Back In The Saddle: Bachelor Auction - Book 2

Graham grabbed the end and went to hook it beneath the front of Kale’s pickup.
I willed the tears away. I’d grieved not only the end of our relationship but the baby I’d thought we’d made in love. Had to see Claire Manning and know the child we’d created would have been exactly her age. That she could have been ours. Together.
I had to confront Huck. I had to know the truth. But first I was going to get even. How dare he lie to me about something like that! How dare he think so little of me. He’d turned his life around, proving to the entire town he was a stand-up guy. A leader in the community who gave back.
It had been six years. I’d thought I was done with him. If I was, I wouldn’t be losing my shit over the paperwork. But no. It cut deep. So deep.
I flipped the lever to tilt the truck bed.
“Think I should wear a blue shirt or a green one tonight?” Graham asked, stirring me from my thoughts once again.
“Green,” I told him, pushing the button for the winch and watching as the cable went taut and slowly began to pull the truck across the field. I took a deep breath, let it out. Tried to calm down, but my heart was practically beating out of my chest. “With that hair, the women are going to go wild.”
He took off his hat and watched as Kale’s truck slid into position on the flatbed. I stopped the winch, then lowered the bed back down so it was flat.
I needed to talk to Huck. Now. I stilled, then smiled. I knew a way to do just that. I’d get the answers I wanted. And then some.

4
HUCK
Friday night
Thatcher and I were the only two bachelors left to be auctioned off. Sawyer had just gone. I leaned against the wall backstage as he was bid on, not wanting to know how he fared. It was like waiting for our turn for the guillotine.
Alice had volunteered us, so it wasn’t like we could duck out from the event now by taking the nearest emergency exit. She’d kill us and with a dull knife. In our sleep. The last person I wanted mad at me was Alice. She’d been the Manning Ranch housekeeper longer than I’d been alive and mother hen for me and my brothers since my parents had died.
I was first to admit that had been a hellish job. I’d been a punk when I was a kid, but after my parents’ plane had crashed, I’d turned into a full-fledged asshole. For years.
I sighed, because I knew the moment I’d turned my shit around. When Sarah O’Banyon’s dad had forced me to walk away. When he’d said I wasn’t good enough for his daughter. Never had been, never would be.
It seemed I wasn’t good enough for not just Sarah, but for any woman. I hadn’t found one who’d stuck. Hell, who I’d wanted to stick. I hadn’t taken one to the ranch or to meet Claire. Sure, I’d been able to separate a woman from her panties on occasion. That wasn’t an issue, and definitely not one I shared with Alice. The family housekeeper wanted the three of us to settle down, to marry, not continue with random one-night stands.
Casual sex was one thing, but marriage? That was something else entirely. Something I’d wanted once. With Sarah. And since that was a dead fucking end, it was why I was here now. Waiting to be auctioned off to the highest bidding woman since I couldn’t get one on my own. I’d probably make five dollars for the charity tonight.
I wanted forever, but no doubt get a coffee date at the new place on Main with Miss Turnbuckle, the town’s librarian. The one who’d looked eighty when I was a kid.
“Fuck,” I grumbled to myself. I remembered how I’d felt for Sarah, the way she’d looked at me when I took her for the first time in the back of my pickup. How I’d loved her, wanted to worship every inch of her. Back then I’d gone from thinking only of myself to my sole goal in life being to make her happy.
The crowd of women in the audience screamed and clapped louder than ever. Something was happening, but it didn’t sound like anyone needed law enforcement’s intervention. Thatcher went over to the curtain that kept the backstage area from view and peeked out. I moved to stand beside him to see what the fuck was going on.
I caught a glimpse of Sawyer striding out of the auditorium, a woman tossed over his shoulder. I couldn’t see who it was, but she had red hair. Lots of it.
Thatcher stepped back, grinned. “I didn’t think Sawyer had it in him.”
I took off my Stetson, ran a hand over my hair. Unbelievable. Sawyer wanted a woman enough to carry her from the auction. “Me either.”
Sawyer was the serious one of the three of us. It was definitely because he was the oldest. He’d felt he had to take care of us since our parents died. Hell, he took care of everyone. That was why he was fire chief.
I took the other chief role in town. My reasons hadn’t been so altruistic. My goal hadn’t been to help other people when I’d come back from the academy and taken a deputy position. It had been to help me. To get Sarah to see me as worthy.
Five years in and even taking up the chief role, that hadn’t happened.
Reverend Abernathy popped his head around the curtain. He was smiling and seemed quite pleased with himself. “Your brother had the highest bid of the night. Five hundred dollars!”
“Holy sh—” Thatcher said, then cut himself off and offered a shameful smile. “Sorry, Reverend.”
The man held up his hand. “I am surprised as well. The money is for a good cause; therefore I think God would