Bachelor at Her Bidding (Bachelor Auction Book 2)(2)

“Someone’s dropped out. I have two days to find a replacement bachelor. I need you.” She looked at him with those big, dark pansy eyes. “Josh and Molly need you.”

Ah, hell. How could he resist an entreaty like that?

“Please?” she wheedled, tipping her head to one side.

How did she make her eyes look so huge? Like the cutest kitten or puppy. One you couldn’t say no to. God help whoever she settled down with, if they had a couple of little girls like her. They’d wrap their father round their little fingers with a single one of those looks. “I…”

“One date. That’s all I’m asking for, Ry. One little package.”

Now he was on safer ground. “You won’t get very much if you auction me off.”

“Now that,” she said, “is where you’re wrong. Each bachelor is offering something special. Something unique.”

And, for the amount of money they needed to raise for Josh, each bachelor was going to be offering something expensive. Ryan had heard the rumors in town about what was going to be on offer, including a helicopter ride. Way, way out of his league. “Which is why I’m the wrong person to ask. I’m not a billionaire and I don’t have anything to offer.”

“No?” She gave him the sweetest smile. “Everyone in town knows your food is almost better than sex.”

“Almost?” he deadpanned, though he couldn’t help laughing. Lily always made him smile for the right reasons. She was one of those people who made your world feel brighter just by being there.

“It’s a close-run thing.” She spread her hands. “One night, Ry, that’s all I’m asking. And I’ll make sure Phyllis has someone with her for every second that you’re away, I promise.”

“And what does this one night consist of?”

“Dinner for whoever bids for you. Cooked by you. Some of that fancy stuff you learned in Paris.”

His cordon bleu training in France seemed a lifetime away now. Ryan stuffed down the longing before it had a chance to take hold. Family came first and it always would. His dreams could wait a while longer.

“And where am I going to cook this fancy dinner?” he asked.

She shrugged. “That’s between you and your bidder.”

“One night. One dinner.” He paused. “OK. I’ll do it. On the strict proviso that if whoever sits with Gram has even the slightest worry about her while I’m out cooking this dinner, they call me immediately and I get to go home straight away.”

“You’re a hard man, Ryan Henderson,” she purred.

Soft as butter and just as soft in the head, according to Lucille, his ex.

“How can you think of giving up our business venture to look after your grandmother? You’re not a nursemaid. You’re supposed to be a chef.” The contempt in Lucille’s eyes as she’d spoken had made Ryan feel sick – how had he got so deeply involved with such a cold, selfish woman?

He pushed the memory away and tried to enjoy Lily’s innuendo instead. “Yeah, yeah.”

“It’s a deal,” she said. “I would shake your hand to seal it, but…”

Both hands were covered in flour and she didn’t want to get her clothes dusty. “A kiss would do,” he teased.

“No chance. There’s flour on your face, too.”

No, there wasn’t, but he let it pass. He and Lily weren’t kissy-kissy in any case.

She looked at the wire rack where a batch of red velvet cupcakes were cooling. “I think one of those will do nicely.” She gave him a saucy wink, hauled herself off the counter, filched a cupcake and sashayed out of the kitchen. At the door, she paused. “I’ll call you with the details. And thank you, Ry. I appreciate it. So will Josh and Molly.”

“It looks as if you,” Reese Kendrick said with a laconic smile as he walked into the kitchen, “have just been railroaded into something.”

“Let’s just say I’ve been Lily Taylored,” Ryan said ruefully.

Auctioned off. One night. One dinner. With some unknown woman who could afford to buy his time.

OK. He could do this. Just for one night. For Josh and Molly’s sake.

*

“Rach, you can’t refuse to date for the rest of your entire life,” Hannah said.

“No? Watch me,” Rachel said with a smile. “Han, stop worrying. I’m perfectly happy with my life how it is. I’m back home in Marietta, near my mom and dad, Susie and Ricky; I love my job; and I like my apartment.” The first two were true – it was good to be home and so close to her parents, her brother and her sister, and Rachel had always loved her job as a family physician. But the last one was a slight fib, because her apartment was tiny. Rachel’s sister, Susie, and her two closest friends were also good friends with Rachel’s two closest friends, and since Rachel’s return to Marietta three months ago they’d taken to meeting up on Thursday evenings for something to eat and a catch-up. Today was her turn to host the evening, and her living room was barely big enough to seat the six of them together.

But Rachel had no intention of complaining. As a divorcee come home to Marietta from Missoula to lick her wounds, she knew she was already enough of an object of pity in the town. She’d heard what Carol Bingley in the pharmacy in Main Street had said about her, and she was pretty sure the rest of the town shared her opinion. I’m not surprised Rachel Cassidy’s divorced. Always had her nose in her books when she was growing up – she never even had a date for the prom. A woman like her would never get to keep a man.