Auction Time: Bad Boy Bachelors of Orange County BK3

by Gray, Khardine

  “I’m sorry. Do you… want to go out for some ice cream?” I was in no position to cheer anyone up with all the shit I’d landed myself in, but she was my little sister. It was my job to try.

  “No, I just want to stay here.” She looked back to Mom and Dad and smiled. “I know I’m supposed to be at work, but I needed cheering up. They always cheer me up. They’ve been doing this for over two months. They take Fridays off to spend it together. It’s starts with dancing lessons.”

  I looked back to them too “Really?”

  “Yes, no work, no us, just them. Them as a couple. It’s nice to see them like this. In love.”

  “Yeah.” I nodded, agreeing

  I couldn’t remember a time when my parents had been anything other than in love.

  “They make it look so easy. They simply exist like they were made for each other. Like it really is that simple. Every day is another adventure. You know what they’re like.” She smirked. “They allow life to take them on whatever course it wants to, no matter what happens.”

  She was the youngest, and God did we ever tease her, but Vanessa was obviously the girl with her head screwed on straight. Simply because she could see what was before her much more than any of us.

  Her words gripped me, and something snapped inside my soul like an epiphany. She was right, my parents did allow life to take them on whatever course it wanted, no matter what happened. That was what it was, and it wasn’t just them.

  There was Taylor and Dylan, and Abby and Gilly. They were all great examples of people around me who’d actually found true love.

  Trust was automatic, but it wasn’t trust in a situation. It was trust in their love.

  “They give me hope,” Vanessa stated as she looked back to me. “I want that. I want what they have.”

  I would have said I wanted that too, but the fool I’d been only just realized she’d had it. I actually had it. I had that with Eric, and yes, I did trust him because I knew he loved me.

  I knew he loved me, and that was all I needed. It was the difference between being with him anything I’d had before him, and as long as I knew that, there was actually nothing to be afraid of.

  I didn’t need to be afraid anymore, or… feel the need to be in control. That might have been necessary with men who were not Eric.

  You didn’t need to control what happened to your heart if you had someone who warmed it with their own and loved you the way that man showed me he loved me. He’d showed me more than humanly possible how much he loved me.

  Eric had done more than enough. He’d done more than enough for everything, and he was everything.

  Determination filled my heart, and for the first time in my life, I actually felt like seizing the moment. I felt the true essence of it.

  I looked back to Vanessa again.

  “Hey,” I said to her. “There’s something I have to do, but we’ll talk later.”

  “Okay. That would be nice.” She nodded with a little smile.

  “Thank you, Vanessa.” She definitely deserved my thanks.

  She looked at me, not knowing what I meant. “What for?”

  “Being you.”

  Another tear ran down her cheek. “Wow, thanks. You too.”

  “See you later.” I gave her another hug and got up, practically running to my car. Now it was my turn to chase Eric.

  My turn to chase him. My turn to show him I loved him because he was everything to me.

  * * *

  I drove straight to the stadium, where I knew Eric should be, but he wasn’t there. The whole team was there, but not him. I must have spent an hour looking for him. I tried his house next, and even drove by Rory’s, but there was no one home.

  I spent hours driving around and gave up when I went to the last place I thought he’d be but wasn’t.

  I headed home with a heavy heart, which perked up again when I saw his truck parked on my drive.

  I jumped out of my car and rushed up to the porch, where I saw him sitting in the corner by the fan palms.

  He lifted his head when he saw me and stared at me with those bright blue eyes.

  “You’re here,” I breathed.

  He released a sharp breath. “Yes, I’m here, like an idiot because I can’t let you go.” He stood up and walked over to me.

  “I looked everywhere for you,” I told him, and as he blinked, something dimmed in his stare.

  “Auction over? You ready to cut me loose like a dog?” Although he asked the question with a light edge of humor, his whole expression gave him away.

  He was right to ask that because it was true. I’d treated him like a dog. Like a pet on a leash I wanted to do everything I wanted it to do. All me, me, me. When he was so much more than that.

  “No, I was chasing you. Eric, I can’t apologize enough for being such an ass. I trust you because I love you, and I don’t need anything else, and I don’t need to do anything more than love you and try to love you the way you love me. It shouldn’t have taken a stupid auction to snap me in gear to see what I had, and it definitely shouldn’t have taken the craziness of the other night to open my eyes.”

  He tilted his head to the side and looked me over, intensifying his gaze the longer he stared.

  “Mia, please don’t tell me I fell asleep or hit my head somewhere, because this is one hell of a dream.”

  I took hold of both his hands and smiled. “It’s not a dream. And please… don’t let me go. If you do, I’ll follow you everywhere and do everything I can to make you love me again. Can you forgive me and give me another chance?”

  Now he narrowed his eyes at me. “I already have, hence the part about me being here.” He moved his hand up to my cheek and gave me that brilliant smile I loved so much. As he held my face, it felt the way coming home should feel. Like I belonged. “You’re it for me, Mia. So, I actually can’t let you go. Not even if you were done with me. I love you too much to be without you.”

  There it was, everything and more.

  Words that sealed all that I felt for him.

  I returned the smile, finally feeling like I found what I’d sought for most in my life. That sense of adventure and love that I would only ever have with him.

  I stood on the tips of my toes and welcomed his lips as he lowered his mouth to kiss me.

  Auction up, indeed.

  He belonged to me, and I would be his forever.

  Epilogue

  Eric

  One month later …

  The new season would start in two weeks.

  Our first game was going to be against the Chicago Bears in Illinois.

  The start of the season was always exciting, and this year was the type of excitement that was electrifying because of our Super Bowl win.

  However, it was the very first time since I’d started playing football that my mind was split between home and playing the game.

  Number one on my list of home was my girl.

  Things had been amazing with Mia. That was the best thing I could say to describe how we were.

  Amazing. And I wasn’t sure how the hell I was going to play football and have her on my mind, distracting the hell out of me. I knew for damn certain that we had some very interesting times ahead.

  Interesting for all that I had planned for us.

  There had been a number of changes in my life. Her included, but as we progressed, other things happened too. Things with my family.

  Dad found out about Rory being my father and hit my mother with divorce papers not less than twenty-four hours after she told him.

  Yes, she actually told him herself. It totally took me by surprise, and I definitely thought it was really big of her on her part. She told him the truth and accepted the consequences, which was the loss of everything. Dad went crazy and practically threw her out, but she’d actually planned for that. Mom bought a house just outside Orange County that wasn’t on par with the grand mansion she’d lived in with Dad but still great by most people’s standards. It wa
s a step of independence that she’d seemed to hope not to have to take but had to. She protested against me helping, but there was no way, no matter what happened, that I was going to let her want for anything. Not with the crazy money I earned.

  Like Rory, she would need my help because Dad wanted nothing whatsoever to do with either of them, which I totally understood, much as I loved Rory.

  I’d almost thought he’d want nothing to do with me too until he knocked my door down the week after the news hit and informed me that he didn’t give a flying fuck about blood. He said I was his son whether I liked it or not, and he’d see me at the first game of the season.

  I never got the chance to answer because he didn’t wait for an answer. I was too stunned to give it, and his little declaration told me two things. It told me all the times I’d thought he didn’t care, he actually did, and he cared too about my career and wanted to support me.

  It was the kind of heartfelt honesty that meant a lot.

  Also the kind that closed that chapter of my life.

  On to the next one.

  As if on cue with my thoughts, the gorgeous brunette who’d captured my heart came out of the kitchen and floated into the living room.

  The gorgeous Mia Cartwright was the next chapter of my life, and I couldn’t wait to truly get lost in her.

  She carried a tray of cookies and brownies she’d made.

  Her with the tray of goodies, the sexy smile on her face, her wearing my oversized shirt and short shorts was definitely a vision from above.

  Her in my house every day was more than I could wish for. So much more.

  I’d managed to get a chunk of her stuff here and basically had her here with me all the time.

  I was going to miss that. I was going to miss this time we’d spend together.

  “I bring spoilage,” she bubbled, setting the cookies down and skipping into my lap.

  “You know Coach is going to kill both of us if he finds out I’ve been eating cookies.” I chuckled, slipping my arms around her waist.

  “Yes, I factored that in, but I heard on the by the by that Coach Simpson loves peanut butter cookies, so when he comes to kill us, I’ll hit him with a tray of those and send him on his way.” She giggled and pressed her nose to mine.

  I laughed, loving her humor. It was actually something she would do. “I’m going to miss you like crazy.”

  She’d be at a few games, but I knew what it would be like for the whole season. We could joke about Coach all we wanted, but he was tough and like the devil when it came to football.

  “I will miss you too. But I’ll keep the house warm for you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Eric Declan, don’t you act like you didn’t move me in with you. All I have at my place is a toothbrush.” She pretended to pout.

  “Well, if that’s all that’s left, you may as well get it and bring it here. Right?” I joked, but I was actually being serious.

  “I just might. Wouldn’t want it to be lonely, would I?” She smiled. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. I think so.”

  “Aren’t you nervous at all for the new season?”

  I laughed. “Please don’t think I’m bigheaded if I say I’m not nervous about that. I have bigger fish to fry.”

  She shuffled. “And what fish could be bigger than football?”

  I decided to play a game with her. “This morning when I woke up and looked at you, I thought you needed to go on an adventure in a few months.”

  It was part of my plan.

  She gasped. “Oh my gosh! If you’re talking replay of Tijuana, I think you’re absolutely onto something. I do need to go on an adventure. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking of the kind of adventure where you could come back different.” I nodded.

  Now her eyes widened. “Different how?”

  “That part’s the mystery that you get to figure out.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath. “You mean thing. Why would you say something like that and get me all worked up? At least give me a clue.”

  I’d give her that. “I’m taking you to Bora Bora in six months.”

  She leapt off my lap and screamed. “Oh my God, oh my God, this is unreal.” She actually looked like she was going to burst with the excitement. “Wait, that’s just the clue?”

  “Yeah, and no more. You can figure out what we’ll be doing there in a few weeks.”

  She frowned, picked up the little cushion on the sofa, and hit me with it. “Weeks? Why weeks?”

  I laughed in answer to her question and grabbed a cookie.

  I looked at the woman I would be asking to marry me in a few weeks and shook my head. I wanted to get football out of the way and propose to her at the end of the season. I had it all planned out, even booked the restaurant, and last week I bought a ring. I had the perfect plan for the next chapter of my life and would begin with her.

  “Eric, you better tell me the rest of this plan of yours.” She giggled.

  “No, it’s more fun this way. I get to watch you figure it out.”

  “But it’s torture.” She pouted.

  “I know. Come here. I also predicted a lot of bedroom action today.”

  At that she smiled, slid back into my lap, and planted a kiss on my lips.

  It was the kind of kiss I knew I’d always want, every day for the rest of my life.

  * * *

  Thank you so much for reading and for allowing me to share my stories with you.

  More Bachelor fun on the way.

  Stay tuned for Vanessa and Cole’s story in

  Not Before Game Night.

  Coming soon.