Isla gave the crowd a wink when Catie paused for effect.
“And a special night out on the peninsula, searching for the best tacos east of Lake Huron. To make up for the fact that his kisses are reserved for another, his wife has agreed to match the winning donation.”
“What?” Josh barked. He pushed himself up and over the bar, not caring if he was making a scene. “Catie—”
Everyone around him looked over.
He also didn’t care about the bidding, which Catie was gamely trying to start at five hundred dollars, but the room was buzzing.
She tapped her gavel against the podium. “Let’s get this auction underway, folks!”
“Six hundred,” Esther Kim said as Josh waded into the crowd, trying to get to the stage. She winked at him.
“Seven hundred.”
“Eight hundred.” That was Olivia Minelli, whose husband was standing next to her.
“One million,” a nervous voice said from the back of the room.
Josh spun around.
Monica was standing in the open doorway.
Everyone went silent.
He started to push his way through the crowd, his eyes locked on hers. She stood there, seemingly frozen, then laughed and raced towards him.
He caught her in his arms and spun her around. “What are you doing here?”
“Missed you too much,” she whispered.
Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the stage.
The crowd parted.
When she reached the stage, she repeated what she said at the entrance.
“I bid one million dollars,” she said, voice clear as a bell.
Catie looked at Josh. Then she picked up her gavel. “Do I hear one million and one?”
The room stayed completely silent, aside from the soft hum of the overhead lights.
Josh suddenly needed to be alone with his wife. He leaned over and whispered, “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
She nodded, and he grabbed her hand.
Behind them, Catie’s gavel banged. “Sold,” she shouted as Josh dragged Monica out to the schoolyard. “To his wife!”
There was hooting and hollering, but nobody followed them, and pretty soon they were alone. Just them and the sound of his nervous exhalation.
Monica paced ahead of him when they reached the junior climbers. She went up a ladder and perched herself at the top of a slide.
She pointed behind him. “Look at that.”
He glanced back.
The moon was just rising, a big orange orb hanging heavily just above the horizon.
