“Then the bidding will continue,” he told the audience. “Mr. Harrison has offered twenty-five thousand dollars. Do I have thirty thousand dollars?” He looked expectantly to Peter Mitchell, who nodded.
He looked around the room to see if anyone else signaled, and when they didn’t, he looked to Cole. “Mr. Harrison?”
If Diana hadn’t been so unhappy and so tense, she’d have laughed at Cole’s infectious grin as he casually held up four fingers, jumping the bid to $40,000 as nonchalantly as if it were forty cents.
“Forty thousand dollars!” The auctioneer crowed. “Mr. Harrison had bid forty thousand dollars, and all of it is destined for charity. Mr. Mitchell?” he urged. “Will you make it forty-five?”
Haley Mitchell nodded yes to her husband, but Peter Mitchell hesitated, glowering at Cole. In response, Cole relaxed further back in his chair and quirked a challenging brow at him. “No,” Mitchell bit out.
“Fair warning,” the auctioneer called. “Sold!” he proclaimed. “For forty thousand dollars to Mr. Cole Harrison!” Turning toward Cole, he added, “I know I speak for all the patrons of the White Orchid Ball when I say that we are deeply grateful for your extraordinary generosity to our very worthy cause tonight, Mr. Harrison. And may I also say,” he joked, “that I sincerely hope the lucky lady who receives that necklace not only appreciates your generosity but also your excellent taste!”
“I hope she does, too!” Cole replied, evoking a burst of laughter as he grinned with a relaxed affability that was in complete opposition to the chilly indifference he’d displayed all night. Then he added, “Let’s see what she thinks—”
The audience warmed instantly to this fascinatingly intimate glimpse of the enigmatic tycoon whom one columnist had described as having a circuit board for a brain and a computer for a heart. They watched, captivated, as he slid his chair back and slowly stood up.
Diana was so upset at being kept in the limelight that she tried to step backward as soon as he lifted the ends of the necklace from her outstretched palm. Cole prevented her escape by stepping forward, draping the necklace around her throat, and reaching behind her neck to close the heavy clasp.
Diana stared at him in wide-eyed confusion.
He looked back at her in expectant silence.
The audience erupted with laughter and applause, and in the back of the room, cameras lit up like a swarm of startled lightning bugs.
“Well?” Cole teased, thereby confirming to everyone within hearing that she was definitely the lucky lady. “What do you think about my taste?”
Diana suddenly concluded that he was pretending to give her the necklace, just as he’d pretended to kiss her outside on the terrace earlier that night to fool the photographer. Presenting her with the necklace was merely a very clever—and very kind—public ploy to help her save face. “I think you have wonderful taste,” she assured him with belated enthusiasm. I think you are a magnificent fake! she thought with amused admiration.
“Are you impressed enough to dance with me?” he challenged, positively exuding sophisticated charm. “I hear music in the next room.” Without waiting for an answer, he took her elbow and propelled her past a maze of tables and delighted guests, toward the adjoining ballroom. Their audience realized the show was over and began a slow exodus to the next room.
They were halfway across the ballroom when Diana stopped short. “Wait,” she said with a sheepish smile, “I want to introduce you to the rest of my family! After what just happened, they’ll be dying to meet you.” She turned around and began slowly wending her way through the emerging crowd.
Chapter 24
IN THE TIME IT TOOK to reach her family’s table, Diana began to feel distinctly lightheaded and a little giddy. For days, she’d faced the world at work and at home, and had hidden her private pain over Dan. On top of that, she’d had to brace herself to face the nightmare of this auction . . . but the auction was suddenly over, and it hadn’t been a nightmare because Cole had turned it into an entertaining drama with a Hollywood happy ending.
The abrupt, unexpected release of so much pressure and stress came as a shock to her entire nervous system. She felt weightless without the heavy emotional armor she’d had to wear for nearly a week. Buoyant.
A few hours ago, she’d been Daniel Penworth’s cast-off fiancée, the object of pity and ridicule. A few hours from now, the press was going to portray her in a new role with Cole Harrison—probably as his lover. That was so incredible that she felt a sudden urge to giggle.
Somehow she managed to keep her face straight and introduce Cole to her grandparents and mother, but the feeling of giddy mirth was swelling inside her as she watched them react in their own individual ways to what Cole had done:
Corey’s greeting was filled with laughing approval, and she gave him a quick hug. Mrs. Foster was less effusive but very friendly. Spence and Grandpa smiled politely and shook Cole’s hand. Grandma stared into his eyes as if she were trying to assess his soul. Amy Leeland actually blushed when Cole smiled at her.
Doug Hayward was not only antagonistic, he was openly insulting. He stood up and shoved his hands into his pants pockets to avoid shaking Cole’s hand. Without taking his contemptuous gaze from Cole, he explained to Amy, “Harrison used to work at our stable, mucking out stalls. Now he donates artwork at charity balls.” To Cole he added, “It’s amazing how far a man can actually climb in America, isn’t it, Harrison?”
Cole’s jaw hardened and his eyes turned cold.
The inexplicable hostility between the two men was palpable, and Diana’s family automatically turned to her to intercede. No matter how awkward or volatile the social situation, Diana could always be counted on to step in and defuse it with her special gifts of diplomacy, sensitivity, and humor.
This time, however, Diana seemed unwilling or unable to do that. Instead, she beamed a bright smile at the two men, who were glaring at each other like silent duelists awaiting the signal to begin pacing off, and she gaily announced, “I can see how anxious you both are to catch up on old times, but you’ll just have to wait because Cole and I are leaving.” With that, she swept up a plain black handbag from the table, linked her hand through Cole’s arm, and turned with enough momentum to partially pull Cole with her.
Feeling that courtesy required some form of parting remark from him, Cole looked over his shoulder and saw Hayward stalking away. “Diana has agreed to take her life in her hands and dance with me,” he explain
ed to her family.
The group at the table watched with a variety of reactions as the couple departed. With the exception of Diana’s grandmother, everyone seemed to think the evening was a triumph that would mark a complete turning point in Diana’s unhappy personal life. “Mr. Harrison was exactly what Diana needed tonight to help her get over Dan. She has her pride back now, and she looks happy again.”
“Diana is a survivor,” Spencer put in.
“Diana is practical,” Grandpa added. “She knows Dan wasn’t the man for her, and she’s putting him behind her already.”
“Diana is a fighter and she’s brave,” Corey agreed.
“Diana,” Grandma contradicted flatly, “is at the end of her rope!”
“Nonsense, Gram,” Corey said, partly because she didn’t want to believe that. “She’s always been independent and self-sufficient. She’s calm . . . she’s grace under pressure, and . . .”
“And,” Grandma interrupted triumphantly as she produced the ultimate proof of Diana’s mental state, “she’s just walked off with my black purse!”
That particular revelation caused the entire group to turn in alarmed unison and gape at the departing Diana. As all of them knew, Diana’s fastidious attention to detail was unflagging; her flair for style was as legendary as her ability to be perfectly groomed and coordinated no matter how difficult the circumstances. Lying on the table was Diana’s little purse—a glittering Judith Leiber evening clutch shaped like a jeweled sugarplum, with a silver stem and green leaves. The fact that she had actually walked away in a glamorous purple gown with a matronly black handbag dangling over her forearm was so completely out of character that the entire family felt deep tremors of genuine alarm.