Page 3 of Going, Going, Gone
Chapter Two
“This is so cool,” Faith Holland said as she scanned the auction brochure they’d received at the door. Vanessa hadn’t needed to twist her best friend’s arm to accompany her to the fundraiser tonight. All that’d been necessary was to mention “bachelor” and “auction,” and Faith had been all in. “Look at all these awesome dates we can bid on, Nessa: a trip to an amusement park with dinner at the top of a Ferris wheel; parasailing; dinner at a winery followed by a tour of the zoo; and, ooh, a secret surprise date. I wonder what that is. Too bad we don’t get to find out who the guy is until after the bidding is over. Then again, rumor has it that all the guys are hot looking.”
Vanessa didn’t care about any of the other guys up for bid. All she wanted was to win the date with Dylan McBride, then get him 2000 feet off the ground in a hot-air balloon where he would have no choice but to listen to her pleas or jump. She just had to save the old Coldrick Farm from becoming a strip mall and parking lot. After Elise Coldrick had died two years ago, at the age of eighty-eight, with no heirs, her will stated she’d bequeathed the property and her estate to the local library where she’d served on the board of trustees for years. Needing the money more than the property, the board had decided to sell the land, which is where McBride’s company came into play. He was the person she had to convince to stall the listing and subsequent final sale of the property until she could find the evidence she needed to prove it’d been part of the Underground Railroad. She’d sent letters to several museums and historical societies, trying to find evidence that Elise’s ancestors had aided escaped slaves to reach the North where they could live free.
Vanessa’s grandmother, who died a few years ago, had been good friends with Elise, and Vanessa had often joined the two older women for afternoon tea. It was during that time, Elise had regaled Vanessa with stories of her ancestors, that’d been passed down through generations. She’d been certain her family had hidden the fugitive slaves in their basement until it’d been safe for them to move on. Now Vanessa was trying to prove that, so the history could be preserved.
“What auction number is the hot-air balloon date?” she asked, while carrying the #207 bid paddle she’d been given and glancing at the table numbers, trying to find the one they’d been assigned. She’d been lucky after finding the information about the auction online. When she’d called to get tickets, the woman who’d answered the phone had originally said it’d been sold out, but had then called Vanessa back within minutes, stating someone had just canceled. Without hesitation, Vanessa had snatched up the two $100 tickets. Now she just had to pray the bidding for McBride didn’t go over $2000 because that was all she had in her savings account at the moment. Maybe if she acted confident enough, she could scare off other bidders.
“Um ... the second one. An adventurous, hot-air balloon ride followed by a picnic lunch in the countryside.”
“Here’s our table.” Vanessa took a seat facing the stage, so she wouldn’t have to turn her chair around when the auction started.
Faith sat to her right, still perusing through the brochure. “Hmm. I’m not bidding on this one—it’s a weekend of boot camp and self-defense training. If I’m going to get all sweaty on a date, it’s not going to be for that! Oh, listen to this one—a night in a haunted hotel.”
Vanessa eyed her friend. “Sharing a room? I wouldn’t share a hotel room with a guy I don’t know, even if I did spend a lot of money to win him—well, not exactly him, but the date.”
“It says the winner and bachelor will be staying in adjoining rooms.”
“Still ... well it doesn’t really matter since I’m not bidding on him.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not considering that one, are you?”
The other woman’s eyes twinkled as she lifted her gaze. “I’ll have to see what he looks like first.”
“Aren’t they all wearing masks?”
“So ...” She shrugged. “If he’s got a nice body ... and like I said, they’re all rumored to be hotties. A haunted hotel might be fun. I could pretend to be scared and need him to hold me.”
“Who, the ghost?” Vanessa teased, as several other women took seats at their table.
Faith rolled her eyes but didn’t respond to the joke. Vanessa glanced around the room and her nervousness returned. There was a larger audience than she’d expected. Counting the number of tables, she figured there were over 150 women present and hoped a lot of them were there for the silent auction items instead of the bidding on the bachelors.
A half-hour later the bidding was climbing higher and higher for Bachelor #1, who had donated the surprise date. On the stage, a masked, tuxedoed man stood between Nadine, who was grinning and gesturing to the bachelor’s fine physique, and the auctioneer who was calling out the bids. As the amount went over $1000, the bidding slowed, but continued. Finally, at $2000, the gavel came down, and the date was sold. Vanessa sighed. At least if that had been the date she was bidding on, she would have been able to afford it—barely. Nadine made a few announcements before the bidding on Bachelor #2 started. A phone sitting on the table to Vanessa’s left vibrated and the woman next to her picked it up. She’d sat down alone about ten minutes before the start of the auction and had been typing away on Facebook until the bidding started.
“Hi, babe, what’s—” She paused. “Oh, no! What happened?” Wide-eyed, the pretty brunette listened to whoever was on the other end, then stood and grabbed her purse. “All right, I’ll meet you at the emergency room.”
Without a backward glance, the woman hurried toward the exit. Vanessa thought it was odd she’d been at a bachelor auction while she had a “babe” somewhere. Maybe she’d just been there to bid on the silent auction items that’d been donated, not that it mattered.
“All right, ladies,” Nadine said into the microphone she was holding. “Here we go with Bachelor #2! Get your paddles ready to bid!”
Dylan McBride strode onto the stage, dressed in the tuxedo and mask she’d been expecting. Had she not known what he looked like and known he was the bachelor for the balloon date, she probably wouldn’t have had a clue who he was. McBride was a handsome man—his photo was on his company’s website and had been in the local newspaper a few times—and Vanessa had to admit she’d definitely be checking him out if he walked by her one day. The tuxedo he was wearing looked like it had been tailor-made for him. His dark-brown hair looked like silk and probably felt like it too. She couldn’t really see his eyes between the mask and the distance, but she knew from the photos that they were brown. Too bad he’d been annoying the hell out of her since she’d first tried to contact him about the Coldrick property, because she might have actually enjoyed herself on their “date.” That is, if she managed to win.
After Nadine reiterated what the date consisted of, the male auctioneer started the bidding. Quickly, it climbed from $100 to over $1000 before slowing a bit. Whenever another woman placed a bid, Vanessa lifted her paddle and upped it, trying to show she wasn’t going to give up. McBride didn’t seem happy about it either—not just her bidding, but everyone’s. He wasn’t exactly frowning, but he also wasn’t smiling. Vanessa recalled the conversation between his secretary and Nadine—they’d said he’d been conned into being here, and Vanessa wondered how. Did the auction organizer have some dirt on him she was using for blackmail? If she did, Vanessa would love to know what it was, so she could use it to get him to push back the sale date if her begging didn’t work.
“I have $1800 ...” The auctioneer scanned the room, his rapid and enthusiastic words ringing out. “... . who’ll give me nineteen? Anyone? Bid is eighteen-hundred. Whose got nineteen? Come on, now, it’s for a great cause! Bid's at $1800, will ya give me nineteen?”
Vanessa bit her bottom lip, silently praying no one raised their paddle.
“Eighteen-hundred is the bid, looking for nineteen. Eighteen-hundred going once. Eighteen-hundred going twice. Eighteen-hundred gone!” He slammed the gavel down on the podium, then used it to point at Vanessa. “Sold to bidder #207 for $1800. Congratulations, little lady! That’ll help one of our veterans get a service dog.”
Applause came from the audience as she breathed a sigh of relief. Dozens of gazes looked in her direction, but they were all blocked out except one. Dylan McBride was still standing on the stage and was staring at her—he had been for the last few minutes of the bidding. She could almost feel the heat directed at her, and she didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. She swallowed hard under his scrutiny. A small smile appeared on his partially hidden face, and he dipped his chin once, before taking off his mask. Damn, the man was even better looking in person.
“Thank you, bidder! You’ve won a date with the handsome Dylan McBride of McBride Properties, Inc. Congratulations! Please come up to the payment table to the left of the stage. And thank you, Dylan, for donating your fun-filled date. All right, ladies! Here comes Bachelor #3 ...”
Vanessa didn’t hear anything else that was said, because, holy shit, Dylan McBride just winked at her, and then exited stage left. Why her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt aroused she didn’t know. All the man had done was smile and wink at her. It wasn’t as if she’d never had a good-looking guy flirt with her from across the room before, but this had felt more than that. It was almost as if he’d issued a promise—one that would have her curling her toes and screaming his name in ecstasy.
“Holy shit, he’s hot,” Faith whispered a little too loudly. “After you convince him not to sell the farm, you should definitely tap that.”
Incredulously, her eyes went wide as she turned her attention to her friend. “Tap that? It’s a charity date, Faith, not a gigolo auction.”
Faith shrugged and grinned salaciously. “So, make sure there’s a second date, and then tap that.”
“You’re too much.” Rolling her eyes, she stood and then leaned down, so she could be heard over the current bidding. “Besides, I highly doubt I’m his type. And after he finds out why I bid on him, he’s probably going to make a run for it somewhere between the balloon ride and picnic. Now, let me go and empty out my checking account.”
