Without thinking Ethan raised his hand. The auctioneer accepted his bid. And moved on to the other bidding parties of which there were now two.

“What are you doing?” Hannah asked. “You can’t bid on it. I don’t have that kind of money.”

Before he had a chance to answer her, he was raising his hand again. There was this driving need within him to do this—to win the auction. Because Hannah was right. It would be the show stopper in the bakery.

“Ethan, stop. You can’t do this.”

And yet he kept bidding. And bidding. They were now down to him and one other party. He just wanted it to be over.

Ethan called out a substantial increase in the price, hoping it would be enough to knock the other bidder out of the running. The auctioneer turned to the other party. He called once, twice, three times.

“Sold!”

Ethan breathed his first easy breath since the bidding had begun. Quite honestly it was the first time he’d ever bid on anything, and he had to admit that there was a bit of a rush to it.

He turned to Hannah. “We did it.”

She had her arms crossed as her distinct frown doused his exuberant mood. “No. You did it.”

“But I did it for you.”

“And I told you I can’t pay you for it. I hope you and your chandelier will be happy together.”

She was mad at him? His elated mood quickly deflated. He hadn’t meant to overstep. He’d let himself get caught up in her vision. Surely she wouldn’t stay mad at him. He hoped.

Chapter Fifteen

She couldn’t believe what he’d done.

Hannah was still upset with Ethan for stepping in and bidding on the chandelier.

They now sat quietly in Birdie’s room as Ethan visited with his aunt. They’d previously planned to stop by on their way back to the island. And though she was upset with Ethan, she wouldn’t deprive Birdie of seeing her great-nephew just because Hannah was anxious to put some distance between herself and Ethan.

As Birdie and Ethan discussed Peaches, Hannah sat quietly by. She tried to figure out why his action had upset her so much. Some women would be over-the-top excited to have a handsome man make an extravagant purchase on their behalf.

But the thing was Ethan hadn’t even talked to her about bidding on the chandelier before he’d done it. He took it upon himself to decide what would make her happy, just like her ex used to do.

Brad had decided in what manner she should spend her money. He said the beach house would make her happy. He’d decided they should marry immediately. It would make her happy. He’d decided they should start a family right away. She’d love being a mother. And through it all, he hadn’t discussed it with her.

Just like her father had decided many years ago that being a firefighter wasn’t for her. He didn’t discuss it with her. He’d just said that there were a lot of other things she could do with her time.