Bound to the Bachelor (Montana Born Bachelor Auction #1)(5)

Dillon Sheenan was setting up the bar in the corner, and he gave her a friendly nod as she set down her bag and slid out of her coat.

“Okay, first things first. We’ve got Buck Thompson to officiate the auction itself –”

“The cattle auctioneer?” Ryan asked.

“That’s right.”

Jett raised his eyebrows, then a slow smile curved his mouth, taking him from handsome to devastating in a flash. “Going to put us through our paces, is he?”

“I hope so,” Lily said. “Remember, this is all for Josh, so you work that stage, gentlemen.”

Over the next half hour, Jesse Grey, Gabriel Morales, and Lincoln Brady arrived. Lily familiarized them with the stage and the running order for the evening, one eye on the door most of the time.

Where the hell was Beau Bennett? Mr. I-never-back-out?

The saloon was starting to fill up, women coming into the warmth from the cold night, laughing and smiling with their friends. Lily fretted about her absent bachelor as she watched groups settle at tables and into booths. She saw Paige Joffe from the Main Street Diner with McKenna Sheenan and Taylor Harris and gave them a wave. Andie McGregor rushed through the door, closely followed by her husband, Heath. Andie sent Lily a big grin and two thumbs up to wish her luck as Heath helped her out of her coat. There were a lot of women she only vaguely knew, and some she knew only too well – women who’d looked down their noses at her when she’d first arrived in Marietta, and it had gotten around that once-upon-a-time, Lily had been a stripper. These days, their disapproval was more a subterranean rumble than a Vesuvius waiting to erupt, but Lily hadn’t forgotten the judgment in their eyes during her first few months in town.

It was all too easy for those women to decide how she should live her life when they hadn’t walked a mile in her shoes. The Rottweilers – that was how she thought of them – all considered her a hussy, a woman of dubious virtue because she’d once taken her clothes off for money. They went to church on Sundays and listened to sermons about the milk of human kindness, forgiveness, and acceptance, and then turned their backs on her at the supermarket. Once, Cora Bartlett had even gone so far as to hustle her seventeen-year-old son across the street, worried, Lily imagined, that Lily’s astonishing powers of vice and corruption could leap across the sidewalk and infect him with animal lust.

If it weren’t so ungenerous and ugly, it would be funny. Clearly, Cora Bartlett and the other Rottweilers had never had a Luther in their lives, someone who had forced them to choose between a bad situation and a worse one. Clearly, they’d never gone hungry for days on end, or been rejected for every menial, low-paying, unskilled job they’d applied for, or been desperate to find a place safe enough to sleep for a few hours.

How very fortunate for them.

Lily tore her gaze away from where Cora and a gaggle of the other Rottweilers were settling into a booth. Frankly, she was surprised they were here, but she wasn’t above taking their money on Josh’s behalf. In fact, she’d squeeze every spare cent she could out of them if she could.

She spotted Molly and Josh then, making their way toward the table Lily had reserved for them. She met them halfway, leaning in to kiss Molly’s cheek, which was still cold from the walk from the car.

“Hey. Sorry we’re so late. Gosh, there are a lot of people here,” Molly said, looking around with wide eyes. “I didn’t know there were this many women in Marietta.”

“I know. Pretty awesome, huh? Ka-ching!” Lily said with a wink.

Molly looked uncomfortable. “You make me feel so mercenary when you do that.”

“Suck it up, sweetheart. We are solving all your problems tonight,” Lily said.

Molly smiled. “Promise? I have a list.”

“Well, maybe not all of them…” Lily turned to Josh, holding out her fist. He matched the gesture and they bumped fists, following up the contact with a series of elaborate hand moves that culminated in a second fist bump that morphed into a slow-motion hand explosion. Their not-so-secret shake, a ritual that had been choreographed and refined over many months.

“You two. One day I am going to work out how to do all that hand origami,” Molly said with a laugh.

Lily became aware that Buck, the auctioneer, was trying to catch her eye over near the stage and she signaled she’d be over in a second.

“You guys get settled. I need to go talk to Buck,” Lily said distractedly, already moving off.

“Is there anything you need me to do?” Molly called after her. “I’m yours to command.”

“Enjoy yourself.” Lily caught Josh’s eye. “And you – look sick and pitiful. The more pitiful the better.”

Josh sucked his cheeks in and drooped in his chair. “How’s this?”

“So good.”

Josh grinned.

“I’ll see you crazy kids later,” Lily promised.

She checked the time on her phone as she wove her way through the tightly-packed crowd to the stage. She was going to kill Beau Bennett when she saw him. Painfully. Slowly.

The thought had barely crossed her mind when she glanced over her shoulder and saw him easing his way through the glut of people blocking the front entrance.

“Thank God,” she breathed.

Then she registered his damp, messy hair, sweat pants and raggedy old sweatshirt.