Page 90 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

“We wouldn’t miss this,” Hank said, slapping Ethan on the arm.

Angela agreed, gently rocking the car seat, where little Grayson slept. “He’s pretty easy to travel with now.”

“How are you feeling, though?” Ethan asked her. “You only got out of the hospital a couple days ago. I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I’m feeling okay, thanks for asking.” She shrugged. “But we needed to get out of the house.”

Hank tilted his head toward Ethan. “It feels like all we’re doing is tracking how often he eats and poops. Our whole day is waiting until his next bottle.” He widened his eyes. “My life is all about his poop now.”

“As opposed to yours?” Ethan joked, and the Laus both laughed. “I gotta keep making the rounds. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

Ethan strolled over to the silent auction. As he checked out the popularity of each item, Seraphina Bianco caught up with him, elbowing his side, saying, “You going to bid on that one?” She pointed toward a dark basket, with black stuffing and foil wrapped around it. “That was donated by my friend. Laney really enjoyed the party we had.”

“The party?” he repeated, confused for only a moment. When he finally understood, he grabbed a pen, clicking it wholeheartedly to write down a bid for the covert “Couples Date Night” package.

Seraphina laughed. “I really like Laney.”

“Me too,” he said. “Thanks for your donations.” He gestured to her generous auction gift, but she’d also signed on with the highest sponsorship level.

“My pleasure.” She smiled and patted his back on her way around him. “I’m going to grab a funnel cake.”

He turned, only to find Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove. He shook their hands. “Thank you so much for coming.”

“We had to come see what Laney’s been up to all this time,” Mr. Hargrove said, with a touch of pride in his voice.

Ethan spread his arms. “Pretty great, right?”

Mrs. Hargrove nodded. “That’s Delaney.” Then she leaned in closer to him, lowering her voice. “She’s told me you two are dating now. I have to say, I always liked you, Ethan, and I’m glad to have her back home. Hopefully she stays now that you two are together.”

His smile faltered for only a second before he recovered because he didn’t even think that was an option, her moving away again. Then again, she did say she had something to tell him. The mere idea of her leaving again made him queasy, but he tried not to think negative thoughts. This was a party; it was supposed to be fun.

“Well, come on, Aaron. Let’s place some bids.” Mrs. Hargrove tapped her husband’s arm. “I have my eye on that landscaping package. You brought your checkbook, right?”

Mr. Hargrove huffed but followed her anyway.

Spotting Laney, Ethan lifted his hand, and she waved him over. “It’s time for speeches,” she told him, holding up her clipboard so he could see her schedule. “I’m going to grab the mic from the DJ. Do you have your notes?”

Ethan patted his pocket with the printed list of all the sponsors and people he needed to thank, as well as a few sentences about why he started the nonprofit.

“When you’re finished, you can pass the mic back to me, and I’ll finish up.”

“Got it,” Ethan said and followed his boss babe up to the stage, where she got the DJ to pause the music and handed the microphone over to him.

Ethan introduced himself and talked a little off-the-cuff about his brother’s diagnosis and how he wanted to learn as much as he could about Huntington’s and raise awareness about it. Then, as per instructions, he thanked everyone on his list, “especially the beautiful and brilliant woman to my right, Delaney Hargrove,” which got a bunch of hoots and hollers. After, he passed off the mic to her, and she reminded everyone that the auction was closing in twenty minutes and to stop by the health and medical booths to find out more information on Huntington’s and how to help people suffering from it, as well as to sign up for the newsletter from RAHD. She grinned at Ethan when she said that because she never did convince him to change the name.

“Once again, we are so happy to see so many people here and thank you for the support. And PS, Marilyn over at the soft pretzel booth will make you an everything pretzel if you know the secret code.” She lifted her hand to her mouth and whispered into the microphone, “It’s confetti.” Then she raised her voice back to normal volume. “But don’t tell her I told you. Have a wonderful night, everyone!”

Ethan exchanged a few words of gratitude for the DJ, who hit the music as Ethan looped his arm around Laney’s waist, escorting her off the stage.

“How do you think it’s going?” she asked him.

“I think it’s perfect.”

“Yeah, I think—” Next to him, Laney froze.

“What?”

She didn’t answer, only stared ahead of them, in the direction of the exit doors, and he followed her gaze.

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