Page 78 of You're the Reason

“I don’t want to bid on anyone else.” She marched over and stopped in front of the table opposite him.

“Trust me. It’s better this way.”

“Better?” Grace pressed her lips into a thin line and practically stomped her foot. “Stop suggesting that you have no value or that nobody wants you. People want you here. I want you... here.”

He crossed his arms and met her gaze. “Not everyone feels the same.” His voice came out thick and rough.

“You keep saying that, but from what I’ve seen?—”

“Your parents.” The words came out like a loud smack.

“What?”

He lowered his tone and ducked his head. “I found out they called Hannah and said that I wasn’t a suitable person to represent the town. They give quite a bit toward the festival and said they’d withdraw their support if I wasn’t removed. They said they’d talk to others.”

“I’m sorry. They shouldn’t have done that.”

Her hand landed on his arm, but he pulled back. “Maybe. Maybe not. But aren’t you glad now that you didn’t bid on me in front of the whole town?”

Her brow wrinkled. “No. I still want to bid on you.”

Sure she did. That was easy to say when it wasn’t a possibility. He opened his mouth to say as much when she pulled a bill from the stack of cash in her hand and slammed it on the table. “One hundred dollars.”

“I’m not doing this.”

She pulled out another bill and added it to the first. “Two hundred.”

“Grace, it’s a nice gesture but nothing changes.” He raised his hands and walked a few feet away. “What’s first? We secretly bid then have a secret date, for our secret life? I can’t be your dirty little secret.”

She pulled out a third bill and dropped it on the table. “Three hundred and the date starts now.” She jerked her thumb roughly toward the center of town. “Out there in the square. I want a funnel cake and it isn’t over until the fireworks by the lighthouse.”

“Out there? With the entire town. Where your parents could be? Think this through, Grace.” He shook his head. Why couldn’t she see this was killing him.

She dropped a few more bills on the pile. “Six hundred. I know what I’m suggesting. You think you aren’t worth my time, my money, my inevitable conflict with my parents. But I am trying to show you that you are. You are worth all that and so much more.”

She stepped around the table, coming to a stop right in front of Seth, her toes just inches from him. “You say you don’t see yourself as that thrown-away kid anymore, but I think you do. You don’t think that you deserve the friendships this town wants to offer, that you aren’t worth someone bidding on you, that someone like me couldn’t ever... care for a person like you. But you’re wrong.”

Seth reached up his finger, brushing the edge of her silky cheek. “Why? After what I?—”

Her fingers landed on his lips. “Aren’t you the one who told me that real love isn’t earned?”

Her fingers trailed down his chin then landed on his chest. As if the gravity had shifted, he found himself leaning toward her. She released a small gasp, and her lips parted slightly as her eyes fluttered shut.

The door slammed open as voices filled the room. Seth jerked back just as Grace’s eyes popped open. They both took a step back as Nate approached the table, his daughter Charis on his hip.

Nate shifted the toddler to the other side as she kicked and screamed. “Ice cream!”

Grace started at the sound, her gaze darting from Seth to Nate then back to Seth. No doubt she was worried for little Charis, but Seth had seen Nate parent enough to know he did it well. He set a calming hand on Grace’s arm and nodded back to the father-daughter pair.

“Stop.” Nate’s words to his daughter were firm, but he didn’t yell.

Her kicking stopped as her lips puckered. “But ice cream.”

“You didn’t listen to Mommy. So no ice cream.”

The little girl nodded as big tears welled in her eyes. “I sorry.”

“I forgive you.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “But still no ice cream today.”

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