Chapter Thirteen
TWO DAYS AFTER their visit to Matt Johnson’s farm, Amarie gathered her dream team, Leah, Tobias, Noah, and Eli, around the Calvary kitchen table. Dinner had been served, the scent of simmering spices clung to the air. The time to discuss strategy had arrived. Rain had cooled the afternoon temperature to the mid-eighties but not the stream of new clients interested in the Calvary brothers. Seems the possibility of the three men finding love gave the town plenty to talk about. The bidding wars had begun.
From her position at the head of the table, Amarie opened her tablet, pointing to the first in a series of computerized graphics she’d created with their target goal, daily minimums, and online content calendar template. “We have twenty-six days to raise eighteen thousand dollars.”
“Not anymore.” Next to her, Leah held up her phone; a digital thermometer had the bottom fully shaded in blue. “Ha, will you look at dem apples. We’ve raised over twenty-five hundred dollars in four days. Told you, boys. Mama knows best when it comes to love. I’ll get all three of you down the aisle sooner rather than later.”
The mention of future nuptials reminded Amarie that in nine days Gracie Lou and Caleb would host their wedding, the Saturday after next. She’d been invited by the bride, the groom, and the pet owners who visited the clinic—but not by her partner. Her brain reminded her that she and Eli had a business arrangement, but it still sucked that he chose to attend without her. Especially after last night’s dinner and dancing. Since he hadn’t mentioned the heat tangoing between their two-step, she wouldn’t, either.
Eli jumped in. “Nobody’s talking love and marriage with this bachelor auction, Momma. That’s just crazy. Now onto saner topics. I’ve been thinking, to be on the safe side, we need a minimum of twenty-five grand to clear all our debts.”
His voice carried from the far end of the table, which was littered with empty food platters. Amarie spared a glance at the last of the green beans, having devoured two slices of meatloaf smothered in homemade mushroom gravy, two biscuits, and all the glazed carrots on her plate. Be strong, gurl. To resist the compulsion to finish off the leftovers, she actually sat on one of her hands.
Wait a tick. What had he said? When had he decided to up the ante above eighteen thousand? And why had he waited till this meeting to announce it before discussing it with her?
“Whew, that’s a lofty price tag.” Tobias sighed, pushing the remnants of mashed potatoes around his plate with his fork.
“I’ll say.” Amarie’s pulse began to race. Eighteen big ones would be a stretch with the compressed timeline. Now, Eli expected her to help him raise one thousand dollars per day. Did he not understand women only liked good surprises? The natural flow of conversation continued across the Calvary dinner table, the occupants oblivious to her struggles—the stress of having to generate four figures in bids every day and her insatiable appetite. Working the farms these last three days, she’d underestimated her caloric burn. No wonder Eli had the toned musculature of a gym junkie.
“Why so high above what we need, bro?” Noah said through a mouthful of homemade chocolate pudding.
Prior to dinner, Amarie had joined Leah in the kitchen, for comradery rather than actually being an assistant. As a reward, Lead had held out a wooden spoon to Amarie after swirling it through the bain-marie filled with cocoa powder, sugar, and milk from the dairy farm they’d visited earlier that day. It had been years since she’d met a cook who still owned a double boiler like her grandma Claudia. Amarie’d licked the spoon clean. Unfortunately, they’d gotten so carried away that Eli had walked in on them dancing to BTS, a Korean pop group she streamed via SoundCloud, and she’d grabbed his hand and pulled him into the house party. Apparently, dancing before dinner was an approved company policy. He’d actually given her a hint of smile. She wished he would do that more, smiling. When he did, her silly heart fluttered and her lady parts joined in the fun, too.
“Yeah, Eli. Why are you changing the goal on me?” she demanded, irritated that charts they’d worked on before the meeting needed adjustments.
“This isn’t personal, Amarie. But the mortgage on the house in Warrenton still has to be paid until it sells.”
“Now why didn’t I know that you had additional debts? I had no idea you lived in the D.C. suburbs with your wife.”
“We never lived there. No one has. The marriage ended before the contract closed.”
“That’s pretty darn sad.” For a man who valued loyalty and commitment, divorce had to bruise Eli’s ego. If the person who swore to love her up and abandoned their life together, she would have trust issues, too. When relationships go wrong, more than a heart gets broken. Seems Amarie and Eli could both attest to the fallout of left-behind lovers.
“Not for long. It’s on the market again; the first realtor couldn’t get the property off my hands.”
“Huh, that sucks. The housing market is on fire. It’s a seller’s market.”
“So the media keeps telling me. But I’m the one stuck with a twenty-nine-hundred-dollar mortgage payment. Unfortunately for me, the house has what the realtor calls ‘ugly bones.’ That’s code for an eccentric floor plan.”
“Doesn’t sound like code to me.” Amarie shrugged. “You built a butt-ugly house.”
“Thanks for that, Saint Amarie.” Eli pushed back from the table to put his plate in the sink. “Seems most growing families prefer spacious bedrooms and luxury kitchens, not Cara’s ten-by-ten sardine can–sized rooms and efficient hotel-style kitchen.”
“Sounds like Edward’s room in that Twilight vampire movie, more for entertainment than sleep.”
Eli paced the length of the table, gathering the empty bowls—and the green beans. “Never seen the movie, but the place is sucking me dry.”
The distinct sound of disposal blades at work grated, and then they were gone. Amarie may have whimpered at the wasted food. At least she could unleash her toasty hand from beneath her bum before her fingers went numb.
“The last one hundred and twenty days have been slow. I’m gonna need extra cash, maybe throw in a home warranty?”
“On a brand-new house?” she quizzed.
“It’s been sitting empty for six months. I might have to bankroll the closing cost.”
“I’ll look at your listing. Jazzing up the page will generate more activity on the multiple listing sites so it stands out from comparable properties.”
“Never seen a bedazzled sales page.”
“Funny, hehe. You jazz it up by showing potential buyers how the house can meet their needs. Then you create a sense of urgency.”
“How do you know so much about sales?” Tobias asked, lowering his fork to the plate.
“I learned most of what I know from watching my mom. My dad is a doctor in Florida, the land of cotton-tipped retirees. There’s a lot of competition in the medical market. My mom worked with him full-time, she created all of Dad’s marketing material. I guess she planted the seed.”
“Why do you know so much about how to sell, though?” he continued, genuine in his interest. The Calvarys had an authentic quality that many found refreshing.
“I spent a lot of time on the internet as a kid reading blog articles. Listened to few podcasts. I picked up a few things to help my ex with his business. There’s a science to marketing. Hook your audience’s attention and bam, you have two point five seconds to sell them on your product.”
“What’s our product, then?” Leah asked.
“You are. The Calvary family.”
Leah folded her hands in front of her face, gushing. “Like the Kardashians.”
“Oh my gosh, you watch Kris, too?”
“We’re small-town folks, not barbarians,” Eli remarked, lips tight.
“So your ex-wife doesn’t want the house?”
“No. She lost interest early in the process. Dad got really sick about a month after we broke ground, and I got distracted. My family needed me. Cara was doing her ananda balasana with Sven by then.”
Amarie looked to Leah, confused. “An anna what?”
“It’s a back-lying yoga pose. The fella she ran off with gave private evening lessons, if you know what I’m saying,” jumped in Noah.
Tobias turned to his left and punched Noah in the arm. “We all know what you’re saying.”
“Ouch, you hit like an EMT.” Noah grinned, but he held his deltoid, massaging the muscle.
“Boys.” Leah looked to Amarie. “What do you need us to do, Amarie?”
“Be yourselves. Just do it online for an audience.”
“I’ve been myself my whole life. Ain’t nobody given me twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“You ain’t never lied.” Tobias nodded.
Amarie had to convince them the inherent good a lot of people working together could do. Even strangers rallying to the aid of a family trying to save their home and business.
“You’d be amazed at how generous people can be for a good cause. We’re going to show them how valuable the Calvary family is to this community. It’s started already with the pictures I took of Eli helping Belle deliver her colt.”
“A colt is a young male horse, by the way.” Eli took a seat, this time closest to her. Okay, partner. This she liked. “Belle’s foal is female.”
“See.” Amarie beamed. “You taught me something I didn’t know. That’s the content that your TikTok followers can use. Now back to Leah’s question. Each of you has created an individual TikTok account, yes?”
Eli crossed those tanned arms over defined pecs. “Not me.”
“We know,” everyone said in unison.
“We’ll use each account to drive traffic to the Calvary Veterinary Clinic account and promote the bachelor auction. Except for Eli because he’s too stubborn to change his anti-establishment ways.”
“Worked for the establishment as a soldier in uniform. There’s nothing anti about miliary service.”
“I know, grumpy pants. It’s what we civilians call a joke.” Amarie patted his hand. “The military and the federal government are dinosaurs when it comes to information technology. Let’s move on, shall we? Now what are your TikTok handles? I’ll follow each of you. Call them out.”
“MamaCalvary.”
“NoahTomCat.”
Tobias sighed. “SimplyTobias.”
“And you, Amarie?” Leah asked.
“I’m PerkyLateBloomer.”
They all paused. “That doesn’t seem right,” Noah said.
“She is perky.” Eli smirked.
Flattered by their appreciation of her skills, she said, “It’s totally true. If you really knew me, you’d get it. Trust me, my best friend, Vali, and I have battled, like Ready Player One, to annihilation about my handle. We have agreed to disagree. So, we just need a thirst trap.”
“A what?” Eli asked, her online persona forgotten.
“A thirst trap is a choreographed or deliberate attempt to entice or seduce the viewer to watch a segment of digital content till completion.”
Eli threw up his hands. “Why are we doing this? Why do we need all of this?”
Frankly, they didn’t have time to waste. “Quit barking already.” Amarie huffed. “It’s gonna—Oh geesh, I sound like you now.” She started again, without the West Virginia dialect. “It will take more than the women and men in Service and the surrounding counties to come up with the kind of money that we—I mean you—need to stop the foreclosure process and pay my fee.”
“You’re charging him?” Noah asked.
“A percent of the proceeds,” she proudly confessed.
“Good for you.” Leah beamed. “Don’t let them get the milk before buying the cow.”
“Yes,” Amarie said, “whatever that means. No free tit pulls.”
“You mean teat.”
“I do?” Amarie questioned.
“Yeah, you do.” Tobias chuckled.
“You go around saying tits, all the guys are going to know you’re either from the city or think you’re offering something.” Noah waggled his brows.
“Amarie’s pretending to be my investment partner to stop the Pendletons circling and running all our customers off—”
“And bidders,” Leah added. “Lourdes might stir up trouble for you boys with the ladies. Especially now with so many of the mountain folks dropping in on their way into town.”
“That, too.” Eli nodded. “Maybe a few public business meetings will keep the people focused on the clinic’s value, so we can concentrate on work.”
“I’m good with the added attention,” Noah said, rubbing his palms together.
Of course he would be. The news of Rachel Johnson’s imminent return didn’t deter the mischievous light stirring in his prism eyes.
“Maybe,” Noah nudged Tobias with his shoulder, “Mom’s auction will help you find a lady of your own.”
Tobias crossed thick arms behind his head. “Let’s see if I got my facts straight. Older brother’s divorced with a fake business partner. Younger one’s porking any puddin’ he can get his paws on.” His face contorted in displeasure. “Nope. I’m good.”
“You waiting on some special pudding?” Noah chided.
“A modicum of restraint and the woman you really want would still be in town,” Tobias deadpanned.
“How about I send you to the Whynot ER in your own ambulance?” Noah bristled.
“What?” Tobias glared. “It’s the truth. The first one was the right one. And you blew it.”
That struck Amarie as odd. Noah had his love life, rather sex life, on full public display, but apparently he had a protective streak for Rachel Johnson to rival Eli’s overbearing brutish behavior. This was the first time she’d heard of Noah having a hairpin trigger about the farmer’s daughter. When Rachel Johnson returned, she would have a cowboy willing to buck off a few broncos to take his place at her side.
“Boys,” Leah warned. “No more pudding talk unless it’s mine.”
Eli sighed. “I’m officially a traumatized child. Please can we change the subject before another dessert is ruined for me?”
“The local women see you two together and think you’re in a real relationship, Eli. You and Amarie balance one another. The honey to your bee.”
“Momma, don’t get it twisted. The only thing buzzin’ is a partnership. Me and Amarie are a business transaction, nothing more.”
“The more folks see, the more they’re gonna speculate. This is Service. Love has blossomed from less, so be ready.”
“This one won’t.”
Well, Eli didn’t have to sound so sure of himself. Yes, they’d started as business associates, but he could do worse than her. Sounds like he already had. Amarie placed her tablet on the table to get everyone back on track.
“Eli, we’ll drive traffic to the clinic page. I’ll invite my fifty thousand followers to follow each of you. I’m still thinking of a hashtag. Hopefully we can get the clinic’s TikTok page trending. If we’re really lucky, we can go viral.”
“And you really think it’ll work?”
“We’re all pushing in the same direction. Tomorrow night is Fun Friday at the Black Bear. Most of the town will be there. We can promote—”
“You want to announce about our pages, don’t you?” Eli muttered under his breath.
“Smart one you are, boss. If they can talk and have internet access, invite them to follow us on TikTok.”
“Will that be enough publicity?” Tobias quizzed, taking notes in his smartphone. Impressive, Amarie thought.
“It will if we keep Leah’s county bulletin ad updated with our progress and pay for a TikTok ad campaign.”
“How much is that going to cost?” Eli grumbled.
Amarie released a surprise she’d been holding all day. “We have the seed money.” She beamed. “Matt Johnson gave the clinic a two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar donation.”
“When did that happen?”
“I called to follow up on Belle and the baby before I left the office.”
“You did?” Eli’s voice held a note of shock, and maybe pride. Hard to tell with him.
“Yes, and to say hello to Ruth and Phoebe.” Amarie had thought of them most of the night. She’d thought of her mother. They’d spoken once since her arrival in Service. Wondered if her father had deployed psychological abuse tactics similar to Bucky all those years ago. Had her pet, Princess, been given away to force her and her mother to return home?
Leah clapped her hands, anchoring Amarie to the present.
“Oh my goodness, you’re already the best at the business. We’ve never even charged Matt to care for the therapy animals. This is a special surprise.”
“Special, my foot.” Eli stood again. The motion was so abrupt, the entire table shifted sideways. “Amarie’s got him wrapped around her ring finger, too. He invited her dancing two seconds after meeting her.”
“Is this jealousy I hear?” Amarie taunted.
That comment brought a military halt to his rant. Eli grabbed the chair, swung it backward, then straddled the seat.
“What next?” he demanded.
“Take as many pictures as you can of your everyday jobs. I’ll get shots of Eli at work. You all can take selfies and do the same thing to post on your pages. Include your coworkers if they are okay with their images on social media. The key to social media is to be your most authentic self.”
“Do you want me to take my shirt off?” Noah asked.
“Not at this moment.”
“After the meeting then.” He winked.
“Listen here, Noah, Amarie may be my fake partner, but she is still my employee. Stop flirting with her.”
Amarie picked up her phone. “I like a growling, possessive animal doctor. That’s good. Keep it up, the ladies online adore protective men.”
“Y’all sure this pretend thing is a good idea?” Tobias inquired.
“It’s fine,” Amarie and Eli said at the same time.
Leah smiled.
Tobias looked worried.
“Amarie,” Noah asked, smiling, “tell me more about this thirst trap.”
“Oh yes. Let’s do a demonstration. Stand up, Eli.” He did as he was told, at first. “Take your cap off. Walk to the door. That’s good…” Amarie trailed off watching his butt work the heck out of his jeans. “Yeah, now spin to face me.”
Eli skull and crossboned his arms. “No. Nope. Stop the camera.”
“Ooh, ooh, get that pout.” Leah hopped up. “I loved that face when he was a baby.”
“Mom, the dang blasted video is still going.”
“This is great footage. Keep going,” Amarie cheered.
“I’ll do the auction. What I’m not going to do is sexy model photos to put online.”
“Not sexy. Thirsty. There’s a difference. This is how we’re going to boost your engagement.”
“I don’t want more engagement. What I want is to be left alone.”
“Not true.” Amarie needed to remind him what he stood to lose. “You want to save your family house and your father’s business. This is a vehicle to reach your goals.”
“Come on, bro.” Noah grabbed Eli by his shoulders. “Give us just a little pout. Think of the children.”
“How about a black-and-blue eye.”
“Boys. Boys,” Leah called. “We will do our part to follow Amarie’s lead.”
“Wow, I’m in charge?”
“Of course, dear. And I think we should announce the winners of the bachelor auction at the Founder’s Day Festival. Everyone will be there. It’ll be a great time to show off more of the Service spirit. Shephardstown maybe the oldest city, but Service, we’re the beat in the heart of West Virginia.”
“Well, the fifteen-second clips of Eli delivering Mr. Johnson’s foal have gotten a lot of comments. Once we reach one thousand TikTok followers, the algorithm will allow us to add a direct link to the auctionluvbuzz.com site as well as a donation button.”
Tobias nodded. A signal Amarie translated as plan approval. “You’ve got a one-track mind when it comes to money.”
“And food,” Eli piggybacked on his brother’s comment.
Amarie’s smile slipped. “No, I don’t like missing meals.”
Eli looked at her, frowning. She would have to do better at hiding her visceral reaction to hunger. During her time at Howard, she’d seen a therapist more than once to address her irrational fear with food instability. The psychiatric nurse practitioner had suggested Amarie carry a light snack with her at all times, like a pack of peanut butter crackers, and eat healthy snacks in between meals if needed.
Once she’d embarrassed her father at a company holiday party by adding a second warm roll to her bread plate before everyone else at the table. It was shortly after she and her mother had returned to his home. Through the years, she’d trained herself not to fidget or reach for the last scrap of meat when an efficient server cleared the table.
“Who needs help making their first video? Then we’ll repost all the video content from the clinic’s TikTok page on your personal pages.”
“Oh.” Noah whistled. “I’m going to love this. Do you see the way these ladies are dressed on here?”
“You mean undressed on here,” Eli rasped, glaring over Noah’s shoulder. “I don’t get why anyone would pay money for this.”
“Because we’ll show them the value that the Calvary family and the clinic adds to the community. All the good work the Calvarys are doing here in Service. People really do want a reason to do good and help one another, Eli.”
“You really believe that?” Eli asked, his brow furrowed.
“Yes, I do. Call me crazy, but I do believe in happily ever after.” She reached up, grabbing his hand. “And my partner.”
More subconscious than an actual steady force, she curled her fingers around Eli’s, sealing their connection. The feel of his roughened hand on hers felt amazing. Something electric jolted deep in her belly. Warmth spread like orange blossom honey in her veins.
Everyone fell quiet.
Alarmed, Amarie studied their faces. “Did I say something wrong?”
She turned to Eli for an answer. His mouth thinned, but he still held her hand. Amarie felt a little awkward. She didn’t know what to say next. Luckily, she was saved by the bell. The chime sounded a second time.
“Is someone at the door?” Tobias stood.
Noah lowered his phone. “Why didn’t they come in?”
That’s when they heard it. High-pitched cries. More than one.
“What in the world is that?” Leah asked.
When they all got up to investigate, Amarie extricated her hand from said growly partner. The men’s heavy footfalls followed, tactical in movement like they had an unspoken pre-arrangement of how to defend their home.
Eli reached for the screen door, then stopped. “Stay back. There’s something moving on the porch.”
Using his sinewy forearm for balance, Amarie peeked under Eli’s extended arm. It’s a sack.”
“Why is it moving?” Tobias walked around her. Opening the door, he nudged the bag with his foot. And then the sack contents started to meow. “Someone dropped off a bag of kittens.”
Amarie pointed. “Look, there’s a note.”
“I’m sure this is Bucky’s idea of a joke,” Eli growled. “He confronted me at the Black Bear accusing me of targeting the women.”
“And Phoebe’s cat was pregnant.” Amarie frowned. How could a father be intentionally cruel to his flesh and blood? Phoebe was a sweet little girl.
Eli snapped up the cloth sack. First he scanned the note, then read it aloud.
Since you Calvarys like to cat around with every woman in town, here’s some kittens to keep you busy.
“What a crap thing to do.” Tobias shook his head in obvious disgust.
Eli fished in the bag. One. Two. Three. Four. Five kittens clawed his shirt. One orange striped. A dove-white one with blue eyes. A little cream-colored cutie with a big noggin. And a pair of twin grays with wild staticky hair and glowing green eyes that made Amarie think of Eli. Rather, his captivating stare when he pinned her with one of his looks, like he was doing now. It was unnerving, the flutters in her belly.
“How’s Buchanan calling us tomcats?” Noah moved to stand in the fading light of day. “That’s rich. And dumping a bunch of kittens…” He rubbed at his clean-shaven face.
“A kindle. Not a bunch,” Eli corrected, smiling at the kindle of furry tadpoles making their way up his shoulder. They looked adorable climbing his mountain of male muscle. Aw, even the normally harsh angles of his face softened. Stupid butterflies, batting their wings in absolute glee at the spectacular view and masculine might made gentle. She should probably find her Spanx waister tamer, that would strangle those pesky butterflies. Taking a fancy to her boss, her grumpy, “not interested in anyone more than in a temporary arrangement” boss, would cost her more emotional mileage than she had at the moment.
“I’m too old to have a house full of kittens under my feet, boys. You don’t want your momma slowed down with a broken hip.”
“They can come home with me. I have pet supplies in my cabin anyways,” replied Eli.
Was Amarie the only one that wanted to hug Eli? Yeah, no one else seemed moved by his compassion. She found herself wishing he belonged to her. Eli Calvary was the type of fairy-tale hero women fantasized about. She certainly did. What woman could refuse a generous, protective man with battleship-sized biceps who knew how to stroke a kitty?
“That’s it,” Amarie blurted out, all at once, super excited. “I have an idea.”
Someone gently tugged a lock of her hair. “About the thirst trap or the kittens?”
Of course. Noah. Ever the playful playboy with a heart of gold, fixated on the thirst trap.
“Both,” she said, swatting his hand in jest. “If Bucky is unhappy about our bachelor auction, I can’t wait to see what shows up on the doorstep when we get our TikTok page up and running with the hashtag SexyKittyVet.”
“I am a sexy kitty?” Eli’s roar sent a jolt through everybody, even the kitties; their soft mews rang out a distress catcall—meow, meow, meow.
“You will be,” she promised, smartphone in hand. “You will be.”
He most certainly was not fuzzy or cuddly at this moment, but to their target audience, his cowboy swagger would be irresistible catnip.