My jaw hinges open. “The only three options you can think of are our captain’s girlfriend, mysister, and my best friend? Seriously?”
He rolls his eyes. “I’m your best friend, not Jake, and sorry, but you don’t have many femalefriends, Cameron. Even your list of male friends is alarmingly short.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I grumble. “We don’t even know for sure that she’ll bid on me.”
Logan chuckles like I’m an idiot. “Oh, I’m sorry, is this not the ex-girlfriend who hid an AirTag in your equipment bag to track your movements because she was convinced you were cheating on her?You. A man with the social skills of a sloth on painkillers and zero free time. Or the ex-girlfriend who?—”
I hold up a hand. “Point taken.”
“What about Kennedy?” Sloane suggests. “She’s here and single.”
If Gigi’s name sends a spike of fear through me, Kennedy’s does the exact opposite. It’s not relief, exactly. More like a hum under my skin, low and constant and impossible to ignore. With Gigi, I always felt like I was scrambling to catch up, to say the right thing, to stay in her good graces. Kennedy? She just… is. I’ve spent a decent amount of time around the blond baker since her best friend Maya started dating Cole, and never once have I felt like I had to perform for her approval. She knows who she is, and that certainty creates space for everyone around her to be themselves.
I scan the crowd as if saying her name will magically conjure her. Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t spotted her yet. Kennedy walks into every room like she owns it. People notice her. They turn. They make room. They gravitate to her like she’s the sun.
“Why is she here?” I ask, my tone sharper than intended.
“Crumb & Co. donated a personalized dessert experience to the silent auction,” Sloane says.
“There was asilentauction, and you volunteered me for theliveone?” I ask, not bothering to lower my tone. “What the fuck, Sloane?”
“High. Ticket. Item,” she says, punctuating each word with a poke to the chest.
CHAPTER TWO
kennedy
I don’t knowif I want to kiss or kill Cameron Davies. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t kill him, but a swift kick to the nuts would satisfy me. He’s gorgeous. That infuriatingly effortless kind of handsome: dark brown hair that looks like he’s ready for a red carpet when in reality, he probably hasn’t touched it since he rolled out of bed. Piercing green eyes that could cut through steel. And don’t get me started on his lips. Full and pouty, like they belong in a cologne ad. Or on a woman’s neck. Probably both.
When he opens his mouth and says, “I need a favor” with an expectant look on his face, that urge to knee him in the dick only intensifies.
“Hello to you, too, Cameron.” I flash him with my brightest smile. “I’m doing great. Thanks for asking. How have you been?”
He blinks slowly, as if it genuinely didn’t occur to him that conversations require basic human politeness. In his defense, the two of us rarely talk. Sure, our best friends are dating, and his sister and I are close, but Cameron and I have always sort of… orbited each other. Parallel paths. Minimal contact.Like two planets, each pretending the other doesn’t exist unless forced into the same room.
“Glad to hear it,” he says flatly, “but I still need a favor.”
I shuffle forward as the line at the bar moves. “And I need to breathe without my lungs trying to fold in on themselves, but here we are.”
He rears back. “What?”
I’m not about to explain the pitfalls of my Spanx shapewear to him, so I shake my head. “Never mind. What’s the favor?”
“I need you to bid on me.”
Now it’s my turn to say “what?”
He huffs, his jaw ticking. “I need you to bid on me during the live auction.”
“I know what you meant, Cam. I’m just having trouble understanding why.” I wave to the left, where a group of women are actively checking him out while sipping martinis. “I don’t think you’ll have a problem nailing a date. Or nailing your date.”
I smirk at my joke, but he only rubs his brow in response.
“I know I won’t have a problem being bid on?—”
“Cocky,” I accuse as I shuffle forward in line again.
“Honest,” he counters. “But there’s a person here that I’d really prefer didn’t win and the only way to guarantee that is to rig the system, which is where you come in.”
