He was finding it incredibly difficult to come up with ideas for four dates when he didn’t know who they'd be with. If the winner turned out to be a seventy-something-year-old woman, she wouldn't enjoy a dance club—at least he'd never met a seventy-year-old that would. And, if the winner were anything like his younger sister, a hike followed by a romantic picnic wouldn't cut it.
“The auction is in about two weeks. Cutting it a little close, aren't you?” Matt asked, lifting a slice of pizza to his mouth.
He didn't need Matt or anyone else to remind him when the auction was. “Don't remind me.”
“Hey, it might not be as bad as you think. My brother and cousin wouldn't be married if not for the auction,” Alec said.
It was easy for Alec to say that. He wasn't the one about to have random women bidding on him while he stood there in a monkey suit. “No. It'll be worse.”
TWO
November
Tory reached for her lipstick just as someone knocked on her hotel suite door. While she could've stayed with a relative in Providence, she'd opted to stay at the Bellevue Hotel, one of Sherbrooke Enterprises' oldest hotels in the country. It was also where the bachelor auction was being held again this year, making it the logical place to stay.
“I'm almost ready,” Tory said after letting Leah into the suite and hugging her.
Leah placed her clutch on a nearby table and sat down. “No rush. I'm a few minutes early. I left home right after Gavin and Erin headed out.”
“What are they up to tonight?”
Leah's stepdaughter lived in Providence with her mom, so Leah and her husband had a place in the city too, so that on the weekends when Erin was with them, they didn't waste their time together driving back and forth to Connecticut. Tonight's auction fell on a weekend when Erin was staying with her dad and Leah.
“They're going roller-skating and then for ice cream.”
Tory had learned how to rollerblade but had always done that either outside her parents' house or around campus when in high school. “There are still places around where you can go roller-skating?” She knew such places had once been popular but assumed they'd all gone out of business decades ago.
“I didn't think there were any either, but there's one about twenty minutes from here that Erin loves. Believe it or not, the place even has an arcade.”
“Learn something new every day,” Tory said before stepping into the bathroom so she could finish her makeup.
“Are you heading back to Boston tomorrow morning?”
“Yeah. I thought about staying Sunday night, but I have a lot of work waiting for me at home.”
Although she'd known the CEO of the magazine and her daughter for years, as the new marketing director, Tory couldn't take days off already without a good reason. And taking a day off because she wanted to spend the weekend in Providence and visit with family wasn't a good reason in her book.
“That stinks. I was going to invite you over tomorrow night. Brett and Jennifer are around, so they're coming by for dinner. Curt and Taylor are coming too.”
She hadn't seen either of Leah's brothers and their wives since the summer and, at another time, would've enjoyed catching up with them.
“Next time.” Now that she lived in New England, she'd be able to see her East Coast cousins a lot more.
Lipstick on, Tory checked her reflection a final time before adding the tube to her purse and turning off the bathroom light. “I'm all set if you are?”
While traditional and much faster elevators transported guests between floors, most visitors opted to use the Bellevue Hotel's iconic glass elevator when heading up to the grand ballroom on the top level. Rather than join the trio of exquisitely dressed women waiting for it now, though, Tory and Leah opted for the set of elevators located down the hallway.
“By the way, your gown is gorgeous. Is it a Jolie?”
Tory nodded and pressed the button for the top floor. “It was part of her fall collection last year. I bought it for my parents' holiday party but ended up with the flu and couldn't go.” She'd considered looking for something new for tonight but ran out of time. And since she'd never worn this one, it seemed like the next best thing.
Beautifully dressed women of all ages and a handful of men in tuxedos mingled in the lobby near the grand ballroom doors when Tory and Leah stepped off the elevator. Many of the people, Tory knew. Those that she didn't, Leah did.
And unsurprisingly, they'd only taken a handful of steps before one of Leah's friends, a woman Tory was acquainted with, waved them over. For the next several minutes, Leah's friend filled them in on her recent divorce and trip back into the dating world. To anyone watching, it would appear as though Tory was paying attention. But in reality, she was mentally debating for the umpteenth time whether to proceed with Ivy's idea or not. Ivy still insisted it was a solid plan and worth trying. Some of the time, Tory agreed. But almost as often, she decided it wasn't worth the potential headaches that might result from it. For the moment, she was again leaning toward giving it a try.
“Do either of you know Duncan Ferguson or Clay Bentley? I'm thinking about bidding on them tonight,” Leah's friend asked, pulling Tory away from her thoughts and to the conversation.
“I know Duncan is my cousin's friend, and he went to school with us.” Leah gestured between herself and Tory. “But I don't remember the last time I saw him. And until I saw his name and picture on the website, I'd never heard of Clay Bentley,” Leah replied before glancing at Tory. “Do you know Clay?”