Page 73 of Getting Wrapped Up

“One thousand and one!” someone shouted.

Kate swung to look at the woman who had upped Hailey’s bid. She was holding up a hat full of money. The people around her—some men and some women—were laughing and grinning. A man leaned forward and dropped another five dollar bill in the hat.

“One thousand and six dollars!” he called out with a chuckle.

Kate glanced back at Levi. He didn’t look amused.

“And what is Mr. Spencer supposed to do with five dates to the party?” the auctioneer asked. Hedidlook amused.

The group of five all laughed. “We’ll come up with something,” one of the men yelled.

“We’ll be nice to him,” one of the women said.

“Really nice,” another said.

Levi looked at Hailey. Kate couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed forward until she could see the town’s mayor.

Hailey was gorgeous. Kate already knew that. She’d Googled the town and Hailey’s face had been on the home page of the town’s website with a welcome message. She definitely stood out in the room. Where all the other women in the bar were dressed in blue jeans, Hailey wore a hot-pink pencil skirt and hot-pink, three-inch heels.

She was clearly Levi’s type. She and Kate had enough in common in their looks—long blonde hair, about the same height, roughly the same dress size—that Levi had mistaken Kate for Hailey that first night they’d met.

And Kate really didn’t like her.

“Hailey,” Levi said through gritted teeth.

If she hadn’t been watching him as intently as she was, she wouldn’t have even noticed him speaking to Hailey.

Hailey seemed to sigh. “Two thousand dollars.”

Kate felt her mouth drop open as the rest of the room gasped. Okay, well at least two thousand dollars for a date in Sapphire Falls was a little shocking to them too.

The auctioneer looked at Hailey with surprise. “Two thousand?”

She looked bored. “Yes.”

He looked back to the five who had pooled their resources. “Do I hear two thousand and one?”

They all shook their heads. One said, “Holy shit” while another said, “Finally a guy who can get Hailey going.”

If Kate hadn’t been standing as close as she was, she wouldn’t have heard that either. The people in the immediate vicinity of the speaker all laughed, but there was no way Hailey had heard them.

There was something very intimidating about the mayor, even looking at her from several feet away with at least twenty people between them. Kate got the impression that no one would say something like that where she could hear.

“Well, then, Mr. Spencer, it looks like you’re all hers.”

Levi breathed a clear sigh of relief and gave the auctioneer a big grin as he jumped off the stage by Hailey. Kate watched him lean in and say something into Hailey’s ear. Something she nodded about.

Kate had just started toward them when she heard, “Next up, Tucker Bennett.”

She stopped. Oh,really?

Chapter Two

Tucker waswho Phoebe had set Kate up with at Christmas, the man she’d mistaken Levi for. She’d met his brother, Travis, when she and Levi had been looking for their Christmas tree. Travis was good-looking, confident, sexy, all-guy. But she had yet to set eyes on his younger brother.

Tucker stepped out onto the stage and Kate forgot about Travis, and even Hailey, for just a moment. The Bennett genes were good ones. Tucker was every bit as gorgeous, tall, strong and sexy as his brother. And the grin he gave the room as he stepped to the middle of the stage was…potent.

She glanced over to where Levi and Hailey were standing together. Close together. And she made a quick decision.

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