Her face softened and her tone grew almost pleading. “She’s sweet, Coop. Really sweet. She doesn’t play games. She’s not like the girls you… date.”
I raised an eyebrow and met Jade’s eyes with a certainty I’d never felt before in my life. “I know.”
She opened her mouth, paused, and then closed it. Finally, she wrinkled her brow and sincerely asked, “How do you know? You don’t know her.”
Like that mattered. “Maybe not. But I know me.”
“What does that even mean?”
I didn’t want to get into it. Even if I did, there was no way I could find the words to convince Jade of my intentions. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I completely understood them myself.
When it came down to it, I was a man of action, and action is what I decided to take, right then and there. I turned to face Jade and I looked her dead in the eye so she’d know I was serious.
“Do you have my envelope?” I remembered her telling me that they were collecting the envelopes from the silent auction before the announcements were going to be made.
“What?”
I scanned the table that held the bids. “My envelope. How high is the bid?”
Jade grabbed a stack and held them away from me. “Why?”
My friend was a lot of things but subtle wasn’t one of them.
“How high is it?”
She clutched the papers close to her chest. “I can’t tell you that.”
I had no time for this. My voice was steel as I asked again. “How high is it, Jade?”
She took a small step back. “It’s fifteen hundred.”
Excellent. Easy solution. I pulled my wallet from my back pocket, got out my credit card, and went to work filling out a bid slip. “Good. I’m bidding 2Gs.”
“You’re bidding on yourself?” Jade’s bewildered voice as she asked the question let me know I was going to have to spell things out for her. She wasn’t following my thought process.
“Yes…and gifting myself to Vanessa.”
“I don’t think that’s legal.”
“Are the bid police going to arrest me?” I finished filling out the slip and handed it to her. “What’s the point of an auction? To raise money. This is five hundred more than you had a minute ago.”
I could see Jade struggling with the logic, but in the end, she shook her head and replaced the bid slip in the envelope. “Are you sure you don’t want to just meet her?”
I grinned. “I’ll meet her.”
Jade looked straight into my eyes with a fierce protectiveness. “Don’t hurt her.”
“I won’t.”
I don’t know how I knew that, but I did, from the bottom of my soul. If it was in my power to control, I would never hurt Vanessa. I knew it. It was fact, like I knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west.
Confident that my plan was underway, I moved into the holding area and waited to hear my name called. When it was, I stepped out onto the stage and flashed a smile that had always been a crowd pleaser, drawing enthusiastic cheers.
The emcee read the bio I submitted. When I’d written it, I’d kept it intentionally low-key, not even hitting on the majority of my academic and athletic feats or the athletic performance and recovery devices I’d patented. I never flaunted my success. It wasn’t the Briggs way. Growing up with eight siblings, my father had instilled in all of us to let our successes speak for themselves. He always said that actions were louder than words. Now, knowing that Vanessa was hearing it, I sort of wished I’d put some more thought into crafting the short paragraph.
The emcee opened the envelope as if he were about to announce the winner of an award. He looked at the card, then shook his head and checked it again. Finally, he said, “Oh, this is unusual. It looks like our highest bidder was anonymous, and has gifted the bid to our very own Dr. Vanessa Cupid.”
Available Here
A Note From Melanie and Shawna
Hey Lovelies!
Melanie and I (yep, there are two of us, and…wait for it…we’re sisters dun, dun, dun!) just wanted to say HI! We LOVE getting to know our readers so make sure to connect with us on our Facebook page and join us in our reader group: Club HEA with Melanie Shawn where we hang out, talk about our love of not only books (obvi) and life, fitness (or lack thereof, lol), kiddos, friendships, love, food, the daily grind, wine and other adult beverages, and encourage the sharing of memes, polls, basically anything and everything that puts smiles on people’s faces.
We hope that you enjoyed your visit to Firefly Island and Hank and Skylar’s (and Luna’s) road to HEA! I think we all deserve a Hank in our lives. And I’m not even talking in the romantic sense, he’s just a great guy to have in your corner! Up next is the final Southern Comfort book featuring Cheyenne and Cash.
Hank & Skylar’s Playlist:
Who You Love—John Mayer ft. Katy Perry
Fallin’ For You—Colbie Caillat
Arms of a Woman—Amos Lee
Made For You—Jake Owen
In Case You Didn’t Know—Brett Young
The Difference—Thomas Rhett
The Bones—Maren Morris
My Miracle—Brad Paisley
Heartbeat—Carrie Underwood
I Don’t Dance—Lee Brice
Slow Down—Alana Springsteen
If you want to keep up with new releases, sales, and general book and life shenanigans make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
And as always we wish you love, laughter, and happily ever after! XO
Shawna & Melanie
Other Titles by Melanie Shawn
THE CROSSROADS SERIES
My First – Book 1
My Last – Book 2
My Only – Book 3
My Everything – Book 4
Tempting Love – Book 5
Crazy Love – Book 6
Actually Love – Book 7
Fairytale Love – Book 8
My Love – Novella 8.5
All He Wants – Book 9
All He Needs – Book 10
All He Feels – Book 11
All He Desires – Book 12
Just One Night – Book 13
Just One Kiss – Book 14
Just One Look – Book 15
Just One Touch – Book 16
THE HOPE FALLS SERIES
Sweet Reunion – #1
Sweet Harmonies – #2
Sweet Victory – #3
Home Sweet Home – #4
One Sweet Day – Novella #4.5
Snow Angel – #5
Snow Days – #6
Snowed In – #7
Let It Snow – #8
Perfect Kiss – #9
Secret Kiss – #10
Magic Kiss – #11