by Liz Isaacson
She closed her eyes as she rocked, in absolute heaven with this baby in her arms.
“What do you mean, you have to go?” Vi hissed as Rose stood with only ten minutes left in the movie.
“She has a date,” Lily said.
“I tried to get him—” Rose started, but she cut off. She hadn’t tried to get a different time with Liam. He’d suggested they go that night, and it was only ten minutes of the movie she’d have to miss. Lily had been fine with it, especially after Rose had explained how busy he was, and that she’d been waiting to be asked out for almost two weeks.
Rose stumbled over her sister with a, “I’ll call you later.”
“Have fun,” Lily said, her focus already back on the movie.
Rose made it to her truck without slipping on the ice, and her phone chimed as she started the engine. Thanks for the movie, baby sister. It was exactly what I needed.
She smiled at Lily’s text and sent a few hearts back. Then she focused on getting across town to someplace called Devil’s Tower that Liam had promised her would change her mind about stacks of things.
They were meeting, because she had told him she’d already be in town. He hadn’t asked where, and she’d suggested they meet. He’d suggested the time, and she pulled up to the restaurant with three minutes to spare.
She pulled out her lip gloss and made her lips pinky and shiny before she stepped through the lot, avoiding puddles and piles of snow, to the door.
Liam came out before she went in, and he smiled at her. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” His deep voice reached all the way into her soul and made her cells vibrate. She glanced down at her black coat when he did.
“I’m wearing a coat and jeans,” she said. “It is freezing here. Does it ever get warm?”
“Oh, sure.” He ushered her inside. “About July.”
“At least it’s warm in here.” She didn’t move forward as Liam crowded in behind her. His hand bumped hers and then held on.
“It really is great to see you.”
Rose twisted and smiled at him. “You too.”
“They’re waiting for us.” He nudged her forward and he nodded to the hostess. “We’re ready now.”
She gave him a flirtatious smile and plucked two menus from the holder on the side of her podium. “Right this way.” She didn’t look at Rose at all.
Once they had a booth, and Rose had shed her coat, she asked, “How are things going at the clinic?”
“Great,” he said with a sigh. “Fine.” He put a smile on his face. “I don’t want to talk about the clinic. How’s your sister’s baby?”
“Still in the NICU.” Rose added a sigh to the conversation too. “My sister and I took her to a movie this afternoon to get her out of the hospital for a little bit.”
“Good idea,” he said. He glanced up at the waitress as she set two glasses of water on the table.
“You two know what you want?”
Liam threw her a sly, flirty look that made Rose feel like the luckiest woman in the world. “I do. Care if I order for us?”
Rose wanted nothing more. “Go right ahead.”
He smiled, and he really should be locked up for looking so good while doing that. “We’ll have the Ring Tower, and the Cheese Me Tower.” He looked back at her. “How do you feel about fried chicken?”
“I’m from the South,” she answered.
“And the Clucker Tower. Oh, and the Let’s Make a Dill Tower.”
Rose started laughing as the waitress continued to scribble on her pad. “Can we eat all of this?”
“Oh, sure,” he said. “And the Leafy Tower. That should do it.”
The waitress gave him a quick smile, said, “Coming right up,” and walked away.
Rose reached for the menu before she forgot the things he’d said. “What is this place?”
He grabbed her menu before she could look at it. “It’s a surprise. But everything here comes in a tower or a stack. You’re going to love it.”
“Is that right?” She leaned her elbows on the table and cradled her face in her hands.
“That’s right.” He tucked the menus down by his legs on the seat. “So, Rose Everett. I’ve been listening to a brand new country music trio. They’re really quite talented.”
Warmth pulled through Rose with the strength of gravity, and all she could do was smile.
Chapter Six
I’ll be there.
Liam had been living on those three words for almost two weeks now. Since the very successful date at Devil’s Tower—he was so glad he’d tacked on the Leafy Tower, which was basically a salad in vertical form—he’d been texting Rose every day. Every spare moment, actually.
He’d finally gotten up the courage to ask her if she’d be coming to the Valentine’s Day bachelor auction, and she’d texted back I’ll be there.
The event was that night, and Liam couldn’t wait to see Rose again. They’d been out a couple more times, but he’d been rushed each time, and once they’d just met for coffee and banana bread at the coffee shop for twenty minutes before a meeting with the hospital administrator.
As he finished shaving, his phone chimed with the sound he’d set just for Rose, and he almost cut himself in his haste to look at his device. Best news ever! Charlie is coming home tonight!
His heart skipped and jumped for a couple of reasons. One, taking a baby home was excellent news. But two, would she skip the auction that night to spend time with her nephew at home?
He wasn’t going to ask. He wasn’t a jerk.
That’s so great! he sent back. Tell Lily and Beau congratulations. Then he splashed aftershave on his face and stepped into his best suit. He knew how to dress the part like his parents did, and this time he had the right shoes and all the right pieces in the right places.
He had an obligation to do the auction, and all he could do was pray that Rose would be there. So he did that, buttoned his wool coat, and stepped into the garage to get into his LandRover.
The auction was being held at the community center, and by the time Liam pulled up—twenty minutes early, when he was appointed to arrive—the parking lot was already full.
Full.
He heard the chattering of female voices as he entered, but Veronica swept him down a hall quickly, saying, “Okay, you’re here. Good. Everyone’s here.”
“I’m last?” he asked.
“I staggered the arrival times,” she said, almost shoving him into a room with a couple dozen other men. “Julia will help you with your number.” The door slammed closed, and Liam straightened his tie and glanced around, trying to regain his composure.
An auburn-haired woman sat at a table nearby, and she held out a crisp square of paper with the number nine on it. “Hello, Doctor Murphy. You’ll be number nine, and I’ll let you know when it’s your turn to go backstage.”
He took his number and stared at it. “I wear this?”
“Yep,” Julia said. “Pin it where you’d like.” She handed him a safety pin, and Liam moved away from the table. Some of the men stood together in groups, talking. But the majority of them sat in chairs facing a big-screen television. It showed the stage in the event room, and chatter could be heard but no women could be seen.
“How many women are there?” he asked the man he sat beside, still trying to figure out where to pin his number.
His phone vibrated in his pocket as the guy said, “At least fifty.”
“There’s not fifty of us,” Liam said.
“Nope.”
So not every single woman in Coral Canyon would have a date on Valentine’s Day. He pulled his phone out and looked at it. Rose had texted again. I’m running late. Will I miss you?
There were fifteen minutes before it started and he was number nine. He had no idea how long the auction would take. I’m number nine, he said. And I have no idea how fast it goes.
At least now he knew Rose intended to bid on him. And he’d done a little digging on her since seei
ng Veronica’s reaction in the hospital cafeteria a few weeks ago. It had only taken a little, because the Everett Sisters were huge. Huge country music artists.
Which meant Rose had plenty of money and could likely outbid any woman currently in the event room.
I’ll hurry.
Liam tucked his phone away and decided to pin his number on his lapel like it was a boutonniere. Then he faced the television and wished his stomach didn’t feel like it had been filled with jumping beans.
Finally, Veronica appeared on the stage and took the mic. “Are we ready for the auction, ladies?”
Whoops and cheers went up, and Veronica smiled widely. “Remember, all proceeds go to fund the youth programs here at the Community Center in Coral Canyon. A percentage of our proceeds this year are also being donated to the hospital, to help with the renovation and remodel. So it’s a good cause, ladies! Pull out those wallets!”
Twittering came through the TV, and the excitement from the other room seemed to infect Liam too. He wasn’t a huge fan of the bachelor auction, but it did bring in money for the town, and a lot of women would have dates on one of the hardest days of the year for singles, and he’d heard of a few couples who’d made a love connection and had gone on to get married after meeting through the auction.
Liam directed his thoughts away from marriage. He’d been out with Rose a few times. He wanted to see her every day, but he had a clinic to get open and it wasn’t as easy as he’d anticipated to get the staff he needed. And the red tape from the hospital? Unbelievable.
The first man was taken out by Julia, and she returned to get Bachelor Number Two while Veronica read Number One’s resume. Liam’s stomach squirmed. He’d provided his own bio, but it was only a couple of sentences long. He wasn’t sure what it would be used for, and had he known, he would’ve beefed it up a bit, the way Number One obviously had.
Doesn’t matter, he told himself. Rose was coming.
But what if Rose didn’t make it? What if no one bid on him? And he just stood up there like a loser, wishing he didn’t have to be the one to solve the problem. The one to score the highest on his latest exam. The one dressed perfectly, so his parents would be proud of him.
He shook his head and breathed. He wasn’t in high school anymore. Had given up the family business. Graduated at the top of his class in medical school. Worked in remote locations with little more than masking tape and gauze.
And even if Rose didn’t show up, he hoped someone would still bid on him. He was wearing his best suit, after all.
One by one, the men were taken out, and it was finally his turn. He stood off-stage while Number Eight brought in quite a lot of bids. There seemed to be a war going on for him, and Liam wished he’d paid attention during his introduction.
He was finally won with a bid of five hundred and twelve dollars, and he was taken off the other side of the stage.
Liam slicked his palms down his thighs and waited for Veronica to look in his direction. Julia had said she wouldn’t be able to see him, but he should go out when she looked to his side.
“And now,” she said into the mic like she had a great secret. “We have one of Coral Canyon’s newest and most eligible bachelors….” She looked at Liam, and he almost tripped over his feet as he started toward her.
“Doctor Liam Murphy,” she said as he stepped into the lights on the stage. He squinted, as his eyes adjusted to the bright light, but he could certainly hear the whispers in the crowd.
“He needs no introduction, but he is a general practitioner who’s spent the last eleven years working in places like Columbia, Chad, and Nigeria in his work for Doctors Without Borders. He’s back in town, where he spent his childhood summers, to open the new emergency clinic this May.”
She looked at her notes like there would be more, and when she didn’t find it, she faced the crowd again. Liam was suddenly glad the lights were so bright so he couldn’t see the faces out there.
He hoped and prayed Rose was out there.
“So let’s start the bidding, shall we?” Veronica said brightly, something she was very good at. “Do I have fifty dollars?”
To Liam’s great relief, a female voice said, “Fifty dollars!”
He stood there, smiling, while Veronica managed the bids. He hadn’t heard Rose’s voice yet, and he was starting to wonder if he would recognize it even if she was there—which he had no guarantee of.
“Could he be our largest bid of the evening?” Veronica practically yelled into the microphone. “Do I hear five-fifteen?”
A long silence came, and Liam wasn’t sure why he cared if he was the highest bid of the night or not. Besides, there were still a lot of men to go, and any one of them could fetch more money.
“One thousand dollars,” a voice came from the back of the room.
A collective gasp rose up, and then Rose added, “Is that not enough? Two thousand dollars.”
Liam couldn’t help it. He started laughing.
Chapter Seven
Rose stood at the payment table, listening to a woman named Julia gush about her high bid. Foolishness raced through Rose. She’d arrived to find Liam standing on the stage, and silence surrounding him. She hadn’t known where the bid was, and she hadn’t wanted to lose him.
She hadn’t had time to ask anyone.
So she’d shouted out a thousand dollars. Why everyone had frozen after that, she hadn’t been sure. She knew now, but she was still writing a check for two thousand dollars. The money didn’t concern her, but the perception of the rest of the women in the event room did.
And Liam….
She almost groaned out loud. Ripping off her check, she handed it to Julia, said, “Thank you,” and held her head high as she walked out. Some of the other women who’d already paid for their bachelor were milling about, talking to the man they’d won.
Phone numbers were being exchanged, and Valentine’s Day plans made. Rose just wanted to go back to the lodge, hold her baby nephew while she told him all about the debacle, and then crawl into bed and stay there.
She didn’t need to go out on Valentine’s Day. Mother Nature was supposed to dump inches of snow that day anyway.
“Rose,” Liam said from somewhere behind her, and her step stuttered. She’d have to face him sometime, but it didn’t have to be right now. She kept going toward the exit. Maybe if they had to talk, it could be in private.
In fact, most of what Rose wanted to do with Liam required privacy.
She banished the fantasies and stood in the entryway between the outside doors and the inner doors. A few moments later, Liam joined her.
“You made it,” he said, taking both of her hands in his. Her mind blanked for a moment at his touch, then her cells and nerves started firing like cannons.
“Barely,” she said, her voice hardly above a whisper.
He ran his hands up her arms, and though she wore a blue sweatshirt with a stag on it, her skin reacted to his touch. “I was worried there for a moment.” He seemed genuinely concerned about her. “You okay? How’s Charlie?”
Rose inhaled and looked up into Liam’s vibrant eyes. “He’s so great.” She almost blurted that she wanted a dozen babies like him, but she caught the words before they left her throat. “I’m sorry about that in there,” she said. “I didn’t know what the bid was at, and I was just….”
She let her words die. She didn’t need to admit to him that she was desperate to win him, that she didn’t want anyone else to have the pleasure of going out with him.
“I know,” he said, drawing her into his arms. She went willingly, because he was warm, and she was cold. Because he was strong, and she was weak. Because she liked him, and when held her close, she felt as if he liked her too.
“Have you had time to eat tonight?” he asked. “We could go grab something.”
She nodded, because she’d like that.
“You have eaten?” he asked. “Or you want to go get something?”
Rose found h
er courage and her well of strength. “I want to go get something.”
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go.” He threaded his fingers through hers and led her outside, where the real cold air stole the breath right from her lungs.
“Wow,” she said, her teeth chattering instantly. “I don’t know how people live here in the winter.”
“Right?” He chuckled, which alleviated some of the tension between them. “That’s why we only came in the summer.”
“Tell me about that,” Rose said as he unlocked his LandRover and helped her up and in.
His fingers slid down her arm and he watched her for a moment before closing the door and rounding the front of the SUV. Once he was behind the wheel, he started adjusting dials and pushing buttons.
“Your seat warmer is on now,” he said. “Takes a few seconds.” His car heated faster than any she’d ever been in, and Rose knew better than most what a lot of money could buy.
“We came for June and July, usually,” he said, backing out of the parking space. “I’m ten years older than my brother, so for a while there, it was just me and my mom. I’d leave the house in the morning with a fishing pole and a sack lunch, and I wouldn’t come back until dinnertime.” He laughed again and shook his head. “Life was easy.”
“Is life hard now?”
“No,” he said. “It’s just different.”
“Did your dad not come to the cabin?”
“Oh, no. Summer is the best time to sell houses,” Liam said, a quiet note of unrest in his voice. “He’d come up on weekends if he wasn’t busy. And once Lars came along and was old enough to walk, I’d take him to the lake, the rivers, fishing, hiking, all of it.”
“Sounds nice,” she said, thinking of what she did when she was twelve.
“It was nice,” he said. “I do love the cabin. After a while, I realized how much money my family has.” He cut her a glance, as if she hadn’t figured out his parents—and him—were loaded. “And I didn’t want to spend my life wearing ties and selling land and mansions. My dad didn’t take it super well.”
