Page 9 of Just One Look

“Come on.” Liz laughed and stretched her hand out. “Let’s grab a snack while these crazy people bid on the rest of the bachelors.”

“Crazy?” Again, Devlin glanced at her sister.

“What else would you call someone willing to drop five figures on a dinner date?”

This time Devlin laughed loudly. “When you put it that way…”

“Coming with us, sis?” Liz smiled at Emily.

“I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night.” She turned to face Devlin. “If you’re willing to see her home, I think I’m going to call it an early night and get out of this damp dress.”

“Of course.” Devlin nodded.

“All right.” Liz looked over to the spread of food in the adjoining salon and slapping her hands together, smiled. “Suddenly, I’m starved.”

And Devlin had never been more confused in his life. Where Emily was a calm and comforting force in his life, her sister Liz was a bloody tornado. The two might look similar at first glance, but the two women couldn’t be more different, and only one made his heart race faster than a thoroughbred at the derby.

“Ooh, look.” Liz had a plate in hand and was perusing the choices. “I love little meatballs.” She stabbed one with a toothpick and shoved it in her mouth. “Oh, they’re better than they look. Try one.” She stabbed at another, spun around and waved it in Devlin’s face.

All he could do was bite it off the toothpick before anyone noticed the interaction.

The auctioneer’s voice reached where they stood. “Sold for fifteen thousand.”

Liz stopped and holding an empty plate in one hand and a toothpick in the other, glanced over to where Devlin had been standing two bids ago. “Wow. You really do command top dollar.”

“If you take Courtney out of the mix, I’d probably not earn so much money for the charity.”

Plopping two or three more hors d’oeuvres onto her plate, she paused and tipped her head to one side, studying Devlin. “Wouldn’t it be easier to simply make a donation and skip the performance?”

He’d asked himself that same thing more than once over the last few years. “I have, but my family has a soft spot for all charities related to foster kids, so someone has to participate.”

“I suppose.” She frowned and jabbed at a stuffed mushroom.

The woman had a healthy appetite. Dinner may prove to be more costly than he’d anticipated. “The other thing is that letting Courtney bid helps set the mood.”

“Mood? For murder?” She chuckled softly before shoving the mushroom into her mouth in a single bite.

“No.” Though some days he did wonder. “Her crazy high bidding sets an example for the folks with disposable income to cough up more of it than they’d intended. And that’s good for the charity.”

“It is.” She nodded her agreement. “You know what this needs?” She waved her hand at the food on her plate.

“Ketchup?”

She rolled her eyes. “Bite your tongue. I was thinking a glass of wine.”

“There’s plenty of free booze around here.”

“Wouldn’t the charity make more if they charged for it?”

He shrugged. “Maybe, but tipsy people are more free with their checkbooks.”

“Ah.” She waved that toothpick around, this time with a stuffed date on the end. “Makes good sense.”

“Glad you approve.”

Her smile broadened and she cast a sideways glance in his direction. “You’re not what I expected.”

“How so?”

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