Last Chance Beauty Queen (Last Chance #3)(20)
Author: Hope Ramsay

The minister looked down at her out of his bright blue eyes. Haley didn’t feel any better now that she’d explained her problem, though. In fact, she had this feeling she’d made a really big mistake.

Before the minister could say anything else, Miz Bray came out of the house, where she had been listening, even though the preacher had told her not to. “Young lady,” Miz Bray said, stepping on to the porch and standing over Haley, her finger pointing. “This nonsense has got to stop. Either you’re lying or you need to be put away someplace where they keep crazy people. Is that what you want? To be a crazy person like your granddaddy?”

“Now Lillian—” the minister started.

“You get out of here right this minute and stop wasting Reverend Ellis’s time. You and your granddaddy may think this is funny, but it’s not.”

“Lillian, I think you had better…”

Haley didn’t wait to hear what the preacher had to say. It didn’t matter anyway. The preacher didn’t believe her, any more than Granny did. And if no one believed her, then she would have to be crazy.

And she didn’t want to be crazy. Although being like Granddaddy didn’t seem such a bad thing. It had never occurred to her until right this minute that seeing angels was a pretty big burden.

She turned and ran for the door, just as her throat closed up and tears filled her eyes. She ran from Miz Bray’s house, down the hill toward the barbecue area.

Since the cooking was done, Granddaddy was resting in a lawn chair talking with old Mr. Jessup when she found him.

Granddaddy saw her coming even before she got there. He stood up, and she ran right into his legs and hugged him. Granddaddy’s arms came around her. He pulled her up into his lap and sat the both of them down in the lawn chair. “Now, little gal, what’s the matter?”

She let go of a sob onto the soft fabric of Granddaddy’s T-shirt just as the preacher showed up.

“Is she all right?” the preacher asked.

Granddaddy squeezed Haley’s shoulders a little tighter. “What in the Sam Hill did you do to her to make her cry like this?”

“It wasn’t me. Lillian said a few unchristian things. Haley came to ask me some questions about her angel. Apparently the angel is quite destructive.”

Haley felt Granddaddy go still. “Well, obviously, you didn’t give her any advice about dealing with a destructive angel, did you, Bill?”

“Well I—”

“I can just imagine what Lillian said to her.”

Haley sniffled back her tears. “Miz Bray said I should be locked up someplace where crazy people go.” Another wave of tears flooded her eyes. “I don’t want to go to a place like that.” The sob broke over her, and she buried herself in the safe haven of Granddaddy’s T-shirt.

“Elbert, I’m very sorry. Lillian didn’t give me a chance to speak with the child. Haley is very troubled. She needs guidance.”

“Right. I got it,” Granddaddy said.

“Elbert, I—”

“Look, we’ll talk later. It would be best if you left us alone. Now.”

The preacher turned to go, but Granddaddy called him back. “Bill,” he said, “I’m disappointed in you. After all the help you and Hettie have given me these last few weeks with the golf course, I would have thought you still had faith in angels. Lillian is a lost cause, I know. But I had high hopes for you.”

Hugh spent most of the afternoon in the company of Senator Warren and his daughter. Both of them were keen on schmoozing the other political VIPs in attendance at the barbecue.

Hugh wanted nothing of that sort of thing. He wanted to enjoy himself, and politicking was like torture, especially since Senator Warren was quite fond of cigars, and the smoke always reminded Hugh of his grandfather.

Hugh might have made an escape but Cissy had anchored him to her side. He bided his time until Cissy excused herself for a visit to the washroom. Then Hugh headed up to the second floor of the picnic pavilion, where Clay Rhodes’s band was playing and people had gathered to dance.

He stood like a wallflower, watching the dancers move about on the floor. He didn’t know the dance. It was one of those American line dances with intricate steps and moves. He was less interested in the dance moves than he was in watching the utterly fetching Caroline Rhodes, who was dancing barefooted with Dash Randall.

After her pony ride and an afternoon of dancing, her hair looked like a wild mane around her pale face. Her crown of ribbons had tangled down her back, and she moved like a sprite in the afternoon light. She was a vision from a storybook: round in all the right places; her amazing bosom displayed by the bodice of that dress; her porcelain cheeks blushing pink. He wanted to possess her. He wanted to collect her and walk off with her into the piney woods and see what magic she really commanded.

And he wanted to put his fist right through Dash Randall’s handsome face.

The man had kept her right by his side all afternoon. He had thoroughly staked his claim, and Caroline seemed to be completely besotted with the bloke.

Well, he could hardly blame her. Randall was supposedly quite well heeled and handsome as the devil.

He was also an appallingly bad dancer.

Not that Hugh was particularly good on his feet. But Randall was downright clumsy.

“It sucks, don’t it?”

Hugh turned to find Bubba Lockheart standing right beside him. The poor man’s nose was in a splint, his eyes were black, his lip swollen, and there was a noticeable gap in his smile where his front teeth had once been. He was sipping what looked like a Coke through a soda straw.

Shame washed through Hugh. “I say, I’m terribly sorry about Thursday night. I probably overreacted.”

Bubba nodded. “Yeah, I know, I probably did, too.”

“No hard feelings.”

“Nah. The surgeon said I should sue you, but the way I see it, I probably started the fight. I shouldn’t have grabbed Rocky the way I did. I just lost my head there for a minute. And I’d already had a couple of beers.”

“Well, that might be true, but I probably should have given you warning before I swung.”

They lapsed into silence for a few moments, both of them watching Caroline dance. Finally Bubba said, “I’m thinking the two of us might be able to take him, what with him being gimpy and all.”

“Him? You mean Randall?”

“Yeah. Him.” Bubba sounded miserable.

“You know, I rather think that would be poor form right here in the middle of the party.”

“Right. We could sneak up on him later and open up a can of whup ass on him.”

“Hm, yes, I suppose he deserves it for lassoing Caroline off that float.”

“He manhandled her. I don’t like it when people do that to Rocky.”

Hugh refrained from pointing out that Bubba had manhandled Caroline, or that Hugh had not liked it either. Instead he said, “I think Caroline would be quite annoyed at us if we picked a fight with Randall. She was quite angry with me on Thursday for what happened. I don’t think she approves of fighting.”

“That’s probably right. But she’s ignoring me.”

“Well, there is more than one way to get a woman to notice you.”

Bubba turned to give him a long, hard stare. Bubba was a very large man. Hugh doubted he could take him a second time, especially since he appeared to be stone sober at the moment.

“I think she’s noticed you plenty, from what I’ve heard around town,” Bubba said, his voice taking on an edge.

“Well, last night doesn’t count. I got her drunk, which I realize was reprehensible. But let’s face it, she’s noticing Randall right at the moment, and she looks to be completely sober.”

“Right.”

“So I’ve got an idea.”

“You do?”

Hugh nodded. “If we want her to notice us, we can’t stand here on the sidelines. We have to join the battle, right there on the football pitch, as they say.”

Bubba frowned. “You know, you sound real pretty when you talk, but I don’t understand half of what you say.”

“Bubba, old man, we need to get into the game.”

“Right. But how? Besides knocking his block off.”

Hugh scanned the crowd looking for wallflowers. He found two: the pretty girl with long brown hair and a curvy figure who had been dining with Caroline on Thursday night, and Cissy Warren, who was scanning the crowd, no doubt looking for Hugh so she could drag him back downstairs.

“Perfect. You see that young lady over there? The one who came to your rescue on Thursday?”

“You mean Rachel? She’s Rocky’s friend. She’s real pretty.”

“Yes, she’s quite dishy. Which is the point. Go ask her to dance.”

“Me? Ask Rachel Polk? Uh, she isn’t ever going to dance with me. Especially after what happened to my face. She’s too pretty for me.”

“She is not. She cares about you. She tried to save your teeth.”

“Yeah, she did. Then she disappeared after the doc told her it was a hopeless case. I’m sure she isn’t interested in a guy who looks like a hillbilly.”

“Nonsense. I’m sure she likes you quite a bit. And besides, your smile can be fixed. You’re an American, and all Americans have fabulous smiles. The number of dentists per capita in your country is completely amazing.”

“The doc said they could fix my teeth with implants.”

“So, see? You should go right over there and thank her for trying to save your teeth. And then dance with her. Dance a slow dance with her.”

“Why?”

“Because it will send Caroline the message that you don’t care if she’s off dancing the night away with that cowboy.”

“But that’s not the message I want to send.”

“I know. It’s reverse psychology. See, if she doesn’t think you care, then she’s going to care more.”

“Uh-huh. It kind of makes sense, I guess. Sort of.”

“Trust me. This works all the time.”

Bubba frowned. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to dance with Cissy Warren. She’s rich. I’m not entirely sure I like her very much, but she certainly fits the bill when it comes to Miriam Randall’s forecast for me.”

“Miriam gave you a forecast?”

“Yes, she told me to marry a rich woman, which is, more or less, what my grandfather used to tell me when I was a lad.”

“Well, that kind of leaves Rocky out of the running, don’t it?” Bubba grinned. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

“Well, I suppose so, more’s the pity. But we can still carry on. Are you game?”

Bubba shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Let’s go get ’em.”

“I’m a freaking genius,” Dash said. “Look.”

Caroline turned her head and saw two things. Bubba and Rachel dancing together, and beyond them, Lord Woolham guiding the model-thin and naturally blond Cissy Warren around the dance floor with his undeniable grace and aplomb.

A whole raft of conflicted feelings raced through her. Seeing Bubba dancing was a positive sign. Seeing him dance with her best friend was, on the other hand, deeply distressing. The last thing Rachel needed was clingy Bubba screwing up her life.