Page 48 of Leave Me Broken

“You’re going to buy it for Payson, aren’t you?” Luca asks when the girls walk back onto the stage.

“Yes. I can’t let anyone else take the dress.” I shoot him a look.

“It will make it quite obvious of your feelings, fratello.”

I hadn’t been thinking about that. It is easy to forget we can not be seen as a couple to the public eye when things are so real between us. “Then I will bid on someone else as well.”

“You realize you agreed to let Jethro pay for the trip in full after your talk, sì? We don’t actually need any of the money from tonight.”

This is also true. Jethro insisted and I was angry enough with him to agree. But money can always be used somewhere in sports. “We can buy warm-up apparel for next season.”

His eyes narrow. “You plan on being here next season?”

“I plan on being here as long as Payson is here. She has another year left in school, so, yes. Besides, Parker likes it here too.”

“We will see after his first soccer season this spring.”

I grin knowing he is right. Not that it will be much different than what he is used to but Bayshore is a sport-focused school, their standards are higher. Parker is a brilliant player though and will absolutely make the team. Once volleyball season is over, I will bring him to the gym to run through drills. I played some football—soccer as American’s call it, when I was younger because it’s the biggest sport in England, but it never stuck like volleyball did.

The bidding starts and to my delighted surprise, there are numerous bids on all the girls’ outfits. Shannon’s dress went for twenty-five-hundred dollars to a woman in the audience after I had bid a grand as a front. We’ve easily raised over five thousand.

And with Payson, we’ll double it.

“Payson Murphy is wearing an emerald-green crushed velvet dress. Can we start the bid at two hundred.”

Chanel started every other girls’ at five hundred. She even started Emika’s at seven fifty. So, why Payson at two hundred? It doesn’t make sense when she looks the most radiant. Maybe I’m bias, but she looks gorgeous.

Payson shrinks at hearing her start her bid lower but when the first person who bids raises the price to one thousand, surprise takes over disappointment.

Unfortunately, hearing who it is that bid that much leaves nothing, including surprise, inside my chest. I shoot a look across the room. Chuck lifts a flute of champagne in my direction.

Chanel stumbles over the bid, obviously not expecting it. A battle roars inside my chest, half wanting to bloom with pride and the other half urging me to shove that flute down Chuck’s slimy throat.

“Will there be a twelve hundred?”

“Fifteen.” My voice cuts through the silent room like a hot knife.

“F-fifteen.”

“Two thousand.”

A growl rumbles deep in my chest. “Three.”

“Four.”

We may get more than warm-ups next season. “Six thousand.”

“Six thousand?” Chanel says, more like a question than an announcement.

Chuck swipes his tongue over his thin lip. It feels more like bidding for the girl than for the dress. I’ll be damned if I let him walk home with the dress Payson is wearing. He will have one of those poor girls I saw in his office put it on, and I refuse to let him fantasize about my girl.

“Do we hear sixty-five hundred?”

Chuck lifts his glass. “Seven thousand.”

This bloody—Luca nudges me and I glance down, it must be important if he is bothering me now. He nods toward the stage, and my eyes lock with a worried green set. I clench my jaw knowing who is making her feel this way. She doesn’t want Chuck to get it either. Payson is not stupid, in fact, I wish she was more ignorant with this subject, but unfortunately, she’s not. She knows exactly why he wants the dress, and I’ll be damned if I let him have it.

“Ten thousand.”

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