Principal Ramos stood on the stage in front of the microphone, next to a few parents Abby recognized from school.
“Welcome to the Whitmore Country Day Gala.”
The buzz of conversation died down as the attendees clapped and turned their attention to the stage.
Cadence leaned in. “First Ramos is going to make a few announcements, and then they’ll move on to the big auction items.”
“Big items?”
“Yeah, the cars and the villas and stuff.”
“Real cars?”
“Did you think the people here were going to bid on a photograph of a car?”
“My class’s donation was a basket of my cousin’s books. What’s your class’s auction item?”
“Just a Fiat.”
“Just a Fiat. A car Fiat?”
Cadence nodded.
Abby swallowed hard.
“It’s all right, but I still think you should have taken Brennen up on his offer to donate something from his foundation.”
Abby chewed her lip. “Do you think Principal Ramos is going to be upset with my auction item?”
“Miss Quinn? Miss Quinn are you out there?”
Abby looked up as the principal gestured for her to come to the stage.
“Oh boy,” Cadence murmured.
Abby pasted a plastic smile across her face as a strobe light found her in the crowd. The news crews weaved through the guests and added their powerful beams of light into the mix.
“Go, Abby,” Cadence whispered.
Go, Abby!
Her neurons, momentarily stunned, rebooted, and she headed toward the stage.
Don’t trip on the dress.
Don’t trip on the dress.
Don’t trip on the dress.
By some miracle, she made it onto the stage and stood next to her principal. She gazed out at the sea of faces staring up at her and found Harriet Bergen in the crowd. The woman smiled then glanced around the room nervously.
Was she looking for Brennen, too?
“As many of you know, Miss Quinn joined our teaching staff after the winter holiday,” Principal Ramos began.
Abby turned up the wattage on her smile, and her stomach dropped as the principal addressed the room.
“In a short period of time, she’s become an integral part of the Whitmore Community, leading her class to win the First Grade Colorado Fact Competition, planning the school ski trip, and taking on the lion’s share of tutoring and lunchroom duties.”
Abby’s gaze slid to Jasper. He pulled his phone from his pocket, glanced at it, looked around the room, then whispered something into his grandmother’s ear. Harriet nodded, and Jasper left the ballroom.
Did something happen? Was Brennen hurt? And where was Elle?
She searched the room as her principal continued addressing the crowd and nearly jumped out of her skin when someone tapped her shoulder.
She looked over to find Mrs. Mackendorfer smiling at her.
When did she get on the stage?
Abby blinked and regrouped. If she didn’t pull it together, all the compliments in the world wouldn’t matter if she looked like an out to lunch zombie teacher.
“In a matter of only a few months, Miss Quinn has shown exemplary commitment and dedication to the Whitmore community. Mrs. Mackendorfer submitted her name for the Teacher of the Year award, and the staff and I agreed with her.”
Wait…what?
The ballroom broke into applause as Principal Ramos handed her a plaque. News cameras zoomed in as the cameramen edged closer to the stage.
Abby swept her gaze across the crowd again. Cadence gave her two thumbs up, but now she couldn’t find Ray or Harriet in the crowd.
She turned to leave when Principal Ramos put her hand on her shoulder. “Stay with me on the stage, dear. We’ll open the bidding for the auction items together.”
The ballroom doors opened, and a car—a freaking car—slowly entered the room. Sleek and black, the vehicle came to a stop in the center of the ballroom.
Could that be Brennen?
But when the driver exited the vehicle, her hopes melted away. Principal Ramos introduced the man, a former Denver football player, as the MC for the event.
The man joined them on stage, took the mic, greeted the guests, and started auctioning off the luxury items.
Abby gazed out into the crowd, smiling like a deranged beauty pageant contestant. What was going on? Where were the Bergens? Where was Elle? And crap! She couldn’t even check her phone. She’d left her clutch on the table next to Cadence.
The auction continued, the auctioneer speaking a mile a minute as people in the crowd raised paddles, bidding tens of thousands of dollars. A week at a villa in Provence. Luxury car after luxury car. Front row tickets at every major venue in Denver. Jewelry. Sports packages. If she wasn’t so concerned about Brennen and Elle, she might have been blown away by the amount of money being raised.
“And that’s our last auction item. Thank you, ladies and—”
The doors to the ballroom swung open, and Elle charged down the aisle.
“Wait! There’s one more item to auction off!”
Abby’s jaw dropped. “Elle?”
Her cousin joined her on stage and took the mic. “Sorry, to interrupt. I’m Abigail Quinn’s cousin, Elle Reynolds. You probably know me from my last book being made into a major motion picture.”
The crowd broke into applause. Clearly, it was totally okay with this group for someone to bust into a charity event and hijack the proceedings if they were famous.
“What are you doing?” Abby asked, a smile still plastered to her face.
Elle lowered the mic. “You’ve got the Stepford wife thing going on.”
Abby blinked. “Elle, this is nuts! What’s going on?”
“What’s going on,” Elle said into the mic, addressing the crowd. “Is that we have one last item up for auction. A one of a kind collector’s piece. I hope you don’t mind, Principal Ramos?”
Abby’s gaze flew to her boss, but the woman was beaming.
“Not at all! This is quite exciting!”
The whiff of this off-the-cuff celebrity moment had the camera crews salivating. Reporters checked their reflections in compacts before grinning into the camera and going live.
“What’s being auctioned off?” a reporter called from the ballroom floor.
“I’d be the best person to answer that question.”
Abby whipped her head around and gasped when she saw Brennen. He smiled at her, pushing a dolly with a large item wrapped in brown paper onto the stage as Harriet, Ray, and Jasper followed behind him.
“You look beautiful. Sorry, I’m a little late,” he said, holding her gaze.
Abby’s lips parted, but nothing came out. A combination of relief and shock flooded her system. He was all right—actually—he looked way more than just all right. Dressed in a tux, Brennen Bergen could have stopped traffic. Dressed in a tux and telling her she looked beautiful, he nearly stopped her heart.
He rolled the dolly up next to her and turned his attention to the cameras and the crowd. “Hello, everyone. My name is Brennen Bergen. I’m a member of the Bergen Mountain Sports family, the president of the Bergen Foundation, and the man who is in love with your Teacher of the Year, Abby Quinn.”
The cameras panned from Brennen to her.
“You are?”
His gaze softened. “I am.”
“You’re not kidding?”
The sweetest grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. “We read The Notebook together, Abby Rose. I think that pretty much seals the deal.”
“And we watched the movie,” she added.
He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, his fingertips lingering along her jawline. “Twice.”
They stared at each other, and everything disappeared. The clinking glasses. The buzz of chatter. It all faded into the background.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
“I was k
ind of hoping you’d say that.”
Butterflies. Fireworks. Confetti cannons. Her body thrummed with adoration, excitement, and anticipation.
“Excuse me? Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Sparks Fan Club, let’s get the show on the road.”
Elle gestured to the item on the dolly, and then to the cameras, and all the people watching them in the ballroom.
“Can you give me a second, Abby?” he asked, a twinkle in his eyes.
She nodded, and Elle handed Brennen the microphone.
He walked to the center of the stage. “My parents, Griffin and Hannah Bergen, were strong supporters of the Whitmore Community. My brothers and I attended Whitmore, and my mother started the Whitmore Community Partnership. I know if they were still with us today, they’d wholeheartedly support the auction item I’ve brought before you today.”
Jasper wheeled the dolly over to Brennen and tore off the paper.
Abby gasped. “It’s your…”
Brennen held her gaze, steel-blue eyes shining, and nodded.
He turned to the audience. “These are the skis I used in my last Winter X Games competition. They’re signed by myself as well as all the competitors, my parents, my brothers, and my grandparents. This is the year I won the gold medal in both the Men’s Slopestyle and Superpipe events. As you can see, the medals are included with the skis.”
He glanced over at her, and without thinking, she went to his side. He’d supported her through her man fast. She wasn’t about to stand back and make him do this alone.
She gazed at the skis, ran her fingertips across his parents’ signatures, then took his hand and blinked back tears. Brennen was turning this reminder of his darkest day—the day his life changed, and he lost his parents—into something that would help children.
His grip tightened on her hand. “My parents valued education in the classroom and on the mountain. I know that auctioning this piece of Bergen memorabilia for the good of students would please them greatly if they were still with us today.”
The room fell silent—a quiet offering of respect for Hannah and Griffin Bergen—as Brennen’s grandparents came forward. Harriet stood next to her, and Ray rested his hand on Brennen’s shoulder.
A beat passed, then two, before the auctioneer came forward, and Brennen handed him the microphone.
“Do I hear fifty thousand dollars?”
And that’s when the silence ended.
The ballroom exploded, paddles flying up. Men dressed to the nines acted like they were twelve, elbowing each other to make sure the auctioneer acknowledged their bid.
Sixty thousand.
Eighty thousand.
One hundred thousand.
One hundred fifty thousand.
Brennen turned to her as the bidding frenzy escalated. “I kind of broke one of your man fast rules sliding this auction item in at the last minute.”
“What time is it, Bren?” she asked.
He glanced at his watch. “It’s five minutes past ten.”
She smiled. “I made my man fast pledge seventy-four days ago a little before ten p.m. I know this because I’d made it with Elle in her kitchen the day before I started at Whitmore, and I’d set the alarm on my phone for ten, so I wouldn’t spend all night working and remind myself to go to sleep. I made the pledge, and then the timer went off.”
A wide grin spread across his face. “Are you telling me the man fast ended five minutes ago?”
She bit her lip, her body ready for everything her man fast rules had prohibited. She met his gaze. “The man fast is over.”
He cupped her cheek in his hand and leaned in to kiss her when Jasper’s voice pierced the air.
“Two hundred fifty thousand dollars!”
Brennen turned to his brother. “You’re bidding, Jas?”
Jasper’s stony expression softened. “Remember when I told you I’d give you my respect when you earned it?”
Brennen nodded.
Jas gave him the hint of a smile. “You just did.”
Brennen held his brother’s gaze. “Thank you, Jas.”
The older Bergen brother nodded, then his lips quirked into a wry grin. “And we can hang it in the flagship store. People can gawk at it there.”
Brennen chuckled, and the room stilled.
“Two fifty going once, two fifty going twice. Sold to Jasper Bergen for two-hundred fifty thousand dollars!”
The room erupted with cheers.
“And that concludes the event! Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, all the funds you raised tonight will go to providing scholarships to Whitmore Country Day and support the public schools in the Denver area.”
Principal Ramos shook Jasper’s hand as the camera crews moved in to catch the moment.
Abby turned to Brennen. “You’re amazing! I can’t believe you did all this.”
He gave her a nervous smile. “There’s more.”
“More?”
He dropped to his knee, and for a third time that evening, the room stilled.
He swallowed hard. “Elle says you guys have the same size hands.”
“That’s what you dropped to your knee to say?”
He shook his head. “Let me try again.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny box.
Like sharks sensing blood, the cameras surrounded them.
“Abigail Rose Quinn, my heart has been yours since the moment you jammed a glue stick into my chest.”
Abby’s eyes went wide, and she glanced at Principal Ramos.
Brennen followed her gaze. “Which absolutely did not happen in a supply closet at Whitmore.”
Abby wiped a tear from her cheek and smiled.
He held her gaze. “I want the world to know that you’re the only woman for me. And if you’ll have me, I want to be the only man for you.” He opened the box, revealing a sparkling emerald cut diamond ring. “You told me everyone deserves a chance to make it right. Those words saved me, Abby. You showed me I could be a better man. I swear to you in front of my family and yours.” He glanced at the cameras. “And pretty much everyone on the planet, that I will love you and cherish you. I’m not going to let you down, and I will always be there to catch you when you fall.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Or carry me down a mountain?”
“Or carry you down a mountain,” he answered.
Brennen smiled up at her. “I want to dedicate my life to making this world a better place, and I want to do it with you, the woman I love. Abby Rose, will you marry me?”
She shielded her eyes from the bright beams of light and found her cousin standing with the Bergens.
When she’d started the man fast seventy-four days ago, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine a marriage proposal would come at the end. But more than that, she never imagined the person she’d become. Teacher of the Year. Homeowner. Kickboxer. Axe thrower. And a woman completely in love with the man of her dreams.
She turned from the lights, thinking back to the first day they met, and held Brennen’s gaze. “I know you have a good heart, Brennen Bergen. And I know you have it in you to do your best work as my husband.”
He smiled, the recognition of their time in the supply closet glinting in his eyes, then slid the sparkling diamond onto her finger. She gazed at the ring and then back to him as he stood and gathered her into his arms.
He cupped her face in his hands. “Everyone deserves a chance to make it right. This is ours.”
Epilogue
Brennen
Hands above her head, wearing only the five-carat diamond he’d just put on her finger and a pair of black lace boy shorts, Abby gazed up at him.
Brennen pressed a kiss to his fiancée’s neck. “Why are you wearing underwear? You don’t ski with underwear. You don’t try on dresses with underwear. You don’t wear them with tights.” He dipped his index finger inside the waistband of the sexy panties. “Why, when I’m ready to make you come, are you wearing underwear?”
She wet her lips, already slightly s
wollen and cherry red, with the tip of her tongue. “So you can take them off of me with your teeth.”
Holy hell, this woman!
Sweet as cherry pie in the classroom. Dirty as a sailor on shore leave in the bedroom.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
In the few days since his very public marriage proposal, their lives had been a whirlwind. His little stunt had gotten worldwide exposure. There wasn’t a man or woman on the planet who didn’t know his heart belonged to Abigail Quinn. The headlines were everywhere:
Playboy Snatched Up.
Denver Bad Boy Goes Good.
Billionaire X-Games Champ Engaged to Teacher of the Year.
Luckily, Abby’s spring break was the week after the Whitmore Gala, and they were able to leave Denver after the event and tune out the world up at the cottage on Bergen Mountain.
But the texts and headlines poured in, and that’s when they checked out.
In a decision to ensure they were able to have as much uninterrupted sex as possible, they’d turned off their cell phones and threw them into a drawer. Then he threw Abby onto his bed, and that’s where they’d been for the last seventy-two hours, making up for the last seventy-four days.
All right, so they weren’t celibate for the entire man fast. But it was long enough that the moment he had her man fast free and all to himself, he was ready to make up for lost time—and so was Abby.
Let’s just say, once she was done being wholesome Miss Quinn at the gala, and they’d left the event, his Teacher of the Year earned an A-plus in helicopter orgasms.
Oh yeah—he’d had the chopper ready to whisk them away.
He might be a reformed playboy, but he was a still a Bergen, and he wasn’t about to give up on all the perks of being a part of a billion-dollar mountain sports empire. Except now, what made it even better was that he could shower Abby with all the gifts, trips, and mind-blowing sex he wanted.
Life was flipping good.
He kissed a trail from her neck down her body and settled between her thighs, gripping her hips.
“Do these have…Velcro?”
She propped up onto her elbows and gave him a sexy as sin smile. “Snaps.”
Oh, snap! Tear-away panties!
He took a closer look and found a tiny metal clasp hidden beneath a satin bow on each hip.
Man Fast: Bergen Brothers: Book One Page 21