What a Bachelor Needs (Bachelor Auction Book 4)(4)
Maybe she’d remembered something. Maybe she wanted to press charges.
If she did she might need him as a witness.
Jett had stood, drawing himself up to his full six foot one as they passed by and Mardie had taken one look at him and blanched, telegraphing with every fiber of her being not to speak to her or approach in any way.
So he’d watched in conflicted silence as she’d walked away.
She’d dated Boyd Prescott in high school.
He’d found out the following day she’d married him.
“Casey.”
It took him a while to pull out of that memory and back into Grey’s Saloon and the auction that was about to begin.
“Jett.” Someone elbowed him and he turned to find Buck Thompson, the grizzled cattle auctioneer they’d brought in to run the auction, at his side. “You ready for this, son?”
“Born ready, old man. And don’t you sell me for a nickel either. I’m a prime specimen, willing to offer my backcountry skiing expertise to anyone patient enough to wait six weeks or I can give someone one week of handyman work, starting Monday.”
“Doesn’t say anything about waiting six weeks to go skiing with you on the menu.”
“I pinged a knee ligament during the week. It’s a recurring injury.” The doctor had told him, yet again, to stay off the skis for a while unless he wanted to end up in a wheelchair like young Josh over there. The difference being that, this time, with Josh’s circumstances right there in his face, Jett had listened to the good man. “I have to stay off the slopes for a while.”
“Does Lily know you can’t deliver on the services offered?”
“Lily’s edgy already. Why make her sweat it in advance?”
Buck’s stare could have leveled a mountain. “Does that line of thinking ever work for you?”
“It’s worked on my sainted mother for almost thirty years. Trust me, things go so much more smoothly when I tell her I’ve been BASE jumping off the side of mountains after I’ve done it.”
“You’re right, your mother is a saint.” Buck scribbled something on the run sheet on his clipboard. “All right, I’ll now make your lame arse sound like mankind’s gift to power tools. You can use power tools?”
“My love of building appliances began many years ago, when I started building mountain cabins with my brothers. We did five of them from scratch – three for the family and two for our neighbors. One of my brothers, Seth, is a builder now and, if skiing hadn’t fallen into place for me, I’d probably be his not so silent partner instead of his silent one. Does that ease your mind?”
And then Lily was beside him, with a look on her pretty features that spoke of an anxiety well beyond what was necessary. “Are you ready? Do you know your mark? Do you know what you’re going to do up there?” she asked.
All good questions that he’d heard several times already this evening. “Lil’, I am primed and ready. I find the spotlight and stand in it, looking downright biddable, while Buck here tells everyone exactly how good I am and what I can offer. Looking forward to it. You’ll get good money for me, guaranteed. I’m very special.”
Buck snorted. Jett grinned. He was comfortable using swagger and bravado to coax smiles from nervous skiers, but Lily still looked unaccountably uptight. “I have four older brothers and I’ve been stealing their limelight since the day I was born,” he told her. “You have no idea how often they’ve threatened to sell me. This is like a dream come true for them.” There, right there, was the smile he’d been looking for. “Being the competitive soul that I am, I figure that if I’m going to do this I may as well do it right. Buck here has my full permission to make a meal out of me in order to warm up the crowd and crack those fat wallets open. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Right. So. Right.” Lily took a step back. “I’ll just go and…
“Sit,” supplied Jett helpfully.
He and Buck watched her retreat in silence and then Buck tilted his hat back and cast his eye over the assembled crowd.
“If it helps any, that’s my brother Seth over there in the far corner. He swore he’d start the bidding if no one else did,” Jett said.
“Thought he wanted to sell you?”
“He does.” Jett caught his brother’s eye and grinned widely. “I never said he wouldn’t buy me back.”
“Well, in that case…” Buck headed for the podium and the microphone and moments later a spotlight lit up the hastily concocted stage area. Right there. That was Jett’s mark. Anticipation slipped through him, warm and familiar. This wasn’t exactly an Olympic podium but these days he’d take his limelight where he could find it.
And then Buck began to speak.
“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 bachelors this district has to offer at your disposal. There’s something for everyone here this evening, folks, and I’ll be taking bids from anyone who so much as twitches. You have been warned. Payment is required immediately upon sale and if you haven’t already registered your details and picked up a bidding number, I suggest you do so now because table numbers do not count. Are you ready?”