I wanted forever, but no doubt get a coffee date at the new place on Main with Miss Turnbuckle, the town’s librarian. The one who’d looked eighty when I was a kid.

“Fuck,” I grumbled to myself. I remembered how I’d felt for Sarah, the way she’d looked at me when I took her for the first time in the back of my pickup. How I’d loved her, wanted to worship every inch of her. Back then I’d gone from thinking only of myself to my sole goal in life being to make her happy.

The crowd of women in the audience screamed and clapped louder than ever. Something was happening, but it didn’t sound like anyone needed law enforcement’s intervention. Thatcher went over to the curtain that kept the backstage area from view and peeked out. I moved to stand beside him to see what the fuck was going on.

I caught a glimpse of Sawyer striding out of the auditorium, a woman tossed over his shoulder. I couldn’t see who it was, but she had red hair. Lots of it.

Thatcher stepped back, grinned. “I didn’t think Sawyer had it in him.”

I took off my Stetson, ran a hand over my hair. Unbelievable. Sawyer wanted a woman enough to carry her from the auction. “Me either.”

Sawyer was the serious one of the three of us. It was definitely because he was the oldest. He’d felt he had to take care of us since our parents died. Hell, he took care of everyone. That was why he was fire chief.

I took the other chief role in town. My reasons hadn’t been so altruistic. My goal hadn’t been to help other people when I’d come back from the academy and taken a deputy position. It had been to help me. To get Sarah to see me as worthy.

Five years in and even taking up the chief role, that hadn’t happened.

Reverend Abernathy popped his head around the curtain. He was smiling and seemed quite pleased with himself. “Your brother had the highest bid of the night. Five hundred dollars!”

“Holy sh—” Thatcher said, then cut himself off and offered a shameful smile. “Sorry, Reverend.”

The man held up his hand. “I am surprised as well. The money is for a good cause; therefore I think God would have to agree with you. This time, especially since you did make the shit holy.” He gave Thatcher a pointed look, then grinned again. “Who’s next?”

I looked to my brother. Even though he was an inch taller, he was still my little brother. Since he was the sole carrottop in the family for generations, I’d always teased him that he’d been adopted. The childhood teasing should have kept him up at night with doubt of his DNA, but everything rolled right off him. Even now he was the easygoing one.

“I’ll go,” I offered. No way in fuck was I going to stand back here all by myself. I’d feel like the last picked in middle school gym. If I was going to get back in the saddle, now was the fucking time.