“You okay?” he asked.
“No. He’s so—seriously. What is wrong with him? He offered me money, Jess. He said he would literally pay if I just come home. And he doesn’t even want me there, really. He just wants me home so my mom will stop nagging him to apologize.”
“Did he apologize?”
“Of course not. He told me I’d made my point and was, like, asking me how I thought it looked, abandoning the vineyard to come run Senior’s business when he knows damn good and well that’s not why I left.”
Jesse felt himself frown. “Well, it’s not Senior’s business to start—”
“That’s what I said. Ugh. Whatever. I gave him apiece of my mind and I did what everyone asked. I didn’t make a scene.”
“Maybe you should have.”
“Yeah. Right.”
Jesse took a seat on the wooden bench on the far wall, and gave Lilah the time she needed to catch her breath. She was the baby of their whole generation of Pleasants, but she was a smart, capable adult. Uncle Gerald needed to let this shit go if he even wanted to have a real relationship with his daughter again or if he cared the slightest bit about her happiness.
“Hey. I have a wild idea,” he said after a few minutes. “I’m going to enter the date auction.” The idea just popped in his head. He knew he’d regret it, but he needed to do something, gain some sort of fucking control. Yeah, women bidding on him was kind of like hedging bets for his attention, but at least he’d be in on it this time. At least it would be his choice. He told Lilah about Fabien and her friends and how he’d arrived at this decision. “We could enter it together.”
“Yeah, and then maybe I’ll just marry whoever bids on me and then maybe my dad will chill the hell out once and for all.” Her expression brightened as she finally looked up at him. “Jess. You’re a genius. We should definitely enter the auction.”
“It’s not too late?”
“No, of course not.” Lilah had nailed down participants a few weeks ago and the auction was only a week away. Jumping in now was cutting it a little close. “Plus, Mrs. Donatelli will be over the freaking moon.”
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
“Let’s get back out there. That cake is amazing and I want another slice.”
“Right behind you. Just going to use the restroom.” Jesse headed off to the men’s room as his cousin went back to join the party. He felt better now that he had a plan. The rest of the night went smoothly, mostly because he made an effort to avoid Fabien and her friends. By the time he got back to his hotel room, it was too late to send Lily-Grace a text. As friends.
Chapter 8
Lily-Grace stepped out of her father’s Buick and thanked the valet. When her father had first mentioned going to the date auction, she brushed off the idea of attending. For one, she didn’t know if she’d still be in town. She was closing in on a month of whatever near-midlife crisis she was going through and thought by now she’d have some sort of plan sorted out. All she’d managed to do was hide the alerts to Dane’s texts, which were constant and annoying as fuck.
She needed a closure with him she knew she wasn’t going to get, but she was waiting for her final Fuck Off to come with a plan, which she didn’t have. So she’d decided to extend her vacation mode, embrace her growing wardrobe of adult onesies. She’d just taken her new hooded onesie from Savage X Fenty out of the dryer when her dad explained his plan for the date auction. Once he’d explained everything, she couldn’t say no.
“You ready?” Lily-Grace asked as she took her dad’s arm. He looked sharp in his fresh black suit, and he finally had his cast off. His wrist was good as new.
“You know I am. Let’s go.” She smiled back at him as he led her through the front door of Charming’s fancy new Marriott. Tonight was a big night for Mr. LeRoux. He’d entered himself in the date auction. This year the money was going toward a technology program for seniors, providing the funds for space, equipment, and instructors. Lily-Grace was glad her aging father was perfectly tech savvy, and she loved the idea of other seniors in Charming getting the chance to catch up.
But that wasn’t the main attraction for the evening. He and Mrs. Lovell had hatched an elaborate plan. She’d bid a ridiculous amount of money for him, a tax deductible contribution; then, a week from now, they’d leak through the grapevine that their first date had been a success and they’d decided to go steady, and most importantly they had the auction to thank for it.
Lily-Grace joked that they needed to do a full press release, but she wouldn’t put it past Miss Leona at this point. It was genius really, and completely in line with Mrs. Lovell’s over-the-top, theatrical energy. She was happy for them though, and there was no way she’d miss their adorable display. She was so happy for them it was enough to ignore the fact that Jesse Pleasant would be in attendance. It had been almost two weeks and he’d never called her, never texted, never followed up about this so-called “dinner as friends” he’d initially suggested. It was fine. It was proof that whatever she had imagined had been bubbling between them, even if it was only distraction sparked by sheer boredom, was just that. Nothing serious. Nothing worth mentioning again.
Had she considered texting him? Yes. Had she scoped out any and all of the photos from Zach and Evie’s wedding that featured Jesse in that perfectly tailored suit? Perhaps. Had she caught a photo of Jesse, suit jacket cast aside, dancing his ass off during the reception? Yes, okay. Fine, she’d seen the picture on Evie’s Instagram and gone back to it maybe two or three or eight times.
She looked at the few gossip posts pointing out the fact that Academy Award-winning actor Sam Pleasant had not one but two extremely attractive brothers, and the tallest, sexiest of the bunch with thighs that could crush a field of watermelons, was in fact single. Very much so single, and just a short drive across town. But none of that mattered. Jesse Pleasant was a distraction. A messy distraction. She had things she needed to do, and none of it included Jesse Pleasant.
She did want to ask him how therapy was going, if he’d actually followed through with it. Some other time though. A crowded ballroom wouldn’t be the place to ask heavy questions about his anger management issues.
Her father left her at the door of the ballroom with a kiss on the cheek and went around the stage to join the rest of the hot dates putting themselves up for auction. She spotted Jenny and Mrs. Yang, and quickly picked her way across the ballroom to take her seat with them.
“Look at these gorgeous ladies!” She leaned over and kissed Mrs. Yang on the cheek as the older woman lightly pinched her thigh. She motioned toward the ruffled edge of Lily-Grace’s off-the-shoulder jumpsuit.
“This is cute. You look so cute.”
“Thank you.”
