His Until Midnight. Reese Ryan

Alexis swiped at the corner of one eye, her gaze cast downward. “I just... I’m fine.” She forced a smile, finally raising her eyes to meet Tessa’s. “You’re going to kill them tonight. Just wait until you come out of that jacket. We’re going to have to scrape everyone’s jaws off the floor.” She patted Tess’s shoulder. “I’d tell you good luck, but something tells me that you aren’t going to need it tonight.”

      With that, Alexis dipped out of the green room and was gone.

      When Tess turned around, Daniel was standing there, staring after the other woman. He quickly turned away, busying himself with grabbing a bottle of water from the table.

      There was definitely something going on with the two of them. And if there was, Tessa could understand why they wouldn’t want to make their relationship public. Daniel’s grandmother, Rose Clayton, and Alexis’s grandfather, Gus Slade, once an item, had been feuding for years.

      In recent months, they seemed to at least have found the civility to be decent toward one another. Most likely for the sake of everyone around them. Still, there was no love lost between those two families.

      “Looks like Royal has its very own Romeo and Juliet,” she muttered under her breath.

      Tess took her seat, her hands trembling slightly and butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She closed her eyes, imagining how Ryan would react to seeing her out there on that stage.

       Five

      Ryan hung back at the bar as the bachelor auction wound down. There were just a couple more bachelors on the list, then Tess would be up.

      He gulped the glass of water with lemon he was drinking. He’d talked to just about everyone here. But with neither Tripp nor Tess to hang out with, he’d been ready to leave nearly an hour ago.

      Then again, his discomfort had little to do with him going stag for the night and everything to do with the fact that his best friend would be trotted out onto the stage and bid on. His gaze shifted around the garden at the unattached men in attendance. Most of them were members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. Some of them second, third or even fourth generation. All of them were good people, as far as he knew. So why was he assessing them all suspiciously? Wondering which of them would bid on his best friend.

      The next bachelor, Lloyd Richardson, was called onto the stage and Alexis read his bio. Women were chomping at the bit to bid on the guy. Including Gail Walker. She’d started with a low, reasonable bid. But four or five other women were countering her bids as quickly as she was making them.

      First the bid was in the hundreds, then the thousands. Suddenly, Steena Goodman, a wealthy older woman whose husband had been active in the club for many years before his death, stood and placed her final bid. Fifty-thousand dollars.

      Ryan nearly coughed. What was it about this guy that had everyone up in arms?

      Steena’s bid was much higher than the previous bid of nine thousand dollars. The competing bidders pouted, acknowledging their defeat.

      But not Gail. She looked angry and hurt. She stared Steena down, her arms folded and breathing heavily.

      Alexis glanced back and forth at the two women for a moment. When Rachel nudged her, she cleared her throat and resumed her duties as auctioneer. “Going once, going twice—”

      “One hundred thousand dollars.” Gail stared at Steena, as if daring her to outbid her.