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They shook hands before August received the mic.
I bit into the chicken, and my mouth exploded with the flavors. Hooo! Very spicy flavors! Goodness, my tongue was on fire! But it was so good. So tasty.
Had they set up a freaking kitchen behind the tent? ’Cause this was hot temperature-wise too.
“Fuckin’ hell, that’s good chicken,” Greer muttered.
“Right?” I whispered excitedly.
“I won’t keep y’all from the auction and the rest of the festivities,” August said. His Southern drawl was almost as hot as his chicken. “But on behalf of my partners and me, we thank you kindly for the warm welcome into your village. It’s been a great many years since we were active in a community, so we’re lookin’ forward to visitin’ as often as we can. Thank you.”
People applauded again, but I had my hands full, so I had to settle for my big mouth.
“Your chicken is amazing, Sir!” I yelled. “And I’m a bit of a chicken expert!”
The man flashed a quick grin before he climbed down from the bar again.
Now Tate had the microphone. “Just a quick heads-up—Mr. King has donated a set of cookware from his favorite brands, so I’ll see y’all bitches at the auction table later.”
“Christ, I’m gonna go broke tonight.”
I laughed at Greer’s comment.
But then I had an idea. “Let me bid on it, please? I would really, really like to give that to Archie for Christmas.”
He frowned a li’l bit. Only a li’l. “I’m not gonna tell you how to spend your money, sweetheart. But I am gonna ask you to play things smart. I understand you wanna help out and contribute, but apparently we’ve got a fuckin’ celebrity chef in the house, and you don’t know how much that set is gonna go for. Archie ain’t the only one who has all his books.” He paused to take a bite of his chicken, and he couldn’t help himself. He had to comment on how good it was again. Who could blame him? This food was so darn delicious. “You could just run over and take a picture of the set once they’ve unveiled it,” he suggested. “Considering how short-notice this all was, I bet they bought the gear at Tysons themselves on their way over here.”
I chewed on a mouthful of pickle. What he said made sense.
“I’ll use it for backup,” I decided. “If the bids run too high, I can buy the same things directly from the store.”
Greer thought about it. “On one condition. I gotta get him something for Christmas too, and if I don’t come up with something equally good or better, I’m playing my Dom card.”
That totally made me gigglesnort.
Oh no, you don’t.
“I gotta go, Daddy.” I released his hand and skidded over to Nathan, who was eyeing the travel gift card Franklin was donating. “Hi there, Sir. What’cha doing?”
He side-eyed me with a grin. “I thought I’d take my boyfriend on a cruise.”
I tapped my chin and glanced at the number he was jotting down on the list. “Have you considered backpacking in the Catskills or going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina instead?”
“I’d prefer a cruise, actually.” He chuckled and ruffled my hair before he walked away.
“So would I, I’ll have you know,” I muttered under my breath.
Then I raised his bid by two hundred dollars.
I had four things I was bidding on, but I wanted the $3000 gift card for a cruise line the most. Because it would be a great contribution to a holiday involving all the kids. I’d done my research, and we wouldn’t have to add a whole lot on to a package deal to be able to go away for a week, all of us. And I was thinking, by next summer, it would be totally appropriate for us to do things together as a family. As two dynamics co-living.
Satisfied with my bid, I moved on to check on my other items. Daddy and I had sold forty-two calendars at fifty bucks a pop so far. I thought that was cool. Every penny was going straight to our community’s rebuild.
I scrunched my nose when I reached August King’s cookware set. Archie had banned himself from going anywhere near it after seeing all the items and guesstimating the retail value at around two grand. Skillets, pots, pans, utensils—only high-end stuff. Cast iron and copper dominated.
Macklin had placed fourteen bids so far and was in the running at almost twice the value.
“Don’t you dare, Corey,” I heard him say.
I looked over my shoulder and grinned. “I wasn’t gonna.”
I moved on and stumbled across a minor bidding war between Colt, Reese, Ev, Beau, and a couple others who all wanted one of the three LMS coupons for a round of house cleaning.
“Luke says we need our house spotless for our Christmas party, and what Luke wants, Luke gets,” Colt argued irritably. “You can clean your own damn place, Ev. Lazy fuck.”
