Last Chance Beauty Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

home for the Watermelon Festival in years and years. But once, a long time ago, it had been a magical time of year. Her nostalgia grabbed her by the throat. She may have made herself over into a serious city girl, but she’d never managed to lose this deep-seated attachment to Last Chance. Caroline pushed a raft of syrupy emotions back where they belonged. “If you hang a right up there at the stoplight, on Baruch, I’ll show you Miz Miriam’s place.”
    Hugh pulled the Mustang onto a drive that led to Miriam Randall’s home, which turned out to be a large wooden house decorated with vast quantities of Victorian-era ornament.
    The house wasn’t in very good nick, but it stood in the midst of an amazing and slightly wild garden. A pair of old live oaks, trailing long beards of Spanish moss, dominated the yard, while a perennial border with drifts of orange and lavender bloomed in a sunny patchalong the front side of the wraparound porch. A neatly trimmed boxwood hedge perfumed the air with its tangy scent.
    Garden magic, of the kind his aunts believed in, enveloped this place. Were Aunt Petal ever to visit, Hugh had no doubt that she would find a veritable army of sprites and pixies living here.
    The cherry red 1970s vintage Cadillac Eldorado convertible parked in the drive was also a thing of beauty. A shirtless man wearing a baseball cap, a sheen of perspiration, and a pair of holey blue jeans was bent over the car’s long bonnet applying wax. The man looked up as Hugh cut the Mustang’s motor.
    “Hey, little gal,” the man said. He approached the car in a limping gait, opened the Mustang’s passenger side door, and then pulled Caroline into a big, sweaty hug that was… well… quite friendly.
    A wave of resentment prickled over Hugh’s skin as he got out of the car. He had been telling himself all morning that the dishy Miss Rhodes was off limits. Unfortunately, his libido had not been listening.
    “Okay, Dash, that’s enough.”
    The man let go and turned in Hugh’s direction. “So I reckon you must be Lord deBracy. I’m Dash Randall, Miriam’s nephew.”
    “It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for allowing me to stay at your home.” Hugh ignored the mistake in the form of address and smiled.
    “He’s Lord Woolham, not Lord deBracy,” Caroline said. “I looked it up last night online. DeBracy is his last name, but his title is Woolham because that’s where he’s from. I don’t expect you to understand how it works,but I know that his Lordship is really picky about his title.”
    Hugh heard the tone in Caroline’s voice. Apparently all that pretending to be Granddad was having some impact.
    Good. People always took Granddad seriously. Right now Hugh needed everyone in Last Chance to take him very seriously—maybe fear him a little. One couldn’t underestimate the power of fear.
    Randall pushed the brim of his cap up, revealing a pair of cool blue eyes. “Boy, I’m sure glad I’m an American,” he said.
    “So is Miriam around?” Caroline asked quickly, clearly changing the subject.
    Randall shook his head. “No, Aunt Mim is getting a manicure down at the Cut ’n Curl. She told me that if you showed up while she was gone, I was supposed to show his Lordship to his room and tell you to get your tail down to the beauty shop right away. Is it true you’re going to ride on the seventy-fifth anniversary float in one of those Watermelon Queen dresses?”
    “Uh…” An unmistakable and utterly charming glow crept up Caroline’s cheeks. “No. I am not. Where did you hear that?”
    “Well, Aunt Mim got a phone call from Millie Polk, who heard from Thelma Hanks, who ran into your momma at the dry cleaners. Your momma was taking two dresses to be cleaned.”
    “Two dresses?”
    “Yep. Hers and yours is what I heard, but hey, you know I don’t really listen to the ladies’ gossip all that much.”
    “Right, tell me another one.”
    Caroline turned around and gave Hugh a polite but disingenuous