“Two hundred and sixty!” one called.

“Two hundred and sixty-five,” the guy said.

“Two hundred and sixty-six,” the first woman called.

“Four thousand dollars!”

Everyone turned toward the voice a couple of rows behind the bidders. Cam’s eyes widened. He knew that voice. That was his little brother.

Henry and his friends pushed to the front of the crowd.

“Four thousand?” Dax asked him.

“No, not four thousand.” This came from Piper who moved in behind the boys. She leaned down and said something in Henry’s ear.

“Four hundred,” Henry amended.

Dax laughed. “Okay. You sure?”

“Yep!”

Cam frowned. Where the hell had Henry gotten four hundred dollars? He scanned the crowd for Zoe. Maybe she’d had something to do with it. But he didn’t see her.

“Dude, where’d you get that?” Cam finally asked.

Everyone in the crowd—or at least most of them—knew Henry was Cam’s younger brother.

“No, no,” Ollie said. “You can’t talk him out of this now.”

It made sense that Ollie liked the idea of an hour with three eleven-year-olds better than with any of the women. Ollie talked to eleven-year-olds all the time, both at cons and online. That was their target demographic. Even though their fans ranged anywhere from about eight to forty and were both male and female, their core was truly boys from about ten to twenty.

“Well, he can’t use Monopoly money or something,” Cam said.

“Sure he can,” Ollie said. “I’ll trade you your fake money for real.”

“It’s real,” Henry said. Then he looked up at Piper. “Right?”

She nodded. “Right.”

“You’re giving him the money?” Cam asked. Yes, he still had his mic on and, yes, everyone could hear this. But it was all for fun. And charity. No one would actually care if Piper was giving money to kids to bid on time with Ollie, right?

“Hey, he’s bidding for his mom? Does she get to go on the date too?” one of the women asked. “That’s not fair.”

Okay, maybe someone would care.

“I’m not his mom!” Piper said.

“Much older sister?” the woman asked, then turned to Dax. “Just because he’s a cute kid, doesn’t mean I’m just going to let him have this. Four fifty.”

Cam looked at Ollie. He did not look happy.

“She’s not his sister,” Dax said. “Just a friend.”

“Still, if he’s bidding then he’s the one that goes on the date. She doesn’t get to go along,” the woman insisted.

“Well, I don’t want to go along,” Piper said. “If I want to eat lemon bars with Ollie, I can do that anytime.”

“Oh really?” the woman said. “Well, maybe not after he’s spent an hour with me.”

Piper’s mouth dropped open. Then she turned to Dax. “Three thousand dollars.”

6

The woman’s eyes went round. “Hey!”

Piper looked at her. “What? Anyone can bid.”

“I thought you didn’t want to go on the date.”

“Turns out I want you to go on the date even less.”

Cam looked over at Ollie. He was watching Piper with an expression that was impossible to read.

Dax was clearly hiding a smile. He looked at the other woman. “You want to go higher than three thousand?”

The woman was clearly appalled by the whole thing. “No. Of course not. I don’t have that kind of money!”

Dax shrugged. “Then it’s going, going, gone.” He pointed at Piper. “Lemon bars with Oliver Caprinelli to the lady in yellow.”

Piper looked incredibly smug. She looked down at Henry. “You have a dollar?”

He nodded and held one up. She plucked it from his fingers. “And now you’ve bought the lemon bars with Ollie from me.” She looked up at Dax and then glanced at Ollie, then back down to Henry. “Have fun.”

Cam covered his mic and leaned toward Ollie. “You paying her back that three thousand for savin’ you?”

Ollie shook his head, still watching Piper. “We didn’t plan that.”

“She’s digging into her savings for you?”

Ollie finally looked over and gave Cam a little smile. “Well, I did offer her three thousand dollars to make me some of her sweet and sour meatballs yesterday.”

Cam laughed. “Did you get the meatballs yet?”

“Guessing I’ll have them tomorrow.”

Cam shook his head, grinning.

“And last but not least, Camden McCaffery,” Dax announced, pulling Cam’s attention back to the center of the stage.

Cam straightened and gave the crowd a big grin, even as he stupidly wished Whitney was over here.

Wouldn’t it be a nice twist if she came walking over and bid a couple thousand on him to take everyone immediately out of the running the way Piper had for Ollie?

Better yet, Whitney could bid a cool five grand and make him the big winner, while she was at it.

“Five thousand dollars!” a voice called out.

But it was not Whitney’s.

Everyone, including Dax and, of course, Cam, turned toward the voice.

It was Didi Lancaster. Whitney’s grandmother. The ex-owner of Hot Cakes. The founder. Cam’s grandmother’s ex-best friend and nemesis for the past half century.

She was being helped up the steps that led to the chair they’d designated for her as the final judge. A place of honor, really.

“Didi?” Dax asked, casting a glance in Cam’s direction. “Are you… what did you say?”

She got to the top of the steps and let go of the young man who’d helped her up. She straightened the hat on her head that reminded Cam of the hats the Queen of England wore. It was a carnation pink that was the exact color of the lighter pink in the Hot Cakes logo and it matched the skirt and jacket she wore over a buttoned-up white blouse.

Cam had a flash of this is where Whitney gets it but he shook it off. Kind of. Whitney looked very much like her grandmother and he couldn’t help but think he was looking at Whitney at age seventy-two. Put together. Classy. Beautiful. Mildly intimidating.

“I said,” Didi said, “that I’m bidding five thousand dollars.”

The crowd was completely silent.

Dax gave Cam a what the hell? look.

Yeah, Cam had no fucking idea.

“You’re bidding five thousand dollars for what?” Dax asked.

“To have dessert with Camden, of course,” Didi said, giving Dax a look that clearly said she thought he was a cupcake short of a dozen.

“Ooookay,” Dax said.

Cam looked out over the crowd. But there was no one who had more than five thousand dollars. For one thing. For another, no one was going to tangle with Didi Lancaster.

“Looks like I just brought in the highest bid,” Cam said. What the hell was he supposed to say? He wasn’t going to decline time with the woman in front of the entire town. And she was feisty, but she wasn’t exactly scary.

He was a little curious about what she had in mind here, honestly.