Page 113 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Surgeon

He frowned. “They’re pretty late. That’s strange.” He looked around for Nadine’s mama, who I’d seen earlier. She was still dating two different guys from her beachfront condominium, and we never knew which one she’d show up with.

I didn’t see her. “Oh, well. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”

But they weren’t.

The engagement party went long into the night. Paolo and I had an amazing time, opening presents, eating, drinking, laughing with friends—even dancing. Madeline had hired a DJ, and everyone had ended up kicking off their shoes and dancing in the sand on the beach, tiki torches all around us.

It was perfect. The stars were bright, the weather nice, the food and drink wonderful, and the friends were thebest a girl could ask for. Especially a girl who grew up with one friend, unable or unwilling to relate to anyone else. Or maybe it was just that I was protecting my heart from getting hurt again, and Nadine had been the only person who could cut through all my defenses to reach me.

And that brought me to the only thing that was bringing me down. Where the hell was Nadine? Of all people to miss my engagement party, she was the one who hurt the most. All of the Cinnamon House girls were in attendance—Madeline, Bethany, Nora, Abbi, Glory, Carly, and, of course, Nia. Carmen and all the Salazar boys were here. Cleo, Otto, and all our friends from the hospital had come.

We were only missing three people: Byron, Reynolds, and Nadine. But they were three of the most important to us both.

I gave up on them about mid-way through the party. What else could I do? I figured Nadine would have a really good reason why she flaked.

We cut the cake, strawberry, of course, and soon after dessert most people had taken off. Our closest friends hung out a couple more hours, drinking by a bonfire Madeline had made sure was set up for ‘atmosphere’ at the party.

But eventually, the last of them had given hugs and left.

Finally, it was just Paolo and me, standing on the beach and facing the ocean. He stood behind me with his arms around me. “This.”

“What?” I looked over my shoulder at him, and he kissed me.

“This. I want this right here for the rest of our lives.”

“Me too,” I whispered. I turned in his arms, ready to kiss him and have him take me to bed.

And that’s when we heard the honking.

I jumped, startled, and looked towards the road. “Is that Reynolds’ car?”

Paolo looked as shocked as I was. “I think it is.”

One of the doors opened and Nadine jumped out. She started running, full speed, at me. “What the hell?” I hopedthis wasn’t one of those times she threw herself at me expecting me to catch her in a hug. She’d knocked me down every damn time she’d tried it. I started to turn and run from her, but then I saw that she was crying.

“Nadine?”

She stopped right as she got to me and threw her arms around me. “Oh, Jelly,” she cried, sobbing. “You’re not going to believe this.”

I gave Paolo a wide-eyed look over her shoulder. He just shrugged, mystified.

I saw that both Byron and Reynolds had gotten out of the car and were walking slowly towards us, grim-faced.

Nadine pulled back and stared at me. “I have a sister.”

My eyebrows shot way up. “What now?”

“I have a sister,” she practically yelled at me.

I gaped at her, having completely lost the power of speech.

“I know, right?” My beautiful best friend tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder and wiped her eyes. “And we’re going on a re-con mission.”

“What?” There were so many questions I could ask right now, but that seemed like the most important one. It kind of covered everything.

“I don’t have time to explain. Just go get changed and then meet us back out here.”

I turned and ran towards the cottage, but Paolo had maintained his senses. “Um… what do we wear?”