Bound to the Bachelor

by Sarah Mayberry

  Andie nodded as though she was in complete agreement. “Have to admit, he scrubbed up okay in that suit last night, though.”

  “Okay? He looked amazing. I’m surprised someone didn’t try to jump him and drag him to the ground,” Lily said, busy getting out two mugs from the overhead cupboard.

  Andie cocked an eyebrow, a “gotcha” look on her face, and Lily reviewed the last few seconds and could have slapped herself.

  “Just because I freely acknowledge Beau’s superficial appeal does not mean anything,” she said hastily.

  “Okay. If you say so.”

  Lily saw there was a speculative light in Andie’s eye, and it hit her that her friend wasn’t joking – she genuinely had hopes where Lily and Beau were concerned. Talk about misguided.

  Very serious, she approached Andie and settled a hand on each shoulder.

  “Listen to me. Nothing is going to happen between your brother and me. He doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him. You hearing me?”

  “So if Beau took you skiing and you guys had a really great time, and he tried to, I don’t know, kiss you or something at the end of the day, you’d spit in his eye?”

  “Never going to happen.” Lily pinched her friend’s cheek. “I love that you want me to be happy in the same way you are, but you need to give up on this particular fantasy, stat.”

  “We’ll see,” Andie said.

  Lily snorted her amusement. “You are crazy in the coconut, lady.”

  Talk switched to the auction then, and when they returned to the living room, Andie helped her add up the night’s receipts on the back of an old envelope. When they were finished, Andie sat back with round eyes.

  “Dude. That is seriously impressive.”

  They both stared at the total on the envelope. $24,575.

  Andie slipped her arm around Lily’s shoulder. “You are an awesome friend.”

  Lily smiled, feeling a little emotional as it sank in how much this was going to change things for Molly and Josh.

  “Everyone pitched in,” she said.

  “You made it happen. We just followed your lead,” Andie gave her a tight hug.

  Lily had to blink away tears then, and she made a big deal out of getting up and clearing away the coffee cups.

  “What’s it like outside, anyway? It was coming down pretty heavily last night,” she said.

  “About like you’d expect. Speaking of which, I’d better get Heath’s SUV back to him. He’s got a potential development site he wants to go check out.”

  “Today?”

  “The man is unstoppable,” Andie said, clearly more than a little proud of her husband.

  Lily walked her to the door, opening it to reveal Molly poised on the threshold, hand raised to knock.

  “Tag team,” Andie said, tapping her hand to Molly’s raised one as she stepped out into the hall. “And congratulations.”

  “On what?” Molly asked, surprised.

  “Lily can tell you,” Andie said, heading for the lift.

  “Ah. Another mystery,” Molly said pointedly, pulling off her gloves and stuffing them into her pocket as she entered Lily’s apartment.

  Lily held up her hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Hey, I had nothing to do with last night’s mystery. That was all Josh.”

  “We can talk about that later. I have bigger fish to fry right now, young lady,” Molly said ominously, unzipping her jacket.

  “You wanted to talk about how smoothly everything went last night? I agree, it was awesome,” Lily said, unable to resist teasing her friend a little.

  Because they both knew why Molly was there.

  “I’m not taking your money,” Molly said, cutting to the chase.

  “Read this before you make any hard and fast decisions,” Lily said, handing over the lawyers’ letter.

  Molly’s brow knit in concentration as she read the single sheet of paper.

  “Luther. Isn’t he the one…?

  “That’s right.”

  “Are you all right?” Molly rested a hand on her forearm.

  “I haven’t seen him for years. I’m fine.”

  “Good. Because he is – was – an asshole,” Molly said with unusual vehemence.

  Before Josh’s accident, Molly’s swearing repertoire had consisted of “fudge” and “crumb”, but she’d turned into quite the salty sea dog these days, Lily noted.

  “So you understand why I don’t want to take his money.”

  Molly surprised her by shaking her head. “No, I don’t.”

  “What?”

  “Sweetie, you have been lecturing me on accepting the kindness of strangers and admitting that sometimes you need help for weeks.”

  “This is different. Luther is not a stranger, and this is not about kindness.”

  “What is it, then?” Molly crossed her arms over her chest, clearly ready to battle this one out.

  “This is him rubbing my face in it. He wants me to be so down on my luck, his money is the only thing that saves me. He wants me to think of him every time I pay the utilities or buy steak or treat myself to a manicure. And I won’t let that happen.” Lily became aware she was out of breath and that maybe she’d raised her voice a little toward the end there. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get all yell-y on you.”

  Molly’s posture softened. “Maybe he’s reformed in the years since you knew him. Maybe this bequest is about regret.”

  “You know what? It doesn’t matter. He’s gone, and even if he did reform, it was too late for me. What he did changed my life forever. He stole my mom from me. I never got the chance to see her before she died…” Lily broke off, surprised by the tight feeling in her chest and the heat behind her eyes.

  Molly drew her over to the couch and they sat together.

  “Sorry,” Lily said, feeling foolish.

  “You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Molly said.

  Lily caught sight of the envelope with its jotted workings. Leaning forward, she scooped it up and passed it to Molly.

  “What’s this?” Molly asked.

  “Guess.”

  Molly stared at the numbers. Then realization dawned.

  “No.”

  Lily was amused by her friend’s disbelief. Surely Molly had been keeping a running tally in her head last night, the way Lily had? Then she thought about the kind of person Molly was and realized she’d probably done her best not to keep a tally.

  “That’s the takings from the bachelors, plus the raffle money. And we still need to add in your share of the night’s tips, plus Jason said he’d match that, so it’s probably a lot more than this.”

  “It’s too much,” Molly said, her eyes wide as she looked at Lily. “I mean, it’s just… I never imagined we’d raise anything close… I don’t know what to say.”

  “No kidding.” Lily couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

  “I really can’t take your money now I’ve seen this,” Molly said. “That would just be greedy.”

  “Either you take it, or I’m finding the most pointless charity I can find and donating the whole lot,” Lily said firmly.

  “You wouldn’t.”

  Lily pretended to think as she stared off into the distance. “I bet the Kigusoc Society of America would love ten thousand big ones.”

  “I don’t even know what that is,” Molly said.

  “They’re those people who get around in adult-sized animal onesies,” Lily explained. “And if they don’t want it, I’m sure the Cockroach Lovers Society would snap it up.”

  Molly made a disparaging sound. “That one isn’t even real.”

  “It could be. You never know. The world is a weird place.” Lily sobered. “I want you and Josh to have it, Molly. It would make me feel as though something good has come out of all the bad.”

  Molly studied her hands for a moment, her face downturned. When she looked up again, her eyes were glazed with tears. “What did I ever do to deserve you, Lily Taylor?”

  “
Get outta here. It’s the other way around. Always has been.” Lily swallowed a lump of emotion.

  “We’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one.”

  “Maybe we could found a mutual admiration society.”

  “Deal.”

  Lily went to fetch a box of tissues from the bathroom, since they both seemed to have developed a bad case of leaky eye syndrome. Molly blew her nose noisily and then started when she saw the time.

  “I’ve got to go. I left Josh at a friend’s place and I promised I wouldn’t be long.”

  “You decided to do the play date thing, then?” It was something Molly had discussed with her in the lead up to the auction. Molly had had a number of invitations from Josh’s friends and their parents since Josh had come home, but she’d been battling her natural protectiveness, worried his needs wouldn’t be met or something might go wrong.

  “I can’t wrap him in cotton wool, right? It’s too late for that,” Molly said sadly. “He’s so freakin’ courageous, the least I can do is pretend some of that has rubbed off on me.”

  “He’ll be fine. It’ll be good for both of you to have lives of your own.”

  “I don’t want a life of my own. I just want Josh to be well.”

  “Not mutually exclusive concepts, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  Molly stood and reached for her coat. “Which brings us full circle to what you let happen last night.”

  “Talk to Josh. I am but an innocent facilitator of a young man’s dreams and aspirations.”

  Molly pretended to sneeze into her hand while uttering the word “bullshit”.

  Lily smiled. “You teach kids with that mouth? Disgusting.”

  “I’ll tell you what’s disgusting – hanging out with someone who used to take her clothes off for a living.”

  Lily’s smile turned into a grin. “You’re right, that is disgusting. Shame on you, Ms. Dekker.”

  They hugged and kissed goodbye, both grinning like loons.

  “Tell Josh I’ll see him Wednesday night,” Lily said.

  She’d gotten into the habit of dropping by to hang with him so Molly could run errands if she needed to or just have some alone time.

  “Will do. See you then.”

  Lily waited until her friend had disappeared into the elevator at the end of the hallway before shutting the door and leaning back against it. After a couple of weeks of hectic, sometimes crazy scrambling, the auction was over, and normal life could resume. There were no people to call, no bachelors to wrangle, no commitments to juggle. If she wanted to, she could spend the whole day in her pajamas watching bad reality TV shows.

  She pushed away from the door. She was pretty sure she had a bunch of ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ episodes stockpiled. She was going to make herself a ton of peanut butter toast and float away on a sea of fit-and-flare gowns and demanding brides-to-be.

  It wasn’t until she was sinking onto the couch with a plate full of toast, the remote in her other hand, that she remembered her duties around the auction weren’t quite over yet. She still had to survive her date with Beau Bennett. Just the two of them, alone all day.

  A little shiver ran up her spine, making the small hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

  Revulsion, she told herself.

  She almost believed it, too.

  Chapter Five

  ‡

  The sky was dark gunmetal grey when Beau pulled up in front of Lily’s apartment building the following Saturday morning. Sunrise was still half an hour off, but the weather bureau had promised a clear day with low wind chill and the chance of sunshine. Perfect skiing weather.

  With any luck, he could show Lily a good time today, then deliver her back to her doorstep and consider his duty done. They could go back to smart-ass digs at ten paces and mutual disdain, and the world would be restored to its natural balance.

  He switched the engine off and was about to exit the car when the passenger door opened, startling him. Lily leaned in and tossed a puffy ski jacket onto the rear seat before climbing in. She didn’t look at him once as she pulled on the seat belt.

  “Okay. Let’s get this over with,” she said.

  Her sweater was raspberry red, her ski-pants black. She was wearing a fluffy white beanie over her dark hair, which she’d left down over her shoulders. A warm, soft floral scent drifted his way. Her shampoo, he guessed.

  She glanced across at him, her dark eyes glinting in the dim light from the dash, clearly wondering why he hadn’t started the car yet.

  “I thought we were in some kind of a hurry to get to the resort…?”

  “Good morning to you, too,” he said dryly.

  She frowned. “Is it?”

  He grabbed one of the two take-out coffees nestled in the center console between them.

  “Double-shot latte,” he said, offering it to her.

  Lily looked at the takeout cup then at him before taking it. “Thank you.”

  He started the truck and put it in gear as Lily sipped at her coffee.

  “This is good. Where’d you get it from? Not the diner, because I hate their coffee and this is delicious,” Lily said.

  “I made it.”

  He saw her startled glance out of the corner of his eye. There was a small pause before she responded.

  “Andie told me about your coffee machine. Said you’d marry it if you could.”

  “I’m not the marrying kind.”

  Another short silence.

  “How did you know I like double-shot lattes?”

  “I asked Andie.”

  Lily had paid a lot of money for this date, after all. He figured he was honor bound to make it as good as he possibly could.

  “You did recon on me?”

  He slid a glance her way. She’d pulled off her beanie, and the back of her hair was ruffled. He took his hand off the wheel, then caught himself before he could reach out to smooth her hair.

  WTF?

  Wrapping his hand back around the steering wheel, he returned his focus to the road, more than a little disturbed by his own impulse. He was pretty sure he’d never laid a finger on Lily in his life, and he wasn’t about to start now. He definitely wasn’t going to start by smoothing her hair, for God’s sake. Like a freaking serial killer.

  He shook his head. He must have left his brain in bed this morning. Or something like that.

  “What’s wrong?” Lily asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “You usually drive around scowling and shaking your head at nothing?”

  He forced his face to relax. “This is a special occasion. I’m pulling out all the stops.”

  “Lucky me.”

  They subsided into silence. After a few minutes he reached out and turned the sound system on. Classic U2 filled the car, and he was aware of Lily glancing across at him briefly before focusing once again on her coffee. He reached for his own drink, taking a pull of full-bodied Brazilian Arabica.

  “So. Andie tells me you’re working at the printing works in town,” he said.

  “Oh, God. Please don’t tell me we have to make small talk,” she groaned.

  “It’s a long drive.”

  “And it’ll be even longer if we have to come up with a bunch of bullshit to bamboozle each other with.”

  He let himself look at her again then. “I take it you’re not a morning person?” he guessed.

  “Never have been, never will be.”

  “We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

  “Let’s do that.”

  She tucked the now empty coffee cup into the center console and angled the seat back. By the time he was turning onto the I-90, she was asleep, her lashes casting dark shadows on her cheeks.

  His gaze lingered on her unguarded face for a second before sliding down her slim body. As he’d guessed, she looked great in ski gear, the stretchy fabric of her pants accentuating the slim athleticism of her legs. Not for the first time he wondered about her past. Not the stripping,
but the stuff that had come before that. She was whip-smart, but she’d never mentioned going to college. She’d never mentioned her family, either.

  Not that he’d spent enough time with her to know what her usual topics of conversation were. He’d been too busy avoiding her. Keeping his distance.

  That’s working out real well, by the way. Congratulations.

  The rising sun was turning the world pink, and he reached for his sunglasses as it finally breached the horizon, momentarily blinding him. Golden light fell across Lily’s face and she stirred, her long legs shifting as she sought a more comfortable position.

  He sighed inwardly. It was going to be a long day, what with her sharp tongue and his stupid libido. The next time he had an altruistic impulse, he was going to step on it, hard.

  *

  It had been years since Lily had gone skiing, and it took her a while to find her ski legs once they hit the slopes. Even though she could sense Beau’s impatience to get going, he hovered nearby as she made her way down the resort’s easiest green circle run, handling the gentle bends with practiced aplomb.

  When they got to the bottom of the trail, she turned to him and pushed up her goggles.

  “This cannot be fun for you,” she said.

  “It’s a great day for skiing,” he said, his glance taking in the bright blue sky overhead.

  “Way to not respond to my comment.” She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Get out of here. Go find a double black diamond trail somewhere to pit your alpha male aggression against.”

  “I’m fine right here.”

  She stared at him. Having him follow her around was like having a barely-domesticated panther at her heels. It didn’t help that he looked like freaking James Bond in his ski gear.

  Of course, he had such an amazing, rock-hard body; he’d probably look good in anything. Or nothing.

  That’s so helpful, thanks a lot, she told her brain.

  “Listen –”

  “Give it up, Lily. I’m not abandoning you on the slopes.”

  “Awesome. Then we can just keep having a super time together, then,” she muttered, sliding her goggles back down.

  As it turned out, it wasn’t completely awful. After a couple more easy runs she felt confident enough to try a blue square trail and managed not to embarrass herself. Beau bought hot chocolates from the kiosk near the ski lift afterward, and as she stood in the winter sun, hot chocolate warming her belly, she glanced across at him and couldn’t stop from smiling.