The Cowboy's Twins

“Settle down, people. Settle down.” Jo spoke directly into the microphone, cringed at the earsplitting feedback and flipped it off. It wasn’t as if she needed the thing. Her voice easily carried across the distance of Serendipity, Texas’s community green, where practically everyone in town had gathered for this event. “Time to get this party started.”

Jax crossed his arms over his chest and grunted. Since when was pure torture considered a festive occasion?

Today, apparently.

When the ruckus didn’t immediately subside, old Frank Spencer—Jo’s crotchety husband—put his fingers to his lips and whistled shrilly. “Listen up, folks. The First Annual Bachelors and Baskets Auction is about to begin. Gather ’round, y’all.”

Jax crushed the toe of his tan cowboy boot into the soft grass, wishing he was anywhere else. Where did Jo come up with this silly idea, anyway? It wasn’t like any auction he had ever heard of, although he didn’t know why he was so surprised by the fact. Serendipity wasn’t exactly known for being normal with anything, especially with Jo Spencer at the helm.

What had started out as Jo’s simple if archaic idea to pawn off the single men for money had grown into something much larger and more complex. She might have originally set out to nab the town bachelors, but her idea had spun so far out of control that now nearly every man in town was lined up to strut his stuff, single and married alike. Now, the idea was that the women could bid on men for tasks instead of dates—with the tasks to be determined by the winning bidder.

Want someone to do the cooking for your barbecue party next weekend? Bid on the man with the secret-family-recipe barbecue sauce that he refused to share with a soul. Want someone to fix up that rusting old truck in your barn? Bid on the town mechanic, and he’ll get it running like new. Or go ahead and bid on your husband or sweetheart...and then put him to work. Jax had overheard one woman saying that when she won her husband, she was going to make him clean out the garage, the way he’d been promising to do for the past five years.

The new twist meant that anyone could participate, even if he was already married or dating. Apparently, Jo figured the more men, the more money would be raised, and Jax supposed there was some truth to that. He just wished he wasn’t wrapped up in it. With this many men, did they really need him?

He scoffed under his breath. Tell folks they were meeting for a good cause and they showed up in spades. Actually, just tell people there was a party. Any reason to celebrate was reason enough for Serendipity, and the fact that the auction was to benefit the building fund for the new town council–approved senior center and hospice was icing on the cake. It was a good cause—one close to his heart, which was the only reason Jax had come out this morning.

Not to be outdone, the ladies in town had started offering to bring picnic baskets to share with the men they won in the auction. Then the event had morphed into bachelors and baskets—which was catchy, even if it was far from accurate, since a good half of the men being auctioned off were married or in serious relationships. If nothing else, Jax was looking forward to the food. He never turned down a good meal. Delicious, down-home country cooking. Too bad he had to put himself through such a ridiculous spectacle just to be able to fill his belly.

Slade nudged Jax with his elbow. “Who do you think is gonna bid on you?”

“How should I know?” Jax snapped derisively. He didn’t expect much. He didn’t expect anything at all. Most likely he was going to stand up on the stage and make a fool of himself for nothing. No woman in her right mind would bid on his ugly mug, no matter how worthy the cause.

“I can’t wait to eat Laney’s picnic lunch. She packed fried chicken.” Slade licked his lips in an overstated motion that made Jax want to snort in exasperation. For a moment he wished he were Slade, who knew exactly whom he’d be spending the day with—his wife. Slade and Laney were expecting a child in the fall, a baby sister for two-year-old Brody, but they still acted like a couple of goofy newlyweds.

“You sure she’s gonna bid on you, baby brother?” Nick goaded, bumping Slade’s shoulder with his. “Maybe she’ll take your money and bid on a handsome man—like me, for example.” He chuckled.

Nick was a big bear of a man with a grouchy personality to match, but he knew how to turn on the charm when he wanted to and he was no slouch with the ladies. Laney might favor her own husband over Nick, but there was no doubt Nick would get his fair share of interest at the auction. He’d get bid on, or bought or whatever crazy word they were using for it.

Slade winked and flashed his wedding ring at his brothers. “I have it on good authority that it’s a done deal.”

Jax wanted to slug the self-satisfied look right off Slade’s face. Just because he was happy with his married life didn’t mean the rest of the world had to suffer his gloating. Especially when Slade knew that the topic of marriage was still a tender wound for Jax right now.

Jo pounded a gavel—probably the same one her town-council president husband, Frank, used—on the podium in front of her.

“First up, I’d like to offer Slade McKenna to our viewing public.”

Slade flashed his brothers a confident grin and stepped onto the platform. He tipped his hat to the roaring crowd and then flexed his biceps for good measure.

Seriously? If anyone—anyone—thought Jax was going to get up on that stage and make a raging fool out of himself like his brother was doing...yeah, that was so not happening.

The crowd roared with delight, hooting and hollering. Actually encouraging Slade, as if he needed a bigger ego than he already had.

“Look at the strength in those shoulders,” Jo said, punctuating her statement with a hoot of her own. “Former bull rider and current member of our esteemed police force, Slade will pitch in and use that brawn and brute strength for any project of your choosing. Laney, dear, would you like to open up the bidding?” Jo suggested with a chuckle. “Surely you must want this handsome hunk all to yourself.”

Jax thought it was silly for Laney to bid on her own husband. Slade was pretty much at her beck and call anyway, and all she had to do was smile at him—it didn’t cost her a dime.

“Oh, I have the perfect project for him.” Laney jumped in without a moment’s hesitation. “Dishes and laundry for a month.”

Slade groaned. “Really?”

Jax chuckled. Served his brother right for being so cocky.

“Three hundred dollars,” Laney offered, already halfway up to the podium. There was no question that she was the clear winner of this particular item.

Alexis Haddon, a local rancher and part of the fundraising committee, stood at the foot of the stairs, waiting to pass a lariat to Laney.

“Make it a good one, darlin’,” Slade coaxed his wife with a sideways grin.

She whooped and swung the lariat toward Slade. Jax scoffed under his breath. Laney wouldn’t be able to rope the broad side of a barn with technique like that—or rather, total lack of technique.

She gave her best effort but the lariat soared a good couple of feet past Slade’s head. She yanked on the end of the rope in a vain attempt to correct her overthrow but to no avail. She would have come up empty-handed were it not for Slade’s quick thinking. He dived for the loop and slipped it over his head, then rolled toward her until he was completely wound up in the line.

“Guess you caught me,” Slade said, laughing with the crowd.

Jax shook his head. He had to give his little brother props for putting on a good show. Even when he was little he had loved to be in the limelight, the center of attention. Probably because he was the baby of the family.

Over the din, Frank stepped up to the podium and grabbed the gavel from Jo’s hand, pounding it against the podium. “Now, see here. Jo never even got to say he was sold yet, and y’all are already draggin’ him off the stage? Let’s have some order to these here proceedings.”

Jo snorted and grabbed the gavel back from him. “Go sit down, old man,” she demanded, giving his grizzled cheek an affectionate buss. “Everyone knew from the get-go that Slade’s wife was going to win him. Now you just be good and wait your turn, or your wife might just leave you a-hanging.”

Honestly, Jax didn’t know how Frank and Jo managed to live together without killing one another, but at the heart of it, their unconventional love for each other worked for them.

If Jax had had half the wisdom and foresight that this old couple shared, maybe his own marriage would have—

“Jax McKenna.”

The sound of his name pierced into his thoughts like a dart popping a balloon.

Nick gave him a none-too-gentle shove. “You’re up, bro. Go get ’em.”

“No, I—” Jax protested. He wasn’t ready to be paraded around like a piece of prime horseflesh. Not that he would ever be ready to face this moment, but he’d at least hoped to have a little more time to get used to the idea, to see how it went with some of the other guys before it was his turn to go.

With reluctant steps he dragged himself onto the platform, his jaw, his fists and his stomach clenched so tight he thought he might be sick. Folks were staring at him, and though the rational part of him knew that he was imagining it, he felt as if everyone’s gaze was glued to the ragged scar that ran from the corner of his mouth to his left temple.

He’d never been overly concerned about his appearance—at least not until after his face had been scarred in an accident and his wife, Susie, had left him for another man. The pain of his divorce was still too fresh for him to ignore, on top of the pain of the scars that marked him both inside and out, marring his features, badly damaging his hearing and shattering his confidence in himself. Everything combined to make participating in this auction all the more excruciating, no matter how good the cause.

He turned and started back the way he came. They had plenty of guys willing and able to compete in the auction. They would do just fine without him. He wouldn’t fetch much of a price, anyway.

“Jackson Daniel McKenna, you freeze right where you are.” Jax might be deaf in one ear, but that was no obstacle to Jo Spencer. Jax firmly believed her voice was loud enough and powerful enough to pierce through a stone wall, if she set her mind to it. And in this instance, it stopped him dead in his tracks. She was like a second mother to most of the town, Jax included, and her tone brooked no nonsense, making him feel as if he was a troublemaking five-year-old all over again.

“Turn your cute little fanny around and get on back over here, son. We need all the genuine bachelors we can get in this here auction. There might be a lady out there who’s just been waiting for an opportunity like this to get to know you, handsome fellow that you are.”

Jax flinched inwardly. He was one bachelor Serendipity could do without.

But denying Jo what she wanted? He couldn’t do that, especially in front of a crowd. He was painfully aware he was making an even bigger spectacle of himself by balking on the stage.

“Yes, ma’am,” he muttered, heading toward the front of the stage, dragging his feet with every step. When he got there, he stood stock-still, as if he was facing a firing squad. It kind of felt that way. There was no laughter or cheers this time, as there had been with his brother. That was fine by Jax. He might have to give in to Jo’s prodding, but he would not—not—flex his muscles the way Slade had done. He pulled the brim of his tan cowboy hat down lower over his eyes and jammed his hands in the front pockets of his blue jeans for good measure.