Page 80 of The Renegade Billionaire

“I’ll bid for her.” Bethany sticks out her tongue at me, and my jaw drops. Everyone has lost their dang minds. “Three hundred.”

“Bethany. You don’t have an extra three hundred dollars lying around.”

“No, but I’ve got a credit card, and a night with him would be worth it.”

Anger boils over in my gut. “It’s dinner, Bethany. D-I-N-N-E-R. Dinner.”

She waggles her brows in my direction. “We’ll see.”

“Three twenty-five,” Betty from the diner says, holding up a stack of ones that’s probably her tip money for the month.

“This is getting out of control,” Clover whispers in my ear.

Turning in place, I shoot eyeball flames at those who are bidding, but my jaw drops to my chest when I find everyone in the room staring at me with amusement sparkling in their ridiculously happy eyes.

“Three fifty.”

“Was that Moose? Did freaking Moose just bid on Braxton?”

“Three seventy-five.” That was one hundred percent my grandfather.

When I turn back to Braxton, he’s drinking me in, and when our gazes connect, he simply raises a brow.

Oh crap. I’m supposed to enter this insanity. But four hundred dollars? Seriously?

“Is he worth four hundred dollars?” I mumble. “That seems excessive.”

“Madi,” Clover screeches while Savvy hides behind me laughing—I can feel her body shaking against mine, the traitor. Where the heck is Elle? She’s the only sensible one, and that’s saying something since her hormones are all on a different roller coaster with this pregnancy.

Braxton offers a crooked smile that has a scuffle breaking out on my left. Bethany is going head-to-head with Jane from the library. They’re counting through a stack of pooled money, then Bethany jumps up and down in place. “Five hundred.”

“Do something.” Clover pokes me in the side.

“What? What do you want me to do? Five hundred dollars is freaking unreasonable.”

“It’s for charity,” Savvy reminds me.

“Five twenty-five.” This comes from a new bidder I can’t see.

I’m starting to sweat, and flapping my hands under my pits so I don’t end up with a sweat stain. Then I remember that Braxton is watching, and I almost die when he throws his head back and laughs.

“Take a stand, Madi. Do something,” Clover hisses.

“Take a stand? What?”

“Claim him before someone else does!” Savvy nudges me again, and I stumble forward a step.

Braxton mouths,Bid, sunshine, and just as someone yells, “Five fifty,” I stomp toward the stage shouting, “One thousand. One freaking thousand. That’s it. I won. Call it off.”

Moose bangs a gavel and says, “Going once.”

“Moose,” I admonish. “You’re holding the gavel. You’re not allowed to bid, and I heard you do it.”

The old man winks and points me toward the stage as if I hadn’t just spoken.

I don’t bother walking up the steps. I get to the edge of the stage and point to the floor as though I’m scolding a dog.

And Braxton hasn’t stopped laughing. He jumps down and stands before me.