McDonald_TWT_GENVers_Feb2014 (2 page)

“Then how am I going to know the right man to bid on?” Sabine demanded.

“With less than twenty bachelors involved, you might find a couple Davids, Mikes, or Johns—no pun intended. But it is highly doubtful there will be two men named
Todd
,” Joe promised.

“First—why would a rational woman agree to such a weak-ass plan? Because she wouldn’t. Secondly—why do you think you can talk me into this?”

“Because while he didn’t tell me his name, Todd did tell me he worked for Rundgren. He’s a VP there—a VP in charge of
public relations
. This is a golden goose opportunity worth chasing. All I’m asking is for you to save my goose before you pitch your bid to him.”

Sabine blinked. Rundgren was the primo contract her boss had been trying to get for two years. Getting Rundgren as a client would definitely mean the promotion she’d been working toward for ages. The promotion would mean that she could easily replace everything Martin had taken away from her in the divorce.

“Your brother took half my retirement savings and used the money to buy fake boobs bigger than mine for his flat-chested new wife. This Todd guy of yours better not cost me what’s left.”

“It’s not going to cost all that much. Todd’s charm is understated, so bidding will be manageable. He’s a definite diamond in the rough kind of guy. I expect he will go for around six hundred—tops.”

Joe lifted his glass, smiling around it as he took a drink.

“Think of bidding on Todd as buying yourself a contract with Rundgren. That might help you feel better about the initial investment. The fun will be priceless.”

Sabine shook her head and closed her eyes. “Shit, Joe. I can’t believe you’ve managed to talk me into getting on your crazy train for a ride.”

“Sweetie, my crazy train is the most action you’ve seen in ages. You should be thanking me for giving you something productive to do with all that pent-up frustration you’re carting around,” Joe said.

Sabine snorted. “Don’t be blowing your paycheck on anything big this week. I need my money back.”

Joe just laughed as she guzzled her second soda.

***

Koka glared at his show’s producer and shook his head. “Are we really so desperate? The ratings cannot be that bad.”

Edwina Winston sighed as she laid her tablet device down on the polished marble counter. “The ratings are down because you’ve cut back on personal appearances. People want to see you up close.”

He ran a hand through thick black hair that badly needed a cut. “You know I have no choice about that. I don’t want to leave Pekala while she is so ill. My
kupunawahine
raised me.”

Edwina nodded. “I know. Your desire to stay in town so much is precisely why I booked you for our local bachelor auction. This televised event is a lot of bang for the station’s marketing buck, Koka. It’s one date on Saturday and all you have to do is cook a private dinner for the woman. I’m sure it won’t harm your ethics—or Todd Lake’s. You can use the set kitchen to make it even safer for you.”

Koka snorted. “The whole thing is embarrassing. It looks like I can’t get a normal date.”

“Don’t be juvenile,” Edwina said, swiping the air with her hand. “All women want to date you. You’re a walking Polynesian pinup poster with those muscles and all that tanned skin. We’ve had this discussion many times and I’ve seen you mobbed after appearances.”

“No,” Koka said firmly. “The women want to date Todd Lake—not me. But standing there and letting them buy me—I don’t like the idea of it.”

Edwina sighed and promised herself a sane job with only media-hungry clients in the future. She picked up her tablet and gave her most popular, yet resistant, celebrity a hard stare.

“You can argue all you want, but it’s a done deal, Koka. The auction is tomorrow night. It starts at six-thirty and you’re bachelor number five. The execs wanted you to go shirtless and wear just your network apron, but I told them no already. So wear a nice suit, will you? Maybe you could even shave and get a haircut before then, to at least give the impression you care. Just don’t forget to pin the show logo to your suit jacket. And make sure the network cameras get a clear picture of it while you’re standing on stage.”

“I will hate every moment of the pretense,” he promised.

Edwina shrugged. “Maybe you will, but you will also make a lot of money for a great charity. Hopefully, the surge in popularity will boost your ratings enough to keep your primetime slot. That’s our goal.”

Koka nodded tightly. “Fine. I will be a good sport—this once. Please don’t ask me to do this kind of event again.”

“Give my best to your grandmother,” Edwina said, knowing better than to make a promise she could never keep.

“I will tell her you said hello,” Koka said as he walked her to his front door.

When he returned to the modest kitchen he had extensively renovated four years ago, his grandmother was waiting for him.

Pekala Whitman sat in her wheelchair as regally as any queen ever sat on a throne. His grandfather always said she had an ‘old soul’. Koka had thought many times his grandfather was right. The woman who had stood in for his neglectful parents said exactly what she thought to him all the time. What wasn’t uttered in regal commands often was advice too wise to ignore.

“I’m sorry if my argument with Edwina disturbed you,” Koka said regretfully. “Would you like me to fix you a cup of tea?”

“Yes, I’d like that very much,” Pekala answered. “But I do not think what Edwina asks is so bad, Koka. Why does doing something silly for charity bother you so much?”

Koka shrugged as he filled the kettle. “The auction has nothing to do with my cooking and everything to do with me selling something that I do not wish to sell. I have enough problems with that.”

His grandmother’s laugh made him smile. “Yet like most men, you quite happily give it away when it suits you.”

“That is different. That is my choice,” he said. Then he frowned into the tea kettle. “And I can’t even recall the last time I gave it to anyone. There are no good women in this town.”

Pekala clicked her tongue in sympathy. “Where is your faith? Perhaps the woman who pays for your company will be a nice person. Perhaps she will even be your
Ke Aloha
.”

“That would be miraculous,” Koka said stiffly, but then instantly regretted having taken too sharp a tone over her teasing. “I have some fish soup I could warm for you if you’re hungry.”

“No thank you. Just tea,
Ko`u Aloha
. Just tea tonight,” she said. “I need to go pray to the goddess. I will ask her to send someone to whom you can give what you don’t want to sell on Saturday.”

His grandmother meant well with her teasing. She meant to put him at ease. Koka knew that—he did. But thinking of an audience full of screaming women bidding on him, he rolled his eyes to the ceiling making sure his grandmother did not see.

“I had to work late to handle an emergency for a client, but I’m here now. The auction is just getting started. Breathe, Joe. I’m sure I haven’t missed him.”

Sabine held her cell phone tightly to her heaving chest, blocking Joe from hearing just in case she needed to lie to him.

“What bachelor are they on?” she asked, whispering the question to the woman filling out her paperwork.

“Number two I think,” the woman replied equally quietly.

Sabine automatically took the auction-bidding fan that now had her name printed in giant letters on it. Sighing to see Martin’s name next to hers again, she ignored it and relayed the woman’s answer into the phone. “They’re just on bachelor number two. I’m sure I haven’t missed your Todd yet.”

“He’s number five,” the woman said, her tone perking up. “Wow, I wish I could bid on him. He’s incredibly good-looking, even if he never smiles.”

Sabine’s eyebrows raised at the detailed praise of the man. “You’re in luck, Joe. They just told me he’s coming up soon. So relax and drive safely. If I win Todd before you get here, I’ll call you.”

Before Joe could protest further, Sabine clicked the phone off and dropped it into her purse. “God, I really hate doing this.”

The woman laughed and smiled at her. “If you win, I’ll gladly take your date with Todd,” she said.

Sabine thought of how flustered Joe would get and how badly she wanted revenge for the hell he’d put her through today.

“Don’t tempt me,” she said with a grin, making the woman laugh. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all day. I traded money for going to the spa for this.”

Shouldering her favorite large purse, Sabine bravely headed into the bidding area where a crowd of restless women were actively bidding on some great-looking guy standing on stage.

The poor guy looked almost ill, but the screaming women didn’t seem to notice, or at least they didn’t seem to care. Looking around Sabine shook her head, unsure whether she should feel most sorry for the desperate women, the uncomfortable men, or herself for being stupid enough to do this for Joe.

She plopped down in a vacant chair near the back. Counting seats to have something to do, she came up with just a little over a hundred thirty potential competitors. Hopefully not all of them had auction fans, so maybe she could shave another twenty or so from that. Then she factored in Joe’s comment about Todd being a diamond in the rough and thought maybe another fifty might not like him enough to bid. If her estimates were right, it meant the actual number of women bidding against her might be no more than sixty or seventy.

Maybe she
could
do this—even if she hated every crazy second of it.

Sabine jumped in her seat when the woman next to her threw up her fan and screamed out a number. Her attention was snagged seconds later by the auctioneer yelling loud enough to be heard above the commotion.

“We have four hundred fifty. Do I hear five hundred? Do I hear four seventy-five? Four fifty-five? Going once. Going twice. Ladies, we have another winner. The winning bid for bachelor number four is four hundred fifty dollars.”

Sabine made a face at the winning bid, but was secretly glad the amount was so low. Seconds later, the woman’s squeal of triumph was deafening. Sabine put her hands over her ears to protect them.

“Sorry. So sorry,” the woman said in squealing apology.

Sabine heard the woman giggle as she stood up. She almost laughed out loud when the woman rushed to the back of the room on six-inch pointed heels that any stripper would have envied.

“Oh good. One more bidder down,” Sabine said softly to herself, watching her go. She set her purse on the woman’s vacated seat to save it in case Joe actually made it on time.

While she waited for the next auction to start, Sabine studied the black ballet flats peeking out of her nicest pair of black leggings. Paired with a gold metallic tunic that covered her hips, the outfit was a good look for her. And flats went well with such outfits. Maybe three-inch heels would have made her legs look thinner. Was she going to have to learn to walk on heels again if she started dating? She hadn’t thought about that, but she hated the idea of hose and heels as bad as she hated being single.

“Okay, ladies. I know you’ve been waiting patiently for this one. Bachelor number five is Seattle’s very own Todd Lake,
The Sexy Chef
himself. One of our sweetest deals tonight, Todd tells us
Seattle Live
is going to match whatever money is collected for the winning bid. And I hear Todd is planning to cook his date’s favorite meal tomorrow night. So what do you think? Does that sound good, ladies? Let’s open the bid at five hundred dollars and see how many takers we have.”

Sabine drew in a breath as nearly every fan in the place was raised. “Well holy shit,” she said, forgetting her role in the auction as she dealt with her surprise. Joe hadn’t told her that the man was freaking famous. Was being a chef his hobby?

She looked back at the stage at the tall stoic male who so far hadn’t smiled once at the audience. His serious and brooding expression seemed more natural for the intense face as he stood scanning the sea of squealing females.

And Todd Lake was way more good-looking than Joe had indicated. Somewhere between deciding for the hundredth time that all the best looking men were gay and realizing her fan was still lifeless in her lap, Sabine remembered to raise it to enter a bid.

“Wonderful! We now have a bid for two thousand. Lady in the gold shirt—I saw your fan go up too. Do I hear two thousand five hundred from you?”

Before Sabine could recover from the shock of so much money already being on the block for good-looking maybe-gay Todd, a loud voice rang out from the back.

“
Three thousand
.”

Sabine pivoted in her seat to see an extremely tall woman standing at the back who was smiling evilly at the man on the stage. Sabine looked back at the stage and saw him frown as he glared at the back of the room. Whoever the woman was, Todd Lake definitely did not like her—not at all. She studied him as the auctioneer was calling for more bids. The last guy had looked ill as the bidding had neared a closing point. Chef Lake just looked really, really pissed. Yet for some reason, she still felt sorry for him. Her gut told her the woman at the back was up to no good.

“
Three thousand five hundred
,” Sabine shouted loudly, turning and glaring at the woman for good measure.

“
Four thousand
,” the woman shouted back, turning her evil smile toward Sabine. “What do you think you’re going to get for that much cash, honey? I can tell you that it’s only going to be dinner. The man doesn’t put out.”

Sabine stood and felt all eyes turn on her. “Hey, this auction is being televised. There’s no need to be disrespectful to any of the bachelors. Mr. Lake is doing this for charity.”

Sabine turned her attention to the stage. Her gaze sought and found his, while all gazes were still on her. There was a glint in his eyes and something else. A plea maybe.
Damn it, she was weak.

Turning once more, Sabine looked at the woman just as the auctioneer was counting down for her bid. She held up her fan. “
Six thousand dollars
,” Sabine said firmly, her voice barely carrying over the now madly cheering crowd.