Page 23 of A Moment In Time

“Uncle Rand, of course. Are you going to give the ladies a shot at a mature cowboy this afternoon?”

“Mature?”

Paxton nodded. “As opposed to these young thirty-somethings.”

Gage shook his head. “I’m twenty-nine something.”

Rand laughed. “I thought I might give it a try.”

Gage turned to him. “Really?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Maybe because you haven’t participated in ten years.”

“And you never have. I guess it’s our year.”

Corbyn looked at Rand for a moment. “What’s going on?”

Rand sat next to him. “A certain young lady is in town and intimated that she would bid on said mature cowboy.”

Gage laughed. “You could just ask her to dinner.”

“This is less direct.”

Paxton grinned. “Okay. Who needs a drink before this all goes down?”

Corbyn shook his head. “I’m still technically on call. So none for me.”

Gage smiled. “I’ll take his shot. I think I’m going to need a double to get through this.”

Rand held up a finger. “That sounds good to me, too.”

Corbyn looked at Gage. “Mom said only one drink.”

“Two shots in one glass equals one drink.”

Paxton poured two double shots for Gage and Rand and set some ice water in front of Corbyn. Then he stood back, folded his arms across his chest, and looked at the three men.

“It seems we should have some sort of a bet on this.” He took a ten from his pocket. Then set four pieces of paper and two pens on the bar. “How about we all put ten bucks in, then write down who we think will get the highest bid? You can write down your own name if you want. No judgement. Whoever picks the winner, gets the pot. Or splits it if more than one of us guesses right.”

Rand cocked his head. “What if no one guesses the winner?”

“Then I think whoever gets the highest bid should get the pot.”

The men all agreed, then wrote a name on the paper and folded it up before handing it to Paxton. Then they each added a ten-dollar bill to the pot.

Paxton laughed. “You guys know I always win these things. This money is as good as mine.”

Gage drank some bourbon. “We’ll see.”

As the auction was about to start, the three men stood. Paxton smiled. “I’ll be cheering you all on. And remember, I brought in $400.00 two years ago.”

Rand waved at him. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. From your girlfriend.”

“She wasn’t my girlfriend at the time. I barely knew her.”

Gage laughed. “She was saving you from Angie. And if I recall, you paid half of that four hundred dollars.”

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