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“You’re going to do no such thing,” Garth said as he stepped outside, just as I told Christy what we would do. “How could you even think I would allow that?”
Smiling, I looked at Christy. “I will meet you back inside.” She nodded and walked back into the hall. “Garth, first of all, there is nothing that you need to allow me to do since we aren’t seeing each other. I am married. There never has been anything going on. Not that you need an explanation, but Betty didn’t show up tonight, which is concerning on its own because we confirmed with her this afternoon. I should send the sheriff to check on her.” Betty was an older woman in the community, widowed a few years ago and she had jumped in head first to supporting the school to fill her time. She always signed up for the auction and made a home cooked meal for whomever “won,” her. I asked her one time why she was doing it and her answer was, ‘for one evening a year, I can be a hostess and have a good conversation with someone other than myself.’It concerned me she hadn’t gotten here tonight.
“I don’t care about Betty. I care about you auctioning yourself off to a random man and then going out with him.” His brow furrowed, and it seemed like his eyes disappeared when they narrowed. Crossing his arms, he took a step closer to me and tried to intimidate me.
“Garth, Betty is very important to the school and we care about what happens to her. And again, there’s no reason for you to get bent out of shape. If Boone wins the date, he’s my husband.” I smiled nicely at him when all I wanted to do was knock his perfectly white teeth out of his head. This wasn’t the place to cause a scene, but I was fully prepared to if it came to that.
CHAPTER17
BOONE
A man walkedto the podium and tapped on the microphone. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the auction is starting. We have one change from your program. Betty Harris has taken a fall, and is in the hospital getting checked over. Virginia was concerned and sent the sheriff to check on her.” The crowd let out a gasp, and I heard murmurs of concern move through the tables. “But in an unprecedented turn of events, Virginia will take her place.” The crowd cheered, and the man held up his hands, trying to settle them down. “You know there’s going to be a bidding war. I highly doubt Garrison will allow someone to take his wife out, but let’s not let him off the hook too easy.” John Renton, the old man who used to coach hockey, laughed into the microphone and the crowd joined in. My blood ran cold and silently made it my mission to be the one who got a date with Ginny.
“Don’t do anything stupid, son,” my father said as he leaned over close to me so nobody around could hear him. “She doesn’t need the trouble it will cause.” I crossed my arms and arched my eyebrow and smiled smugly.
The auction dragged on, but the biographies of the women were funny and John kept the evening moving quickly. “Now folks, for the final lady tonight, we have Virginia Davenport.” My heart dropped when I hear her maiden name and not my last name. Every time she was called that I wanted to yell out my last name. It was still her legal name, and I wanted the world to remember that. “Now we will start the bidding at three thousand dollars.”
“Three thousand.” The good doctor calls from the back of the room. Everyone in the crowd laughs. A few bids came in and the amount went up. “Fifty-five hundred.” He bellowed.
“Going once, going twice.” John brought the hammer up and I stood.
“Fifteen thousand dollars,” I called, and the crowd gasped in unison as they turned to me. My eyes were locked on Ginny, and I watched her face turn red.
“So much for not doing anything stupid.” I heard my father mutter to himself. I patted his shoulder as I moved away from my chair and out further into the open area of the hall.
“Fifteen thousand five hundred,” Garth said. He sounded closer to me than he had before.
“Twenty-five thousand,” I said without breaking my eye contact with the beautiful woman standing on the stage.
“Thirty thousand.” The annoying little man behind me said. I was over this cat-and-mouse game, and I was ending it.
“One hundred thousand dollars.” The crowd cheered and clapped. Heads turned from me to Garth, to Ginny before they looked at John, waiting for him to do something. The silence from Garth was deafening.
“Going once, going twice, sold to Garrison Boone. And thank you for your generous donation to the school Garrison.” I did as the others had done and walked to the stage. Holding out my hand for Ginny to take. Her small hand felt weightless in my hand and I engulfed it as I had done for so many years. She didn’t even look at me as she walked down the stairs, but she held her head high and the smile on her face hadn’t changed. Moving to the back of the hall, I grabbed a check out of the inside pocket of my black jacket.
“Well, Garrison, isn’t this a strange turn of events?” My mother said from behind the payment table with an arched brow and I wasn’t sure if she was frowning or tying to hide a smile. “Ginny, dear, this has been a wonderful evening.” She looked from me to Ginny, who still had her fake smile plastered across her face, because almost the entire room was looking at us still.
“It definitely has been our best fundraiser to date,” she said sweetly, her smile changing when she spoke to my mother. It was sweet, and just like the way the two used to be around one another. “We should be able to help all the kids on the wait list, and still have plenty leftover, for skates, uniforms, costumes and maybe open it up to another hockey team as well.” Her entire demeanour changed when she started talking about the kids her skating school could help.
“Gin, I will gladly give more to get all your kids off the waiting list.” I looked up at her and stopped writing out the check.
“Oh, no, Boone, you’ve done more than enough tonight.” She smiled and placed her hands around my arm. Smiling, I leaned over the table and wrote out the amount. Handing it to my mother, I watched her eyes bug out of her head.
“Garrison.” She whispered as she covered her mouth. Ginny let go of my arm and grabbed for the check. Her face fell, and her eyes popped out further than my mother’s and her eyebrows raised so high I thought they were going to disappear into her hairline.
“No Boone, this is too much.” She shook her head and handed the paper back to me. “We can’t accept this. It’s far too generous.” I took the check back from her and passed it to my mother without breaking eye contact with Ginny.
“You can count on that donation every year from now on. Plus, I’ve got ideas we will talk about on the date you owe me.” I smiled and mom took the check and started writing it down in the account book.
“Virginia, come with me.” I looked up and saw Garth standing by Ginny’s side. His eyes were locked on her and I was sure there was almost a red hue to him, as if he was the devil himself. He reached out, wrapped his long skeleton like fingers around her arm, and pulled.
“Garth, please, you’re hurting me,” she said not much louder than a whisper and I took a step toward her, my stomach flopping, making me feel sick. Reaching out, I put my hand on Garth’s shoulder like I was going to push him away. “No, Boone, it’s fine.” She said, turning to look at me. I knew Ginny as well as I knew myself, and the look on her face was telling me she was anything but fine. She walked out behind Garth, and I followed.
The door to the outside swung open, and I kept it from closing with my toe. While I might not stand out there staring the pipsqueak down, I would not let her be alone with him. “You can’t go on a date with him, I forbid it.” I heard him say.
“Garth, come on, you can’t be living in that much of a dream world? You and I aren’t anything other than colleagues.” She was trying to be polite, and I knew the last thing she wanted was an all out drama filled evening where this deluded man ruined everything.
“We’re done Virginia. I refuse to be engaged to someone who won’t listen to me.” Engaged? What on earth was going on here? I couldn’t stay hidden anymore. If he was willing to grab her in public, what would happen now? Ginny turned when the door opened and I watched relief fill her eyes. She squared her shoulders and look back at Garth.
