Scarlett Breen.
Miss Scarlett.
No one called her Miss Breen. Chance had called her a different name once, and I’d made him shovel shit from one side of the manure pile to the other for a week straight.
Had I seen incorrectly? Hadn’t my sister been the one bidding? I’d had no clue why, and I had dreaded finding out. The sister who’d put worms in my bed couldn’t be trusted.
But Wilna didn’t call out Summer Kerrigan as the winner.
Miss Scarlett.
After the way fourth grade had begun, I’d feared she’d declare Chance unfit, but she’d reassured me the second time she’d called me into her classroom for a parent-teacher meeting that his behavior was normal and he was improving. He’d started out hating her, then it had faded to animosity and, finally, apathy. Chance didn’tnotlike Miss Scarlett.
I didn’t know what she thought about me, but I’d started out the year wanting to toss her over my shoulder, take her to a dark room, and see if I could soften those pert lips into a breathless gasp.
I’d ended the year stroking off to the image.
Miss Scarlett would live up to her name if she knew my dirty thoughts about her. No one knew the little teacher who wore cardigans and long skirts or boring slacks filled up Tate Bailey’s spank bank.
And the way she refused to meet my eyes when she was done talking about Chance ground into me like road rash. Something about me intimidated her, and if just being myself scared her, I was better off keeping my thoughts about her in my head.
“Twenty thousand. That’s a record.” The tiny grandma running the auction glowed. Wilna had stopped to talk to me in the grocery store one day and the conversation had somehow ended with me doing this damn auction. “Enjoy your date with Miss Scarlett.”
My gaze shot to the pretty teacher. Summer and Autumn flanked her on either side, shit-eating grins in place, but Scarlett’s horrified gaze was on me.
Well. Damn.
I nodded at her. She jerked, her gaze flying to the floor, her face beet red.
Summer had been bidding, and from Scarlett’s expression, it wasn’t a long jump to figure out what had happened. My sister had bid for Scarlett without telling her.
Did she know something I didn’t?
The way Scarlett was melting into the pew said no. Miss Scarlett had not planned to bid on me, not in this auction or any other.
Wilna ushered me off. I stayed with the other bachelors in what I’d dubbed “the corral,” a small room off the main chapel with chairs and tables used for meetings or Bible study. The bachelors were supposed to wait for our winners to come claim us.
People trickled in, all of them looking me over. Some of them threw a “nice job” my way as if I’d done more than stand on a stage and breathe.
Twenty grand.
What the hell did you do, Summer?
My fucking family.
I loved my sisters, but one bonus of being the oldest was that I’d gotten to move away sooner and escape my siblings’ drama.
The bachelors filtered out after making arrangements with their winners, but I waited. Alone.
Damn.
Finally, Summer appeared in the doorway, a grimace on her face.
I folded my arms, glad I hadn’t worn a suit to this mess. “You didn’t tell her your grand plan, did you?”
She winced and edged inside. “She has a thing for you. I know it.”
Miss Scarlett? “She’s had a year to give me one sign of interest, but she won’t look at me if it’s not about Chance.”
