One Night with her Bachelor (11 page)

Another button came undone. Then another. So slow, so methodical, each button revealing a few more inches of the white T-shirt he wore underneath. With a sudden shrug of his shoulders, the plaid shirt fell to his elbows, leaving him halfway bound.

“He’s trussed up and yours for the taking, ladies. Four fifty, four fifty, four fifty…”

He shrugged off the plaid shirt and spun it over his head like a helicopter’s rotor blade before letting it fly. It flopped over Josh’s face, and Molly grinned at Gabriel’s subtle way of telling the boy not to give him instructions.

“Remember, son, there’s a child present.”

“Take it off!” screamed a voice that sounded suspiciously like old Mrs. Schwartz’s.

Gabriel stood there in soft-looking jeans just loose enough to make her fingers itch and a T-shirt that hugged his beautifully defined shoulders, arms, and chest.

Those shoulders had the strength to save her son. Those arms had the gentleness to cradle Josh when he’d been so badly injured. And that chest, that
incredible
chest held the heart of the bravest man she knew.

“Nine hundred! Can I get fifty, nine fifty, nine fifty…”

Holy goodness, he’d just about raised a grand for her. Nine-hundred and fifty ways of thanking him sprang to her mind.

“Going once! Going twice!”

Josh dragged the plaid shirt off his head. “Twenty-seven dollars and thirty-two cents!”

Molly gasped. The crowd hushed, and the two men on stage froze. Buck shook away his shock first. “I’m not sure I heard you right, son. Can you repeat that?”

Josh cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. “I said, twenty-seven dollars and thirty-two cents!”

Buck glanced around the room. “Is there anyone who’d like to bid against twenty-seven dollars and thirty-two cents?”

Mrs. Schwartz’s arm shot up, but one of her friends smacked it down.

“Sold to Josh Dekker!”

‡

H
e’d just been
bought by a ten-year-old boy. He should feel strange about that, but relief coursed through him—especially since it’d looked like drunk Mrs. Schwartz was ready to throw away her retirement fund to have him do God only knew what.

He shuddered.

He’d barely cleared the stage before someone with sharp fingernails pinched his ass and shouted, “Damn, that’s fine!” One hand covering his ass and the other protecting his package, he made his way to Molly and Josh. He hadn’t intended to take his shirt off, but Josh had not-so-subtly reminded him why he was here, and he’d wanted to do his best to raise money for Molly.

Liar.
She’d given him one longing look, and it had filled him with confidence. He couldn’t show her everything—not without baring far more than his body. He couldn’t cope with that yet. Being here was overwhelming enough. But her look had made him feel like more of a man than he’d felt in a long-ass time.

Just before he got to them, he overheard Molly say, “Honey, is this because I told you Gabriel would clean your room?”

There was an empty chair next to Josh’s, and Gabriel sat so he wouldn’t tower over him. He just barely stopped himself from giving the boy a huge kiss on the forehead for saving him from Mrs. Schwartz’s clutches. “Hey, big spender. Looks like you bought me. Maybe we should set some ground rules, though. I can clean a bedroom, but I’m much better at playing video games.”

“Mom only lets me play video games for thirty minutes a day. And besides, we don’t use our TV anymore.”

He leveled a quick glance at Molly, noting the blush spreading across her cheeks. “Why’s that?”

Molly’s hand shot out and covered Josh’s mouth. “We turned it off so we could spend more quality time together.”

Josh shoved her hand away. “And because we’re saving electricity by unplugging as much as we can.”

Molly’s bearing went so stiff he thought she might crack. “Josh, that’s private information. I told you not to share it with anyone.”

“It’s okay. It’s Gabriel. He’s not just anyone”

Shock rushed through him, swiftly followed by burning anger as he realized why Molly was so embarrassed. They weren’t just trying to conserve electricity; they were in danger of not being able to pay to keep it on. Jesus, he’d had no idea it had gotten to that point. When he’d been building her a ramp, he should’ve figured out a way to illegally connect her to the grid.

He had to work hard to swallow his frustration. “Okay, so no TV and no video games. How do you want to spend our day together?”

“Oh, I didn’t buy you for me,” Josh explained in a rush. “I bought you for my mom.”

Molly sucked in a breath. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been really sad lately, and it makes me sad. The only time I see you smile is when you’re looking at that old photo of Gabriel and Uncle Scott in their uniforms in Afghanistan.”

“I… I smile because I’m remembering Uncle Scott.”

Josh shook his head. “But you only smile when you touch
Gabriel’s
face.”

Oh, Jesus.
Something cracked in Gabriel’s chest. His fingers clenched around the armrest of Josh’s chair. Molly had turned beet red and gotten a panicky look, and that was all it took for his training to kick in. He recognized the signs of distress. This might not be the kind of distress he was used to dealing with, but Molly Dekker needed him all the same.

And maybe he needed her a little.

“Well, Molly,” he said, his voice dropping in timbre. “Looks like we have ourselves a date.”

*

Her son had
bought her a man. How freaking pathetic did that make her feel? Forget the fact she’d needed the town to bail her out. Forget that Gabriel now had an inkling of how suffocating her debts had become. Josh had just capped off the trifecta of humiliation. She barely heard anything that was going on as Beau took the stage. There where hoots and hollers, but all she could focus on was the boy who looked like she’d just stolen his puppy and the man sitting next to him wearing nothing but his jeans and a T-shirt that accentuated his body every time he moved.

God help her.

“Gabriel, it’s really kind of you—”

“Mom, please. I worked hard to save this money.”

Her heart tightened. “You’ve only been home two weeks.”

“I know, and I had to earn all that money quickly.”

What on earth?
“How did you earn money without me knowing?”

“I told Aunt Lily what I wanted to do, and she paid me to do some stuff on her computer, like putting together the brochure for the auction.”

That settled it. Lily was a dead woman.

Gabriel’s fingertips brushed the thin skin on the back of her hand. “We’ll have fun. I promise.”

Fun. She vaguely remembered what that word meant. But stress had built up for so long she could hardly stop herself from evaluating all the potential disasters. What would Josh do if she went on a date? What would
she
do? She hadn’t been on a date in years. She would’ve been rusty and nervous anyway, but now—dealing with everything she had on her plate—she’d probably end up annoying Gabriel by worrying about Josh all night.

“Aunt Lily and I have it all planned. She invited me over for dinner on Wednesday, so you’re free then. Gabriel, my mom likes Italian food and movies, as long as they’re not scary. You can pick her up at six.”

Worse than her son buying her a man? Her son planning dates for her. “You know what, Josh? I really appreciate what you’re trying to do. Really. But—”

Josh grabbed her hand, his eyes widening as he gave her his serious look, the one he’d perfected as a toddler when he’d tried to make his extreme disapproval of broccoli clear. “Mom, I didn’t want to have to say this, but I need my space.”

The breath whooshed out of her. She barely heard Gabriel’s murmured curse. “What do you mean?”

“You’re always around.
Always
. I can’t do anything without you asking if I’m okay. Dad wasn’t like that. He let me do things on my own.
You
don’t let me be normal. That’s all I want—just to go hang out at Aunt Lily’s or with my friends and be normal again.”

Oh, God. Everything she’d feared she was becoming was reflected in his young eyes. Her fear was smothering him, making his dad’s house seem preferable to hers. She had to get a grip on all the worries consuming her because, no matter how hard she worked not to let them touch her son, they were infecting his spirit as much as hers. If she didn’t face her fears, she could lose him altogether.

She forced herself to give Gabriel a smile. “Sounds like I’m free Wednesday after six. And I apparently like Italian food and movies, as long as they aren’t scary. Any of that sound good to you?”

“All of it,” he said, his voice gruff and his eyes full of kindness.

God, he was beautiful. Molly glanced away so she didn’t throw herself into his arms. Beau was still on stage, and Buck was calling out for more bids. “Two thousand two-fifty…”

Lily’s voice shouted over the crowd. “Ten thousand dollars!”

Molly’s heart stopped. She spun in her chair and found her friend on the other side of the room, but Lily refused to meet her gaze.

Ten
thousand
dollars? Lily didn’t have that kind of money. She couldn’t. She worked as an office assistant, lived in a small apartment. How on God’s green earth could she bid that much… and for a man she couldn’t stand being in the same room with?

Molly felt sick. If Lily had organized this whole thing as a pretense to give her a whopping amount of cash she surely couldn’t afford to give away, Molly would be furious.

She needed to find her friend pronto. “Would you two excuse me a second?”

Gabriel nodded, and she walked all through the saloon looking for Lily to no avail. She’d disappeared.

Rumors of a heavy snowfall began rumbling through the room, so Molly returned to Josh and Gabriel. “We’d better go soon, but I want to thank everyone first. Josh, you should come up there, too.”

Buck had just drawn the last auction ticket when she asked if she could say a few words. He motioned for her to step onto the stage, and she hesitated, wishing there were a way to get Josh on stage without an ordeal that could embarrass him. Before she had a chance to think about it, Gabriel was lifting Josh, chair and all. Her heart seized as her baby and his chair were momentarily airborne, but a second later he was rolling over to face the crowd with her.

People were drunk and rowdy, but a shush rolled through the crowd until she had everyone’s attention.

“Boy,” she said, “this feels strange. My usual audience is about half your height, and they have their fingers in their noses.”

Everyone laughed—except Scooter Gibbons, who took his finger out of his nose and furtively glanced around to see if anyone had noticed.

“I wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I can’t tell you how much tonight means to me and Josh. It’s humbling, what you all have done for us. Thank-you seems so inadequate, but we truly do thank you. Don’t we, Josh?”

He grabbed the mic from her. “Yep.” Then he handed it back.

Ten-year-olds: so eloquent when they wanted something, so minimal in their gratitude. She rolled her eyes at the crowd, and they chuckled in understanding.

“It’s no secret that this auction wasn’t my idea. There’s one person in particular who deserves recognition for putting it together. Lily, can you come up here?” She scanned the crowd, hoping the higher vantage point would help her track Lily down. “Has anyone seen Lily?”

Cora Bartlett, one of the busiest of the town’s busybodies and leader of a gaggle of gossips whom Lily had dubbed the Rottweilers, shouted, “Probably trying to find an easy way to come up with that ten grand she bid on Beau!”

That did it. Something inside her snapped. “Cora, I don’t think that was a very kind or generous thing to say, do you?”

The room went uncomfortably silent, and Molly swallowed hard. “Thank you all again. We really appreciate it.”

She mumbled her gratitude into the microphone one last time, handed it back to Buck and gave Gabriel a silent plea to help her get Josh down. He did, murmuring, “Hey there, hell cat. You might want to calm down before you get behind the wheel.”