A Bid for Love (6 page)

“We should talk about it over dinner,” she said to Sam. “After the auction. That way we can take our time. It really is a beautiful piece.”

Sam smiled at Renae gratefully, while Jared frowned. Cassi simply nodded, relieved that whatever problem Sam Boader had with her answer had now disappeared.

“We’ll see you then, after the auction,” Sam said.

Again Cassi nodded and turned with Renae to the door. This time they made it to the elevator without being stopped. Renae was breathing heavily while Cassi stood looking on helplessly.

“Maybe the baby’s coming,” Cassi suggested as they arrived at their room.

“Three weeks early? I doubt it. All of my other children were overdue.” Renae lay down on her bed.

Cassi went to the refrigerator to see what was left of their food. “There’s not much here,” she said after a cursory search. They had a few cartons of yogurt and some bread but nothing substantial. “Should I go buy something or order room service?”

“Room service,” Renae said. Cassi was happy to notice that already her voice sounded much better. “This is my last day to be spoiled,” Renae added. “After dinner, it’s home to the gang, and my days of luxury will be over.”

Cassi laughed. “Speaking of dinner, why did you ask Sam Boader to eat with us tonight? We could have talked beforehand about the statue. Now we’ll have to share our last night together with a near stranger.”

“I don’t believe you,” Renae said, shaking her head. “You haven’t changed since high school. That man doesn’t give a hoot about your statue. He wants to go out with you.”

“With me? That’s not true. If he had, he would have asked.”

“He did ask, silly.” Renae sighed in exasperation. “Everyone knew it except you.” She laughed. “You just see who pays for dinner tonight. It won’t be us, I can guarantee that.”

“But that’s wrong.”

“Why? Because a man admires you enough to want to take you out? There’s nothing wrong with that, Cassi. He wants to get to know you. And he seems like a nice guy, doesn’t he? Wouldn’t you go out with him if he asked you?”

“Yes, but this is different. You asked him.”

Renae sighed. “No, Cassi. I just helped him ask you because you weren’t taking any hints. Now, can we just forget this until tonight? We’ll have fun at dinner regardless of Sam Boader, I think.”

“Okay, okay. It’s forgotten. Besides, I’ve got to figure out a way to get the Buddha from you-know-who.”

“Oh, now he’s you-know-who. That’s another step up from arrogant jerk. I do believe you’re getting soft in your old age.”

Cassi ignored Renae and called room service. “Send me up two grilled chicken dinners and some arsenic. No, I didn’t say arsenic. What do you think, that I want to poison someone? I said two chicken dinners and some milk. Thanks.” When Cassi hung up, Renae was laughing.

“You never change,” she spluttered.

“Neither do you,” Cassi countered. “We both get older, but we never change.”

“I hope you never do. You could always make me laugh.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Long before Jared climbed out of bed Monday morning to get ready for the bidding, his cell phone rang shrilly in the stillness of his room. He jerked into consciousness from a deep sleep and reached for his phone with an unsteady hand, apprehension growing within him. No one called this early unless it was bad news.

“Hello?”

“Jared, this is Larry. Trudy Martin’s been rushed to the hospital. It looks bad. She asked for you. Can you come?”

“Of course. Tell me what hospital, and I’ll meet you there.” Jared hung up and dressed quickly in jeans and a blue oxford shirt. Not bothering with socks, he slipped his feet into the leather loafers by the bed and ran a hand through his hair while the other reached for his car keys. In moments he was out the door, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

When he arrived at the hospital, he found Larry and April with Trudy Martin. “How is she?” Jared asked.

Larry shook his head and said nothing.

At Jared’s voice, Trudy opened her eyes. “I’m dying,” she said softly. There was pain in the heavily lined face, but the soft brown eyes were strangely animated. “I’m going to be with Lane and Karen.” Lane was her husband, and Karen the baby she had lost.

There was something otherworldly about her now, so Jared wasn’t sure what to say.

“Will you hold my hand until my children come, Jared, so I won’t be afraid?” she asked.

Tears came to Jared’s eyes. “Of course. It’ll be an honor.”

But as Jared sat down and took the fragile hand in his, a mature couple he recognized from photographs in Trudy’s house came rushing into the room and up to the bed.

“Mother,” said the woman, “I’m here. And Anthony, too. Miriam and Rebecca are on their way.” The woman heaved a couple of sobs but quickly gained control of herself. “Please hold on, Mom.”

“Gary won’t make it from Arizona,” Trudy said weakly. “Did you call him?”

“Yes, Mother.”

Jared released Trudy’s hand and began backing away. “Wait, Jared,” said Trudy. “I have something to say to you.”

Jared hesitated, not wanting to intrude upon her time with her family. “What is it?”

“See these children around me?”

“Yes.”

“This is why having children is so wonderful. Through the hard times and the good times, you’re not alone.” Her voice grew imperious. “Jared, you have been alone too long. Open your heart and let someone in.”

“I will,” he promised hoarsely.

Trudy said nothing further, apparently content with his promise. Her eyes turned to her daughter as Jared backed away from the bed and left the room.

He waited with Larry and April at the hospital for the next few hours, exchanging stories about Trudy until nearly ten o’clock when she passed away. Then he bid the family farewell and left for the auction.

The day didn’t get any better. By the time he arrived, he’d missed his opportunity to buy the Mother and Baby statue altogether, the one piece he’d planned to bid on that morning. The statue portrayed a mother dancing with a baby cuddled close to her chest, a piece that was singularly simple in its elegance.

He felt irritable and out-of-sorts at the loss, though if he had to do it all over, he knew he’d make the same choice to go to the hospital to be there for Trudy Martin.

By the time Sam Boader of the Stanton and Son Gallery came up to Cassi at the lunch break and used the thin pretense of the Mother and Baby statue to ask her out, it was all Jared could do to hide his annoyance—though why Boader’s invitation to her should annoy him, he didn’t care to examine.

After she refused, Léon made a motion to Jared as if to say, “See, I told you she was a snob.” But from the way Cassi reacted, Jared wasn’t so sure Léon’s assumption was correct.

When she and Renae started again toward the entrance, Jared suddenly wished he could reach out his hand to stop Cassi. But why should he do that? Besides, Renae’s face was pale and she looked tired. She obviously needed to rest.

Boader grinned at the men, victorious. “Too bad you were late,” he said to Jared. “You missed some great pieces.”

Jared told himself to be calm. “There’s always next time.” He regretted that the Mother and Baby had been sold before his arrival, but he was amazed to learn Cassi had bought it, that she had recognized the quality of the piece.

Maybe I can buy it from her,
he thought. He wanted it for his private collection, not for Laranda’s gallery. His elegant boss had never been capable of appreciating the value in such simple pieces; its beauty would have been wasted on her.

“So, where were you?” Léon asked. At his side, Boader waited with an expectant grin on his boyishly good-looking face.

Jared’s lips tightened as the memory of his dreadful morning came rushing back. “I was busy,” he said to both Léon and Sam Boader in a tone clearly indicating that his private life was not up for discussion. He felt the sorrow of Trudy Martin’s death wash over him, too fresh to be talked about casually.

“Hey, it’s your life,” Léon mumbled.

 Sam gazed down the hall where Cassi, with her arm about Renae, was quickly retreating from view. “What should I bring her tonight? Chocolates? Flowers?”

“Try both,” suggested Léon. “All women love flowers, and with an expectant friend, chocolates might make some points. My fourth wife loved to eat chocolates while she was pregnant.”

Sam grinned. “Fourth, huh? Maybe I will try both.” With a nod of his head, he turned back into the auction room, leaving Jared and Léon alone.

The crush of art dealers had swallowed Cassi and Renae, but Léon gestured in the direction they had disappeared. “Did you see how she turned him down flat? Cold, I tell you. Cold. If it hadn’t been for her friend, Sam would have been blasted out of the water.” He chuckled. “Lucky devil.”

Jared let his anger loose. “She didn’t even realize he was asking her out. She thinks he wants the statue. Can’t you see that?” His anger surprised him, and he made an effort to curb it. His reaction was completely out of proportion, stemming from his own frustration in the matter. Too clearly, Jared recognized that
he
wanted to be in Sam Boader’s shoes that evening, and the fact didn’t sit too well with his ego.

“Did she really not understand, or was it an act?” Léon said lightly.

Jared wanted to tell Léon that Cassi was nothing like him. Maybe Léon, with his French flair, could carry off such a deception, but not her. Or could she? Jared remembered Laranda, a woman completely capable of deception. What made Jared think that Cassi wasn’t? Maybe her response had been an act, simply because she hadn’t wanted to go out with Boader. But then why the obvious relief when Renae arranged to have dinner with him?

Jared shook his head and sighed. There couldn’t be any answers unless he knew her better, and that was out of the question—at least while that hideous Buddha stood between them.

Abruptly, Trudy’s last words to him at the hospital whispered in his mind. “Open your heart and let someone in.” Jared shrugged the painful memory away.

“You see? It’s not as easy as all that,” Léon commented, accepting Jared’s silence as agreement. “But you do have an advantage over Boader, you know.”

“What?”

“She noticed you weren’t here this morning. She said as much when she asked if you would have bid for the Mother and Baby if you’d been here.”

So she had! For the first time since Boader had interrupted them, Jared smiled.

Léon slapped him on the back. “I guess I’d better go make arrangements to pick up my painting.”

“Yes, you did get your painting, didn’t you?” Jared returned. “An excellent piece.” As promised, he had refrained from that particular bidding war. It had not escaped him that Cassi Mason had bid several times for it before stopping when she recognized Léon’s determination. “A gentleman’s word is always kept,” he added.

This subtle hint was not lost on Léon. He bowed slightly. “I am also a gentleman, as you will see when you bid for the Buddha.”

At least with Léon’s promise the morning had not been a complete waste. Jared had also made a few bids that served only to scare some of the other buyers and to evoke feelings of sympathy when he purposely lost. When he bid on the Buddha later in the afternoon, he wanted as little competition as possible. The more items he appeared to let people win now, the more those same people would refrain from bidding for the Buddha later. It was a strange system, but it worked more often than not.

The Buddha would soon be his, regardless of Cassi Mason.

When he arrived in his room, he found the note under the door. He had no idea how long it had been there. It was typed in bold black print on a sheet of untraceable white paper:
If you want to live, do not bid for it.

Despite the warmth of his suit coat, Jared shivered.

CHAPTER EIGHT

When it was time to go to the auction again, Renae still looked terrible. Cassi knew the false labor had eased, but she didn’t think her friend was ready to sit for two more hours in a straight-backed chair.

“You go ahead without me,” Renae agreed.

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yes. I just get tired sometimes near the end. It’s not easy to carry around this extra weight. Besides, I think I have a plan to get you your Buddha.”

“What?”

Renae grinned. “I’ll make an emergency call to Jared Landine right at three o’clock. The hotel will have to go get him and, pronto, he’s eliminated from the competition.”

“What if the Buddha isn’t auctioned while he’s gone?”

“I’ll go down and make sure it is. I’ll be rested by then. The guard won’t let me in, but I bet he’ll tell me what’s being auctioned. Just before it goes, I’ll call the hotel from a pay phone and they’ll go get him. Simple.”

It did sound simple. Too simple. And also wrong. Or was it? What about that horrid note? Jared might have been the one who sent it. The saying went that all was fair in love and war. And wasn’t this a war? Cassi’s conscience wasn’t so sure.

“Don’t you think you ought to rest?” She hated how her voice sounded so hopeful.

“I’ve been resting. I’ll be okay. But you’d better go, or you’ll be late.” Renae made shooing motions from where she sat propped up in her bed.

“Okay. But I’m not sure about this scheme.”

“Just go. Leave everything to me, would you? Go! You’re going to be late.”

Cassi glanced at her watch and flew out the door, leaving Renae behind.
I want the Buddha
, she reasoned. Besides, Landine was insufferable. This was war.

The seats were nearly full when she arrived at the auction. Sam Boader waved to her, and she slipped into the empty seat beside him near the inner aisle. With Renae’s insight, Cassi watched him carefully for signs of infatuation. She didn’t see anything overt, but he did seem more attentive than necessary. Maybe he did like her. The thought was novel, and not unpleasant; he was both good-looking and nice.