Page 17 of Sebastian

Oh, he planned on winning big. And he couldn’t wait to see her reaction when he did.

* * *

The auction had been running for twenty minutes, with Grace snagging a parent’s night out package and some big ruckus breaking out over a fishing trip, but besides that, Emma wasn’t paying attention. She was too busy actively trying not to throw up. Why had she agreed to this? Damn that Daisy…she was too good at convincing Emma to do shit she didn’t actually want to do.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Speak of the devil…” Emma muttered as she turned to see her best friend. “How in the world did you convince me to do this?” She wiped her sweaty palms on the beautiful fabric of her dress and laughed at the insanity of the whole situation. Sam was standing next to Daisy, a big grin on his face.

“You look amazing, Emma.”

“Cool your jets, cowboy Romeo. Just because I expect you to win this thing, it doesn’t mean we’re leaving the purely platonic friend zone on our little date.” He seemed to laugh even harder at that.

“Emma, don’t even sweat it for a second. There is no way, in any lifetime, that I could keep up with you. And I like our friendship just how it is.”

“Well, good. Now you better keep Alan Freemont from winning tonight. I keep seeing him licking his lips and eyeing me up and down. It’s bad enough when he comes into the bakery and is a creep, but Sebastian just almost lost his shit on him for touching my arm earlier, and I can still feel his hand on me. It’s turning my stomach.”

“Em, I promise, we won’t let him win. If anything, I’ll bid on a date night with you and we can get the whole town talking.” Daisy winked and Emma actually laughed out loud.

“I’d love that, babe, you know it.”

“Just breathe. Between me and Sam, and even Grace, we’ve got you covered.” Emma gave Daisy a hug before Pete Ellersman, the fire chief for the Bell Ridge Fire Department, called her name to the stage.

“We’ve got a very special final offer to bid on here tonight. Everyone’s favorite baker, Emma Sullivan, has agreed to auction off a date night with her. She has assured us that this does include a batch of her famous lemon bars, so who wants to start the bidding? I think one hundred dollars to open is fair. Do I hear one hundred?”

“One hundred!” Sam’s hand shot up as quick as lightening and Emma couldn’t help but let out a little sigh of relief.

“Two hundred!” someone in the back shouted almost immediately.

And then the crowd went wild. Emma couldn’t believe the numbers she was hearing.

“Five hundred!”

“Six hundred!”

“A thousand!” Sam yelled out and winked at her.

“Fifty-thousand dollars.”

Emma’s heart stopped. She followed the sound of the bidder’s voice and saw none other than Sebastian Montgomery smiling back at her. Her eyes darted back to Sam who gave her a small shrug and mouthed “sorry” at her.

“Fifty-thousand dollars from Mr. Sebastian Montgomery,” Pete called out. “What a generous bid! Fifty-thousand dollars going once….going twice….she’s yours for one spectacular date! Thank you so much, Mr. Montgomery.”

Emma stood on the stage, mouth dropped open fighting the urge to curse out the entire building, as Sebastian sauntered up to the edge of the platform. When he extended his hand in her direction, she couldn’t think of anything else to do but take it. They walked, hand in hand, towards the exit, and before Emma could wrap her mind around what happened, Sebastian had her outside.

“What are you doing? Where are we going?”

“We’re going on our date, of course.”

“Listen here,” she placed the palm of her hand on his chest and pushed against him. “That bid was very generous, and of course I’m going to see it through, but I can’t just go on a date with you tonight.”

“Why not? You were taking the night off for the fundraiser, weren’t you? And Natalie said you planned on having that student who works for you open tomorrow, anyway. It seems like tonight is the perfect night for our date.”

Emma’s jaw was once again on the floor. Fine. She could do this, and it was better than having to wait to schedule something in the future.

“You know, you were the prize I had my eye set on all night.”

“Sebastian,” she sighed. “Fine. Let’s do it.”

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