Jose’s gaze flicked up, eyes wild.
“Slow breaths,” Cody coached, his voice low and even.“You’re safe.Nothing here is going to hurt you.”
The curtain shifted.Malachi’s booming laugh rumbled over the chaos.“That’s a twist I never saw coming.Never thought your first day on the job would be this exciting, did you, Chance?”
Chance sounded exasperated.“No, sir.Seems we have a bachelor in a hurry to collect his date.Let’s get him out of here.”
Cody held Jose’s gaze another beat, waited for the man’s breathing to steady.When his shoulders dropped fractionally, Cody gave him a nod and squeezed his arm.
“Stay here.You’re okay.”
Cody stood and determinedly headed for the front of the stage.He ducked around Malachi just as the older man eased into the back.
“Cody?”Malachi’s brows rose.
“Later,” Cody muttered.“I need to do something first.”
He slipped through the curtain.
Chance turned, relief brightening his face until he saw who it was.“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“Good thing your mic is off,” Cody deadpanned.He slapped Chance’s shoulder, forcing a semblance of normalcy into his voice.“Crowd’s starting to look confused.Get on with it.”
Chance’s jaw flexed.“What the hell are you doing, bro?”
“It’s the only solution.”
“The only—” Chance dragged a hand over his mouth.“You’re about to hurt a wonderful woman.”
“If I’m lucky,” Cody said quietly, “I’m about to fix it.”
Chance studied him a moment longer, then blew out a breath and turned to face the crowd.
“Now, as my future father-in-law explained, I’m still in training,” he began, voice smooth again.“I hope you’ll forgive one last mix-up.We have an unexpected last-minute bachelor.Well-known to you all.My brother.”
Cody stepped forward and took the microphone.The stage lights hit him in the eyes, hot and blinding.
The noise swelled.A low buzz of curiosity and surprise.Someone near the front let out an excited whoop.
But none of that mattered.
He found Fern instantly in the crowd.She sat with Rose, an empty chair beside them.Her hands rested in her lap, her expression a quiet, controlled calm.
Those lips he’d kissed in the dark, soft and fierce and sure, were pressed together in a tight line.The eyes that had flashed with mischief and desire and faith—flat and unreadable.
God, he’d done that.He’d left her standing alone.
But he was about to fix all that.
He swallowed and forced the words out through the tight ache in his throat.
“Hey.”His voice cracked.He cleared it.“I’m not officially on the auction list, but I’d like to offer myself up anyway.”
His heart thumped, slow and certain.
One breath.Then another.
She deserved someone who could be brave.Who could say what he felt without waiting for her to guess it first.
