Star of His Heart - Brenda Jackson [30]
Alex glared at his brother. He then turned his glare on Clayton. “I can’t believe I let your wife talk me into doing it.”
“Chill, man,” Clayton said, grinning. “Don’t get mad at me. You can’t turn Syneda down any more than I can, especially after she turns those beguiling sea-green eyes on you. Admit it.”
Alex reluctantly smiled. “Yeah, okay, I admit it. But I don’t have to like it.” He then turned his attention to Ashton. “You’re pretty calm about all of this, and you’re being billed as top dog. Why aren’t you sweating at the possibility of spending a weekend in New Orleans with Angela the Man Hater?”
Ashton took a swig of his beer, then said, “It won’t happen. I’ve got a backup plan.”
Alex raised a dark curious brow. “What sort of backup plan?”
Ashton smiled. “I’m going to plant someone in the audience who will be given instructions to top the highest bid no matter what it is, using my money, of course. Then I will present the winning bid to the woman I want. Netherland.”
Dex Madaris chuckled. “I hope the person you’re planting in the audience is a woman. It would definitely raise a few brows if another man came forward and bid on you.”
Ashton grinned. “I’ve taken that under consideration.”
“Hey, what about me?” Alex said to the other men. “Maybe I should come up with some sort of plan just in case.”
Trask Maxwell smiled at his brother. “That may not be a bad idea. Is there any particular woman that you want to bid on you and win?”
Alex thought of all the single women he knew. Like most men he appreciated women. However, he also knew his priorities. His busy schedule as a private investigator did not allow a lot of free time, which didn’t bother him in the least. Maxwell Security and Investigators was the most important thing to him right now. An involvement with a woman was low on his totem pole. “No, not really. And although it’s dinner for just one night, I’m leery as to whom I may end up with. Any of you got any bright ideas? I prefer not suffering through any meal with a woman I don’t know.”
Trevor shrugged. “You know Gina, and she would do it in a heartbeat to help you out. Unfortunately, she’ll be out of town that night.” Gina was Trevor’s twenty-eight-year-old sister.
Alex nodded. He would have felt comfortable with Gina since they were friends and had been for years.
“What about Christy?” Justin Madaris asked, smiling. “She’ll be there that night. Why not let her bid on you?”
Alex raised a brow. Christy was the Madaris brothers’ twenty-year-old sister who would be celebrating her twenty-first birthday in a few months. He saw her rather infrequently these days since she was away attending college at Howard University in D.C. But he had seen a recent picture of her a few months ago in her uncle Jake’s office. She was no longer the gangly kid he remembered. “Do you think she would do it?”
Dex Madaris grinned. “I don’t see why not. She’ll be getting a free meal out of it. Besides, she won’t be spending her money to do the bidding but yours.”
Alex nodded. “I would feel a lot better if I was taking a person out to dinner that I knew.”
Clayton chuckled. “Well, you do know Christy. You’ve known her since the day she was born. She’ll do it if we were to ask her.”
Alex looked at the three Madaris brothers. He knew how overprotective they were of their kid sister. “And my taking her out won’t bother the three of you?”
Dex shrugged. “Why should it? It’s not like you’ll be taking her out on a real date.”
Alex nodded. “You’re right. It won’t be like a real date.”
Ashton, who’d been following the conversation, leaned back in his chair and covered his jaw with the palm of his hand. He wondered if he’d imagined things or if he had seen a flicker of apprehension in Alex Maxwell’s eyes just now. Or was it interest?
“And that, ladies, is how I met Trent and fell in love,” Brenna Jordache said, winding up her conversation. The baby shower had officially ended