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“Sold! To the lady in the blue sweater, paddle twenty-two!” Pepper looked down at her dark blue sweater, suddenly made even darker by the spreading water mark. Her damned paddle, the one she never wanted to begin with, was still in her hand. She watched as it slipped from her fingers, clattering to the ground in slow motion as the gravity of the situation caught up with her. Four thousand dollars. She’d just bid four thousand dollars. Because of well-aimed ice water.
“Oh, Pepper,” Miss Adelia fussed, dabbing her with an inadequate cocktail napkin and shaking off the well-meaning hands of the folks who were more concerned about the older woman nearly falling. “I am so sorry. I didn’t even see that silly cord,” she said. “Is your dress okay?”
She couldn’t respond. Not to the people patting her shoulder, not to Adelia, not even to Ivy. All Pepper could do was close her eyes and try to keep the tears of frustration and aggravation from rushing down her cheeks.
How long had she saved to work on her house? Her vacation started today and the work was supposed to begin in earnest tomorrow. She’d have to call and cancel the electrician.
With only a thousand dollars, she’d be hard-pressed to get any serious work done. Maybe some Sheetrock work. Maybe all she could do was get the bedroom floor reinforced. She could buy some paint and some caulk. But she was as far from her goal as she was when she bought the run-down old house.
She was never going to get out of her livbedoset.
“Winning bidders, please report backstage to meet with your bachelors and pay the cashier. Thanks to everyone who joined us tonight for a great cause.” People started getting up and exiting the gymnasium, but Pepper couldn’t move her feet. All she could do was stand there, freezing cold, and watch everything she had planned slip through her fingers.
“Pepper, are you okay? We’ll figure something out, all right? Like I said, I’ll loan you the money. No problem.”
She could hear Ivy’s voice, but she knew if she opened her mouth to answer, she’d cry in front of half the town. She couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t. Just like she wouldn’t borrow money from Ivy. It would hurt her pride way too much.
Instead, she shook her head, bringing one trembling hand up to cover her mouth. She took a deep breath, hoping the calming powers would make her feel better about what just happened, but it was pointless.
She had just paid four thousand dollars for a date with Grant Chamberlain.
Chapter 6
When the auction ended, Grant returned to the backstage area they had set up for bachelors and their winners. The other men were gathered around the ten or so high-top cocktail tables that were draped with red tablecloths and had small centerpieces of flowers and candles in the center.
“Four thousand!” Simon shouted, and most of the other men applauded. Logan was the exception, glaring at him from the back of the room as though Grant had any control about whether his sister bid on him.
“I didn’t beat Bert, though,” Grant replied as he slapped the older man on the back. “You’re an old dog, Bert.”
Bert smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “Who knew?”
“Well, you did better than me. There was a second there when I thought no one would bid at all,” Simon complained.
“That’s just because you’re young, Simon,” Bert said. “The ladies in town feel dirty bidding on a youngster such as yourself. They’re friends with your mama.”
“Who ended up winning you, Simon?” Mack asked.
“Lydia,” he groaned. “My brother Blake’s stalker paid five hundred bucks for me. I feel like a consolation prize.” A couple of the men laughed, and eventually Simon cracked a smile, too. “Now I have to spend a whole weekend in Chattanooga with her! She’s awful.”
“At least she’s pretty,” Grant said, trying to make him feel better. “She’ll look good on your arm, and maybe the other girls
in town will pay you more notice if they think a woman like Lydia was into you.”
Gloria Everett, the Rosewood principal and member of the Tornado Fund committee, rushed backstage, clipboard and cashbox in hand. “Gentleman, your attention! Your lucky ladies will be coming back here momentarily. This is your chance to chat with them, charm them, and make them glad they’re paying all that money for you. We have a rose for each of you to give your winner. Please pick one up from the container over here.”
Grant walked over and examined the roses. They were in an assortment of colors. Red was the obvious choice, so he plucked a peach-colored rose with hot pink tips. The peach color reminded him of her skin, and the pink color, of her lips and the flush on her cheeks. He wished he could drag the rose’s silky petals slowly across her bare skin. Perhaps he’d get the chance, considering how much she’d paid for him.
He’d been surprised, really. Stunned. Considering she’d pepper sprayed him a week ago, he was beginning to wonder if maybe he’d been wrong about her. He knew she wanted him, he could see it in her reactions to him. She always flushed when he came near, her breath coming rapid and shallow, her pupils dilated just enough to make her look wide-eyed and innocent.
The night they spent together, she responded to him easily, every touch met with a gasp of pleasure. But Pepper was fighting with herself. He’d been confident that eventually he could address any reservations she had.
Now, maybe that wasn’t necessary. It was hard for him to see the crowd from the stage with all the lights in his eyes, but he saw Pepper leap out of her chair and raise her paddle high in the air. It was an enthusiastic movement, not the timid bid of a woman who wasn’t sure this was what she wanted.
Thank goodness. If any woman could bid on him tonight and win, he’d wanted it to be Pepper, but he knew she didn’t have a lot of money to waste on that sort of thing. Maybe she’d decided to support the good cause. He hated the idea of spending Valentine’s Day alone, and maybe she did as well.
“Now, if they ask,” Gloria continued, “we take cash, checks, and credit cards for their payments, but they do have to pay tonight.”
Just then, the curtains parted and twelve women made their way backstage. Grant broke into his brightest, most charming smile and clutched the rose to present to Pepper.
