Page 95 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Surgeon

I had sat on a bar stool at my kitchen island and looked outthe window at the bay far below. There was no reason I needed to be here any longer. I had less than two weeks left of the contract. I already had the keys to my new place. It was furnished and ready for me to move in. I had my car. The money from the auction was in my account. There was no reason for me to stay. I’d called Carmen and told her what was going on. Somehow, she’d already heard.

She’d called in the troops, and I was moved in and unpacked in my house within a couple of hours. And Nia had opted to stay with me for a few days to help me get settled in. I knew they were worried about me.

And when Carmen had given me a hug and told me to hang in there? Well, that freaked me right the hell out. Carmen was less of a hugger than I was. “God, y’all. I’m not going to head down to City Bridge and throw myself in the water or something. I just got my heart broken. But I’ll be okay.”

They hadn’t looked sure, but they’d backed off a bit.

Thank goodness. “I’m going to get more wine,” I said, even though I knew neither of us needed even one more drop. Carmen had left a case of the good stuff for us, though, so we might as well take advantage of it.

“Sounds good,” Nia said, leaning her head back on the couch. “Maybe we should switch this up to a murder show. Or true crime. What do you think?”

The doorbell rang and Nia had to stifle a scream. “Oh my God, maybe not.”

I looked at my phone. It was almost one in the morning. Nia and I exchanged a look. After the serial killer who’d been on the loose in West Bay and what happened to Daisy, we were extra careful.

“Look at your doorbell camera,” Nia hissed.

“I haven’t set it up in the app yet.” I whispered, creeping to the door. I looked out the peephole and breathed a sigh of relief. Then got instantly angry again. “It’s fucking Paolo.”

Nia jumped up. “Let me answer it.”

I stepped aside.

She whipped the door open.

“Jesus!” he yelped, and I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing.

“What the hell doyouwant?”

I could see him through the crack in the door. He gaped at her. “I want Jelly. Is she here?”

“You can’t have her.” She slammed the door in his face. “Boom, bitch!” she cried, doing a little dance, and a weird hand motion.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m dropping a microphone. You know? A mic drop?”

“I don’t think you’re doing that right.”

“Is that really what you want to focus on right now?” She rolled her pretty blue-green eyes.

“No.” I started dancing around with her doing the same wrong hand motion for a mic drop.

He rang the doorbell again. “I can hear y’all in there, you know.”

I made a face.

Nia yelled, “She doesn’t want to talk to you!”

“Well, I’m not leaving until she does,” he yelled right back.

“We should call your sheriff,” I hissed out.

“He’s notmysheriff, but yeah.”

“I can still hear y’all. Please don’t call the cops, and he totallyisyour sheriff. Also, I’m not going away, so I hope your new neighbors still like you after this. I’m going to keep talking to you through the door.”

Well, that wasn’t the way I wanted to make an impression in my new neighborhood. “Ugh. Fine. I’ll just talk to him.”