Page 46 of Hope's Highest Bidders

AUCTIONED TO THE MOUNTAIN MAN

1

MAGGIE

“Don’t be mad.”

I clench my eyes and blow out a breath just trying to imagine what it is this time. Any time Elana, my best friend and boss, says those three words, I know I’m probably going to end up mad. The first time she said it to me, I laughed it off. We were in our final year of college, and I had just met her the week prior. She had planned a party in our dorm and invited the whole Alpha Theta fraternity. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t have a big exam the next morning at seven a.m.

I force a smile to my face. “Is this worse than the time I had to stay in the library all night to avoid the Alpha Theta party and almost failed my exam because I was exhausted?”

She shakes her head, but before I let her say anything, I continue, “Okay, is this worse than the time we broke down in Jasper, and instead of calling your brothers to come get us, you thought it was fine to hitchhike back to campus?”

She puts her hand on her hip. “Trust me, riding with a hitchhiker was a better idea than calling either of my brothers. They would have flipped out if they knew I was?—”

I interrupt her with a nod of my head. “Right. At the sex club. So is this worse than the time when you told me that we were going to a book club meeting at the library in the city but instead you took me to the sex club?”

She is completely unfazed as she looks at her freshly painted nails. “You said you wanted to lose your virginity. I was trying to help you out.”

I stalk toward her and whisper loudly, “Really! Why don’t you say that a little louder? I’m sure the men setting up tables over there didn’t hear you.”

Elana laughs and flips her hair, unbothered. “Just say it, Mags! You would live a boring life if it wasn’t for me.”

Begrudgingly, I shrug. There’s some truth in what she’s saying. I have always been the responsible one. I studied, got good grades, and did what I was supposed to do. Since I met Elana, life has definitely gotten more interesting. “Okay, I give up. What are you telling me not to be mad about?”

She crosses her arms over her chest and juts her chin out at me. “Are you going to be mad?”

I mirror her actions and smirk at her. “Probably. What did you do?”

She gives me her best smile. “I got us dates for tonight.”

I throw my hands up. “Nope. No way. I’m working. This is a work event. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year, and I need to be able to concentrate on what’s happening. I can’t be entertaining some guy I don’t even know. Nope. It’s not happening.”

I turn away from her and go back to arranging the centerpiece on the table. Tonight is Moonshine Mountain Distillery’s annual fundraiser. It happens every year, but this will be the first year I’m attending. I know how important this is to the family, and I’ve done everything I can to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Plus, with the new socialmedia campaign I started, there are more high rollers planning to attend than ever before, which in turn means more money will be donated to the local hospital. There’s no way I’m going to get caught up in one of Elana’s schemes.

I can feel her staring a hole in my back. “Forget it, Elana. I’m not doing it.”

She comes to stand beside me and grabs my arm. “Will you stop? The centerpiece looked perfect ten minutes ago. Look around this room; everything is perfect. You’re freaking out for nothing.”

I cross my arms on my chest and challenge her. “That’s easy for you to say. You’re part owner. You graduated college and instantly became director of public relations?—”

She scrunches her nose up, and I hold my hand out. “Let me finish. You deserve the position, and everyone knows it. The point I’m making is you’ve trained for this job since you were little. College for you was just something to bide your time until you were able to take over your position. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I, on the other hand, got this job because you are my best friend. I do have something to prove, and bringing a date to a work function is not a smart thing for me to do.”

She rolls her eyes and laughs. “It’ll be fine.”

Exasperated, I pull away from her and move to the next table to get it set up. “Fine? Fine like the time you set me up on a blind date, and it ended up being my psychology professor?”

She giggles. “He was hot.”

“Oh my God, Elana, he thought I set the whole thing up. I swear for the rest of the semester, he thought I was stalking him.”

She points at me. “You got an A, though.”

My voice rises with indignation. “I always got A’s.”

“See? No harm, no foul.”

I shake my head but can’t hold back my laugh. This has to be why Elana and I get along so well. We are complete opposites in every way, but she livens up every situation. “Tonight is important to me, Elana. They are calling this the party of the year. That’s huge, and if everything goes off without a hitch, we can raise a lot of money for the pediatric hospital.”

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