Weekend With Her Bachelor (Bachelor Auction Returns Book 4)
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Authors: Jeannie Moon
The Bachelor Auction Returns
Jeannie Moon
Weekend with Her Bachelor
Copyright © 2016 Jeannie Moon
Kindle Edition
The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-944925-50-5
To my friend and mentor, Jane Porter.
Thank you for giving me a place to call home.
Eighteen Months Earlier
G
avin Clark hated
surprises. When he was six years old, his friend Nick Palotay jumped out of the classroom coat closet and scared Gavin so bad he peed himself. It was not a great way to start first grade, and Nick had never let him live it down.
Ever since then, he made it a point to be prepared for anything. And it didn’t matter if it was school, his job, or even sports. Gavin worked out harder, studied longer, and pushed himself to be the best. So, even though his job as an ER physician at busy Bozeman Hospital threw him something unexpected every day, he’d prepared so well, nothing spooked him.
“I really hate it when winter doesn’t respect her damn boundaries.” Gavin donned a heavy parka as he and the response team rode the elevator to the roof. A LifeFlight was heading in with a patient. The sudden, severe October snowstorm had made roads treacherous, and he figured the person on the helicopter had been in a crash. “Do we know what we have?”
The nurse with him looked at the chart. “Teenage boy, head and neck injury. He wasn’t responsive.”
“Where is he coming in from?”
The nurse hesitated for a second. “Marietta.”
As soon as he heard his hometown’s name, Gavin’s stomach lurched. It was going to be someone he knew, no doubt there; Marietta was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone. “Why didn’t they take him to Marietta Regional?”
“The only way out of campus was blocked because of a multi-car crash. The roads are treacherous; people are spinning out all over the place. Airlifting him was the best option, but the local hospital has no landing pad. Everything conspired against them.”
“Shit.” All Gavin could think was that precious minutes were lost flying the kid to Bozeman. He understood the logistics, but it could have cost them the time they needed.
They heard the sound of the rotors cutting through the cold night air, and the landing lights illuminated the spot where the helicopter touched down.
“Let’s go!” Gavin yelled, hauling the stretcher next to him. “I need his status.”
The flight nurse began reading off the patient’s condition as soon as the door opened, shouting as the rotors powered down. “Sixteen-year-old male, severe head trauma. He took a nasty hit on the football field. Non-responsive. He’s intubated and we’ve been doing chest compressions for a few minutes.”
Jesus. Chest compressions? The sad look in the nurse’s eyes told him the patient was already gone. The anguished cries he heard from behind her told him there was a mother who was coming to that same conclusion.
Gavin took in the uniform as they transferred the patient onto the stretcher. He remembered his years playing for the Grizzlies, and how much it meant to him. When his eyes reached the player’s face, Gavin’s heart jumped to his throat.
“Oh, my God.” It was Troy Downey. Coach’s grandson.
Gavin looked at the motionless form and a wave of memories hit him like a ton of bricks. In his mind’s eye, he saw Troy, maybe four years old, running across the field with a football. He could barely keep hold of it in his little hands, but he kept running down the field like he was playing in the championship game. Troy might have been four years old when Gavin made varsity. But age had nothing to do with his spirit. The little pipsqueak loved the game. He loved being around the team, and he was adopted like an unofficial mascot.
Gavin was frozen. He was thinking about the boy he used to know, and about all the potential that had been snuffed out in a moment.
The gurney jerked forward and the trauma team headed for the elevator with Troy. Gavin stood there, the wind and snow blowing around him, until one of the nurses finally laid a hand on his arm. “Dr. Clark? Gavin?”
“I know him,” Gavin said, fighting the emotion. “I’ve known him since he was little.”
Her voice was gentle, quiet. “Unfortunately, the longer you’re in this job, the more of them you’ll know. Let’s get inside. Maybe you can help him.”
Moving with her toward the team, he could only imagine what Coach and his family were going through. Troy was a good kid, and from what Gavin had heard, he was destined for a great future.
Now, though, that seemed impossible.
Gavin steadied his nerves and reminded himself that this was what he’d been trained for. The years in school, the long hours, the lack of a life… had led him to a place where he could help people.
Maybe he could help Troy Downey.
A
lly Beaumont stared
at the guest list and quietly cursed under her breath.
She knew there was a possibility her asshole of an ex-boyfriend would be at the destination wedding she’d been planning for a close friend, but she had no idea he was one of the groomsmen, and that he was going to be one of her main contacts during the festivities. Since when had he and the groom gotten that close?
A fun event had turned into something she was now dreading, putting Ally on a luxury ranch weekend with the man who had jilted her two days before their wedding, and no date of her own. She’d been informed that Lars, her ex, was bringing his lady friend for the weekend. She was his soulmate, apparently, and he had never been happier.
Bastard.
But Lars in the mix or not, her focus had to be on the bride and groom, and her goal was always to make the weekend special for everyone attending the wedding. Even her asshole of an ex. The venue was perfection. She stared at the pictures of the ranch pinned to the project board in her office. She couldn’t stop looking, and considering the view from her office window consisted of Puget Sound, with Bainbridge Island in the distance, that really said something.
The truth was, as much as Ally enjoyed her life in Seattle, she was still in love with her home state of Montana. And she knew the beauty and vastness of the Whispering River Ranch, set in the western mountains, was going to blow the guests away. There was nothing like a Montana spring.
“Ally?” Turning to the door of her office, her assistant nodded to the phone. “It’s a woman named Lisa Barnes. She said you know her from home. Something about an auction?”
Lisa Barnes. Wow. She hadn’t seen her in years. Lisa was one of her best friends at Marietta High School, and the two of them used to hide in the corner of the library, dreaming about finding Prince Charming. “Hey!” she said when she picked up the phone. “Fancy hearing from you! I saw your name on the wedding guest list…”
“Yup. Wedding. I can’t make it, unfortunately. Work. But tell me you’re coming home next week before you head out for that ranch.” Lisa was straight to the point and blunt as always.
“Hello to you too!” Ally said sarcastically. “I was planning on two weeks at home before I went to the mountains. I want to see my parents and catch up around town. What’s this you mentioned about an auction?”
“The second annual Marietta Bachelor Auction.”
“Wait… a bachelor auction?” Why the hell was she calling about a bachelor auction?
“It’s a fundraiser for the hospital. They’re raising money for a rooftop helipad. We’ve had them before, they stage it at Grey’s, lots of fun, but I thought you’d like to know that this round of bachelors went to school with us.”
“Who?” There were some fine looking boys back in school with her. One in particular she still thought about.
“Code Matthews, Nick Palotay, Colt Ewing—”
“Whoa.” Those
were
some gorgeous men going up on the auction block. “I bet there’s been a run on the bank.”
“You could say that, but there’s one more.
Doctor
Gavin Clark.”
Gavin. Clark. “R-really?” Gavin Clark was at the root of all her teen angst. He was her first crush, her first dance, her first kiss. Gavin was her first everything. It was quite possible, based on the way her heartbeat picked up, that she never got over him. He was sweet and handsome. A nice guy of the highest order—and of course, she’d managed to hurt him because she was stupid.
“He’s going up for auction? I’m confused.” Ally was definitely confused. “Gavin didn’t like to draw attention to himself. That doesn’t sound like his kind of gig.”
“Last year, Coach Downey’s grandson was killed in an on field collision. You had to have heard about that, you babysat him, didn’t you?”
“I did. Broke my heart when my mom told me. He was such a good kid.” Troy
was
a good kid, too. Whenever she ran into him in town, he was polite and sweet as could be. It was a tragic, tragic loss for the whole community.
“The roads were blocked, and he had to be airlifted to Bozeman because Marietta General doesn’t have a helipad. The guys were devoted to Coach. When he asked them to participate in the event, to raise money for the helipad, they were all in.”
That didn’t surprise her. They might have been hell raisers, but all four of them were good guys. For a moment, Ally wished she had a matchmaking business; those four hunky men would make her a fortune, and make some women very happy.
But Gavin was the one who set her heart racing. “My mom told me he’d gone to medical school.”
“He’s an emergency physician,” Lisa sighed. “Apparently, he’s up for anything regarding a date. Can you imagine?”
“Hmm.” She could imagine. She could imagine it very well. An idea started to form in Ally’s head. Maybe Gavin would be up for a weekend with her. At a wedding. “Do the bids go very high?”
“Sometimes a few thousand dollars. Although, word on the street is the guys opened up the dates to allow for some flexibility because they want to pull in some big money. What are you thinking?”
She was thinking she might have a date to the wedding, after all. Buying herself a big, handsome cowboy-doctor was very appealing. And Ally could afford it. Hell, her business just cracked the seven-figure mark, but even if it hadn’t, she could sell the engagement ring Lars left her with and have a grand old time helping out Marietta. That wasn’t a bad idea, actually. He’d been hinting that he wanted the ring back. What better way to give it back to him than by bringing a sweet, brilliant, handsome man to the wedding.
“So are you coming? I’d love to see you. I’ve missed you the last few times you’ve been in town.
“You bet,” Ally proclaimed. “It’s a good cause.”
“Yay! I can’t wait to see you! Vivi is coming too. It’s been too long.”
Ally smiled. She, Lisa, and Vivi Walker were inseparable in high school. They each went their separate ways for college, but kept in touch through social media and email, getting together at odd times. The auction at Grey’s was going to be a fun reunion. And if she won Gavin Clark in the auction, she’d consider the trip home an epic win.