Someone in the back yells, “He doesn’t smile enough!”
Laughter ripples through the room like a wave. Jude’s jaw flexes. That muscle I’ve watched tick a hundred times when he’s annoyed or uncomfortable or trying not to say something.
I can feel the secondhand embarrassment crawling up my neck, hot and prickly.
Ivy elbows me hard enough to just about take my breath. “Bid.”
“I can’t!”
“You must,” Hadley hisses from my other side. “Look at him. You can’t let this happen.”
Another woman calls out, “Ten dollars if he promises to smile!”
Jude’s lips twitch. Almost a smile but not quite. He’s fighting it.
The MC shrugs, trying to keep the energy up. “Do I hear fifteen? Anyone? Fifteen dollars for a date with our star defenseman?”
The silence stretches. Painful and awkward.
Jude’s eyes scan the crowd. I see the moment he finds me. The moment his expression shifts from stoic to something else. Something that looks almost vulnerable.
And then I do it.
“Seventy-five!”
Every head in the room turns toward me.
The crowd gasps. Someone actually gasps.
Jude’s head snaps in my direction so fast I’m worried about his neck.
I’m halfway out of my seat before I realize what I’ve done. My cheeks are burning. My hands are shaking.
The MC grins like Christmas came early. “Sold! To the lovely piano teacher in the front row!”
I bury my face in my hands.
Ivy’s laughing so hard she’s crying. Actual tears streaming down her face. “Sophie. You just bought a man.”
“Not just any man,” Hadley adds, her voice full of unhelpful glee. “Bruiser.”
“I did not! It’s a date. And it’s for charity.”
On stage, Jude rubs the back of his neck. Shakes his head. But I swear, just before he steps down and disappears backstage, I see it.
A smile.
Real and wide and devastating.
The auction continues with raffles and announcements but I can’t focus on any of it. My heart is hammering. My brain isscreaming. Ivy keeps elbowing me and making comments I can’t process.
When the crowd finally starts dispersing, I’m still at the table pretending to count cash I can’t actually see through my embarrassment-induced haze.
Footsteps approach. Heavy and deliberate.
I look up.
Jude stands there, towering over the check-in table, arms crossed, expression smug.
