Celebration's Family (Celebrations, Inc Series Book 5)

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  Kimela was a formidable opponent. In other words, she intended to win. She kept raising her paddle until the bid reached $7,500 and her rival finally gave up.

  Kate was happy about the high bid for a few reasons: obviously, because it meant more money for the hospital; and selfishly, because she hoped that meant that Kimela had spent her bachelor auction budget. Maybe that was proof that Liam hadn’t told her that he was going to be a surprise add-on to close out the event.

  Finally the moment of truth had arrived.

  “Ladies, I have good news for those of you who were not fortunate enough to win one of the six fabulous men who have so graciously appeared on this stage. We have one more bachelor for your consideration. Let us all please welcome Dr. Liam Thayer to the stage.”

  As Liam walked out onto the stage, a round of applause sounded. “Ladies, Dr. Thayer is head of pediatrics at Celebration Memorial Hospital. He is six foot four. He has brown hair and blue eyes. His interests are kayaking, wine tasting and sports.”

  When Liam’s gaze snared Kate’s, nerves rolled through her stomach. It was as if he’d zeroed right in on her. Of course backstage he might have been able to see the audience. So she wouldn’t allow herself to make too big of a deal over it.

  He walked up to Maya at the podium.

  “Hello, handsome,” she said. Someone in the audience whistled. Kate wished she’d asked Maya to go a little more low-key when she presented Liam. However, since they were already at the hall when Kate had been walking Maya through the last-minute details, Kate didn’t want to say too much for fear that someone might overhear her. Besides, as intuitive as Maya seemed to portray herself, Kate didn’t think she needed to push the issue.

  “Are you the kind of guy who likes to surprise women?” she asked. “Because you’re the evening’s big surprise. You’re not listed in the program. The ladies out there didn’t know you’d be here tonight. Can you tell us why?”

  Kate shook her head as discreetly as she could, hoping Maya would see her and curtail that line of questioning.

  “I guess I do like to surprise people, Maya. Isn’t life sometimes one big surprise? That’s what keeps life interesting.”

  The audience applauded wildly.

  “Well, there you go,” Maya said. “Ladies, if you like surprises, then cast a bid for a mystery date with Dr. Liam Thayer, the man who is full of surprises. I’ll open the bidding at five hundred dollars. Do I hear five hundred dollars for Dr. Thayer?”

  Kate was so relieved and impressed by the way Liam handled himself; he seemed so completely unfazed by Maya’s questions, it almost seemed planned. Just as she was about to hold up her placard, Maya pointed to someone to the right of Kate and said, “Five hundred dollars, right here, do I hear six hundred?”

  Kate’s hand shot up.

  Maya pointed to her. “Six hundred right here. Do I hear seven?”

  The woman to her right bid again. This time Kate got a look at the competition. Kimela Herring. Kate and Pepper exchanged a look.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” Kate muttered under her breath. The woman had already won the date with Quinn Vogler. Why did she have to be so greedy? Especially when it was clear that Liam had no interest in her.

  Or did he?

  Of course he didn’t. He’d made that perfectly clear. Just because he was talking to her before the auction didn’t mean anything other than he was being polite. Still, how much money did one woman have to purchase dates? Kate decided she would put an end to this right now.

  When Maya raised the bid to eight hundred, Kate raised her placard and said, “Fifteen hundred dollars.”

  The audience gasped.

  Maya smiled and pointed to Kate. “Fifteen hundred dollars right here. Do I hear sixteen hundred?”

  The room was so silent Kate was afraid people could hear her shallow breathing and the staccato beat of her heart.

  “Fifteen hundred dollars, going once...going twice—”

  “Three thousand dollars,” said Kimela.

  Once again the audience gasped. So did Kate. Was the woman kidding? Was she desperate? Kate and Liam had joked about a bidding war, but they hadn’t talked about what to do in case someone drove the price above the allotted five thousand dollars. Until now it would’ve seemed like a ridiculous discussion.

  She looked at Liam, who was staring at her, a broad smile plastered on his face. As if he could do anything else with all eyes on him. For lack of a better idea, Kate, trying to be as subtle as she could, leaned her elbow on the table and propped her chin on her fist. This allowed her to make a subtle thumbs-up sign, and then rotate her fist to make a thumbs-down sign. Hoping and praying that no one was watching her, she flashed her eyes at Liam and repeated the signal.

  He gave the faintest of nods at what she was sure was the thumbs-up, which she interpreted to mean he wanted her to continue bidding. Of course. He didn’t want to get stuck with Kimela.

  “Do I hear thirty-one hundred?” Maya asked in Kate’s direction. Now all stares were on her. She had to bid or fold. If she and Liam made another signal, everyone would see. Or she would look like she had some kind of nervous tic.

  “Going once...” Maya said.

  Kate held up her paddle. The audience cheered. It reminded her of the scene in the movie It’s A Wonderful Life, when George Bailey and Mary Hatch are dancing at the school dance, and every time they edged closer to the rim of the swimming pool, the crowd would applaud with more and more gusto, until finally they fell in. Good lord. If she fell in this pool, she feared she might drown.

  Maya looked back over in Kimela’s direction, but before she could raise the bid, the annoying woman held up her placard and said, “Five thousand dollars.”

  Was she out of her mind?

  Obviously so.

  As the crowd hooted and hollered, Kate stole a glance at Liam, who gave a short but frantic shake of his head. Which meant...“don’t throw me to the wolf”? Or don’t bid any higher?

  His expression could’ve meant either....

  Oh, they really should’ve discussed this.

  Well, this was her lame-brained scheme and she had promised him that she wouldn’t throw him to the wolves. Even if she had to cover the excess of the amount of his check, she would do it. She cast a sidelong glance at Kimela, who was reveling in the attention she was getting.

  How in the world had Liam gotten messed up with the likes of her in her low-cut neckline with her fake spray tan? It wasn’t even a good spray tan. You’d think that someone with this kind of money to blow could afford something that looked more natural. Maybe she didn’t know the difference, bless her heart.

  Right. That woman knew exactly what she was doing. And there was no way Kate was going to let her get her hands on Liam again.

  Kimela Herring might be competitive, but the Great Pumpkin hadn’t seen anything like Kate Macintyre when she was on a mission.

  Ten thousand dollars later, Kimela conceded.

  Coincidentally—or not—her withdrawal from the race coincided with Pepper excusing herself to go to the bathroom. At first Kate thought it was an odd time for her sister-in-law to get up and leave. However, on the way she stopped by Kimela’s table and whispered something in the woman’s ear. Whatever she said must’ve been particularly effective because that’s when Kimela retired her paddle, and Maya had pronounced Kate the winner.

  Amid the roar of the crowd, reality, cold and prickly, began to settle in around Kate. She had just bid ten thousand dollars to win Liam his freedom.

  Ten. Thousand. Dollars.

  It was a good thing she was sitting, because she couldn’t feel her legs.

  Ten thousand dollars.

  Oh, dear God. What the heck had she just done?

  Chapter Nine

  They were calling him the Ten-Thousand-Dollar Man. They had nicknamed him that even before he was able to make his way to Kate in the sea of well-wishers.

  Him being auctioned off for that much money had whipped the
crowd into a frenzy, and he was doing his best to act flattered and humbled that someone would spend ten thousand dollars for a date with him.

  The burning question was: Where was he going to take Kate? What exactly did a ten-thousand-dollar date consist of?

  “It’s all for charity,” he managed to say off the top of his head.

  “Dr. Thayer, I’m Bia Anderson, managing editor of the Dallas Journal of Business and Development. I’m covering the auction tonight for the paper. Not to be a skeptic, but since your name wasn’t in the program or any of the preauction material, and you are the head of the department which will benefit from this fund-raiser...was this a setup?”

  He hadn’t counted on speaking to the press. “Excuse me?” he asked, pretending not to understand her question. Several people who had been trying to get his attention had heard Bia’s question and had stopped to listen to his answer.

  “I’m sorry to be a skeptic,” she said. “But that was a lot of money. And the woman with the winning bid...her name is Kate Macintyre. She runs the foundation, doesn’t she?”

  “It is a lot of money,” he answered. “And it’s for a great cause. I can assure you that everything is on the up-and-up. Kate Macintyre will get her date. The new pediatric surgical wing will benefit from the money. I’m sorry to poke holes in your conspiracy theory.”

  Bia frowned. “Well, then, where are you taking her? That was another thing that led to me thinking that this was...”

  “A setup?” Liam answered. He smiled his most charming smile. “Ms. Anderson, Kate bought herself a ten-thousand-dollar surprise. I can assure you that she will be surprised. But don’t you think it would spoil everything if I told you what I had in mind before I told Kate? That would defeat the purpose of the surprise, wouldn’t it?”

  Bia nodded, conceding, even though her expression gave away that she still wasn’t buying Liam’s explanation.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I need to do the polite thing and find my future date.”

  “Of course,” said the reporter.

  As Liam walked away, she said, “But you will let me do a follow-up story, won’t you? After the big event? Everyone will be dying to know where the Ten-Thousand-Dollar Man takes his date.”

  “Let me talk to Kate and see what she has to say about a follow-up.”

  And did he ever intend to talk to Kate. Bia Anderson had no idea. Funny, though, he wasn’t mad at Kate. She’d obviously done what she had thought was for the best. Even though he had no idea how she could’ve misread his signs. He’d clearly been giving her the signal to stop.

  Or at least he had thought he’d been clear about it. But it was over now. Kate had done her best. He’d agreed to the plan. There was nothing more to discuss. The only thing he’d do differently next time is to make sure there wasn’t a next time. He would never let his colleagues talk him into doing something he didn’t want to do. That was the lesson learned from this night.

  People slapped him on the back and congratulated him as he finally made his way through the crowd to Kate.

  The people applauded, camera flashes went off. When Kate turned around and saw him, her cheeks flushed the prettiest shade of pink.

  The crowd chanted, “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

  Someone gave Kate a gentle shove toward Liam, and she landed in his arms with an umph. She buried her head in his chest, apparently in no hurry to move away. So he put his arms around her and just held her. As they embraced, he tried not to notice how perfectly they fit together.

  “I am so sorry, Liam,” she whispered. “I guess I got a little carried away when Kimela started driving up the bid. This got out of control, and I take full responsibility. I will pay the five thousand dollars that I bid over and above what you gave me to work with.”

  “No, you won’t,” he whispered. “At least you showed Kimela she can’t have everything she wants.”

  “Yes, but at what cost?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s done, and there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

  She pulled back and looked at him with wide eyes. The color that had flushed her cheeks earlier was gone now, and she looked a little pale and panicked. He worried that he might have sounded a little too harsh.

  “You do know that everyone is watching us, don’t you?” he whispered over the excited din in the ballroom. “Keep smiling. Otherwise, people will think you’re having buyer’s remorse.”

  She forced a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I am,” she whispered. Her face was so serious. “Why didn’t you signal me to stop bidding?”

  “Keep smiling,” he urged again. “I did signal you. Like this.” He gave a quick jerk of his head.

  “Okay, to me that says keep bidding,” she said.

  “I meant stop bidding,” Liam said.

  Kate groaned. “We should’ve thought ahead. I should’ve seen this coming. We should’ve established signals. Or maybe I should’ve just let Kimela win. I’m sorry, Liam. I’m so sorry.”

  “Hey, keep smiling,” he whispered, careful to soften his tone. He was surprised by how protective he felt over her. She looked so fragile, and he didn’t want her to feel bad about this. Ten thousand dollars be damned. He’d think about the ramifications of that later. For now he wanted to see a genuine smile on Kate’s face. Because until this moment, he hadn’t realized how warm and calm her smile made him feel.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about,” he answered. “I’m glad you didn’t let Kimela win.”

  She sighed in a way that sounded as if her very soul had deflated. “But ten thousand dollars? That’s just... It’s just outrageous. Why do you—”

  She clamped her mouth shut as if she refused to let out the rest of the question.

  “What?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  He leaned in with the intention of making sure no one overheard what he was about to say. But the proximity and the scent of her—floral and fresh—took over his senses and made him breathe in deeply. It transported him back to that day in her office when he’d kissed her. He had the overwhelming urge to taste her lips again, so he said the one thing that could bring him back to center.

  “Are you wondering why I don’t want to see Kimela?”

  Kate nodded.

  Liam glanced around to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. The crowd seemed to be dissipating and the Catering to Dallas crew seemed to have gotten all the footage it needed. Even so, he kept his voice at a whisper. “It’s because she doesn’t listen. I told her numerous times that I couldn’t get involved, but she wouldn’t hear me. She kept manipulating the situation. I guess she thought she could wear me down. The situation wasn’t good for either one of us. Right now, my kids have to come first. She didn’t understand that.”

  Kate nodded. “I guess she’s a woman who goes after what she wants.”

  Liam’s admission seemed to have lightened Kate’s mood.

  “I don’t know about that. Maybe it’s more apt to say she wants what she thinks she can’t have. But changing the subject to a much better note, you look beautiful tonight. I like your dress.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “You dress up pretty well yourself. I didn’t think you owned anything else besides a lab coat. The tux is a nice change.”

  “Maybe I’ll wear it on our ten-thousand-dollar date everyone is expecting me to take you on.”

  “Very funny. Don’t even joke.”

  “I’m not joking. That reporter from the Dallas Journal of Business and Development asked if she could do a follow-up story on our date.”

  “And I hope you told her no.”

  “Not exactly.”

  “What does that mean?” Kate asked.

  “It means when she asked where I was taking you, I told her, since the date was a surprise, I couldn’t tell her before I told you. Since we’re the talk of this auction, there will be a date and it will be a ten-thousand-dollar date.”

&n
bsp; Kate grimaced.

  “As for a follow-up story, I said I had to check with you first.”

  Kate laughed with relief on her face, then leaned in to whisper, “Thank you for that.”

  He wanted to pull her back into his arms, to shelter her from the circus of curious onlookers. Instead, he reached up and brushed a strand of hair off her forehead, remembering the feel of her lips on his.

  “So first there was a fake auction bid,” Kate began. “Now there’s going to be a fake date. Why do I feel like this is a cautionary tale about the perils of lying? One lie forces you to tell another and then another.”

  “I see what you mean,” he said. “If we’re not careful, we may end up having to get married.”

  Kate’s eyes flew wide open. “Excuse me?”

  Liam shook his head. “And that sounded wrong on so many levels, didn’t it?”

  “On so many I can’t even count them. And for the record, there are certain things I won’t pay for.”

  Right about now Liam would’ve paid just about any price for one more long, unhurried taste of her lips, and the chance to explore that area where her jaw met her neck. He knew if he did, the scorching sexual magnetism that drew him to her wouldn’t let him stop there—

  “What are you two lovebirds doing huddled over here together?” asked Pepper.

  “Just discussing the terms of our date,” Liam said.

  “Ah, the ten-thousand-dollar date. Everyone in Celebration is holding their breaths to see where you go from here.”

  For the first time in a very long time, Liam was wondering the same thing.

  * * *

  As the crowd began to dissipate and people had finally pulled Liam away, offering the Ten-Thousand-Dollar Man congratulatory backslaps and high fives, the reality of what Kate had done began to sink in.

  What the heck got into me? she wondered as she stood amid the knot of stragglers still left in the ballroom.