Free Can't Buy My Love by Shelli Stevens Page A

itself, I knew the money went to a good cause.
    “Are you going to have to cancel?”
    “No. I want you to go up for auction.”
    I clenched my fingers around the red apple I was loading into a plastic bag. Surely, I heard that wrong. But just in case I hadn’t, “I’m too old, Grams.”
    “Bah!” She rolled her eyes. “I spoke to the committee and they’re willing to make an exception for you. You’re thirty-one so you only missed the cutoff by one year. You’re pretty enough—have good skin. And you could probably pass for twenty-nine.”
    Pretty enough? I bristled. “I don’t think so, Grams. You know I love you and would do almost anything for you. But I draw the line at being pimped out for an auction.”
    “Oh, but…” Her lips started to tremble and she shook her head. “Think of the children. The school district has already gone through most of their allotted budget, and if—”
    “All right.” Jeez, she sure knew where my guilt button was. I adored kids, and thoroughly planned on popping out some of my own. Grams knew that all too well. “I suppose I could do it. When is it?”
    The moment the words left my mouth I regretted them. Why? Why had I just agreed to do it?
    “Wonderful! I figured you’d say yes, so I signed you up. The auction is later today down at the senior center.”
    My stomach clenched, and my hands got sweaty. I didn’t even have time to be pissed that she’d already signed me up. “Today? I couldn’t possibly be ready that soon.”
    “Sure you could. I have an appointment booked at Betty’s Beauty Boutique in a half hour. She’s going to give you a manicure, pedicure, and wax your eyebrows.”
    “Wax my eyebrows?” Heat spread up into my face. Oh God. I’d never even taken tweezers to those suckers. And now she wanted someone to dump hot wax on them before ripping them off my face?
    “You know, I changed my mind. This really isn’t my thing. I’m not auction material—I’m an accountant.”
    “That doesn’t even make sense.” Grams straightened to her whole five-foot-one height and glared up at me. “You have the potential to be a beautiful woman who knows how to have fun. And it’s about time you realize it.”
    Potential to be beautiful? I glanced at the mirrored walls above the bananas. Was I so bad to begin with? My brown hair wasn’t too exciting, but it was long and it had never garnered any complaints. I had contacts if I chose to wear them, but glasses were just easier.
    “Come on, girl, my ice cream is melting. And we need to get you to Betty.”
    And just like that, my night and possibly the next two days were lined up for me.

Chapter Two
    Just a few hours later, I stood in a back room at the senior center, now dubbed the dressing room. I stared in the mirror, poking at my face and fluffing my new shoulder length cut. It was incredible. Grams had been right. I was actually pretty. Not just passable, but pretty.
    The area around my eyebrows was still slightly red from being waxed and plucked to trendy standards. And damn if they didn’t look good. With my unibrow gone and my arch perfected—who knew there was a technique to the arch?—my blue eyes really stood out. Especially since I now wore contacts.
    Anna Emmerson, who at twenty-one had just turned of age to participate in the auction, shouldered me out of the way so she could look in the mirror.
    “I hope Matt Donaldson bids on me. He’s loaded and just going through a divorce.”
    “Yeah, because he’s addicted to prescription pain meds,” I muttered under my breath.
    “You aren’t going up for auction, are you?” she asked me while stroking on enough eyeliner to look like she’d been in a fight.
    “Actually, I am.”
    “Oh. You’re kind of fa…old.”
    My vision blurred and I could feel my blood pressure rise. She’d been about to call me fat. Fat! I was a size twelve, the nationwide average nowadays. Or was it fourteen? Why was I doing this auction again?
    “All right,