Joy to the Wolves (Red Wolf #1) - Terry Spear Page 0,93
for the two vases. Hell, I would have thought I’d won the lottery if I’d sold them for a couple thousand.” He smiled at her.
She chuckled. “You’ll learn the value of things soon enough.”
Josh made up some lavender tea for her and a cup of coffee for himself, then brought the Christmas mugs to the table. It didn’t take long for him to serve the waffles after that, with maple syrup and butter. Then he served the ham.
Brooke got another text and sipped from her mug. “From the other potential buyer. He’s offering $12 million each.”
“I suppose you’d say no and hold firm.” Josh sat down at the table and buttered his waffles and then poured maple syrup over them.
“Yes. I tried to get hold of another private buyer, but he hasn’t responded yet. One of these vases sold for $70 million, another for $80 million. So yeah, I’m holding firm. Wait, here’s from potential buyer number one. Now he’s offering $10 million each. I’m texting him back that I’ve contacted two other potential buyers, and one of them has outbid him. They’re always the same art collectors for this kind of art, so he’ll know his competition.” She cut into a slice of ham.
“Are you telling him by how much the other guy outbid him?”
“No, I’m going to wait and see where it goes.” She got another text. “This text is from the Chinese American who hadn’t responded earlier. I really want as much as I can get, but I hope the buyer would be of Chinese origin, which was why I only contacted these three collectors. I don’t know how my aunt ended up owning them, but these collectors often loan their treasures to museums to share with the world, which would be great.”
He glanced at her laptop. She texted the Chinese American buyer: $35 million apiece. We have three bidders.
“They all can afford it, financiers who are worth billions. But they will all try to get the best bargain they can for the royal china.”
He appreciated that she was including him in the business. He still hadn’t quite begun to think of himself as part owner of her estate, just as she was now part owner of the reindeer ranch.
She texted the first two bidders back: A third bidder has stepped up to the plate.
Josh was fascinated by her business acumen as she let the bidding war go on.
“Woo-hoo! The first buyer just bought the vases for $40 million apiece. I figured he would outbid the others, which was why I contacted him first.”
Josh was thrilled for her. She whooped for joy again and did a little dance. He gave her a hug.
“Man, this calls for a celebration,” Josh said. “How do we get the vases to him?”
“He’ll send his men to pick them up. A couple of men will guard the vases—one to hand over the money and take possession and another who is an antiquities dealer in China who will again authenticate the vases. I’ve sold one royal Chinese bowl worth half a million to the collector. It was a great find, but not as big as this, and I was able to pay off my house, car, and college loans with the profit, after taxes. That’s how he handles purchases of this magnitude.”
Josh glanced at the date on her laptop. “Wait. The shop is closed today.”
She glanced at the date. And smiled. “Good. That means we can do some more work, take a nap, and this afternoon celebrate the sale of the vases and our mating with Adam and your brother.”
That sounded like a plan to him. For now, he secured the two vases in the safe before they did anything else.
* * *
Much later, after they’d tagged merchandise from several more boxes and filled some of the shelves at the shop, taken a nap, and made love, Josh called Adam and put the call on speakerphone. “How did things go with Lucas last night?”
“I dropped off Lucas with the pack at the ranch last night, and he was thrilled to see the overwhelming welcome everyone gave him when he arrived. Poor kid was moved to tears. I packed a bag for my overnight stays at the shop. I thought I’d come over and help you go through a bunch of the boxes and help with tagging the merchandise like Josh was doing. I’ll be there in about an hour.”
“Good. Come over to the house,” Brooke said. “We’re going to celebrate the biggest antique