Page 112 of Everything Has Changed
A few more winners come and go. They hand over their payment and gather their baskets, all of them grinning ear to ear with anticipation. All of them make me and my girls spend the next few minutesguessing how their dates would go. Especially when our high school principal had the winning bid for our high school gym teacher.
“Next we have a real catch, ladies.” Mrs. Spencer hypes up into her microphone. And knowing who was up on the docket had me slapping at my girls to pay attention. There was no way we were missing any moment of this one.
“Willow Grove’s very own veterinarian, Jackson Prescott! Come on out, Jackson.”
Slowly, the curtain parts to reveal my brother in all his scowling glory. The three of us hoot and holler, making him whip his head in our direction to glare at us. No doubt screaming mentally for us to shut up. What he doesn’t realize is the scowl is making all the women—and some of the men—in attendance even more feral as the shouts of excitement grow louder.
“Jackson is a single father to the sweetest little girl and the older brother to two of this town’s favorite women. So we all know what that means, don’t we, ladies? He knows how to treat a woman!”
That makes Kennedy and me loudly gag while Piper continues to make noises through her fit of laughter.
“Let’s start the bidding at five hundred dollars!”
“Five hundred”
“Six hundred dollars!”
“I hear six hundred. What about six hundred and fifty??”
“I’ve got seven hundred and fifty dollars!”
“Y’all can do better than that. Do I hear eight hundred?” Mrs. Spencer eggs on the crowd. A few more numbers are shouted toward her, but it’s the one next to me that has my head and Kennedy’s whipping around.
“One thousand dollars”
“Piper!” I screech. “Are you serious right now?”
She shrugs, but I see the twinkle in her eyes that tells me she’s up to something.
Jackson stares her down, a look I’ve never seen crossing my brother’s eyes taking me by surprise as I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly. But it’s Piper straightening her back and meeting his glare that has me questioning her sanity.
“One thousand dollars, going once. Going twice—-”
“Fifteen hundred” Someone in the back shouts.
Margot’s delightfully squeals into the microphone, counting down to the final number. My eyes stay on my best friend and my brother as I watch an unspoken conversation happen between them. When the final “sold” rings out, Piper flinches and her eyes blink rapidly, bringing her back to the present as she breaks contact with Jacks.
“What the hell was that about?” Kennedy questions, speaking into existence exactly what I want the answer to.
Piper runs a hand over her face, her fingers sliding through her brown hair as she turns toward us. “I got caught up wanting to jack up the price,” she chuckles nervously.
“Do you even have a thousand dollars to bid?” I side eye her.
She cringes. “I mean, technically yeah. But I really didn’t want to spend it on Jackson, so that was a real gamble.”
“You got really lucky that whoever the other person is that swooped in.”
“Mhm,” the nervous laugh is back. “Lucky. Who was it?”
I shrug, unsure as well, until we all turn ahead again and see who is walking toward us.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Hello, ladies,” her voice rings out and slithers its way through the air. I have to actively keep myself from shivering at the horrible feeling it leaves me with.
“If it isn’t Icky Vicky,” Kennedy levels her with a saucy grin. Her arms crossed over her chest like armor. “I should have known you would sniff out any chance of my brother enjoying himself. Where did you get the money from, Vick? Your latest sugar daddy?”
With a haughty laugh and a toss of her bleach blonde hair, Vicky sneers at my sister. “Judgy as ever I see, Kennedy.”
