before the night was over, but he certainly was effective at drawing in people’s attention and making them hang on his every word. So much so, apparently, that I didn’t hear him call for all the evening’s bachelors to come to the stage.
Clint nudged me out of my haze. “Hey, in case you forgot, that’s you.”
“Yeah, like I’ll ever forget you tricking me into this,” I grumbled. “I don’t know why I haven’t learned to say no to you.”
“Oh please,” Clint scoffed. “You’ve never been able to resist when I give you sad eyes.”
“Then explain to me how you were able to convince me this was a good idea over the phone,” I argued. If Clint knew I’d accepted that putting myself up for the auction wasn’t a huge mistake, he’d never let me live it down. It was much better for me if I let him think I was participating under duress so I could call in a favor down the road.
“Shut up and get your tight ass up there,” Clint said with a playful shove. The rest of the guys at the table wolf whistled as I walked away. I shoved my hands into my pockets to keep from flipping them off.
As I took my place on stage, I checked out the competition. Most of the guys were smiling broadly, puffing out their chests and hamming it up for the audience while I tried to stay out of the spotlight. Just because I’d resigned myself to the fact that the embarrassment would be worth it to help the shelter didn’t mean I wanted to go out of my way to bring in the most money. I wasn’t a fan of selling myself, and that’s exactly what all of us were doing.
There were a handful of baseball players on the auction block, mostly from the Mavericks and the Chicago Bulldogs, but there were even more I didn’t recognize. Except… My jaw dropped a bit when I recognized Zach Kendricks standing at the end of the line.
I had no clue how Eric and Bryce had managed to get the rookie wide receiver from Wilmington to show up, but I was fairly certain I’d spotted the man who’d pull in the most money. Not only was he so good he was already being compared to men like Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens, but he’d been labeled one of the world’s sexiest men in one of the popular magazines last year.
Besides the fact that women (okay, and gay men) were suckers for wide shoulders and narrow waists, he exuded a sort of country boy charm with his shy smile and deep dimples. And that ass. Holy hell. If I wasn’t going to be otherwise occupied, I might have to consider putting in a bid just so I could openly stare at those tight globes in his impeccably tailored tuxedo pants.
The emcee took a moment to introduce each of us to the audience before sending us offstage to await our turn in the spotlight. I hung back, not wanting to get caught up in the friendly competition and speculation over who’d rake in the most money.
When they started talking about what all was included in their date packages, I began to freak out a bit. Clint hadn’t mentioned needing to come up with a date plan ahead of time. If he had, I might’ve backed out, because I hadn’t the slightest clue how to plan the ultimate date.
Most women I knew, and likely all the women in the audience waving their bidding numbers in the air tonight, wouldn’t think too highly of heading to the batting cages before settling in for a night of action movies with beer and fried foods as the meal.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and fired off a quick text to Clint, wanting to know what else he’d failed to tell me.
Clint hadn’t responded by the time the first bachelor was called to the stage. As the emcee listed off the contents of Peyton Mosely’s perfect date, the DJ cranked the music and the ladies went wild. Mosely had always been a bit of a show-off, so I wasn’t surprised when he jumped off the stage and danced to “Cherry Pie” while working the crowd. The song was probably older than he was, but the women were eating it up.
The emcee finally quieted the crowd enough that he didn’t have to scream into the mic to be heard and started the bidding. By the time he