“How did you know?” Darcy asked.
Emily smiled. “I recognize the hostility and intolerance and deeply seated resentment.” She held out a hand to Darcy. “I’m Emily, the intern vet.”
“The one bidding on my brother.”
“He didn’t have as many bids as Dell and Adam, and I felt sorry for him,” Emily said in automatic self-defense.
Darcy’s smile went real as she shook Emily’s hand. “I like you already.”
“I’m really quite likeable,” Emily said, and for the next hour watched Dell, Adam, Grif, and Wyatt, not to mention a whole host of other hot guys, run through a muddy, grass field tackling each other.
The guys all had red tags hanging off their hips, which were supposed to be pulled by their opponents instead of anyone getting tackled. But, though the flags were yanked and thrust triumphantly into the air, there was still enough body contact—and bone crunching and taunting and heckling—that Emily found herself both holding her breath in terror, and shaking her head in bafflement.
When Wyatt was grabbed and taken down from behind by not one or two, but three men, she clasped a hand to her heart until he spit out some dirt and grass and pushed up to his feet.
“I thought it was flag football,” she said, “not tackle the shit out of each other football.”
Lilah shrugged. “It’s a guy thing.”
Emily didn’t take her eyes off Wyatt. He looked okay, but she didn’t breathe until Brady came over and high-fived him, and Wyatt flashed a triumphant grin.
And then, while she was sucking in a lungful of relief, he turned his head and laid his gaze right on her. The relief swimming through her veins turned to something else entirely, something she wasn’t even close to ready to accept.
At the half, Wyatt took shit for being late to the game from all the guys
“We almost forfeited,” Dell said.
“Hey,” Wyatt said in his defense, “I had an emergency.”
His entire team gave him the stink eye.
“What emergency?” AJ wanted to know. “Because if anyone has an excuse to be late, it’s me, since my last patient was your sister, and I’m not sure who got more worked over, her or me.”
“You slept with one of your patients?” Adam asked.
“Forget that,” Brady said. “You slept with your best friend’s sister?”
“What?” AJ looked at both of them in horror and then turned to Wyatt. “No! God. I wouldn’t—”
“You don’t think she’s hot enough?” Grif asked.
“She is hot,” AJ said, and then grimaced at Wyatt. “No, I mean— She’s my patient, and—” He broke off when Dell, Adam, Brady, and Grif started laughing. Narrowing his eyes, he crossed his arms over his beefy chest. “You think that’s funny?”
“Yeah,” Dell said, straightening, still grinning. “You should see the look on your face, man.”
“Jesus, I’m sweating,” AJ said, and swiped his forearm over his brow. “You made me sweat.” He looked at Wyatt. “I’m not.”
“I know,” Wyatt said as they moved together to the side of the spectator stands for the huge water jug placed there just for them. Wyatt knew Darcy wasn’t sleeping with anyone right now, she was far too pissed off at the world to have been getting any. “But it got the attention off me being late, so thanks,” he said, and downed a cup of water.
“No it didn’t,” Dell said. “All the patients were gone when I left. Who came in?”
“Skylar Houghton.”
“With her hamster?” Dell asked. “I treated the abscess yesterday, all was well.”
“Yeah.” Wyatt ran a hand through his hair. “She brought by a lasagna dish.”
“Score,” Dell said. “Since it’s my night to cook.”
“She made it for me,” Wyatt said.
Dell stared at him. “You suck.”
“Hey, I earned that lasagna the hard way, trust me.”
Dell grinned.
“Not like that!” Wyatt said. “Jesus. You guys all need a life.”
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” AJ muttered.
“I’m confused,” Dell said. “Skylar’s got a normal job at the post office, and she’s not crazy. You could do worse.”
Wyatt was saved having to answer by his nosy older sister who interfered from the front row. “Hey, so where’s this lasagna?” Zoe wanted to know. He should have known the women could hear their converstation.
Beside her was Darcy. She looked at AJ, and his expression went blank.
Darcy’s did the same.
Wyatt would have to wonder later what the hell had happened during physical therapy, because he locked eyes with Emily and like he was some stupid high school kid, he forgot everything else.
Next to Emily, Lilah waved at her husband, and blew him kisses. Brady grinned at her, the badass ex-special ops soldier looking soft as mush.
“Yeah, yeah,” Zoe said, nudging Lilah. “Save it for later. I want to hear more about the lasagna. What kind? Her usual meat and cheese?”
“Next time tell her whatshername brought you lobster ravioli,” Darcy said. “Tell her that’s our fave.”
“Or homemade mac and cheese,” Zoe said. “I wouldn’t mind some more of that. Who made it? Kathy Anderson, right? We need her cat to get sick again.”
Wyatt looked at Emily. I’m not cooking you homemade mac and cheese, her gaze said.
He didn’t want or need her to cook him a damn thing. Yeah, Skylar was sweet and gentle and kind, and she could really cook.
But he wasn’t attracted.
Not like he was to the not-so-sweet, not-so-gentle, curvy brunette watching him right now . . .
Zoe stared at Wyatt, then followed his gaze to Emily. She blinked, then looked back at Wyatt. “Or maybe we could just get takeout,” she said.
Sixteen
As always, Emily woke up to Q-Tip sitting on her chest demanding food. One look at the bedside clock had Emily groaning. “It’s only five. I’ve got another half hour.”
“Meow”
“Fine. I get it. You’re starving to death slowly.” She staggered out of bed and tripped over the cat.
Q-Tip yowled at her in reproach, and ran ahead to the kitchen, her belly doing its usual swing back and forth.
Emily filled her bowl and had to smile at the rumbling purr of thanks. She sat at the table and opened her laptop. As a matter of habit, she went to her calendar.
Another week had gone by. Three hundred thirty days . . .
Could’ve been less if you’d spoken up to Dell . . . She closed the calendar and checked Lilah’s charity auction page. Shockingly, there were bids for dinner out with “Sunshine’s newest, cutest, prettiest vet.”
People wanted to have dinner with her. She tried to process her thoughts on that and decided she was flattered.
There were also bids for Dell, Brady, Adam . . .
But topping the list was Wyatt himself. Seemed that just about everyone in town wanted to “shadow” him for a day. His top bid was for two hundred bucks over what she’d last bid.
She opened a new screen and checked her account balance. She’d been socking away every spare penny she had, which wasn’t all that many pennies.
But she had enough.
You’re crazy, a little voice said. Certifiable.
Which is the only explanation for why she upped her bid on one Dr. Wyatt Stone and became his highest bidder.
Two minutes later her cell phone rang. It was Lilah.
“Funny thing happened,” Lilah said. “I get an alarm when someone bids on the auction site. And someone just bid on Wyatt.”
“Huh,” Emily said casually. “I imagine that’s happening quite a bit.”
“Yes,” Lilah said. “Actually, this person has bid four times for Wyatt so far.”