Page 173 of The Husband Game

After the sit-down dinner, the player auction began.

Bidding began with Colton Yates.

He was a big draw as one of the young hot-shot players and he worked the crowd, urging them to keep going up in price.

He finally went for several thousand more than expected to a young, pretty woman who Birdie glared daggers at when she said she’d be taking him to dinner.

“She better keep her paws off,” Birdie grumbled. “Besides, her daddy probably paid for it all anyway.”

All Charlie could do was laugh.

“He doesn’t have eyes for anyone but you.”

“Oh I know that,” Birdie said. “It’s not him I’m worried about. But he’s useless at fending people off. One time he totally got groped by some ho who wouldn’t keep her hands to herself during an autograph signing. He was trying too hard to be polite to get her to leave him alone.”

Charlie made a face. “Better send a bodyguard with him.”

The auctioneer went through some of the lesser-known names on the roster, then moved to the veteran players.

Matty also went for a substantial amount and his ears turned red when the slightly older but still very attractive woman won and met him on the stage.

Nico was snapped up quickly, and there was a bit of a bidding war, but he went to an older man who appeared to be more interested in talking hockey than anything else.

Nico looked almost disappointed.

Dominic fetched a nice price as well, and then it was Dustin’s turn.

The crowd cheered loudly for him and the auctioneer grinned. “Ladies and gentlemen. We’ve saved our captain for last. Shall we start the bidding at five thousand?”

The bids came thick and fast, the price rising quickly until several people dropped out. Soon it was down to three people, the white-haired man Charlie had spoken to earlier, and two women.

One of them sounded familiar, though when Charlie craned his neck to see if he’d met her earlier, all he could see was a slender hand holding the paddle high.

He shrugged. Ahh well, at most whoever won would probably take Dustin out to dinner or something.

Charlie had meant what he said earlier, he trusted Dustin and the auction was all in good fun.

The crowd gasped as the price went higher and higher and Charlie laughed when the white-haired man finally admitted defeat with a good humored, “too rich for my blood!”

“That means the winner is number seventy-four … Mrs. Jacqueline Monaghan.”

Charlie went still, his heart thudding as he watched his mother rise to her feet and walk toward the stage.

Dustin’s gaze darted to Charlie’s and whatever he saw on his face clearly clued him in that this was no weird coincidence, because his frown deepened.

“Charlie?” Birdie whispered.

He clutched her arm. “What the fuck is she doing here?”

But the sick, sinking feeling in the pit of Charlie’s stomach told him exactly what she was doing. She’d finally found a way to get to Charlie through Dustin.

In the most public way possible.

“Well, Jacqueline, how do you plan to spend your time with our team captain?” the auctioneer said cheerfully. “An afternoon skate? A personal tour of the Hall of Fame?”

She smiled. “I was thinking more along the lines of a nice family dinner with my new son-in-law.”

The crowd gasped, then clapped, thinking it was a great little PR stunt.

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