Bachelor at Her Bidding (Bachelor Auction Book 2) (3 page)

She found herself paying full attention when Buck brought Ryan on to the stage. Something about the man drew her. Even looking at him gave her goosebumps. He reminded her of an actor she’d had a crush on for years – that same sensual curve to his mouth, the promise in his eyes.

How would that stubble feel against her fingertips? Or – heat surged through her – on more intimate skin?

Ah, now she
really
needed to stop daydreaming. The last thing she wanted was for her sister and girlfriends to notice how Ryan was affecting her.

“And now we have our bachelor chef, Ryan Henderson,” Buck said. “His pedigree’s established. Most of you know he’s Phyllis’s grandson, some of you know he trained in Paris as a chef, and just about every woman in Marietta knows that Ry makes the best desserts in the universe.”

There was a general cheer, and someone called out, “Bring on the red velvet cheesecake!”

“Tell us about why you joined the auction, Ry,” Buck invited.

Ryan smiled. “Because Lily Taylor said that red velvet cupcakes were not enough.”

Not enough
.

The words echoed through Rachel’s head, and she drowned them out. No. Not here, not now. This wasn’t going to be a pity party; it was meant to be a fun night out with her sister and her girlfriends. Enjoy the margaritas. Enjoy looking at the men. Enjoy the party atmosphere. Don’t think about what Nick said.

“Seriously, someone had to drop out at the last minute. So I guess I need to apologize to the ladies, because I’m afraid you’re getting second best,” Ryan said.

“I don’t think so,” Buck drawled. “Not when people come to Grey’s from three towns away to buy a slice of your red velvet cheesecake.”

There were more whoops and catcalls.

Ryan gave them a self-deprecating smile, and Rachel felt a kick deep inside her belly. Which was crazy. Why was she reacting so strongly to him? She barely remembered the boy from school, and they’d both spent most of their adulthood away from Marietta. Since she’d been back, she hadn’t really seen him around town.

“Turn around, Ryan. Let the ladies see what they’re bidding for,” Buck directed.

“My cooking,” Ryan said, holding up both hands. “These skills.”

“He’s skilled with his hands, ladies.” Buck chuckled. “You can’t ask for more than that.”

Skilled with his hands.
Rachel had the most vivid picture in her head of those hands touching her. Stroking her. Coaxing murmurs of pleasure from her.

“Teeth?” Buck asked.

Obligingly, Ryan bared his teeth.

“Nice and strong and white – and sweet.” Buck winked.

Rachel knew this patter was all part of the way to drive up bidding – but now she could see for herself that Ryan Henderson had grown up into someone gorgeous. A shade under six feet tall, with a lean body and clever hands that made amazing things. A mouth that had promised pleasure, those beautiful eyes – and a smile that made her knees melt.

For one crazy second she actually thought about bidding for him.

Then common sense kicked in. Bid for him, and let the town gossips like Carol Bingley in the pharmacy make snide remarks about how Dr. Rachel Cassidy could only get a man since her divorce by buying him?

Not a chance. She still had a little pride left.

“Ladies, a date with this bachelor is going to get you the best dinner you’ll ever eat in your entire life,” Buck said.

Lily took the microphone from him for a second. “Food that’s better than sex,” she drawled.

“You heard the lady,” Buck said with a grin. “You have a Parisian-trained chef totally at your whim. You bid for him tonight as your dish of the day, and on your date he’ll cook you anything you want for dinner. So what am I bid?”

The bidding started at three hundred, and rapidly went up to five hundred, with Buck speaking so fast that the dollars rose in a blur.

But then Hannah raised her hand, shocking Rachel so much that she could barely speak.

“You’re bidding for him? But… Han, you’re married!” Not to mention five months pregnant and showing off her bump proudly.

“It’s dinner,” Hannah said with a grin, “and not just any old dinner. This is food made especially for you by someone who can
really
cook. Now I’m over the morning sickness, I need to make up for all the food I couldn’t face – right, Doc?”

“You really don’t need to eat for two. That’s an old wives’ tale,” Rachel protested.

But Hannah continued to bid, with Buck calling her “my sweet little lady” and nodding approvingly as the bids rose.

Provided the chef stayed away from using undercooked eggs, soft cheeses or anything that might contain listeria, then if winning the bid and having a flashy dinner cooked especially for her made Hannah happy, that was fine by Rachel. She smiled at Hannah. “OK. Whatever your limit is, add another seventy-five dollars from me.”

Hannah blinked. “Are you saying you want to bid for him, Rach?”

“No. I just want to make sure you get what you want. I would’ve bought you a foot massage as a treat – but if you want to bid for that fancy meal, then count me in for a contribution to make sure you get it,” Rachel said with a smile.

“You, you’re just so…” Hannah reached over and hugged her. “Thank you.”

“Count me in as well,” Susie said with a wink.

“Us, too,” Lexy, Dayna and Lizzy said.

“Ladies, I think we’re going to get ourselves a bachelor,” Hannah said with a grin, and kept bidding.

“Six fifty, six fifty, do I see more?” Buck asked.

There was a pause.

“Going once. Going twice.” Another pause. And then finally, Buck said, “And sold to Hannah Phillips for six hundred and fifty dollars.”

Hannah whooped, and high-fived everyone else in their booth.

Then she turned to Rachel. “Happy birthday, honey.” The others chorused with her, “With lots of love from us.”

Rachel frowned. “Wait – what?” Was she in some parallel universe? Hadn’t they all just agreed to pay money toward the bid for
Hannah
?

“It’s your birthday the weekend after next,” Lexy pointed out.

“Ye-es.” Where were they going with this? Rachel had been expecting to go out somewhere with her friends to celebrate the evening, maybe to FlintWorks to see one of the local bands playing, or maybe to the cinema and then out for some pasta at Rocco’s Italian. “But we were just buying Ryan’s dinner date for Han. We all agreed.”

“Um, no. It was a cover,” Susie confessed. “We talked about this earlier – Lily kind of gave me the heads-up earlier, and we all decided to bid for Ry’s dinner as our birthday present to you.”

“And you’re not to pay anything toward the date. It’s on us,” Lizzy said.

They’d bought her a dinner date with a Parisian-trained chef for her birthday?

Then it hit her. Six hundred and fifty dollars. “But – but the amount of money you just bid…” She felt her eyes widen. “No, it’s way too much for a birthday present.” Especially as Hannah had her first baby coming and could do with using the money toward the crib, a stroller and the million and one other things a new baby needed. And Rachel knew that Lexy was on short time right now. She didn’t want her friends struggling for money on her behalf. She might only be working part time herself at the moment, until Dr. Majors retired fully later in the year and she took over full time, but her salary as a family doctor was decent enough.

“Rach, loosen up. It’s a joint present. We’re all putting in for it,” Hannah said.

“We could’ve bought you things separately – a spa day, perfume, jewelry or Sage Carrigan O’Dell’s biggest and best basket of chocolates,” Lizzy said, “but we talked about it and we thought this might be more fun. You get a gorgeous birthday dinner cooked by a gorgeous chef.”

They’d bought her a kind of date. With a man who’d admitted to the MC that he’d been pretty much railroaded into being one of the bachelors in the auction, so he clearly didn’t want to do the dating side of it, either.

But this was for Josh and Molly. Money to help them remodel the house and get Josh the equipment he needed.

So how could Rachel possibly turn this down? Apart from the fact that her sister’s and her friends’ hearts were most definitely in the right place and she didn’t want to hurt them by throwing their gift back in their faces, she knew how much Molly and Josh needed the money from the fundraiser.

She took a deep breath. “I know why you’ve done it, and I love you all to bits, but it’s way too much money for my birthday,” she said. “So I can only accept if I pay toward it, too. And I don’t mean the seventy-five dollars I offered Han, either. I mean I’m paying half.”

“You can’t pay toward your own birthday present,” Susie protested. “That’s totally unfair.”

“But it means that I put something into the auction, too,” Rachel said. “Otherwise I’m not contributing to the fundraising at all, apart from buying my ticket tonight and a few raffle tickets on the side, and that makes me feel bad. So either I pay half of the bid, or the deal’s off.” She folded her arms and looked at her friends. “Deal?”

“You always had a bossy side, even at school – despite being the baby of the family,” Lexy grumbled.

“I love you all,” Rachel said again. “And I appreciate what you’ve done for me, even though you were sneaky. And I’m not dating anyway – this is going to be just a really good dinner, not a date.” And that gave her the best idea ever for getting out of it being an actual date, though she’d keep it quiet from her friends until she’d agreed to it with Ryan Henderson. Given that he’d been pushed into it, she was pretty sure he’d agree to her plan. “But I’m still paying my share. Which is half.” She gave them a crooked smile. “Doctor’s orders. Which means you can’t argue.”

They all hugged her.

“All right, honey. You win. Go see the chef and sort out the details,” Susie directed.

*

“I thought Hannah
Phillips bought my dinner?” Ryan asked.

“Seems we had a conglomerate,” Lily said. “Hannah, Susie, Lexy, Dayna and Lizzy. They bought you for Rachel Cassidy.”

“Uh-huh.”

Obviously he looked blank, because Lily said, “The new family doc who’s working with Dr. Majors and going to take over from him later in the year when he retires.”

Ryan was still no wiser, but he was definitely warier. A doctor. One who worked with his grandmother’s family physician, to boot. Was this anything to do with people trying to help Phyllis? People in Marietta looked after their own, he knew, but he had this covered. He didn’t need help. He definitely didn’t need a doctor interfering – especially one he couldn’t place, which meant she probably didn’t know his grandmother’s history and would tell him to forget about looking after her at home and send her to a residential nursing home in Bozeman where she knew nobody.

No. Just
no
.

“You were in the same year at school as her sister, Susie. Rachel was a couple of years below you,” Lily continued.

He still couldn’t place her.

“And you’re her birthday present.”

“
Dinner
is her birthday present,” he corrected. His food was on offer. He wasn’t.

Lily just smiled at him and introduced them swiftly before moving on to deal with questions from someone else.

Rachel Cassidy. He definitely didn’t remember her from school, and he was fairly sure he would’ve noticed her around Marietta.

Noticed, but not acted on that noticing, because life was already too complicated. And he didn’t need to add her into the mix. What made it worse was that physically Rachel was exactly the kind of woman he was usually attracted to – petite and slender, with long dark hair and a fine bone structure. She was absolutely gorgeous; but at the same time she didn’t seem to know it. There was no preening and wiggling her backside or tossing back her hair in a “look-at-me” gesture.

Ah, crap.

He didn’t have time for any kind of relationship.

He really, really didn’t want to be attracted to her. He’d just have to stifle these crazy thoughts. Not let himself wonder how soft her skin was, or how her mouth would feel against his.

She looked nervous. And right at that moment Ryan didn’t know what to say to her. At all. He could schmooze even the most difficult clients in a restaurant – but right now Rachel Cassidy wasn’t a client, he wasn’t in a restaurant, and he felt utterly clueless. The only thing he could do was to fall back on the facts.

“Lily tells me that your friends bought me for your birthday.”

Rachel winced. “That sounds bad.”

Yeah, it did. Ryan wished the words back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound judgmental or anything.”

“I, um…” She bit her lip, and Ryan had to suppress the wave of heat that rolled through him as he wondered what her mouth would taste like. “This is awkward.”

She could say that again. And if she had any idea what was going through his head right now, she’d run a mile.

“So I was wondering… if I covered the extra costs, maybe you could cook dinner for all six of us instead?”

It was the perfect get-out. Brilliant. Why hadn’t he thought of it first and suggested it, saying that he’d cover the costs himself? He opened his mouth to say, “Great idea.”