A Man for All Seasons (5 page)

Ty liked the sound of that. It could happen. He envisioned hordes of women emptying their bank accounts and shouting bids faster than the auctioneer could keep up.

And then he noticed Marlie looking at him with her all-seeing gaze. He gestured with his chin toward the computer screen. “How high does Axelle think women will bid to go out with these men?”

“I have no idea,” Marlie told him. “But there's a minimum bid of six hundred dollars.”

“Fifty bucks a date? What a deal. You can barely go to the movies and get popcorn, drinks and a pack of Junior Mints for fifty bucks.”

“I don't fix the starting bids. I just put up the auction items. But I think the low minimum is because this is offered as an all or nothing package,” Marlie explained. “Axelle said some of the guys were afraid no one would bid on them. This was the only way they'd agree to participate. She's encouraging women to form buying cartels and split up the guys among them.”

He nodded. “In case anyone is too shy to bid by herself. Good idea. So show me the men's package.”

Marlie slowly turned her head and looked up at him.

“I meant,” Ty said, feeling irritated, “are there women for sale?”

“You meant that, did you?”

“Is there a women's version of the dating dozen?” he asked heavily as Marlie continued typing, visibly fighting a grin.

“No—ooolala, Mr. Three French Hens. I wonder if
French
is his specialty.”

Ty looked at the screen.
“That's Axelle's brother!”

“So
that's
Paul.” Marlie propped her chin on her elbow as she zoomed in. “Mmm.” She traced his lips with the cursor and then zoomed in even more until just his mouth and square chin with the cleft filled the screen.

How did he shave that thing, anyway? Ty wondered. Judging by the dreamy expression on Marlie's face, that was not what she was wondering. Sighing, she zoomed out. “I'm glad Axelle has no problem sharing
him.
”

Ty looked at her in concern. Now that he'd helped her get over Eric, she wasn't going to go wild, was she? The idea was to find an area between nun and nymphomaniac.

The next photo popped up. “Four calling birds. Call me anytime.” Her voice dropped to a sexy purr.

“You do know it's actually ‘colly' birds.” Ty sounded uptight and condescending. He always sounded uptight and condescending when he was losing control of a situation.
There is nothing here to control,
he told himself.

“Why, Tyler.” Marlie looked up at him and mercifully away from the lumberjack Jo in his unbuttoned flannel shirt. “I do know that, but I'm amazed that
you
do.”

“I took chorus for my Fine Arts credit in college,” he said, condescendingly.
Stop that.

Mr. Five Gold Rings appeared. “A gymnast?” The photo had been taken during a competition. The man's arm muscles bulged as he suspended himself by the ring apparatus.

“Look at that form,” Marlie said with admiration. “And gymnasts are so flexible.”

Ty waited. “Aren't you going to say ‘he can run rings around me' or something like that?”

“I was thinking that if he's that good with two rings, he'll be spectacular with five. That's golden.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Mmm.” Marlie smiled a little smile as she typed.

Ty felt out of his depth, a totally foreign feeling. Depth like this was supposed to be his specialty.

“This next guy is all about laying.”

Of course he was.

Marlie clicked the mouse to bring up the next photo. Sure enough, there was a guy holding a goose. Shirtless. The man, not the goose. Though technically, the goose was already shirtless. “Axelle found these guys?” Ty's voice was pitched higher than normal.

“Yes. Isn't it great?”

Ty deliberately relaxed his throat. “Couldn't she have found anyone with a hobby requiring clothes?”

“You mean like a sports uniform?”

“Yes.” Ty thought about baseball. “Exactly.”

Marlie brought up the next picture. “Behold. Seven Swans a Swimming.” She glanced up with mock innocence. “Check out the uniforms.”

Speedos. Speedos worn by men with no body fat. Or modesty. “The entire swim team?”

“No,” Marlie said, her voice regretful. “Just him.” She cropped the other men out and enlarged the remaining swimmer, not that he needed enlarging, a point amply made by the skin-tight suit. “But he's enough, don't you think?”

“Yes. Plenty.” Which one of them had been afraid no one would bid on him? Sheesh. Ty didn't lack for self-confidence, but these guys were enough to make him add another mile to his morning run.

“And he's a breast stroke champion. I should put that in the caption.”

“Marlie.”
Tyler began to sweat. He'd never seen this side of her. He didn't know she had this side. She should keep this side to herself. He didn't want to be responsible.

He wasn't responsible, was he?

“What?”

Eight maids a milking was up next and Ty could only imagine. “How is it possible for you to make ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas' sound smutty?”

“Smutty?” Marlie looked the picture of offended virtue. “Tyler, these men are donating their time in an effort to raise money for a program that provides a positive activity for underprivileged youth when they're most vulnerable to bad influences. What exactly do you find smutty about that?”

“I—”

“Furthermore, I've been posting all these auction items and I've yet to see what you've donated. Don't you support the business mentors program?”

“I donated you,” he said.

Marlie blinked. “Excuse me?”

He gestured to the screen. “I suggested you for the website, since you do Axelle's restaurant already.”

Marlie's eyes narrowed. “You mean I do the work and you get the credit?”

How did he end up the bad guy, here? “I'm covering the expenses for the site and your fee after the discount.”

“Oh.” She looked back to the screen. “I'd like to tell you to forget about my fee, but I need the money.”

“No problem. You've put in a lot of hours and it wasn't really your cause to begin with.” Or his, but that didn't mean it wasn't worthwhile. “You should find a cause. Volunteering would be a good way for you to interact with people.” And
by people, he meant men. And by interact, he meant talking in a controlled setting that was not a bar.

“I'm volunteering right now.” Marlie had flipped into her photo editing program and was removing background clutter from the crop of the swimmer. “And I am so interacting.” She zoomed in on his head and removed the red rings his goggles had left around his eyes. “There. Not that anyone is going to be looking at his face.”

Ty hadn't known Marlie was so visual. “I meant interacting in person.”

“I'm all for that.” She sighed at the picture.

“Then volunteer for something other than computer work,” Ty said. “Something that gets you out of the house.” He got an idea. “In fact, why don't you come with Axelle and me to the auction on Friday? You'll get a chance to see everything first hand.” And maybe Axelle could set her up with someone. Axelle knew everyone. Yeah, they could introduce Marlie to as many men as possible. One of them was bound to ask her out. Brilliant.
Tyler Burton, you are brilliant.

Marlie's ponytail brushed against his arm and he looked down. She had an appealing casual vibe, but maybe Axelle could give her some tips about her hair before Friday. Figure out a way to contain it. Maybe lend her some lip gloss.

“I can't go,” Marlie said. “We're streaming the auction live, remember? I have to monitor it from here.”

Too bad. He'd practically had her married off.

“I'll get to see everything Friday afternoon when Randy and I set up the webcams.”

“Randy?”

“Computer geek.” Marlie clicked through to Nine Lords a Leaping.

A guy in a black Dominion of Zartha T-shirt posed against a stone wall, crossed arms displaying biceps not normally associated with computer geeks. At least he was clothed.

“He'll have a laptop down front at the auction. Our computers will be networked so I can control the webcams from here and Randy will be able to relay the online bids to the auctioneer.”

“Axelle,” Ty supplied.

“She decided to do it herself?” Marlie made a sound. “I thought she was going to ask someone else.” Her eyes met his.

“Me?”

Marlie shrugged. “She wasn't specific.”

Axelle had never come out and asked him. Had she expected Ty to offer to be the auctioneer? “I've never done anything like that before. This is a big deal. She should have gotten someone with experience.”

“Whatever.”

Did Axelle feel that he'd let her down? It was hard to figure out what she was thinking or wanted from him.

Marlie turned back to the computer. “By the way, she's coming here to change clothes before the auction. It'll save you a trip to pick her up.”

“Sounds good.” At least Axelle would be able to introduce Marlie around during the afternoon before people got dressed up. A casual setting was more Marlie's style, anyway.

There was a knock on the door jamb and one of the carpenters stuck his head in. “We've got it all, Marlie. We patched the holes where the brackets held the frame to the wall. I'd give it a day to dry before you paint over it.”

“Okay.”

“And thanks again!”

She gave a distracted wave and he let himself out.

“You're taking this very well,” Ty said. “Where are you going to sleep tonight?”

“Mmm?”

“You don't have a bed.”

“In here.” She stared at the monitor. “On the loveseat.”

She had to be working on Eight Maids a Milking. He couldn't help it. Ty looked at the computer screen where a man wore a milk mustache, his arms crossed over a beefy chest, if one could mix food groups. Enough already.

As Ty left, he heard Marlie sigh as the keyboard clicked. “Milk. It does a body really, really good.”

W
HEN
A
XELLE AND
T
Y CAME
downstairs dressed for the auction, Marlie was glad, glad, glad she couldn't go with them. Even she, who had the barest passing acquaintance with fashion, could tell that Axelle's simply-draped, one-shoulder, floor-length gown was wickedly expensive.

As for Ty, Marlie's preference for men in jeans changed right then and there—Ty in formal wear was something to behold.

Classic, elegant—two traits she hadn't fully appreciated before—and drop-dead handsome—which she'd definitely fully appreciated—he managed to stun her speechless.

It's basically a black suit,
she told herself. A bunch of fabric. But that fabric broadened his shoulders, narrowed his waist and lengthened his legs. There was a lot to be said for tailoring.

Marlie was staring but couldn't help it.
He's not your type,
her sense of self-preservation protested weakly as a massive reconfiguring of what Marlie found attractive was underway. It was like reformatting her hard drive and wiping off all the sexy-men-in-jeans files and replacing them with James Bond clone files. Which, Marlie now thought, were not bad files at all.

And then Ty smiled, which was just killer. She didn't even care that he knew it.

“Isn't he handsome?” Axelle asked.

“Yes,” Marlie agreed, and sighed, all pride gone.

Still smiling, Ty gave her a mock bow, allowing her to save face and pretend she'd been kidding with the sigh.

Except she hadn't been.

“We upgraded his dinner jacket.” Axelle smoothed the already smooth satin lapel and Ty turned his smile her way.

Marlie felt a pang. Sure it felt like good old jealousy that Ty was gaga about Axelle and not her, but it really and truly was only a sign that she was ready for a man in her life again. Like now. Right now.

“You both look stunning,” Marlie said, so they'd know she wasn't jealous. “Axelle, you're going to look so beautiful up on the stage. Silver was a good choice.”

“Thank you, Marlie.” Axelle tore her gaze away from Ty. “I thought pewter was a fresh color for the season.”

Okay, it was called pewter instead of silver. Whatever. Marlie was through gushing. They were gorgeous. They knew it. She wished they would leave.

“And thank you for working so hard this afternoon,” Axelle said. “I hope we get bidders from the website.”

“I do, too.” Especially since Marlie had invested in extra webcams so she could show the action as well as close-ups of the items. “I'll be watching and handling everything from here and Randy is going to be sitting right in front with his laptop. We had a dry run a little bit ago.” She'd already told Axelle all this, but the woman was a maniac about details. “Everything works great. Now go.” She made shooing noises as Ty flashed her another smile.

Her breath caught. He hadn't
meant
to smile at her like that, had he? That sexy, full-of-promise smile? No, that was leftover from the smile he'd given Axelle.

Calm down.
But her heart beat hard just the same.

They left, after subjecting Marlie to a touching scene where Ty draped Axelle's wrap around her shoulders. Good thing, since when Axelle turned to go through the door, she appeared to be missing the back of her gown. Marlie wondered if Ty could make it all the way to the auction without ripping the thing off her.

Alone, Marlie felt antsy and restless. This afternoon, when she'd been setting up in the hotel ballroom, Axelle had introduced her to several men and they all seemed very nice. But.

But you don't want ‘very nice', you want Ty.

No, she didn't. She wanted a man. Marlie tried visualizing a man. Any man who pushed her buttons. Ty popped into her mind.
Get out of my head,
she thought irritably. The problem was that there weren't any other men in her head. So she studied The Twelve Men of Christmas, flipping through their bios and pictures on the site. They'd revved her engine the other day, but now, not even the drummer, her favorite, was doing anything for her.

She thought of Ty and the warm fuzzy feelings started again.

Not good. So she thought of Ty being irritated, Ty being oblivious, Ty with his stuff all over her house, and the fact Ty had never looked at her the way he looked at other women.

Still warm. And the fuzziness had turned to tingles. What was the matter with her? For years, the only warm feeling she'd had for Ty had been resentment. Certainly nothing had tingled. Even when their moms had suggested he move in with her, all she'd felt was relief. It was Ty and she wouldn't have to deal with the normal man/woman issues.

Well, now she was having issues.

Which was bad, because Ty was not available. Which was good, because there was no way she could fit into a dress like
the one Axelle was wearing. Axelle was tall and model thin. Ty's type. Marlie was average and round. Not Ty's type.

But not as round as she'd been. Her jeans snapped at the waist for the first time since he'd moved in, for which she was grateful, since she'd needed to wear them to set up cameras and crawl around trying to find electrical outlets.

Axelle had also worn jeans this afternoon.

Denim looked entirely different on Axelle. Marlie had fit right in with the technical crew and Axelle had fit right in with the socialites. They both wore jeans, a top, and a jacket, but anyone entering the hotel ballroom automatically went straight to Axelle as the person in charge.

Although Marlie was not jealous of her, sometimes she thought she should be. They'd never be best buddies, but they didn't have to be. Axelle was still her client. She'd always been friendly in a professional way, with the extra touches of thoughtfulness that made people want to deal with her and return to her restaurant again and again.

For example, this afternoon, when Marlie had complained about how Houston's humidity had made her hair impossible, Axelle had given her a purse-sized bottle of the defrizzing product she used.

Marlie hadn't cared much about her appearance in the past couple of years. The fact that she'd spent time trying to tame her hair this afternoon was another sign she was ready to reenter the dating scene. She thought of Ty and his we-will-mate-soon smile and shivered.

She wanted a man to look at
her
that way. And the sooner she found one, the sooner she'd stop hoping that man would be Ty.

 

T
YLER WAS ENJOYING HIMSELF
way more than he thought he would when Axelle first told him about the auction. She wore a dress that clung to her like liquid silver—where there was a
dress to cling. And man, did she have a body for it to cling to. As she worked the crowd in the hotel ballroom, welcoming everyone, making sure the drinks flowed, encouraging people to view the auction items, and doing what she did best, Tyler watched the double takes from the men as she turned her naked back to them and glided to the next group. She was like a glittering ornament, a prize who would enhance the stature of the man who won her.

And he was the one who'd get to take her home. But not to his home. His wasn't finished and Axelle wasn't about to go to Marlie's while Marlie was in it. And technically Axelle didn't have a home, so Ty would be taking her to her brother's home. And departing shortly thereafter.

He was eager to take their relationship to the next level, more eager than Axelle, he suspected. She was a bit of a reach for Ty, and he didn't feel completely solid with her yet, as though there was some test he had to pass. He hoped volunteering to be the auctioneer wasn't the test. But in case it was, he needed to do something else. He should bid on something tonight. He'd already intended to anyway, but now he needed to make a grand, attention-getting, and expensive, gesture. But what would please her? If he was about to drop some major bucks, he'd like to know she appreciated it.

If Axelle were more like Marlie, he could just ask and she'd tell him. Marlie was a completely different type of female, but she had her good points. Ty knew what to expect from her. She was comfortable, dependable, and easy to be around. Restful. He liked that about her, but for the long haul, he wanted some spice and excitement. Not spice and excitement all the time—that would be exhausting—but enough to keep life interesting.

Some guys didn't want any of that. Ty knew men at work who wanted to come home at a certain time and know that dinner was pork chops on Tuesday and Chinese takeout on
Friday, that Sunday afternoons were for kicking back on the couch and watching sports. Marlie was exactly right for those guys. He could see the appeal in that kind of life. Ty, himself, would get bored, but he sure was going to miss living with her. He never had any worries on the domestic front, and in return, he was glad to check out the funny noises in her car or fix a leaky faucet. They'd fallen into the pattern as though they'd been living together for years. Marlie was made to be a wife and mother.

While Ty understood what her ex had been feeling, he bet that someday, Eric would be kicking himself for not realizing how good he'd had it.

Heck, if the timing were different, Ty might be tempted by her, himself. But he wasn't ready for a tame life of domestic responsibility. And when he was—if he ever was—Marlie would probably be married with a couple of kids.

Axelle had stationed Ty by the auction tables to answer questions and distribute brochures. Nobody had any questions and everybody already had a brochure. Nothing much was going on yet. Truthfully, he was getting a little bored. Marlie, home alone, was probably really bored. So, when he spied one of her webcams, he turned away from the room, stuck his head right in front of the lens, and made a silly face.

 

M
ARLIE SNORTED CHICKEN
noodle soup.

If Axelle caught him doing that, Ty was toast. Marlie had spent all afternoon working with her and knew the woman wanted every detail to be perfect tonight. Not only was this Axelle's first fundraiser, it was also the first fundraiser for the Midtown Mentors. While it was a good program, Axelle had taken on the auction as a vehicle to draw attention to her restaurant. She wanted to impress the type of people who would frequent Ravigote with a classy, perfect-down-to-the-
last-detail event. So if she had seen Ty making faces at Marlie, she would have had a cow. But only prime beef, of course.

Marlie laughed, once she'd gotten soup out of her nose. Ty was lucky she hadn't been streaming that particular camera over the internet.

On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have cared. That made her laugh again and she remembered the time she'd sprained her ankle playing soccer when she was eight, and she'd had to go to the camp infirmary. She'd been trying not to cry because her parents hadn't been located yet and Tyler, who was supposed to walk her back to their cabin, wouldn't know where she was. He was mad at her, anyway, because he wanted to go to the swimming pool with his team because of some girl he liked. Marlie was scared until she saw Tyler's head pop up outside the examining room's window. He'd made faces at her from behind the nurse, and she'd tried not to laugh so the nurse wouldn't make him go away.

He'd made that same face just now. He didn't have much of a repertoire. Still, tears pricked her eyelids because Tyler could have gone to the pool that day after all. But instead, he'd stayed with her until her parents came and drove them back to the cabin.

She hadn't thought of the incident at all since then.

Marlie wished she could communicate through the camera. Sure, she had his cell number, but it would have been more fun to make faces back at him.

She punched in his number and watched him straighten and reach for his phone. “You goof! What are you doing?”

“Checking to see if you were paying attention.”

She laughed. “Why aren't you mixing and mingling?”

“I have brochure duty.” He held them up to the webcam.

Huh. Axelle had stashed him off in the corner? Not a good sign. “Where's Axelle?”

“Oh, around here somewhere.” Ty appeared unconcerned
as he drew back from the camera and looked around the room. Marlie saw him go still, an intent look on his face that told her Axelle was nearby.

Marlie switched cameras until she could see Axelle sweeping across the room toward him. He closed his phone and slipped it into his pocket, her call to him forgotten.

 

A
XELLE SWOOPED IN AND
snagged Ty's drink, guzzling it down and making a face. “What
is
this?”

“Ginger ale.” He'd wanted to stay sharp.

“With
sugar?
” She looked horrified.

As though she needed to worry about her weight. She was perfect. Absolutely perfect. “A little sugar won't hurt you.”

“I thought this was scotch and soda.” Axelle looked around. “I need alcohol.”

There isn't enough alcohol in the world, Ty thought, nonplussed at seeing Axelle nervous. “You'll be fine,” he assured her, and then amped it up. “Once you start the auction, all you have to do is throw a few smiles out there and the bids will come rolling in.”

“I hope so,” she said, taking a deep breath. “There aren't as many guests as I'd hoped.”

Ty looked around. “There are lots of people here.”

“But most are members who've already donated something for the auction. They won't be as generous when it comes to bidding. I'm just afraid that if the items do not sell for at least what they are worth, people won't be as willing to support us next year. Or even willing to have an auction.”

Seeing Axelle as anything other than supremely confident made her more human to Ty and less out of his league. He slipped his arm around her waist to give her a reassuring hug. His hand skimmed across bare skin. He stopped breathing so he could fully savor the feel of his hand on her back. When he became light-headed, he inhaled and asked with all the
casualness of which he was capable, “So, this afternoon, did you introduce Marlie to any guys?”