Bachelorette for Sale Read Free Page A

waving a red flag at her food, daring it to leave a stain smack in the middle of her chest.
    “Why can’t I wear my clothes?” At least she wouldn’t be so exposed. Cherry arranged her hair to cover as much of her skin as possible.
    Scrunching up her nose, Tawny shook her head. “We want people to bid on you, not give you their drink order. This is sexy.”
    Cherry tried to pull the dress up higher. It wasn’t working. Kind of hard with the material shortage going on. Sexy wasn’t the word she’d use, and she’d bet a gazillion dollars neither would her gram. Although the word her gram would use also started with an S and ended with a Y .
    “Stop messing with your dress, you look fab.” Tawny gathered Cherry’s long hair and performed a series of complicated twists and knots, pinning curls and loops in strategic places to expose Cherry’s pale neckline and taking away what little camouflage she had. Next Tawny teased the front up before spraying enough hair spray to kill off another layer of ozone. “You ready?”
    Not in a million years would she be ready. Waves rolled and crashed inside her stomach, making her glad she hadn’t eaten. Her heart skipped a beat or two and she wondered if a person really could die of fear. No, she wasn’t ready. She’d thought she was one time before and, well, that hadn’t gone quite as planned. Humiliation in front of millions pretty much took care of your quota for life. But this was for the kids and their community, not her. Steeling her nerves, she pulled her shoulders back to lift the girls and plastered on her most confident look. “Promise you won’t let me go for twenty bucks?”
    “Just show them your good side, dearie.”
    A few minutes later Cherry found herself backstage, placed between local politician Nick Lawson and Detective Cesar Esposito, who had saved an entire family from a serial killer last fall. At least she wouldn’t be the last one on the chopping, er, auction block. Both men should bring in a nice donation, but they were night and day. Lawson was gym toned, with boy-next-door clean-cut good looks. Esposito was well over six feet, dark and brooding; a sexy bad-boy aura surrounded him. Until he smiled—then all your defenses melted and you saw the teddy bear beneath the cop exterior.
    “First time?” Lawson asked.
    Nodding, Cherry pressed a hand against her rebellious stomach and peered out at the crowd. The guests were busy eating dessert, blissfully unaware of the staff running around behind the stage lining up the merchandise .
    “Relax. The magic combination to open their hearts and wallets is to have a good cause, good food, and good wine. You’ve got all three.” Lawson gave her a reassuring smile.
    “Killer legs isn’t going to hurt either, kid,” Esposito chimed in.
    They all laughed and agreed between the whole team they should rake in the donations.
    Lawson leaned over to her. “I told Tawny to contact my office next week. I’ve got my assistant looking into some state grants to cover some of the programs you want to offer, especially the free lunch.”
    “Thank you. I’ll make sure we follow up.”
    “It’s important for parents to have an affordable and safe place for their kids to go while they work.”
    The spotlight lit up center stage. Tawny climbed the steps, taking her time as she walked to the microphone to allow the dinner conversation to die down. “Ladies and gentlemen, before I turn the mic over to our auctioneer, Mr. Van der Schmidt, we’d like to once again thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your tremendous support. . . .”
    Tawny’s voice faded as Cherry concentrated on breathing deep and slow. She hated being the center of attention. Going on Finding Mr. Right had taken every ounce of courage she could muster, and after a few days, with all the chaos, it was easy to forget about the cameras. This was different. Each celebrity would be called up one at a time and auctioned off. What if no one bid