The women must really like whatever was up for bids. They were everywhere.
Chance walked through the door of the community center, which was just down the sidewalk past Pete’s Feed and Seed. He’d had to park all the way at the opposite end past Sam’s Diner just to find a parking space.
There were lots of couples sitting around and mingling in groups, but it was immediately obvious that the room was overrun by single women. He should have known that any gathering the town was organizing would bring even more women to Mule Hollow to meet single cowboys. His cousins had expanded their cattle operation, as had several other large ranches in the area, increasing the cowboy population even more. All in all, Mule Hollow had grown in the last year, and by the crowd it was apparent.
Glancing around, Chance had thought maybe he’d see a bunch of beauty-treatment baskets or jewelry or stuff that ladies liked, lining a table somewhere to be auctioned off. But he didn’t see anything like that.
“Chance, over here,” Wyatt called, waving him over to join the family. He wove his way through the tables, greeting people as he went.
“Boy, you weren’t kidding when you said the women were going to bid. What’s up for bids?” he asked, taking a seat beside Wyatt. There were two women at the table in front of him giving him the once-over… He felt like he was the one on the auction block.
Wyatt’s wife, Amanda, gaped at him like he was crazy. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?” He glanced around the table. Seth, Cole and Wyatt had on poker faces that would have made their great, great, great, great, great Grandpa Oakley proud. Oakley wasn’t the most respectable Turner in the clan and immediately Chance was on alert. Melody, Amanda and Susan’s expressions of disbelief sent an un easy feeling coursing through his veins. “What have I missed?”
Amanda pushed her short dark hair behind her ear. “I can’t believe no one told you?” She gave Wyatt a cute scowl. “Or that you didn’t see the flyers on the fronts of the stores announcing that this is a dinner and bachelor auction.”
Chance choked. “A what? What flyers? You said a bachelor auction?” He cut his gaze to Wyatt, then Cole and Seth, and he was pretty certain his scowl wasn’t cute. He hadn’t been in town all that much, but now that he thought about it he had seen a flash of yellow on the windows. Suddenly he remembered seeing Sam crumbling up something yellow when he was getting out of the truck for breakfast the day before. He’d also been grinning when he greeted Chance at the door. “What exactly are y’all up to?” he asked, knowing he’d been set up.
“It’s harmless,” Susan said, shooting Cole a disbelieving glance. “The women or anyone who wants to can bid on the bachelors who have agreed to be auctioned off. The high bidders have to fix dinner for the cowboy they win and then he gives them a few hours of work around their house.”
Melody leaned around Seth and smiled sweetly. “You know, like help with putting up their Christmas lights,” she said, drawing out the obvious. “Or cleaning up their yard to get ready for the holidays.”
Had that had been why she’d given all those lights to Lynn? Was Melody expecting Lynn to bid on a bachelor? As if summoned by his thoughts he spotted Lynn across the room dishing salad onto plates. He noticed the waiters then, about fifteen cowboys carrying plates to the tables.
“Are those the cowboys who agreed to be auctioned?” he asked Wyatt.
“Yup, that’s them.”
“You know cowboys,” Cole drawled. “They’ll sacrifice themselves for a good cause.” Yeah, right. Big sacrifice. Judging by the grins on their faces they weren’t hurting too bad. Chance massaged the knot that had formed in his neck. It was no coincidence that everyone had conveniently omitted that this was a bachelor auction. Why?
Across the room he caught sight of Lynn. She was busy, in and out of the kitchen with several other women and men. Applegate and Stanley were manning the grill out back, so he’d been told. Every once in a while he saw them carry in pans of steaks. Lynn was putting food on plates. She looked as pretty as a summer day wearing a yellow sweater with her jeans. She caught him staring at her several times—he’d make an effort to stop staring but next thing he knew, he was right back at it. It was nothing short of rude, so why was he doing it?
Feeling eyes on him, he glanced around and caught Brady watching him from the next table. The sheriff leaned toward Chance across the space between the tables so he could speak quietly to him.
“It was good to see you in church Sunday. You were far more qualified than me to be in that pulpit though.”
“You did a great job.”
Brady rested his elbow on his thigh. “Don’t know about that, but seriously—I know your heart is at the arena with the cowboys, but we could really use you while you’re in town. With Christmas coming and no preach er in sight…I mean, to be honest, we haven’t gotten any replies to our request. I can only do so much be cause I’m not a preacher. I have faith that God’s going to send the right man for the job, but I’m not sure when that will be.”
Chance really admired Brady for what he was doing. If there was ever a born leader Brady was it. Not only was he a big man physically but he was a man of big integrity, too. He deserved an honest, open answer. Chance leaned closer so their conversation couldn’t be over heard. “Look, Brady, I’ve got to sort out some personal issues right now before I could stand up there in front of the church. My heart has to be clear and since Randy died—”
“That’s the bull rider that got killed a few weeks ago?”
“Yeah, that’s him. I’d been witnessing to him for some time. He’d gotten mixed up in some bad stuff but all I needed was a little more time. I know he’d have accepted the Lord…with just a little more time. I don’t know why God didn’t allow that.”
Brady hung his head then, met his gaze with regret in his eyes. “I guess preachers are human too, aren’t you? We can look at a preacher and expect you never to have a crisis or any anger…but it happens.”
Anger. It was true he was angry. And he was in a crisis of faith. Brady had him pegged. But then, he was a sheriff with skill in reading situations. “Yeah, it happens. I’m sorry. I’d like to help out, but even though I’m out of sorts right now I still have confidence that God’s going to send the right man to Mule Hollow.”
Brady nodded. “You’re right. I’ll just keep plugging away best I can. I’ll also pray He’ll help sort out things for you.” He started to sit up straight and let Chance get back to his table but halted halfway and leaned back toward him, speaking quietly again for only Chance’s ears. “Lynn over there is a great gal. She’s sorting through her own issues at her own pace. Dottie and I are praying God sends the right man into her life when the time is right. She deserves it.”
Chance wasn’t sure if he was getting a warning but he nodded. “She seems like a good person.”
“She is. All these women are, in the shelter. They’ve had it rough but they’re fighters. Lynn’s their advocate in many ways, pushing them to heal and move forward with their lives, but…” He paused as steaks were brought to his table. “I’m talking too much. It’s time to eat, then I have an auction to get underway. You think about what I said. If you need to talk, come by my office.”
“I’ll do that.” Chance glanced up and saw Lynn making her way toward him. She took the empty seat at Brady’s table directly across from him, and as she sat down she caught Chance watching her. Again. She gave him a tentative smile, then began talking to a pretty blonde whose gaze was riveted on one of the cowboys—a nervous fella who was barely getting his job done for looking back at her.
“Who is that lady sitting beside Lynn?” he asked Wyatt.
“That’s Stacy. She and Emmett are planning on getting married—if she ever decides on who is going to per form the ceremony. And if you haven’t figured out who Emmett is, he’s the cowboy who keeps bumping in to tables because he can’t function without looking at Stacy.”
It was pretty obvious who Emmett was.
The red-faced cowboy was going to dump a steak on somebody if he didn’t watch out where he was going. Chance remembered Lynn asking if he performed weddings. “So, if they’re getting married why is he one of the waiters? Didn’t you say the waiters were the ones getting auctioned?”
“They needed more men and since he’s a nice guy who is grateful the shelter brought Stacy into his life, he offered to fill in.”
“I see,” he said, but really he didn’t. He sliced a piece of his steak. It was tender and, like all the steaks at a shin dig like this, cooked medium to save on confusion and time. He watched the cowboys pass out the last plates, flirting with the ladies as they served. “From the looks of things the shelter might make a pretty penny.” His gaze slid toward Lynn. She was watching him, though she looked away quickly and concentrated on her own meal the moment their eyes met.
“Hey, cousin, we want to auction you off.” Cole cocked a brow.
“That’s the plan,” Wyatt agreed, and the rest of the table nodded enthusiastically.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Chance got all hot under the collar looking at them—his ears were hot, he was so tense.
“I told y’all not to go gettin’ any ideas,” he warned, glancing across at Lynn and seeing a pink stain on her cheeks. Though she wasn’t looking at him, he got the feeling she’d heard everything.
Wyatt shot him one of his piercing looks and Chance could see the wheels in his lawyer’s head chugging away. This wasn’t good. When Wyatt got an idea about something there wasn’t much to stop him. Even so, Chance tried. “Wyatt, don’t even think about it.” Could they not see that she didn’t want any of this?
“I was just thinking about those little boys this morning wanting you to help them with their tree house. It would be nice to help them out.”
Chance saw Lynn stiffen and her sharp gaze met his briefly before she looked away—no doubt about whether or not she’d heard that. “She didn’t want my help,” he said, his voice low to keep it from carrying. “She made that clear.” He looked at Wyatt with real warning in his eyes. It was then that he noticed how quiet the table had grown, and his attention was drawn around to the bright, well-intentioned eyes of his family. Not one of them was paying his warning any attention.
His gaze slid back to Lynn. Randy hadn’t wanted his help either, and Chance had failed him because he hadn’t pursued helping him anyway. But this wasn’t the same.
Not the same at all.
Chapter Five
“Who’ll give me one-fifty for Emmett? He’s a hard worker, and…” Brady paused to grin at the roomful of people before zeroing in on Stacy, who blushed profusely when all eyes turned to her. “From what I hear he’s a good cook, too. A bit on the shy side so you might have a hard time getting any talk out of him.” A round of laughter erupted from across the room. Red-faced, Emmett stood beside Brady. When a lively round of bidding instantly ensued he looked even more embarrassed. Lynn’s heart went out to the lanky, quiet cowboy. The poor guy was not the most handsome cowboy in the room—some might even say he was homely because he was so thin and red-faced. But within his skinny chest there was a loyal heart of gold. A humble man of honor, he’d given his heart to only one lucky woman in the room. He’d fallen in love with Stacy the day she stepped off the van that had brought Lynn and the others to No Place Like Home. God truly had worked in mysterious ways to get them here, and she was forever grateful.
Stacy had been through so much, having grown up with an abusive father, then continuing the cycle by marrying an abusive man. The shelter had saved her and when they’d moved to Mule Hollow, Emmett had patiently, sweetly been there for her over the last two years as she healed emotionally. Both he and Stacy were quiet, and it had taken a year to get them to actually talk more than a few sentences to each other. It had been a touching thing to watch. Lynn knew she’d been a part of helping Stacy let go of some of the pain from her past and reach out for the bright future she could have with Emmett. Knowing this gave Lynn great satisfaction.
When the bidding finally eased up after going another hundred dollars higher, Emmett shifted and looked pained. The bidding had slowed now but he seemed ready to bolt. He’d known when he entered the auction that Stacy wouldn’t have a lot of money to bid on him and he’d thought that was okay because he didn’t figure there would be much bidding going on for him anyway. Still, he’d confided that he was worried about the situation. He hadn’t counted on Norma Sue and Esther Mae jumping in to take care of him. They were intent on out bidding each other, but more focused on outbidding a young blonde who had apparently decided Emmett was the man to spend her money on.
As soon as Brady asked for more bids, Norma Sue shoved her hand in the air and glared at Esther Mae. “You might as well back off. Both of you.”
Brady chuckled, acknowledged her bid and asked for more. “Who’ll make it one-sixty?”
The young woman shot a perturbed look toward her competitors and then waved a bid.
Poor Emmett turned slightly green.
Stacy had shredded her paper napkin and was now starting on Lynn’s. “Why is she trying to get Emmett?” she whispered in alarm.
Lynn patted her arm. “It’s all for a good cause. I wish you could bid but it’ll be okay. Emmett only has eyes for you.”
The younger woman was obviously looking for a date and knew a good thing when she saw it. The way she kept bidding, Lynn thought maybe she wasn’t going to quit until she won him.
“Who’ll give me one-seventy?”
“I will!” Esther Mae exclaimed, shaking her red head enthusiastically.
Emmett looked relieved.
The determined young woman was not happy and the minute Sheriff Brady rattled off the next amount she jumped to her feet. “I bid two hundred!”
“What?” Stacy gasped and ripped Lynn’s napkin in half.
Chance and his family had been cheerfully rooting for the bidding, along with all the other people in the room. Lynn had been distracted by Chance and was finding it hard not to stare—the man had green eyes as vivid as cool creek water. She’d caught him watching her several times and each time butterflies had filled her chest. She found her gaze drawn back to him now, just as Brady called, “Two-twenty?” Chance tugged his ear!
She sat up straighter. Was that a bid? Had it not been for the fact that sharp-eyed Brady acknowledged it as such she might not have caught it. But he confirmed her suspicion by instantly accepting it and moving on to the next bid.
Esther Mae, Norma Sue and the determined blonde looked around to see who else had bid, but Chance gave no indication that it was him. If anyone else saw his inconspicuous bid they didn’t give him away either.
He was good. As the next few minutes passed in heavy war Lynn was fascinated by him. When the bid hit two and fifty the blonde finally huffed and gave up. Norma Sue and Esther Mae searched the room to see who was bidding against them.
“Who is it?” Stacy whispered for the fourth time.
Brady was having a great time with the secret and Lynn couldn’t help being happy about it, too. “It’ll be okay,” she assured Stacy.
Norma Sue’s gaze landed on Chance as he nodded his head. Brady, a good auctioneer, had been careful not to make direct eye contact with Chance since he’d picked up that it was an anonymous bid. Norma Sue hiked a brow then grinned, crossed her arms and settled back in her seat without giving a bid. Not so quick to catch it, Esther Mae started to open her mouth but Norma Sue elbowed her, gave a hard shake of her head then whispered something to her.
“Oh! Ohh.” Exclaimed the excitable redhead and with a chuckle she settled down, her mouth zipped up tighter than a vacuum seal.
“Going once, twice…”
Chance scratched his chin and Lynn saw his finger subtly pointing in Stacy’s direction.
“Sold to anonymous third party and gifted to Stacy.”
“What?” Stacy gasped the same moment that Emmett did.
The room ignited in a roar of good chee
r.
“You won him, Stacy!” Lynn exclaimed, hugging her friend as Sheriff Brady’s gavel slammed down on the podium.
“But I didn’t bid.”
“That’s okay, someone did it for you as a donation. Now you can fix Emmett a good meal and he can help you with decorating the shelter. It’s perfect.”
That was the end of the auction and Lynn was relieved. She’d been tense as the cowboys were auctioned off. She’d heard what Chance’s cousins had been saying and she was afraid one of them would do something crazy. But they had behaved.
“Well, that concludes our bachelor auction and we’ve raised a good amount of donations for the shelter tonight. Thank you all and I hope you ladies make these cowboys work hard for their suppers. As an added tag to the evening, earlier in the day we had a donation made to No Place Like Home by Wyatt, Seth and Cole Turner on behalf of their cousin. You all know Chance.”
There was chair scraping as everyone shifted to stare at Chance. Lynn’s stomach went south with an uneasy feeling. Chance sat up straight in his chair. As if reading her mind, his gaze shot to her then straight to Wyatt and the rest of his family. They were all grinning at him.
Lynn’s cheeks began to burn even before anything else was said….
Sheriff Brady kept on talking. “The donation stipulation is a bonus for the evening. It seems that Chance has agreed to be auctioned off to Lynn Perry and her boys for an entire day of work at their new home. Let’s give him a hand and everyone else who participated in the evening.”
Lynn was floored. “I don’t need help,” she said, looking at Chance and the table of people responsible for this. Chance had a resigned expression that embarrassed her even more. It was obvious that he’d not volunteered to help her and her boys. And if the man didn’t want to help she certainly didn’t want his help. She hadn’t asked for any, that was certain. If there was one thing she hated it was feeling needy. Oh, she had been there—very much in need—but she didn’t like it. And right now she was in a position where she was helping herself, standing on her own two feet. That was a feeling she liked.
Yuletide Cowboy Page 5