Page 76 of Own the Eights
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming out to raise money for our after-school literacy program, and thank you to CityBeat for kindly hosting the gala. Let’s start our live auction with item number one, a private book club session with local bookseller and CityBeat Battle of the Blogs competitor, Georgiana Jensen.”
She turned to Hector. “You put me up for auction?”
“It’s nothing untoward. Whoever wins gets to have a book discussion with you. It’s harmless and it’s for charity.”
“Oh boy,” she said in a tight breath.
“Don’t be shy, Georgiana. Join me up on stage,” the man with the mic said, beckoning her to come forward.
Georgie stood, and like an undercover operative in enemy territory, she fell back on her training—her pageant training. Lifting her chin, she glided through the ballroom and onto the stage, rocking her gown and stilettos like she was born for the runway.
Take that Little Miss Cherry Pie!
“All right, folks. Who wants to spend an evening with this lovely lady talking books? Let’s start the bidding at five hundred dollars.”
Five hundred dollars!
Georgie scanned the ballroom for Jordan. Thank goodness her ten stood out in a crowd. She found him quickly and caught his gaze.
“What’s going on?” he mouthed.
She produced her beauty queen smile and gave him a slight shake of the head. She had no damn idea what was going on.
“Five hundred, right here!”
Georgie’s head whipped to the side, and she squinted through the bright lights then gasped. “Save the Whales Steve? Is that you?”
“Hey, Georgie!” he called with a wide grin.
What the heck was he doing here? It did make sense that someone who cared about the whales would also care about youth literacy. He was an eight. But before she could give it any more thought, Jordan’s voice rang out through the ballroom.
“Six hundred!”
Georgie’s head whipped back to her ten, who’d lost the shocked expression. Now, determination burned in his gaze.
“Six hundred to the gentleman,” the auctioneer called.
“Six fifty,” Save the Whales Steve countered.
“Seven,” Jordan shot back.
Seven hundred dollars to discuss the salient points of Jane Eyre. This was insane!
“Eight hundred,” Steve bid, upping the ante.
“We have eight hundred dollars! Do I hear eight fifty.”
You could hear a pin drop as everyone in the room watched the showdown.
“One thousand dollars,” Jordan answered with a hard edge to his voice.
Her ten was not screwing around.
Save the Whales Steve took a step back and shook his head.
“All right! One thousand going once.”
She held Jordan’s gaze. She was sure he had the money, but he was saving for his dream.
