Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
I rubbed her back. “No, baby. It’s not fair at all. But I can tell that if it’s in his power to make things good for you, Paul is going to try his hardest to do it. That man is over the moon for you.”
“You think so?”
“Anyone with working eyeballs thinks so,” I said with a soft laugh. “He seems like a keeper. But…”
She pulled back to wipe her eyes. “But he lives in New York,” she finished for me. “I know. And that’s okay. I… I’m going to move back to the Thicket, Mal. I want to raise my baby here, and I’m going to need Mom and Dad’s help.”
My heart dropped. We’d been each other’s everything in LA for years. I couldn’t even picture my life without her there.
“I want you to come with me,” she added, biting her bottom lip and giving me Bambi eyes.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes,” I warned. “What you’re asking is ridiculous.”
“Is it, though? Think about it. You could afford to rent a place with a huge workshop all your own. You could ramp up your online and mail-order business and find space in local galleries to sell your stuff. Most of your big commissions come from online leads and relationships anyway, and Southwest flies nonstop from Nashville to LAX. You can get back there anytime you need to.”
I looked around us at the dust and bits of straw everywhere, remembering what it was like growing up in a small town. “I love California,” I said. “You know that. I worked my ass off to get out of my small town, Ava. How the hell am I going to be okay moving right back to one before I’ve even found—” I stopped myself just in time. “What I mean is, I’m single. How the hell do you expect me to find hot sex around here?”
Do not look at the cum on the wall. Do not look at the cum on the wall.
“We’re two hours away from the music and club scene in Nashville. We’re four hours from southern gay Mecca in Atlanta. We’re—”
I cut her off. “Not the same as LA.”
She gave me a look. “Of course not. But LA doesn’t have me. And it doesn’t have your niece or nephew. Please at least think about it, okay? I don’t want to pressure you, but I also don’t want to do this without you.”
I stepped forward and pulled her into my arms again, holding her tight and trying not to think about having just fucked her ex-boyfriend in her father’s workshop. I was a selfish jackass.
“I love you,” I told her. “I want you and this baby to be happy. You know that, right?”
“I do. And I love you too. And I want the same for you. Even if that includes Brooks Goddamned Johnson.” She pulled back and winked at me.
I sighed. “He lives in New York too. Remember?”
Her eyes sparkled the way they did sometimes when she had insider information or juicy gossip. “Nothing is permanent, Malachi.”
“What do you know? What are you hiding?” I poked her in the side where I knew she was most ticklish.
She yelped and hopped back. Her smile was like bringing the sunshine into the barn. “I just have a good feeling about all of this, that’s all. But right now, we need to get your tux fitted. I plan on selling you for top dollar. Some lucky Lickin’ lady is gonna get herself a sexy California boy tonight.” She swished her hips and singsonged her way out of the barn.
Great. My dreams were all coming true. Now I knew what Brooks had been referring to when he’d promised to connect with me “afterward.”
After he paraded me around in front of a bunch of strangers and auctioned my gay ass off.
I wondered how much money I was willing to donate and whether or not I could convince Diesel to use it to buy me just so I could see what Mr. Perfect Brooks Johnson would do when Diesel won me and carried me off into the night.
15
Brooks
Auctioning bachelors had never been an item on my bucket list, but at least now it was something I could put on my resume. And to tell the truth, it had been a lot more fun than I’d anticipated… except that I’d only caught the barest glimpse of Mal all night, wearing a formfitting tux and looking like all my teenaged dreams rolled into one sexy package.
“Later,” I’d promised him hours ago, when he’d arrived with Ava and we’d shaken hands like the near strangers we were supposed to be. He’d shivered in anticipation. “I’ve got plans for you.”
Now, finally, it was later. And I couldn’t wait to collect on my promise.
“Going once. Going twice… Sold!” I yelled triumphantly, banging a gavel against the podium set up under the basketball net on one side of the Licking Thicket High School gym. “Amos Nutter, you’ve been sold to Lurleen Jackson for thirty-seven dollars and forty-three cents.”