Page 20 of Sweatpants & Sweet Tea

I felt a small thrill knowing that I was going to go for a hundred dollars more than Dawson. Not that it was a competition, but it sort of was. As flattered as I was, I was also a little nervous about what exactly would be expected for two grand. I didn’t think that a few hours of my time and a dinner was really worth that.

“Two thousand five hundred!” Maxine burped loudly and then hiccupped.

I would be concerned that she was spending money she didn’t have, but due to the personal nature of the affair, she’d ended up with quite a nice amount of cash from Kent Flanders.

“Five thousand.” Unlike Maxine, the woman’s voice coming from the back corner was clear and decisive. She did not sound like she was under the influence at all, which made me even more nervous because that meant she was bidding five grand stone-cold sober.

“Five thousand…going once…going twice, SOLD to the lovely bidder in the far-right corner.”

I lifted my hand in a wave, turned, and made my way off the stage.

As soon as I stepped out of the spotlight, Dawson asked, “Who the hell was that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Someone just paid five grand for your ass, and you don’t know who they are?!” he questioned.

My chin dipped in a nod.

He shook his head and sighed. “Fucking Farm Strong.”

I understood why he might think it was one of the Farm Strong groupies, and even though I had no proof to the contrary, I wasn’t convinced that was the case. I didn’t know who this mystery woman was, but I would be finding out soon. Until then, there was only one woman I was interested in finding. Daphne Moore.

9

DAPHNE

“Daphne,I just had to tell you, your grandmother was such an amazing woman.” A distinguished man with a salt-and-pepper beard shook my hand.

“Thank you.” I smiled. He was probably the twentieth person who had sung her praises to me since the auction concluded and the dancing portion of the evening had commenced.

As he spoke, I scanned the room once more in search of the man who had garneredfive thousanddollars for a date. I hadn’t seen him since he walked off the stage, but my hope sprang eternal that I would before the night was over. My lips were still tingling from the aftereffects of the kiss we shared.

“She was my Sunday school teacher,” the man continued, “and I’ll never forget the day she stubbed her toe and swore under her breath. All the kids gasped, and she just shrugged and said, ‘Yes,I love Jesus, but I curse a little.’”

I grinned wistfully as the man patted my hand before walking away.

If there was one sentence that summed up Grammy Moore, that was it. She was a good Christian woman who spent all her time volunteering and fighting for social justice, had apotty mouth, and sold moonshine. She didn’t give “two hoots and a holler” about anyone’s opinion of her. She lived her life according to her terms.

“Hey!” Nadia smiled and waved as she approached with a half-dozen stunningly gorgeous women. I felt like I was in Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” video, where models were walking toward me as fire burst behind them. “Daphne, I’d like to introduce you to the squad.”

I took a deep breath and smiled wider. Thankfully, I was good at memorizing names and faces. It was a skill I’d picked up during my childhood. On average, we moved every ten months. I attended fourteen schools before I graduated high school at age sixteen.

The only problem was everyone was wearing masks. I’d have to rely on noting other features that would help me with name association.

“First, do you remember the Comfort brothers?” Nadia asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded casually.

How could I forget? Billy had been my first kiss the last summer I spent here.

Nadia put her hand on the forearm of a stunning woman with inky black hair and bright blue eyes. “This is my college bestie and attorney extraordinaire, Reagan; she married Billy Comfort.”

Lucky girl.

Then she pointed to a fair-skinned blonde. “And this is her sister-in-law, Cheyenne Comfort, the youngest and only female Comfort who married Cash Malone. Do you remember him?”

I nodded. Of course, I remembered Cash. He and Billy were best friends.

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