Falling For The Rancher. Roxanne Rustand
at the bake sale table. Glimpsing Kaycee in the crowd milling at the back of the room, she dropped her jacket on her chair. âIâll be right back, sweetie. Youâll be able to see me just right over there.â
Emma looked up from nibbling the edge of her cookie and yawned. âThen can we go home?â
âIn a little while. Once it gets started, the auction shouldnât take long.â She strode toward the crowd as Pastor Mark yielded the microphone to Lewis Thomas, a short, spare man with thinning hair and a booming voice, who encouraged vigorous bidding for the sake of the youth group, then began describing the terms of the auction.
He abruptly launched into a rapid-fire auctioneerâs patter, and one after another, the handyman volunteers were auctioned off. Fifty dollars. A hundred. Several went for one fifty.
A woman with a gleam in her eye shouted, âOne seventy-five! That oneâs my husband, and now heâll have to take care of my honey-do list!â
The audience erupted in laughter.
âHey, Kaycee,â Darcy called out as she edged through the people pressing forward toward the podium and made her way to Kayceeâs side. âIâm dying to know what Dr. Maxwell saidâand how you convinced him to volunteer. Will he be here tonight?â
A faint blush bloomed on Kayceeâs cheeks. âIâm really sorry, Doc. I never saw him at the clinic. I left two messages on his cell, but he never called back.â
Darcy felt the blood drain from her face. âB-but heâs on the program.â
The younger womanâs eyes widened. âMaybe he talked to someone else?â
âHe wouldnât have known anyone else on the committee.â Darcy bit her lower lip. âIâll find Beth or Janet. No worries.â
âIf heâs listed and his work commitment is auctioned, heâs got to follow through, itâs like a contract,â Kaycee said darkly.
âSurely not if the listing is a mistake,â Darcy retorted. âTry calling him right now. Find out if he knew about this and get him over here right away. He doesnât need any more bad press in town. Iâll try to find Janet and get his name removed.â
But as she turned to scan the crowd, her gaze landed on Emma. The little girl was still dutifully sitting in her chair a dozen feet away, the cookie barely touched, and tears were trailing down her cheeks. Darcyâs heart lurched as she hurried over, slipped into the chair next to Emmaâs and gave her a hug. âIâm so sorry, honeyâbut you did see where I was, right?â
Emma gave an almost imperceptible nod.
âAnd did you see your Sunday school teacher just over there? And you know Beth, and Sophieââ Darcy glanced around. âI even see Hannah in the next row. You were safe, I promise.â
Emma nodded tearfully, her lower lip trembling.
âStay right with me while I find someone, all right?â Darcy scooped the child up into her arms, and Emma sagged against her shoulder, too tired to answer.
Darcy tried to make her way through the crowd, but now everyone was out of their chairs, craning their necks to see who was up next as another five handyman volunteers were auctioned in quick succession.
âDr. Logan Maxwell,â the auctioneer shouted above the hubbub. âNew guy in town, and already helping the community. Gotta give the guy credit. Doesnât say what kind of work he can do, but letâs go. Starting at two hundred, folksâwho is ready to go?â
Darcy froze in horror as the auctioneerâs voice slipped into an almost indecipherable sales patter and the crowd fell silent.
People exchanged glances.
A few snickered.
A stage whisper filtered through the room.
âWhoâd want to bid for the likes of him? My poor cousin works at the clinic and said sheâd soon be out on her ear...â
Time seemed to stop as more whispers spread through the room. Then the room fell silent once again when the auctioneer dropped the starting bid to a hundred seventy-five. A hundred fifty. âCâmon folks...heâs a real bargain at that. Youâll be helping the kids, and maybe he can even spay your cat.â
Uneasy laughter rippled through the audience. âHow âbout a hundred twenty-five, then...â
Darcy desperately scanned the crowd. Surely someone would be glad to grab such a bargain...or maybe just have mercy on him. Right now he was like an outcast, a pariah who would be the talk around town for a long, long time. And from the hard expressions she saw, that wasnât going to change. Please, Lord, encourage someone to bid.
Kaycee appeared at Darcyâs side. âThis is awful. But on the other hand, heâs mean and he kinda deserves it.â
âNo one ever deserves ridicule, and thatâs what will happen,â Darcy said quietly. âHeâll be the only guy who failed to receive a single bid. Ever.â
âHeâs still mean,â Kaycee retorted.
âTo him, the clinic is business, not personal. Heâs not changing things out of spite.â
âHe doesnât know any of us, really,â Kaycee said with a stubborn pout. âAnd he doesnât care. Anyway, thereâs nothing we can do about it. The rules say no one can win more than one handyman each year. You want Edgar and I have an apartment, so I donât need a handyman at all.â
Darcy needed Edgar desperately. It might take all of what little she had in savings to win himâand even that might not be enough.
Potentially losing her job and trying to move away two months from now would be hard enough. Without his skills, it might be impossible to fix up the cottage enough to sell it in a few months.
But now empathy for Logan burned through her, taking a hard, painful hold of her heart. Could she stand by and let him become the humiliated laughingstock of the auction if no one bid even a few dollars?
She elbowed Kaycee sharply. âBid,â she whispered. âNow.â
Startled, Kaycee stared at her. âWhat? I donât have the money.â
âIâll pay. Bid against me just to bring it up to a decent amount so it isnât embarrassing for him, and then Iâll take over. Seventy-five dollars max.â
âIsnât this dishonest?â
âWeâll be increasing the youth fund profits, not trying to get a deal,â Darcy whispered back. âAnd Iâll certainly honor my bid if I do win.â
Kaycee weakly raised a hand to bid.
âWeâve got fifty, folks,â the auctioneer cried out jubilantly. âNow, do we have seventy-five...â
Darcy nodded.
From across the room, she saw Gladys Rexworth eye her speculatively, and her heart sank.
âEighty,â the older woman barked. Her mouth twisted into a malevolent, superior smirk, and now Darcy realized this was personal.
Darcy closed her eyes briefly, remembering the run-ins sheâd had with the woman in the past.
She hadnât wanted Logan to lose face in front of the community. But now thisâthis would be even worse. Gladys was a wealthy, spiteful woman who seemed to take pleasure in causing others grief with her wicked tongue.
Darcy didnât even want to imagine how Gladys