Chapter 2
Teller
The collar of my shirt chafed. This room was too damn hot. Wasn’t the church’s AC working? “Stop looking at me like that,” I snapped at Tate.
He was grinning like a cat who’d got the chubbiest mouse in the barn, only we were tucked into a little room off the front of the church. I wanted to crawl under one of the three round tables. Hide next to the bookshelf. The other nine bachelors ahead of me lounged in office chairs and scrolled through their phones.
Deputy Nordstrum was auctioning off a day of yard work. He was in his fifties but newly divorced. Yard work was probably a euphemism. Then there was a delivery driver for the distillery and his buddy from Livingston. They were clear about wanting dates. The pastor always auctioned off a day of work. I recognized the others but had tuned out when numbers started getting pinned on.
I was ten. The last bachelor. My stomach would eat through itself before that happened.
The din from the sanctuary reached me. Feminine laughter and chatter. I cringed. I hated this. I didn’t want to date. I had no idea who would buy me—or why. I offered one project and it didn’t include orgasms.
I liked orgasms. Fucking loved them. But if I wasn’t alone, they always came with trouble, and I was tired of the drama. I hated getting fought over like a prized stallion.
I wanted peace and calm, and a strong woman who didn’t feel like she needed to parade me around.
Madison’s soft hazel eyes flashed in my head. Only because of the grocery store incident. I was a little responsible for egging her on—a lot responsible—but the way her eyes flashed and the abandon with which she spoke her mind fascinated me as much as it perplexed me. Did she have to be so defensive?
Maybe with me, yeah, she did. Other girls never took what I said so personally, but Madison tossed my words back in my face and added her own. It was exhilarating, and I was a jackass to indulge.
“Testing...” Wilna’s voice rang out over the sound system, obliterating the memory of Madison’s tight ass stalking away from me.
The auction was starting. My stomach knotted. Was I really doing this? I tugged at the collar of my shirt. I shrugged out of my flannel and tossed it on a chair. “Didn’t they turn the AC on yet?”
Tate’s deep chuckle was low enough not to carry through the room. “It’ll be fine.” He leaned close. “You can say no if your buyer wants more.”
“Sure.” It’d been a while since I’d had more . I might not pass up the offer. Though sex with someone I wasn’t planning anything long term with had gotten old.
Once upon a time, I’d been a committed man. Then I’d been embarrassed and betrayed. After that, I had fucked around. A lot. I had gotten a reputation, and I hadn’t liked it, so I’d stopped. Now I was a stud on an auction block, afraid to return to the days of messing around and breaking hearts.
Acid burned up my throat. I hated being a spectacle. People talking about my love life, speculating. What had I done wrong? What had I done right? Who was I going to settle with?
For the last few years, I’d given them nothing to talk about. Until now.
I pressed my fingers to my temples and paced in front of Tate. Tenor was with Ruby at Copper Summit, but I’d rather be closing down the tasting room. I’d made my sisters swear they wouldn’t be in the audience, but Summer had joked there likely wouldn’t be room for them anyway.
How packed was it out there?
“It’ll be fine,” Tate said only loud enough for me to hear.
The number of men in the room was dwindling. Both of our delivery drivers had been called out.
“Some older couple is going to buy you to remodel their bathroom,” he assured me.
A chorus of woos and laughter made a cacophony in the sanctuary.
“How’d you do this?” I kept pacing.
My brother hadn’t asked out his wife, Scarlett. She’d bought him at one of these damn things with the help of me and my sisters. To be fair, she hadn’t known my sisters had bid under her name, but it had all worked out. Tate and Scarlett were happy as hell and so in love.
I was happy for him. I wouldn’t want it any other way. That jealous tug on my heart said there was more. Like dangerous hope that this auction would turn out the same for me turned me into the fool my ex had made me feel like.
“It’s for a good cause,” he said in that calm, infuriating tone, rubbing a hand down his dark beard.
He was right. The money went to people in the community, and ultimately, that was why I had given in to Wilna. I’d also wanted to quit running from a ninety-year-old woman in the middle of the grocery store, but I couldn’t refute her claim that I would bring in a windfall on the auction block. Maybe not the twenty grand we’d raised for Scarlett to buy Tate, but enough.
I pushed a hand through my hair.
“You’re going to ruffle those luscious locks,” Tate teased. “The bidders might offer more if they can do it instead.”
I shot him a glare. I hadn’t gone to a barber for a while. They’d been hitting me up for Wilna. She’d put plants all around town to cajole me into saying yes.
One by one, the remaining men were called out.
My nerves slowly untwisted. I was accepting my fate. I’d do a job, be a decent human, and weather any gossip that came after. Besides, the bidding couldn’t get that contentious.
Tate slapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll go out for the show.” He paused. “Seriously, if the outcome is... unwelcome, we’ll bail you out.” He went out the door, leaving me alone.
More tension eased. I had a whole family behind me. It’d be fine. My anxiety was for nothing. I had dreaded getting dragged into this for so long that I’d built it up as some big deal, that I was a big deal.
I wasn’t. It was just some harmless fundraiser. There’d be no problems, I’d mow a lawn or paint a house, and if worse came to worst, I’d go on a fucking date.
One of Wilna’s crew popped her head in, big smile in place, decorated with bright-pink lipstick. “It’s time for the grand finale.”
I nodded and followed her through the dim hallway. As I got closer to the wide altar, a sea of faces turned my way. There were a few men in the audience, mostly with their spouses, to bid on a handyman for a day.
“Finally!” a woman shouted and whoops went up.
Wilna grinned at me, dollar signs in her eyes, as I climbed the three steps to stand by her. The cheering got louder, growing so much that the walls shook.
A couple hundred women stared back at me and red bidding paddles waved.
Shit.
Madison
Teller squared his shoulders and faced the crowd. His expression was unreadable, but his jaw was carved from marble. His molars must be withstanding superhuman pressure. I could almost empathize. I’d already gotten a million cursory looks, some full of disdain, and I could hear their unspoken thoughts. What the hell is Mad Maddy Townsend doing at a bachelor auction? Of course she’d have to buy a man. Her own husband didn’t want her.
I hid my paddle in my bag. Signing in had been embarrassing, but for the most part, I’d been ignored after their initial shock at seeing me.
Flipping my braid over my shoulder, I looked around. Some women around me were standing. Most of them were cheering while Wilna and her octogenarian posse smiled on. All of the women in the crowd were grinning and clapping.
I was not. I was here for one reason and one reason only.
No matter how much Teller irritated me, he was a man of his word. Scott had thought Teller had screwed him over, but he hadn’t. Scott had been his own worst enemy. Next in line were our parents.
I hid in the last row, squished between an old lunch lady from the elementary school and a girl who could barely be over twenty-one. She had bid on two younger guys earlier and lost.
This whole show... I couldn’t imagine being on display. I felt like I was at a livestock auction, watching ranchers bid on a bull. But it raised money. Four hundred dollars to go to Curly’s for a date night? Eight hundred dollars to plant trees for a day?
Teller would sell for way more than eight hundred, but I was prepared. The amount I could spend made me nauseous. If I won, Teller would wish he could plant trees for a day. He’d even wish he had offered a date instead.
Wilna leaned into the microphone. “Are we ready?”
Another two minutes of straight cheering rang out. Teller’s shoulders were impossibly immobile. Was he even breathing? He was stiff, like he hated the attention on him, and in that, I could empathize. I shouldn’t. He didn’t deserve it from me, but…he’d brought me candy. He’d blocked it, purposely egging me on, and I when I stormed out, he’d selected sweet treats and brought them to me.
I still wasn’t sure what to do about it. Other than eat everything that had been in the bag, and think of him with each bite.
Ugh. Being here was a mistake, but I was a desperate woman, and I was used to losing face in this town. I had to try to win this bid.
Finally, Wilna tapped the microphone and people quieted. “Bidding starts at one thousand.”
Before my heart could lurch at her starting the bid at more than any other bachelor had gone for, someone cried, “Five.” A paddle waved from the front row.
Oh god.
“Six!” Four more paddles waved.
Disgruntled grumbles resonated. I continued running the figures through my head. I could go higher, much higher, but I had hoped not to. My hopes died with each thousand-dollar increase.
“Ten.” Cassie brandished her paddle like a sword.
Teller cocked a brow, but relief didn’t fill his gaze. Wouldn’t he want Cassie to win him? They were friends, or more.
“Twelve.”
I looked around for the bidder and my stomach sank. Riley Graves. The best friend of my brother’s ex-wife, Wendi. Teller’s ex. My dislike for Riley was almost as intense as for Wendi. Riley was a user. She had helped Wendi almost drain my brother dry, and she blamed me for ruining her good time. Scott had been a stubborn bastard, but he’d sometimes listened to me, and I’d finally gotten through to him about his wife. But then, I’d had irrefutable proof.
“Thirteen,” Cassie countered.
“Fifteen,” Riley said smugly.
I couldn’t see much of Cassie, but she bit her lip. “S-sixteen.”
Heads turned to Riley. A bidding tennis match.
She lifted her chin. “Twenty.”
I glanced at Teller. Was his face paler than usual? I had my own grudge against Riley, and Teller might likely have one as well.
“Oh, say.” Wilna scanned the audience. “Another twenty-grand bid. How blessed are we? Twenty going once... Going twice...”
I ignored the press in my chest, slipped my paddle out of my bag, and waved it. “Twenty-one.” My heart rate jumped. Breathing grew hard as my ribs shrank against my lungs.
The entire audience pivoted in their seats to look at me. My lungs struggled to expand, but I’d had a lifetime of looking unbothered until I snapped. I called on those skills, minus the temper. I kept my expression impassive and lifted my chin.
I dared a peek at Teller. His brows knit together as he considered me.
“Oh.” Wilna’s breath gusted over the sound system. “Say.”
“Twenty-two,” Riley said, her voice hard.
Now I was part of the tennis match. Heads turning from me to Riley.
Teller subtly arched a brow. A challenge.
I flashed the paddle. “Twenty-five.”
Riley’s snarl rang through the crowd. Murmurs grew louder. “Twenty-six.”
Teller stiffened, but his gaze didn’t leave mine.
“Thirty.” I wanted to choke on the word. I had some cushion yet, but if Riley kept going, I’d leave with nothing, not even my pride. After everything I’d been through, I’d managed to salvage some of that. Today might shred it once and for all.
“Thirty-one.” Riley’s glare bored into the side of my face. Heat blasted across my cheeks from the attention in the room focused on me, but I held strong. I could do this. I had to do this.
I did quick calculations on what I could bid, but they all led to the same answer. I couldn’t go over the amount in my account.
My gaze stayed on Teller and I summoned all the confidence possible to volley another bid. “Thirty-two.”
“Thirty-five,” Riley snapped.
Shit. She’d said that way too easily. I had more cushion, but I’d love to leave with some of it. Settling Flatlanders’ debts had wiped out much of what Scott had left me, leaving a meager stash to get the bar up and running. “Thirty-six.”
“Forty.”
Instead of getting loud, the audience went silent.
I was inhaling through a straw. Small sips of air. My brain fogged. I couldn’t do this. It was a lot of money for a man.
But I’d have to find another person to do the work, and after trying to find a realtor to sell my parents’ place, I could envision just how that would turn out. No one who was trustworthy would agree to a job at Flatlanders.
Teller’s jaw was clenched. His gaze slid to Riley and the crease in his brow deepened. He returned his attention to me, but his eyes lightened.
No other contractor would bring me candy. “Forty-five.”
The tightness around his eye eased. I must be imagining things. There was no way he’d want me to win. Unless he assumed that there would never be anything between us. He was right. Just like guys like Teller didn’t joke around with me, they also weren’t interested in me. The one time I thought I had a decent guy, he’d shredded my trust and my heart.
The crowd waited for Riley.
“Forty-six.” Her reply wasn’t as bold as before. I knew the feeling.
Teller’s cheek twitched.
My heart clattered against my ribs. I needed this to be over. “Fifty.” I wished I could proclaim it loud and proud, but I feared it wasn’t enough. If Riley could eke out one more dollar, I’d be done.
“Oh my god,” the old lunch lady said next to me. “I never thought I’d see a Townsend spend a dime on a Bailey product, much less try to buy one. Bet he’ll be the highest quality thing you’ve ever bought.”
Okay, ouch. But true.
“I’d pay a hundred grand to date him,” the young girl on the other side said.
I didn’t want a date. No date I’d been on had ever been worth fifty dollars, much less fifty thousand.
Teller’s chest rose like he was inhaling for the first time in a long time.
“Fifty-one.” Riley’s return lifted over the crowd.
Fear filled her eyes. She was a hairdresser with a salon in her house. Was she going to take out a second mortgage to pay for this? A home equity loan? She couldn’t truly think there was a future between her and Teller.
Unless she was like me. Did she plan to have him remodel her salon?
That wasn’t Riley though. She was bidding fifty grand in hopes of gaining access to his millions.
I bit the inside of my cheek. It was done. I’d lost.
Teller jutted his chin out like he was encouraging me to keep going. I squinted at him. I had to be seeing things.
A second ticked by. Two. He tilted his head to the side. I shrugged with no other way to convey that I had no more money. I’d love to ruin Riley’s night more than anyone else’s and extract some long overdue revenge, but I couldn’t afford to. It was a balm to see someone detested her as much as me. That it was Teller was surprising.
“Wow,” Wilna said. “A historic bid for the last year of the auction. That is something. Fifty-one going once.”
His eyes flared and he cocked his head some more.
I couldn’t.
“Going twice...” Wilna’s words were a taunt. Everyone’s eyes were on me, the weight heavy, but I was focused on Teller. His gaze repeatedly darted to Riley, darkened, then swung back to me. He tipped his head toward her again, urging me on.
I’d gathered fifty thousand dollars. Why couldn’t I raise two thousand more?
Wilna leaned in. “Going . . .”
“Fifty-five.” I whacked my leg with the paddle when I lowered it. I should smack my head. How the hell was I going to raise five thousand extra dollars? My next paycheck was barely five hundred.
“Wow, Mad Maddy,” Riley sneered. “Even that much money won’t get a man to stay with you.”
I flinched, her words bitch-slapping me across the face as snickers rippled through the crowd. Teller’s brows crashed together, but I dropped my gaze to my hands.
The former lunch lady chuckled. “Mad Maddy. I haven’t heard that one in a while. Remember when you dumped spaghetti in Josh Tucker’s lap when he called you that? Riley’s almost as upset.”
Josh had grabbed my boob, but I had gotten in trouble for the food. Not a memory I needed when I didn’t have enough to cover my bid.
“You couldn’t pay me fifty-five grand to let Riley put highlights in again,” the girl next to me muttered. “I hope you win.”
I snorted before I could smother my laugh. She would be the first. Riley shot me a glare.
A gavel pounded against the podium. “Sold to Madison Miller—oh, sorry—Townsend for fifty-five thousand dollars.”
My heart stopped and it wasn’t because she’d called out my married name, the one I’d changed as soon as the ink on the divorce papers was dry. My chest constricted, trying to resuscitate my heart. I was down fifty grand and five grand in the hole. What did I do?
Riley stomped over everyone in her pew on her way out. Then she flipped her middle finger at me as she wove toward the exit.
The roar of the crowd was growing. I couldn’t sort my thoughts.
Wilna clapped into the microphone. “If everyone who won a bachelor can meet me in the pastor’s office, we’ll take your payment. You can make arrangements with your bachelor after we’re done.”
Shit, shit, shit. How could I get five grand between now and the twenty-second walk to the office?
Everyone filtered out, but I took my time, lingering in the pews, avoiding others’ gazes. People were stopping to congratulate me as if I’d won Teller for life and not for the duration of the bar repairs. Some people even gushed about my generosity, shocked, like they didn’t think I’d ever donate a dime. I’d never had money to give away. So I edged toward the side of the room, leaving others hanging mid sentence.
After a long stretch of time, the sanctuary cleared out. Auction winners exited the hallway on their way to discuss terms with their bachelor.
I had fifty grand. I could pay most of my bid. Would Wilna let me make payments on the last five grand? There was only a little more money in the bar’s name, but that had to go toward supplies and materials.
Dammit. My feet were leaden as I walked down the hall. I passed the room of bachelors. Even that had emptied out. I didn’t bother to look inside.
Tate waited outside of the pastor’s office. “Hey, Madison.”
Teller was close to forty with a good eight years on me, and Tate was the oldest Bailey. He’d never talked to me. Our paths had never crossed. I’d made sure of it. “Uh, hi, Tate.”
“Good bidding out there. I didn’t think you were going to get it.”
My laugh was nervous. What did he think of my triumph? Had he been hoping Riley would win his brother? Her project would be easier and probably include less clothing. “Neither did I.”
I walked past him to turn into the office, and he leaned forward. “Make him earn every cent.”
Startled, I looked at him, but then the big man bending over the desk snatched one hundred percent of my attention. Teller’s wide back was to me, but his ass was on display. Blue denim molded around a perfectly muscular butt. One knee was bent as he wrote something on the desk.
I stopped in the doorway. What now? I gawk at him while I wait to pay fifty-five thousand dollars to make him my bitch at the bar?
Wilna spotted me. “Hello, big spender. Come on in.” Her face creased with her wide grin. “Your generosity tonight is astounding. It dwarfs even this man’s.”
Teller looked over his shoulder, his dark gaze pinning me. “I’m throwing in my own share.”
“What?”
Wilna nodded. “He’s kicking in some of your bid. Isn’t that nice?”
“Excuse me?” My emotions were poised on the edge of a precipice. Stark relief on one side, utter humiliation on the other. “Why do you think I need help?” I did, but I was tired of being underestimated, and that it was by this guy stung more.
“It was the least I could do. Since you were so gracious as to keep bidding.” He tossed the pen back into a cup on the desk.
“You seriously paid for some of my bid without asking?” Indignation choked me. I should be relieved, but of course the mighty Teller Bailey would assume I couldn’t cover the total.
I was supposed to finally have some leverage, and he was taking it away.