?” Holley insists. “I thought these only existed in books and movies, and we’re at one.”
