Page 56 of Kaden & Keegan
Nope. She was moving on and no one needed to be the wiser, either. As far as she was concerned, not even Bianca or Rex, her two closest friends, would ever find out the truth no matter how much they pestered her. It was better that way. She would keep it to herself. Last thing she needed was to be the butt of everyone’s jokes. The last thing she wanted was pity or those blasted sympathetic looks. She’d lived it once thanks to her ex-husband. Not doing it again.
As she walked through the people gathering together, laughing and talking, no one stopped her to chat. Not even Kaden or Keegan when she slipped past them, pretending to be invisible. Not that she’d expected either of them to come after her. She was the one who had run out on them, like a chicken being chased by a fox. Only she wasn’t being chased, and the sad thing was, she sort of wished one or both of them had made the effort. At least then she wouldn’t feel quite so much like another notch in their bedpost.
What she needed to do was focus on her one and only task, which was ensuring this auction went off without a hitch. Of course, that required the master of ceremonies to be there, and since Bianca was MIA, Bristol was worried that wouldn’t happen.
The auction was scheduled to start in half an hour, and without the mayor there to run the show, Bristol feared it would fall on her. The absolute last thing she wanted was to have to stand there while a dozen women fought over who would get the chance to take home the sexy twins, because that seemed to be the topic of the hour, the very words she heard as she weaved through the gathering.
She was pretty sure all the single ladies in town had shown up. Some married ones, too. The ages ranged from roughly twenty-two to perhaps ninety. No doubt about it, the auction was going to be a success.
And it was a good thing.
Really.
Except for the fact she was running herself ragged trying to keep up. Worst were all the questions she didn’t have answers to. Sure, it was an auction and it was fairly straightforward, but there were things Bianca hadn’t shared with her. Which, now that Bristol thought about it, was probably her own fault. And now that Bianca was MIA, she didn’t have a choice but to tell everyone she would get back to them when she could.
If she had her way, she would man the refreshments from behind a table and leave the mingling to someone else. She couldn’t deny she had a way with people, but it wasn’t her first choice of things to do.
Yet here she was.
All of the men who would be auctioned off had arrived and they were hanging out with the women, chatting, laughing, and smiling. Though there was plenty of attention to go around, it seemed several women had taken a liking to Kaden and Keegan, including Adeline.
Not that she cared. She didn’t.
Really.
Uggh.
Fine. She cared a little. There might be a tiny spark of jealousy deep down inside her, but she was doing just fine ignoring it.
Mostly.
“Bristol?”
Turning at the sound of her name, Bristol came nearly face-to-face with Stephanie Hennessy. Had she known who it was before then, she would’ve pretended not to hear her. Granted, that was a crappy thing to do considering Stephanie was one of her kids’ parents, the mother of Danielle and Danica, six-year-old twin girls who’d been going to her daycare almost since the beginning.
“Mrs. Hennessy.” Bristol forced a smile. “It’s good to see you.” She glanced around, then made eye contact. “I honestly didn’t expect you to be here.”
Stephanie smiled brightly. “I had to see what was going on in town. This is the event everyone’s been talking about.”
Yes. Yes, it was.
The way she saideventwas as though it was a dirty word. Bristol would expect no less from Stephanie. The woman thought most things, as well as people, were beneath her.
“I’m surprised to see you working. Is the daycare doing all right? Should I be worried that you’ll be closing your doors soon?”
Always flocking to drama, this one.
Bristol laughed. “Of course not. I’m simply volunteering, helping out Bianca.”
Stephanie nodded as though considering that. “I didn’t realize you knew the mayor.”
Then she clearly walked around with blinders on, because everyone in this town knew Bianca and Bristol had been best friends since elementary school.
Bristol merely smiled and said, “I do. Is John here?”
“Oh, no. He’s off on business. Has a big client in Los Angeles he’s tending to this week.”
Bristol didn’t bother to tell her it was the weekend and most people were with their families then. The rumor going around Coyote Ridge was that John Hennessy had another woman on the side.
