I drop my head into my hands. Sadie is trying very hard not to laugh.
Bea drops into a chair, apparently deciding to join us. “I came back a few months ago, you know. After my own spectacular failure at life.” She shrugs. “This town has a way of collecting people who need second chances.”
“Bea found her pack,” Sadie says softly. “Three alphas who’d been waiting for her.”
“They weren’t waiting for me. They didn’t even know I existed until I kissed Seth at the Thanksgiving Festival and then ran away like an idiot.” Bea shakes her head. “Point is, I made a mess. A big one. And they still—” She stops. Her whole face changes, goes tender in a way that makes my chest ache. “They still wanted me anyway.”
“How?” The word comes out before I can stop it. I look between them. “How did you get them to listen?”
Sadie and Bea glance at each other. Something passes between them.
“I didn’t, at first,” Sadie admits. “Levi had been bringing me coffee for weeks before I admitted I liked it. Sometimes you have to let people show up for you before you can show up for them.”
“And my alphas chased me,” Bea says. “After my little stunt at the festival, they just... kept showing up. Kept proving they wanted me.”
“But that’s different.” I stare at my cold coffee. “Your alphas wanted to chase you. Mine are running in the other direction.”
“So maybe you need to be the one doing the chasing this time.” Bea shrugs.
“Grand gesture?” Sadie suggests.
“Well...” Bea drums her fingers on the table. “The auction tonight?—”
“I know. They’re all participating.”
“All three of them?” Sadie asks carefully.
“Nate, Theo, and Lucas. Yes.” I wrap my hands around my mug. “I get to watch every omega in Honeyridge Falls bid on the men I love.”
Silence.
Bea’s eyes cut to Sadie. Sadie raises her eyebrows. Some kind of silent omega conversation happens that I’m not part of.
Then Bea leans forward. “Or.”
“Or what?”
“Or you could bid on them yourself.”
I stare at her. “What?”
“The auction. You bid on them. Win the dates. Make them talk to you.”
“I can’t just—that’s insane. They won’t even look at me. If I show up and start bidding?—”
“They’ll have to look at you.” Bea’s eyes are sharp. Knowing. “They’ll have to acknowledge you exist. And if you win? They’ll have to spend time with you. One on one. No running away.”
“But I’d have to bid on all three of them. That’s?—”
“Expensive,” Sadie supplies. “And dramatic. And exactly the kind of thing that happens in romance novels.”
Romance novels.
Like the ones I write.
I think about my book. The one sitting half-finished on my laptop. Three different versions of chapter twelve, three different grand gestures, none of them feeling right.
But this...
