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“Okay…so…right… We can’t buy humans, which means you’re not buying me. You’re just donating money to the fire department, and you’re not actually going to require me to give you four hours of my time to clean or cook or gift wrap or anything. You have assistants for all of that. You don’t need me to do anything for you, right?” I force myself to stop rambling. If the universe is ever going to help me manifest my desires, now would be a great time.
Would it help if I drop to my knees and beg? I maintain a shred of self-respect and opt not to.
“We won you fair and square. You owe us four hours,” Jameson says calmly.
“That works out to eighty minutes each. What am I going to do for you in eighty minutes? I mean, can’t we just move on? I’m your annoying little stepsister. You’ve never wanted to hang out with me. Please don’t make me do this.”
My attempt at casual and flippant turns to begging. I lock my knees to keep from dropping to the ground.
“We kind of hope you want to, and it’s good to see you’re still fast with that mental math,” Ford says.
“Yeah. Well, I don’t. You teased me mercilessly, so I’d like to walk away from this and you can still make your twenty-thousand-dollar donation to the fire department. We’ll call it good. And I promise I’ll be nice at Christmas dinner, just like mom asked.”
The adults in my life always said that when boys teased me, they liked me. The sibling component threw a wrench in that theory. Why can’t I get over the fact that they don’t see me as the opposite sex? Everyone knows that when it comes to gender, there are boys, girls, and siblings—who are supposed to defy sexual attraction.
If only my libido would have gotten the message.
“We won you fair and square,” Heath reiterates Jameson’s statement. “And you’re going to give us each our eighty minutes.” He winks.
My legs get a little bit weaker.
I want to shrivel up and die. It might be the only way to keep my mind from enjoying how demanding my brothers are being. It’s not as if they have an ulterior motive like in my romance novels.
The Axe body wash must be getting to me. The heat level in the hallway has escalated at least ten degrees, my stomach is more fluttery than nauseous, and my girly parts are all tingly. Desperate to get away from them to give my big brain a chance to find a solution, I storm off. I stride past the seating area for the auction, and down the long hallway to the other end of the school, passing the classrooms that I attended only a couple of years ago.
Safely away from everyone, I lean against the lockers and let my head fall back with a clank on the flimsy metal. Can this really be happening? What if my brothers catch me looking at them too long or what if I say something embarrassing about how attractive they are? I made that slip once in front of them and their friends. Never experiencing that level of humiliation again would be just fine. Ford promptly explained in no uncertain terms that he’s not into incest.
Before I could stop my mouth from letting my brain point out that stepsiblings don’t share a blood relation, thus there was no incest, I made the situation worse.
Speaking of friends, Roxy should be on stage and I’m not there to see how her bidding’s going. I trudge back, squeezing past the double doors at the end of the hallway, then hover at the back of the auction room where I hope no one will notice me.
I can barely see over the shoulder of the guy in front of me. It’s Mammoth, the bartender at the biker bar in the Cherry Ridge foothills. When he offers to let me stand in front of him, I grab his arm and let him know that I’d rather stay hidden. Makes no difference to him.
The bidding is halted for some kind of negotiation, and Roxy ends up getting won by three billionaire-looking guys. They also settled on the full twenty thousand. Wow! Lucky her…at least in my fantasy brain.
In reality, there’s only a smidge more likelihood that anythingfunwill come of her situation than mine.
Then Isadora takes the stage, and the bids on her skyrocket too. I’m truly thrilled that the auction is such a massive success.
While the bids on Izzy are coming from several tables around the room, one table, in particular, seems dead set on not letting anyone else win. Their bidder’s paddle is in the air constantly. The trio doesn’t even bring it down once they’ve been acknowledged.
Izzy has a thing for the broody, rugged type. It’s way past time to get my fantasy brain in check. This isn’t a virgin auction.
I’m also curious if Sasha is going to make good on the rumor that she’s going to buy all three firefighters. She just got over a nasty breakup, and while she says she’d just like to have a little man candy around the house, we all think she has ulterior motives.
The three firefighters are also part of the local MC that Mammoth is in. He must want a front-row seat to watch his friends get bid on because he leaves our post at the back wall and chooses a spot much closer to the stage when the first guy takes the stage.
I glance around the room, wondering where our other friend, Jade went. I’d seen her talking to the high school principal right before the bidding started. Haven’t seen her since. Or him for that matter.
She’s only nineteen, just a year younger than the rest of us, but was too nervous to let people bid on her, so she’s supposed to be helping with the soup pot luck.
Dang it. I’m exposed. James sees me, and with a quick “Hey,” he and his brothers head toward me from three directions. I tug the top of my strapless dress up. That only reveals more of my legs. Oops.
“Let’s go,” James says, reaching for my hand.
“I don’t have to do my hours right now.”
“Might as well get them over with.”
