Travis shot her a slightly uncomfortable and irritated look, telling her he wanted to get the hell off that stage quickly.
Come on, Ally. It’s not like Travis can’t afford it. Don’t think about it. Just rescue him.
“Two hundred thousand,” she called out confidently, raising the bet over what she thought most women would bid.
All eyes were on her, most of the women giving her a disgusted look, but Travis just smirked slightly and his eyes danced approvingly.
Most of the women stopped chattering and lowered their paddles, eyeing Ally like she was some sort of criminal. The bidding slowed considerably, only Ally and two other women still in the running. She was raising her paddle, the bid increasing minimally each time.
Travis was giving her pained look, so she shouted again, “Three hundred thousand.” She tried hard not to hyperventilate.
The other two women lowered their paddles and gave her cutting looks. But Ally ignored them because Travis looked happy as the auctioneer did a last call.
“One million dollars.” The feminine call came from behind Ally, and she whipped around to see a beautiful brunette giving her a smug look.
Confused, Ally looked back up at Travis, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was smiling at the beautiful brunette behind her. And the woman was looking right back at Travis now with a broad smile.
Ally waited, the whole room silent as the beautiful woman and Travis smiled at each other. When Travis’s eyes finally moved back to her, he shook his head, and Ally looked at him in shock. Obviously, he wanted this woman to win the auction.
Pain radiated through Ally’s chest and she tried to take a deep breath, but she found all she could do was breathe hard and fast, her chest aching as she watched the auctioneer award Travis to the gorgeous brunette.
The woman pushed past Ally, working her way to the front of the stage, not appearing to care who she pissed off in the process. As Travis stepped down, the woman flung herself into his arms, and Ally stepped back when she saw that Travis didn’t rebuff her. He leaned down to whisper something in her ear, and the woman laughed and kissed him on the cheek, still clinging to his arm.
He wants her. He’s not pushing her away. He wanted her to win the auction. He’ll spend the whole night with her.
Ally turned and dropped her paddle to the floor, unable to watch Travis and the other woman any longer. At that moment, all she wanted to do was escape.
She pushed past the back of the crowd, looking desperately for a place to escape. Her face burned with humiliation and her heart clenched with hurt.
Could I have been so wrong about Travis?
Bolting through the outside door of the resort, she wandered blindly, ending up at the enormous hot springs pool that was now closed. There wasn’t another soul around, so she sat in one of the wooden chairs beside the pool, the smell of minerals bringing back images of her and Travis making love in the pool at the guesthouse. She’d thought they’d been so connected, like there was no other person in the world for either one of them.
She tried to make sense of what had just happened, how Travis had turned away from her so easily, but she couldn’t. And who the hell was the woman? Was she someone from his past? Ally had never seen her before, and what would a woman from his past be doing in Colorado?
He comes here a lot. Maybe he met her on a previous trip.
Whatever the case may be, Ally knew things would never be the same for her and Travis, and she was devastated. He’d picked another woman over her, and that pain was so intense that she wanted to curl up in a fetal position from the sheer agony. Tears poured down her face, and she let out a strangled sob just as she heard the distinctive ring of her phone.
She almost ignored it, but she pulled it out of her purse, noticing in the dim light that it was a call from home, the police department. She clicked the Talk button with trepidation.
The conversation that followed turned Ally’s whole word upside down, leaving her feeling raw and completely destroyed by the time she clicked the phone back off. Her entire body shuddered and she froze in the chair, so shocked that she couldn’t move.
“Ally?” Tate Colter took a seat beside her, but Ally barely noticed him. “You okay?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was, “No. I don’t think so.”
Tate leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, waiting patiently. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
She wanted to tell someone, but she could barely comprehend the whole thing herself. “My house is gone. Apparently there was a sinkhole that opened underneath the house. They said it wasn’t very big, but it was enough to crack the foundation and cause a leak in some of the pipes and lines. The gas leaked and the house exploded. It’s entirely…gone.” Saying the words made it seem more real. “I think Travis—”