Light up the Night (Firehouse Three #2)(2)
But Allison? She had marched into the lobby right before closing one Tuesday afternoon, dressed in a power suit and sky-high heels, and told Everly that she was her guardian angel. She didn’t clean kennels or screen potential adopters, but she’d been indispensible for the past two months. Her methods might be unorthodox, but her results were speaking for themselves.
“Allison Kurtz,” she answered the phone briskly.
“Hi, Allison, it’s Everly.”
“Well, hellooo,” Allison drew out the word. Everly could almost hear the evil grin in Allison’s words, and that made her stomach tense up. “Just the lady I wanted to speak to.”
“Did you come up with a plan for the booth?” Fundraising. The bane of Everly’s existence, and the entire reason for Allison’s. There might be someone else as good at planning, organizing, and running fundraisers as Allison, but Everly had never met them. Everly sketched a star at the top right hand corner of her page, mostly as a way to relieve her nervous energy. Allison’s moneymaking ideas had been getting a little… well, odd, recently. Of course, the sexy mud wrestling idea would probably raise a lot of dough, but it wasn’t exactly Everly’s style. So Allison had promised to come up with an alternate concept for their event at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival this weekend in a few weeks.
“I did, and I’ve already started work on it. Go to the website.”
With dread curling its cold fingers around her throat, Everly typed in the URL for the shelter site.
“Holy—” She clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Isn’t he hot as hell? I borrowed Marena’s puppy for the shoot. He’s a Yorkie mixed with a poodle, and—”
As Allison kept talking, Everly’s gaze was glued to her computer screen. There was a hot, half-naked, ripped firefighter leaning against the big red engine, his white teeth flashing in a smile as a tiny, furry puppy kissed his cheek. Emblazoned on the bottom of the huge photo were the words, “Bachelor Auction to benefit Hopeful Paws Pet Adoption.”
Holy. Shit.
For a moment she couldn’t function. That was literally the hottest man she’d ever clapped eyes on. His arms were defined, his skin tanned, and the shadowed line of his jaw was so perfect he could have been sculpted out of marble. And those tiny creases at the corner of his eyes? That sparkle, as he looked down at the tiny fluff-ball in his strong hands? Magic.
“Everly? Are you still there?”
“What?”
She blinked to clear the sexy from her eyes. Nope. Still there.
“I said that’s one of the bachelors. He and about ten other guys from Firehouse Three have agreed to participate. Isn’t that great? Some of them will take turns at the booth that afternoon, and then the auction will be Friday night in one of the big tents at the festival. I’ve already got refreshments lined up. Sprinkles will be doing treats for us, and—”
“Wait, wait, Allison, we can’t do this.”
Even as the words left her mouth, Everly’s brain came back online. No way. Hang out in a booth around this guy? Actually function around humans that by all rights should be naked twenty-four/seven? No way. She couldn’t do it in a million years.
Awkward was her middle name. It was why she liked animals better than people. They didn’t make it hard to breathe when they looked straight at her the way people did. She and her best friend Jesse were both convinced that they were born into the wrong species. Animals they understood. Humans were a whole ‘nother ballgame.
“Why not?”
“Let’s just do a raffle, or a silent auction. Surely there are some businesses that can donate something?”
“You won’t make near the amount of cash with a lawnmower or a fancy cooler. I’m telling you, this is the way to go.” Allison’s tone was even and confident, as if she’d been planning for Everly’s mini-freakout. “One of my childhood friends is on the firehouse team, and I’ve seen these guys. It’s a crew full of gorgeous, I promise. Plenty of eye candy is what makes these things work, and Firehouse Three isn’t hurting for sweetness. I’ve done this kind of auction before, and we brought back in excess of ten grand.”
“Ten… grand?”
Eyeing the stack of bills on her desk, Everly bit her lip. Damn it. There was no way around this, was there?
“I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Trust me.”
Her eyelids fluttered shut and her mouth went dry, but Everly nodded. “Fine.”
Allison’s squeal of joy was so unlike her that Everly jumped. “This is going to be so amazing! Just wait and see.”
Just then, the bell on the front desk in the lobby rang. Everly leaned toward the open doorway. A young guy was out there, looking around for help. “I’ve got to go.”
“You won’t regret this, I promise.” Allison laughed as she ended the call.
As Everly left her office to greet the teenager who held an empty cardboard box at the counter, her stomach was in knots. Holy lord. How was she going to handle a bachelor auction? This had to be the craziest thing she’d ever agreed to. It’d better make a million dollars, because if it didn’t, she would cheerfully murder Allison Kurtz.
Drake Hammerfell hummed along with his truck’s radio as he navigated the roads near his new neighborhood. It was his first afternoon off since joining the crew at Firehouse Three, and he was determined to enjoy it.