Page 9 of Hockey Heart

“Sarah? You ready to get your bid in?”

She was looking at me wide-eyed, all caught up in the excitement and, suddenly, I was pulled back down to earth, back to the room and the announcer’s voice booming around us.

“Two thousand! Three thousand. Four. Five…”

“Sarah! Put your hand up!”

Half-dazed, I looked to the stage. The lights seemed lurid and bright. I felt sick.

“Over here!” Kensy shouted at the stage and lifted my arm.

“Eight thousand!” the announcer bellowed our way as my arm fell back down.

“Nine! Ten!”

I snapped back into action. This was the moment I’dwaited for, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I was a ball of stress. My arm went up.

“Eleven!”

“Twelve,” the announcer pointed to the other side of the room, “Thirteen… Fourteen… FIFTEEN THOUSAND… Sixteen…”

My chance had gone and everything faded. Standing in that room with all those rich and glamorous people, I suddenly just felt flat and alone. What had I expected would happen? I mean,really?

“…Twenty-five, ladies and gentlemen! Thirty! Thirty-five!”

I could sense Kensy looking at me pitifully from my side. All I wanted to do was to leave immediately and maybe have a quiet cry alone outside.Ridiculous Sarah, this was nothing but a childish fantasy.Hayden Raynor?Who were you kidding anyway?

A rasping voice from behind us broke me out of my spell.

“Keep bidding.”

I turned to see a well-dressed man in a black tie and suit, his blue eyes fixed on me.

“Huh? I don’t… I can’t…”

“Please. I’ll comp you.”

“What? I don’t understand,” I stuttered back.

The man flashed a look across the room, toward a young blonde woman in a sequin dress that I thought made her look like a disco ball crossed with a mermaid.

“My fiance. I can’t let her winhim.”

He had a pained expression, one that only someone who is truly desperate knows how to pull.

“Please,” he insisted again.

The disco mermaid flung her hand in the air and the girls around her squealed with delight.

“FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!”

I watched the man for a moment longer, making sure he was absolutely serious, then I turned back to the stage and flung my arm up.

“Fifty-five!”

The fiance’s hand went up again, “Sixty!”

Then the announcer’s eyes came back my way, and I did the same, “Sixty-five!”

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