One Night with her Bachelor(23)
She cleared her throat. “If there’s anything I can do for any of you—anything—please let me know.”
Dear Lord, had she really been looking right at Gabriel when she’d said that? Judging by the suppressed grins on the men’s faces, she had.
She pointed at the stairs. “I’ll just… yeah. Good luck.”
She tried not to look as if she was fleeing when she fled. When she finally made it to the safety of her table right in front of the stage, she collapsed into her chair and steeled herself for an uncomfortable evening of pretending she was having fun.
“Mom, where have you been?”
Josh’s beseeching tone made her mama-bear instincts kick into overdrive. “Thanking the guys upstairs. Why? What’s wrong? You feeling okay? Tired? If it’s too much, we can go home. Just say the word.”
His eyes widened in panic. “We’re not going home yet. We can’t. It hasn’t even started.”
Slowly, her adrenaline faded away. “As long as you’re okay, we’ll stay. But let me know if you start getting tired or sore or—”
“Mom. I’m okay. I want to stay.”
God, would this ever get easier? Would she ever stop worrying about him, even for a second? She’d always mentally rolled her eyes at the helicopter moms at her school, the ones who hovered right over their kids, flapping their hands and shouting, “Don’t do that; it’s dangerous!” She didn’t want to smother Josh, but every nerve in her body lit up like a fuse when she thought of how close she’d come to losing him.
The microphone screeched to life through the speakers. Wiry old Buck stood on stage and cleared his throat. “Folks, a hearty welcome here this evening, and our thanks to Grey’s management for the opportunity to hold this here inaugural great Marietta bachelor auction in the saloon, because it sure beats holding it at the stock yards. You know the cause, you know the reason. We’re here to make life a little easier for young Josh and his mother, Molly, and to this end we are putting some of the finest breeding stock this district has to offer at your disposal…”
Jett Casey was up first, looking positively scrumptious in his suit. He strutted his stuff, and by the time he finished women were falling all over themselves for a chance to get to know him better. But when Buck yelled out the final bid—“Sold, to the lady in booth three for $2,325!”—Molly nearly fell out of her chair.
“Mom! Mom! Did you hear that? Holy sh—” Josh shot her an excited look. “Sugar!”
Holy sugar indeed. Lots and lots of holy sugar. That was a couple of mortgage payments and at least one of her utilities taken care of. Her eyes burned as she stood on shaky legs and tried to catch the eye of the woman in booth three. She couldn’t see over all the people standing around, so she caught Jett’s attention and mouthed thank you.
He nodded in acknowledgment and headed off the stage.
One by one, the men went on stage, and one by one they left it. In between bachelors, Buck drew winners for raffle prizes. She forced herself to stop adding up the money. It seemed uncouth and ungracious. But each fall of the gavel chipped away at the tension that had encased her like cement. The smile she’d plastered on earlier this evening no longer felt as if it weighed a million pounds. People came over and bought her drinks. Since she was driving home tonight, she drank her weight in mocktails. She laughed with friends old and new, and she basked in the joy of seeing her son having fun.
Instead of feeling like a mooch, she felt like part of the community. And she had Lily to thank for it.
Every time she looked up, Lily was somewhere else. She hadn’t sat down in hours—Molly knew because there was a free chair for Lily at her table. After bachelor number four walked off the stage, she managed to grab her friend and tried to get her to stop, but Lily brushed her off with, “I’m fine. I’m enjoying myself.”
“You’ve been running around like a crazy woman since the moment we got here. Everything’s going great. Stop being an overachiever and take the weight off for a few minutes.”
“I can’t. Not yet.”
“Lily…”
“How’s this for a deal? I need to check in with Carol on the door. Once I’ve done that, I’ll grab a drink and chillax.”
Something didn’t feel right. Lily wasn’t usually this frenetic. When she was, it was usually because she was avoiding thinking about something. Lily had trusted Molly with secrets of her painful past, stories that had given Molly chills and made her want to shout at all the judgmental busybodies. This is the bravest woman ever! There were times when Lily’s past seemed to haunt her. Whether this was one of those times, Molly didn’t know, but this crowded bar was hardly the place to ask her friend personal questions. So she let Lily escape, barely noticing the wink she gave Josh as she disappeared into the crowd.
Forcing herself to sound excited, she grabbed the menu and pretended to study it. “Who’s up next?”
“Gabriel,” Josh said, his voice full of hero worship.
As if she hadn’t known. She’d memorized his place in the order the first time she’d glanced at the sheet. Her belly clenched in anticipation of seeing him highlighted on the stage a few feet away—and with the slightest twinge of jealousy for the woman who would buy him. “Ohhh, what’s he offering?”