Last Chance Beauty Queen (Last Chance #3)(38)
Author: Hope Ramsay

“Darling, listen, I don’t want to swindle your father. I did discuss options for condemning the land, but surely you don’t believe that I would—”

“I’ll be right with you,” Rocky said to Stone. Then she slammed the door and started looking for her clothes. She was an idiot. A fool.

Sharon was right. She needed to focus on her career, not her love life. She could live without Hugh deBracy. He was a fantasy. And if she wanted fantasy, she could read a book. But her career and her family were realities.

She should take a good look in the mirror and remember who the hell she was. She was Rocky Rhodes of Last Chance, South Carolina. And she loved her family, even if it was the weirdest, most eccentric family in the universe. And she was not going to be part of any scheme to steal Daddy’s land. No matter what her boss wanted, or her heart yearned for, or what Last Chance needed for its tax base.

She studied Hugh for a long moment. He looked like a baron all right, with that regal bearing and that narrow nose and square chin.

“It was a nice fantasy,” she said. “But it’s over. I had a good time, but you know, I never would have come here if I’d known you were talking about condemning Daddy’s land. That hurt, Hugh. I love my father, and you know good and well that I’ve never thought for one minute that building your factory down south of town was a good idea. You should have been honest with me.”

She shucked out of his shirt and started putting herself back together.

Hugh stood with a completely unreadable look on his face as he watched her get dressed. He did nothing to stop her. He seemed to have forgotten those whispered words right before Stone came knocking, about wanting to pursue everything. Perhaps that’s exactly what he’d meant—that he wanted her and Daddy’s land, too.

Proving that a girl could never trust words whispered before, during, or right after incredible sex.

Yup, Sharon had been right. A girl shouldn’t ever let lust carry her away. A girl needed to use her head.

Especially a girl with a career working for a U.S. senator.

Chapter 18

Fifteen minutes later, Rocky sat in the passenger seat of Stone’s cruiser with her elbows on her knees and the heels of her hands pressed firmly into her eye sockets. Maybe if she applied enough direct pressure, she could keep from hemorrhaging tears. So far it was working.

“We’re home,” Stone finally said. A second later, his fingers massaged her tense shoulders.

“So are you going to tell Momma where you found me?”

“Of course not.”

She finally dropped her hands and turned her head. “You’re not?”

“No, but it hardly matters. Momma will learn the truth eventually. She might know it already, the way the gossip mill works in this town. And don’t get any ideas about me covering for you. I’m not lying to Momma and Daddy. I plan to say nothing at all.”

“I suppose I deserve that.” Rocky choked on the words.

“No one deserves what he did to you,” Stone said. “That was dishonest and unkind.”

She wiped an errant tear from her cheek. “You’re not blaming me?”

He shook his head. “I’m satisfied that you didn’t know a thing about his plan to have Daddy’s land condemned. But you should have. By the way, the next time I see that guy, I intend to whup his ass. I don’t like foreigners taking advantage of my little sister. He’s not the one for you.”

Stone reached out and tucked a lock of her out-of-control hair behind her ear. “But one day, some guy is going to come along and he’s going to be everything you ever wanted. He’s going to look at you and you’re not going to know what hit you.”

Caroline felt the sobs knotting up in her throat. For an instant back there at the Magnolia Inn, she could have sworn that’s what had happened. Obviously, lust had blinded her to the truth.

She swallowed back her tears. She refused to cry over this. She had no reason to cry. She had gone for a one-night thing, and she’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted out of it. So what did she have to complain about anyway?

“Well, let’s hope I meet my soulmate after I move to Washington, okay?” Despite her resolve, her voice sounded wobbly.

Stone’s usually sober mouth curled up sweetly on one side. “Honey, whether it happens sooner or later is not the point. The point is that Miriam Randall predicted it. I don’t believe in much, but I believe in Miz Miriam. I’ve been on the receiving end of one of her predictions. And boy howdy, one of those predictions can mess you up for a while, but it’s a good kind of mess.”

Is that why Sharon had run away with him? It was a good question because every conversation Rocky had ever had with Sharon seemed to suggest that a girl should think before she took any kind of wild leaps into the unknown.

“Are you okay, little gal?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She was not about to share the advice Sharon had given her twelve years ago. She didn’t think it was something Stone wanted to hear. Instead, she changed the subject. “So what are we going to do about Daddy?”

“I’ve got to go bail him out.”

“He’s really in jail?”

“Going after Lillian with a broom is not exactly a felony. But the penalty for misdemeanor assault is three years and a fine. He might have to do time if he gets a hanging judge.”

“You mean this wasn’t just a figment of Lillian’s overactive imagination?” A really ugly emotion churned in Rocky’s middle.

“Unfortunately, Daddy went after Lillian’s flowers, and I doubt the old biddy is in a forgiving mood.”

“Oh, crap. Please tell me he didn’t do that because Hugh was trying to condemn the golf course. My shame will know no bounds if that’s what happened.”

“Well, you can relax about that. The truth is the fight started over the stuff she said to Haley on Saturday about how my daughter should be committed.”

“Oh, no.”

Stone hunched his shoulders and gave his head a roll. “So, I’m the one feeling ashamed. If anyone should have said something to Lillian, it should have been me, not Daddy. I guess Daddy waited a whole day for me to do something, and I didn’t. So he took matters into his own hands.”

“Oh, c’mon, don’t blame yourself for this. Lillian is a bully, and Daddy always says we should ignore bullies.”

“I know,” Stone said.

Rocky drew in a deep breath. “Let me come with you to bail out Daddy.”

“No.”

“I need to, Stone. Don’t tell me no. I need to tell Daddy the truth before any of the gossips do.”

“The truth?” Stone asked.

“Yeah, the truth. The whole truth and nothing but.”

Rocky sat on the hard bench at the county jail and watched Stone work through the paperwork for Daddy’s bail. It took about twenty minutes before Daddy emerged from the holding cell at the Allenberg County Jail. The slogan on Daddy’s T-shirt today said, “God Allows U-Turns.”

Elbert gave Stone a man-hug. “Thank you, son. I never did think I’d live to see the day that you bailed me out of jail.”

Daddy turned toward Rocky. “Little gal, why are you here?” He cast a shamefaced glance Stone’s way, as if to say that the last thing Daddy wanted was for his daughter to see him like this.

Rocky didn’t wait for any more words, she simply flung herself at her father, and Daddy caught her. Daddy always caught her. Daddy caught her the first time she jumped off a diving board. Daddy picked her up every time she fell. Daddy chased after her when she first learned to ride a bike. And Daddy stood by her the night Bubba humiliated her—not with words, like Momma, but with his big strong shoulder. Rocky had shed a lot of tears on Daddy’s shoulder over the years.

So she burrowed deep into his chest, the hot tears she’d been holding back making a sudden appearance. She wrapped her arms around him and wouldn’t let go.

“Honey, it’s all right. Lillian Bray is a big bully. I just lost my temper with her.”

“Daddy, I just want you to know that I have never, ever tried to convince anyone that it would be better to bulldoze Golfing for God.”

“What does that have to do with Lillian’s gladioli?”

“Because Lillian is telling the town council that you’re crazy and that it would be a good thing for them to condemn the golf course. And even though Hugh needs that land, I have never tried to help him get it. I’ve been trying to convince him to build someplace else. I don’t want to see the golf course bulldozed. And I…” The tears ran down her cheeks.

Daddy brushed her tears away with his big, rough hands. “I know that. You were just doing your job. And you’re good at that job. I don’t blame you.”

“Daddy, my job didn’t include falling for that Englishman. It was stupid. He didn’t tell me the truth. On several occasions. And now I feel like a real fool.”

“You fell for the Englishman?”

She nodded and snuffled.

“Well, that’s a problem right there. I don’t think he matches what Miriam told you to be looking for.”

“Don’t you think I know that? But I fell for him anyway. And now I hear that he’s teaming up with Lillian. I’m so ashamed.”

She broke down into sobs. Daddy held her tight. After a long time, when she finally re-exerted control, she pushed back and said, “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, angel face.”

She wiped tears from her cheeks and said, “What on earth came over you to attack Lillian’s flowers? Haven’t I heard you say a million times that the best way to handle bullies is to ignore them? And don’t tell me you were mad at Stone because he didn’t protect Haley. Didn’t it ever occur to you that Stone was just applying your philosophy?”

Daddy appeared vaguely sheepish. “Yeah. But honest, I didn’t go over there to rip up Lillian’s garden.”

“Then why?”

“I went there to tell the old biddy that if she had a problem with me, she could take it up with me, instead of using Haley as a surrogate.”

“So what happened?”

Daddy didn’t say anything. He looked away, over Rocky’s head, toward Stone.

“Daddy, are you really all right?” Stone asked.

“Yeah.” He said it a little too quick.

Rocky cocked her head and frowned at her father. “Daddy, what is it?”

Daddy paused for a long moment before speaking. “I can say without a doubt that I hit Lillian Bray with the business end of a broom. On her fat backside. I clearly remember knocking her down, but I didn’t really hurt her. And the only reason I did that was because she came after me with the handle end of that broom. She was swinging for my head, and I had to defend myself.”

“Why did she come after you?”

“I’m not exactly sure. They say I tore up her flowerbed, but I don’t rightly remember doing that. One minute I was there talking about Haley and then the world got kind of wonky. I didn’t exactly black out, but I was kind of stuck. It was weird.”