Page 20 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

“So, we should donate the money from the silent auction to the foundation that protects the bats. They’re an endangered species,” Chase said. “It’s what Maisy would have wanted.”

Chase was right. Lauren hadn’t even thought about donating money to the bats for Maisy. “I was thinking about suicide prevention,” Lauren said.

Someone showed up in line behind them. “Let’s go grab a table, and we can continue this conversation there,” Chase said.

When they were seated, he said, “What if we did two charities? One for the bats, and the other for suicide prevention? We could do the bats for the silent auction, and the charity ball could fund suicide prevention.”

“That sounds good,” Lauren said. “Did you figure out a way to make the charity ball work?”

“I have people already lined up who are willing to help.”

“What people?” Lauren asked.

“My people. I called my manager last night, and he’s going to help us get this all set up. It’s all taken care of.”

Lauren’s mouth fell open as she envisioned a team of professional party planners on the task. “That could actually work.” A burden lifted from Lauren’s shoulders as she recognized the amount of help he’d just enlisted.

Lauren said, “How is the crowdfunding doing that you set up last night?”

“Have you checked it this morning yet?”

“I haven’t looked at my phone this morning,” Lauren said.

“Well, let’s check it now. There’s a link on the reunion group page that leads to the fundraising page.”

Lauren pulled up the app on her phone, and she tapped a few times until she had the reunion group pulled up. She saw where Chase had posted from a social media profile that made him look like a normal guy. The picture was just of him standing by the ocean. She tapped on the link he’d posted, and the page pulled up.

“This can’t be right.” Her brow scrunched up in confusion.

“What?” Chase asked.

“We’ve already had more than enough money donated for Maisy’s service.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Let me show you.” Lauren handed it to him. “See?”

“Yeah,” Chase said. “I’d say this ought to cover it.”

“Five thousand!” Lauren said. “We won’t need that much for the venue.”

“So we spend what we need on the charity event and donate the rest to the charities.”

“I can get behind that,” Lauren said. “I just don’t understand how all that money appeared that fast.” And then it hit her all at once. “Did you do this, Chase?”

Chase sipped his coffee instead of answering her. Finally, he said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Lauren felt the ice melting around her heart. She knew she should be angry with Chase, but she just couldn’t. So much stress had gone away with his help. And he wouldn’t even take credit for it, but she knew the money must have come from him. Maybe Alexis was right, and Chase wasn’t as bad as Lauren was making him out to be.

“I’m just going to take that as a yes. You really didn’t need to do that, Chase.”

“It wasn’t just me. Other people donated too, see?”

“You mean the thirty dollars extra?”

“That might have been more for them than my measly five thousand,” Chase pointed out.

“So you do admit it!” Lauren said.

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