A Bid for Love by Rachel Ann Nunes

to say, “See, I told you she was a snob.” But from the way Cassi reacted, Jared wasn’t so sure Léon’s assumption was correct.
    When she and Renae started again toward the entrance, Jared suddenly wished he could reach out his hand to stop Cassi. But why should he do that? Besides, Renae’s face was pale and she looked tired. She obviously needed to rest.
    Boader grinned at the men, victorious. “Too bad you were late,” he said to Jared. “You missed some great pieces.”
    Jared told himself to be calm. “There’s always next time.” He regretted that the Mother and Baby had been sold before his arrival, but he was amazed to learn Cassi had bought it, that she had recognized the quality of the piece.
    Maybe I can buy it from her, he thought. He wanted it for his private collection, not for Laranda’s gallery. His elegant boss had never been capable of appreciating the value in such simple pieces; its beauty would have been wasted on her.
    “So, where were you?” Léon asked. At his side, Boader waited with an expectant grin on his boyishly good-looking face.
    Jared’s lips tightened as the memory of his dreadful morning came rushing back. “I was busy,” he said to both Léon and Sam Boader in a tone clearly indicating that his private life was not up for discussion. He felt the sorrow of Trudy Martin’s death wash over him, too fresh to be talked about casually.
    “Hey, it’s your life,” Léon mumbled.
     Sam gazed down the hall where Cassi, with her arm about Renae, was quickly retreating from view. “What should I bring her tonight? Chocolates? Flowers?”
    “Try both,” suggested Léon. “All women love flowers, and with an expectant friend, chocolates might make some points. My fourth wife loved to eat chocolates while she was pregnant.”
    Sam grinned. “Fourth, huh? Maybe I will try both.” With a nod of his head, he turned back into the auction room, leaving Jared and Léon alone.
    The crush of art dealers had swallowed Cassi and Renae, but Léon gestured in the direction they had disappeared. “Did you see how she turned him down flat? Cold, I tell you. Cold. If it hadn’t been for her friend, Sam would have been blasted out of the water.” He chuckled. “Lucky devil.”
    Jared let his anger loose. “She didn’t even realize he was asking her out. She thinks he wants the statue. Can’t you see that?” His anger surprised him, and he made an effort to curb it. His reaction was completely out of proportion, stemming from his own frustration in the matter. Too clearly, Jared recognized that he wanted to be in Sam Boader’s shoes that evening, and the fact didn’t sit too well with his ego.
    “Did she really not understand, or was it an act?” Léon said lightly.
    Jared wanted to tell Léon that Cassi was nothing like him. Maybe Léon, with his French flair, could carry off such a deception, but not her. Or could she? Jared remembered Laranda, a woman completely capable of deception. What made Jared think that Cassi wasn’t? Maybe her response had been an act, simply because she hadn’t wanted to go out with Boader. But then why the obvious relief when Renae arranged to have dinner with him?
    Jared shook his head and sighed. There couldn’t be any answers unless he knew her better, and that was out of the question—at least while that hideous Buddha stood between them.
    Abruptly, Trudy’s last words to him at the hospital whispered in his mind. “Open your heart and let someone in.” Jared shrugged the painful memory away.
    “You see? It’s not as easy as all that,” Léon commented, accepting Jared’s silence as agreement. “But you do have an advantage over Boader, you know.”
    “What?”
    “She noticed you weren’t here this morning. She said as much when she asked if you would have bid for the Mother and Baby if you’d been here.”
    So she had! For the first time since Boader had interrupted them, Jared smiled.
    Léon slapped him on the back. “I guess