Last Chance Beauty Queen (Last Chance #3)(43)
Author: Hope Ramsay

A series of catcalls and hoots rose up from the steps of City Hall.

Rocky tore her gaze away from Hugh’s serious brown eyes.

Holy smokes, the entire town was standing over there. Rocky flashed on that night twelve years ago when Bubba had pulled this same stunt. Everyone had hooted and hollered and catcalled that time, too.

She turned back toward Hugh. “You really want to marry me? Even though you’re supposed to marry an heiress?”

“Poppy feathers,” Miz Miriam said from the front row of the peanut gallery. “I didn’t tell him to go looking for an heiress. I told him to go look for the woman who would find him a fortune.”

“Yeah, and she failed to mention that the fortune belongs to me,” Dash said.

Hugh grinned. “Darling, I do recall that you said something a moment ago about my being a regular sort of guy. I believe that fits the bill. We’d be idiotic not to let ourselves get caught up in Miriam’s magic. In fact”—he turned and gazed at the little gray-haired lady holding Haley’s hand—“I believe Aunt Petal came all this way to help me see the truth. I’ve changed my mind about fortune-tellers, spirit guides, and even angels.”

Emotion clogged her throat. She stood there looking at him wanting to simply fall into his arms and let him carry her away. But really, she hardly knew him. And besides, Sharon had set a very high standard.

Could she live without him? Rocky was pretty sure she could survive. She loved him, of course. But running off with him? That was a whole different kettle of fish.

“Aunt Rocky,” Haley said. “You’re making the angel really unhappy.”

Rocky turned to look at Haley. “The angel is here?”

“Oh, yes, quite,” Petal said.

Hugh stared at his aunt. “You can see the angel, too?”

“Oh, it’s not an angel, Huey. It’s a spirit of some kind. I think it’s a ghost. Maybe someone Rocky knew in her past. She’s quite agitated. Whatever you’re thinking, my dear, the ghost knows, and she’s quite displeased.”

“What were you thinking?” Haley asked.

“I was thinking about your mother.”

“Oh, good,” Haley said. “Momma ran off with Daddy. You should run off with Mr. Hugh. I think the angel wants you to.”

Rocky turned back to Hugh. “Your aunt is kind of odd.”

“So’s your niece.”

He smiled.

She smiled back.

She didn’t give it another moment’s thought. She just did what seemed like the logical thing to do at a moment like this. She threw caution to the wind, took a deep leap of genuine faith, and wrapped her arms around Hugh deBracy, Baron Woolham.

And Hugh, understanding his role in this fantasy as well as anyone there, did the expected. He picked her up and carried her off down Palmetto Avenue toward his silver Mustang convertible.

EPILOGUE

Rocky stared at herself in the mirror. It told the truth, as always. She looked radiant today, as any bride should. She was glad Hugh had convinced her not to elope with him. A wedding was so much more fun.

“Knock, knock. You wanted to talk to me?”

She turned. Stone had cracked the door to the little anteroom near the vestibule of Christ Church. She smoothed down the yards of tulle in her skirt. “Yes, I did. You can come in. I’m decent.”

Stone strolled through the door. He looked incredibly handsome today, dressed in a gray suit and a dark tie and a pink rose in his lapel. He wasn’t young. A few gray hairs had started to sprout at his temples. But he exuded a kind of raw masculine energy that made women turn and watch him.

He was a real hero. A war hero. A cop. And she loved him with all her heart, and she feared she had hurt him. Not only by telling her secret about Sharon, but by her choices on this day of days.

He took two steps and stopped. The look in his eyes made something hitch in Rocky’s throat. “I wanted to give you warning before I marched down the aisle,” she said.

He pressed his lips together and nodded. “Thanks.” The tears that almost filled his eyes were gone in an instant. He straightened his shoulders and went back to being iron man. It was almost sad, really, that even after six years, he’d never really allowed himself to grieve.

Sharon wouldn’t have approved of this. Rocky knew that, deep down in her soul. And even though she knew it was completely irrational, she couldn’t help but feel that somehow Sharon had been with her that day when she’d lost her temper and told the town both how much she loved them and how much they annoyed her.

Thankfully the town had forgiven her—mostly because she’d given them another myth.

“You look beautiful,” he said. He continued into the room and then leaned down and gave her a brotherly kiss on the cheek.

“Stone, I wanted to explain about the dress.”

He shook his head. “There isn’t any need.” He turned around without another word and left the room, abridging all the things she wanted to say to him. All the sisterly advice about moving on and not being sad because of what she had chosen to wear today. But he wasn’t ready to listen. He might never be.

She turned back to the mirror. Well, that was his problem, not hers. She wasn’t going to let Stone’s sadness ruin the happiest day of her life.

Haley came skipping in. She was dressed all in green and pink, and she looked like a little imp with flowers in her hair and carrying a wicker basket filled with pink rose petals. “We’re all ready. And I promise I’ll make my petals last until you get all the way to the altar.”

Rocky leaned down and gave Haley a kiss. “Just like we practiced last night.”

“I got it, Aunt Rocky. I won’t mess up. The angel is happy today. Did you know that? She likes your dress.”

“I’m glad. I like my dress, too.”

Daddy entered the room then, dressed in a rented suit and looking pretty dapper, despite his earring and long braid. Rocky took his arm and let him give her away. He’d been sentenced to some community service because Lillian refused to back down. He’d helped her rebuild her garden.

Doc Cooper said all his tests came back negative, and as near as anyone could tell, Daddy was the same as he’d always been. But Caroline wondered. She’d had a strange, fuzzy moment, and so had Daddy.

Maybe they’d been touched by an angel. Or maybe they both had lost their tempers beyond all reason.

Either explanation worked.

Daddy took her arm and led her down the aisle to her groom. She loved the moment when she took that first step, and everyone in the congregation stood up in shocked silence. They had all expected her to wear white. They had expected something like the pageantry of William and Kate’s wedding.

But this was Last Chance, South Carolina, not merry old England.

So she’d worn the dress that defined her. Pink and green with yards and yards of tulle. They said she had been the prettiest Watermelon Queen who had ever reigned. And it just seemed appropriate that she should wear it, along with her rhinestone tiara, especially since she was marrying an English lord.

And by the look in everyone’s eyes that morning, especially Hugh’s, Rocky knew she’d made the right choice.

She said her vows. Hugh spoke his.

And they sealed the union   of the Watermelon Queen and the English baron with a kiss that the old church ladies of Last Chance would probably gossip about for the next twenty years.