Page 71 of Getting Wrapped Up

She wanted roots, dammit. She wanted a place that was hers and where she could stay for years and years and years. A place whereshewould go to the post office and get waylaid chatting and socializing for an extra thirty minutes.

Growing up, she’d always lived in large cities where you could pass a thousand people on the street during a typical day and not know one of them. That was what her parents had liked about it. They liked the anonymity, the chance to do anything and be anything. They liked the diversity and the multitude of opportunities and the ability to have a different ethnic cuisine every night for a month and never have the same thing twice. A town with one diner and a grocery store that closed at five-thirty and whose most unique offering was Camembert cheese was not a place that would attract her parents.

But Kate didn’t need her local grocery store to offer eighteen varieties of cheese.

She didn’t even like cheese that much.

It was more important to her that she be a part of something. Something where she really mattered. She thought that was a fairly common, grown-up kind of thing to want and to feel. And that feeling had been growing stronger and stronger with every story Levi told her about Sapphire Falls. Sapphire Falls was a place where people brought you chicken soup when you were sick and if something wonderful happened to you, everyone celebrated. Everyone in town seemed to have their roles and they all fit together.

She wanted a place in Sapphire Falls. She didn’t know exactly what that place would be, but she was ready to find it. Levi had found his. Not only were his money and connections helping to make things happen, but helping the town get projects off the ground and investing in businesses was giving Levi something to be proud of, something that he was invested in personally as well as financially.

Frankly, she’d been jealous of Levi for the past eight weeks. All of the things that were happening to him were things she wanted to have happen to her.

“And I heard Joe tell Mason that Levi used his snow blower all by himself the other day,” one of the girls said.

The other girl laughed. “He tried again. That’s brave.”

Kate shifted, no longer trying to hide that she was eavesdropping.

These two girls knew things about Levi that she didn’t.

He’d used a snow blower? Twice? She didn’t even know he had a snow blower.

He hadn’t told her about any of this. That might seem small to some—most—people but she knew that was monumental to Levi. He was trying on a whole new way of life. He was way out of his comfort zone here. Not only was this his first experience living in snow, but this was a small town where everyone knew when you succeeded—and when you failed and made an ass of yourself. Levi was used to being admired. He was used to being the man in charge. He knew everything about the high life in Vegas. He didn’t make an ass of himself in business or socially in Vegas.

But here it was a different story. A completely different story. Snow—and the need to blow it—was only the beginning. It would be easy for him to just go back to Vegas. Or to hire someone to come blow his snow for him. But he was facing this new life and was throwing himself into it. Every little victory mattered.

And he hadn’t told her about any of it.

Just like he hadn’t mentioned the bachelor auction.

“You need to bid.” the brunette nudged the other.

“I won’t be able to afford him.” The blonde said it with a sigh.

“Me either,” the first said. “But I’m going to throw some money in. I want him to know I’m an admirer.”

Kate rolled her eyes. It wasn’t that hard to see why Levi might like it in Sapphire Falls, even with the snow and the strange blowing machines it required.

“You’re going to have to make it big,” the blonde said. “Hailey’s right up front.”

“Really?” The girl lifted herself slightly off her stool, trying to see to the front of the crowd.

Hailey? As in Hailey Conner, Mayor, the woman Levi was supposed to have been set up with at Christmastime? The woman he’d mistaken Kate for? The woman his brother Joe had thought would be the perfect woman to set him up with?

Maybe Hailey was a common name in Sapphire Falls.

Kate also tried to see over the sea of heads in front of the stage, but she couldn’t pick Hailey out.

“Three fifty!” a female voice called out.

The two girls near Kate looked at each other. “Okay, maybe I’m not going to get in on this.”

“We could pool our money,” the other said.

The brunette giggled. “If we win, Levi has to go out with both of us?”

The blonde grinned. “Think he’d do it?”

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