Last Chance Beauty Queen (Last Chance #3)(8)
Author: Hope Ramsay

Caroline didn’t think about avoiding a scene or being careful when hot pain radiated from her shoulder joint. Instead, she reacted on pure instinct. She swung with her right fist, aiming for Bubba’s nose, just like she had learned in the self-defense classes she’d taken last year down at the Columbia YMCA.

Thank goodness she missed her target. Bubba got the message, though. He staggered back and let go of her wrist.

So everything was good. All she had to do was talk Bubba down, and she and Rachel could make an escape without making a big scene.

And then Lord Woolham decided to play hero.

It happened so fast, Caroline was powerless to stop it. His Lordship assumed a fighting stance, and when Bubba took a step forward, Hugh threw a withering, left-handed punch that put Bubba on the floor. No muss, no fuss, no heavy breathing, or sweaty brows. No broken tables.

Nothing like that.

Just a James Bond move, and Bubba, the big linebacker and one-time NFL hopeful, was left lying on the floor whimpering. His mouth a big, bloody mess.

Caroline stood there stunned.

So it was a good thing that Rachel took charge. She hurried back across the room, fetching one of the patron’s iced tea glasses off a table. She strained the liquid through her fingers onto the floor, got down on her knees, and packed the two teeth Hugh had knocked out of Bubba’s jaw into the ice left in the glass.

You just had to love Rachel. She always had your back in every life-and-death situation, and she traveled with a first-aid kit in her purse.

Just then, Earl Williams, the proprietor of the Pig Place, arrived on the scene, shotgun in hand. He took aim at Lord Woolham’s chest. “Don’t move,” he said. “The local law is on its way.”

Chapter 5

Caroline probably should have let Stone arrest Lord Woolham. After all, the man had completely overreacted to Bubba’s little power play. And of course, Stone wanted to arrest him, just because Stone was like that. He hated any outsider coming into his town and causing trouble. He’d even arrested Jane that time she showed up with a fake ID.

But Caroline sweet-talked her policeman brother out of it. She pointed out that Hugh had been trying to protect her, and that arresting him would needlessly complicate an already complicated situation.

And she promised to get Hugh back to Miriam’s.

In the meantime, Rachel had continued to play Florence Nightingale with a cold compress, while Dash drove Bubba over to the clinic, where Doc Cooper had put in an emergency call to an oral surgeon.

It had been another truly sordid scene in the Bubba and Rocky Horror Show. And usually, whenever something like this happened, Bubba’s bad behavior was given a pass, while Caroline got blamed for everything.

It wasn’t fair. But it was the way things were, and no amount of fussing would change things.

But it was still annoying as hell. Why couldn’t she manage the Bubba situation in a calm and rational manner? After all, she managed difficult and sensitive situations all the time. But every time her path crossed Bubba’s, something awful happened.

Well, at least this time, it wasn’t entirely her fault. His Lordship was the one who had thrown the punch. It certainly gave her another excuse to be annoyed with him. But of course, she would keep her snotty comments to herself. That was her job.

“I suppose I ought to apologize. I do hope that prat isn’t your boyfriend,” his Lordship finally said. At least he was contrite.

“Bubba is not my boyfriend. But I do think you owe him an apology, not me. I had taken care of the situation. Bubba is harmless, really.”

“You think so? Seems to me he overstepped his welcome, even if he is your boyfriend.”

“I told you, he’s not my boyfriend. We were together a long time ago. In high school. But it’s over. Bubba thinks we’re going to get back together, but he’s delusional.”

“He’s got a tattoo of that nickname of yours on his arm.”

She tried not to cringe. She didn’t know why she felt humiliated by this arrogant man discovering her name. But she did.

“So you heard about that, huh?” she said.

“The tattoo or your nickname?”

She gripped the steering wheel a little harder. “My full name is Sirocco Caroline Rhodes,” she said. “Everyone’s always called me Rocky because I have brothers named Stone, Clay, and Tulane.”

Silence beat for a moment while his Lordship figured out the joke. He chuckled. “Tulane, huh? Like the one we’re driving on.”

Well, if she had to endure humiliation for the sake of her job, at least maybe she could use it to some good purpose. “You know, the whole family name thing should give you pause. My kin are eccentric.”

“Is that why you changed your name?”

He was kidding, right? Like he didn’t get why she changed her name? Or was he just ridiculing her? She swallowed down her annoyance and spoke in a calm voice. “Lord Woolham, no one takes a person named Rocky Rhodes seriously. Rocky Rhodes is the name of an ice cream flavor, and I work for a senator who might one day run for president.”

“So why not use Sirocco? It’s a lovely name. Mysterious and foreign. You look rather like a Sirocco.”

“Mysterious and foreign? Really?”

“Yes, quite.”

Wow! In all her born days, no one had ever called her mysterious and foreign. She was a country girl, no matter how hard she tried to hide all that with her business suits. “Uh, well, that’s nice, but no one knows how to spell Sirocco, probably because it’s mysterious and foreign.”

“I see.”

“Besides, Sirocco sounds a little self-important, don’t you think? On the other hand, Caroline is a nice, middle-of-the-road, domestic-sounding name. It’s perfect for my career.”

“And I rather think your career is important to you, isn’t it? Otherwise, you would never have agreed to help me with my factory.”

She glanced over at him. It wasn’t yet fully dark, and the golden glow of the setting sun caught in the highlights of his curls and lined his profile. He was incredibly handsome.

She really needed to clear the air, before she did something dumb. “You’re right,” she said in her best senatorial aide voice, “my career is important to me. But I love my family, too. So I will do my best to introduce you to all the important people in Allenberg County, just as you’ve asked me to do. But the thing is, I’m not on your side if it means trying to force my father to sell his land. And besides, Daddy will never sell out. So maybe it’s time for you to rethink the location of your factory.”

“And I told you I was not willing to do that.”

She gritted her teeth. The man was used to getting his way, wasn’t he? “Okay, I understand. But you’re not going to win on this point. You can’t convince Daddy to sell, and if you try to push the issue, the church ladies of the Committee to Resurrect Golfing for God are going to tar and feather you.”

“I can handle churchwomen.”

She stifled a snort of laughter. Hugh deBracy had no idea what he was up against. It might be fun to watch Hettie and her minions take him apart piece by piece.

Caroline pulled into Miriam Randall’s driveway, just as the daylight had faded to dusk. “Here we are, Lord Woolham. I’ll give you a call in the morning when I get a better sense of our schedule. I don’t think we’ll have anything on the agenda until midmorning at the earliest.” She set the parking brake.

“Are you going to schedule a meeting with these church ladies who want to save the golf course?”

“Absolutely. The Committee to Resurrect Golfing for God always meets on Friday at noontime at the Cut ’n Curl. I have no doubt they’ll want to meet you. They are all pretty curious.”

“Curious about me?”

“Yes. You see, they read a lot of regency romances. And they all watched the royal wedding together over at Thelma Hanks’s house. They’re still talking about the breakfast kippers she served that morning.”

“I see.”

“I’m sure I can get you on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting. Momma owns the Cut ’n Curl. I have an in.” She gave Hugh one of her best professional smiles.

It was as phony as a three-dollar bill.

He turned in his seat and studied her for a long, breathless moment. No doubt he was thinking about her lowly station in life, the daughter of a hairdresser and a putt-putt owner. Well, he could just fry in hell for all she cared. She kept her grin steady.

After a long moment, he said, “I get the distinct feeling that you are trying to deliver me to the lions, Miss Rhodes.”

“I’m doing no such thing. Meeting with the members of the Committee to Resurrect Golfing for God is one way to get your opposition in a single room. After all, didn’t you just say that you knew how to handle churchwomen?”

“I suppose I did say that.”

“And I pointed out that it was hopeless. And I’m trying, with great professional patience, to show you the error in your thinking. You aren’t going to build that factory on my daddy’s land.”

“I suppose you wouldn’t appreciate it if I told Senator Warren that you weren’t being helpful.”

The bottom of her stomach dropped a couple of inches. This was her biggest fear—that Lord Woolham would say something to Senator Warren, and her boss would suddenly realize that Caroline wasn’t up to the task of being his main administrative assistant in Washington.

“No, Lord Woolham, I wouldn’t appreciate you calling the senator and saying things like that. The fact is, I’ve been very helpful. I’m introducing you around. I’m helping you to see the facts. And I talked my brother out of arresting you tonight.”

“Yes, you did, didn’t you?” He said the words in his stuffy accent as if he didn’t really appreciate the fact that she’d pulled out all the stops for him. Her brother could be kind of serious-minded.

She held her tongue. There were any number of choice things she could think of saying, but none of them would be acceptable. He was going to really screw up her life, wasn’t he?

Lord Woolham opened the passenger side door and stepped out into the hot and humid night. The porch light burned brightly, silhouetting him as he walked toward the old house. He was tall and well built, and arrogant as the day was long.

She hated him.

Hugh strolled down the walk toward Miriam Randall’s boardinghouse, trying not to be amused by the gravel Caroline had kicked up with her sudden, ferocious departure.

Granddad certainly wouldn’t have been amused. Granddad had been grumpy and unpleasant and often quite mean to people. Granddad would have called the senator by now and demanded that Caroline be removed from her job.

But of course, Hugh had no intention of calling the senator and complaining. A complaint might just unsettle things further. The pixie-like Miss Rhodes would definitely fight for her job, and in the process, she might discover how flimsy his financing was. And then where would he be?

No, it was best to let things lie and see what the senator’s dishy aide could come up with as a solution. He was getting the feeling she was actually quite competent at her job.