Last Chance Beauty Queen

by Hope Ramsay

  “I would like a dirty vodka martini, please.”

  “All right, honey, it’s your funeral. Let me go see if I can find some olives.” Dottie turned away and headed into the storage area behind the bar.

  “Hey, you wanna trade places?” Roy said.

  “Well, that would be quite nice, if you don’t mind,” Hugh replied.

  “No problem. One day you and me have a date in my bass boat, you hear?” Roy picked up his long-necked Bud and moved down the bar. Caroline watched him go.

  “Right-o, Roy. It’s a date.”

  She watched Roy slide into a seat and start talking to Avery Anderson. Just great. She wasn’t going to get any info out of Roy tonight, was she? Those two boys could talk fishing from sundown to sunup.

  Hugh moved over a stool and immediately invaded her space. Not intentionally, of course, but just being near him was kind of unsettling.

  “You know,” he said, “when I was a young man at university, I supplemented my living by serving as a part-time barman. There is a huge gulf between a sweet shot and a dirty vodka martini, although technically they both have vodka in them.”

  “Well, I’m a woman of wide-ranging tastes.”

  “Yes. I can see that.”

  “Good. And for the record, I don’t let men select my drinks. I can think for myself.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not selecting anything. I’m helping you explore. Now, tell me, do you like sour things or sweet things?”

  “I like both.”

  He grimaced. “I’m sure you do, but if you’re like most people, you like one just a little bit more than the other.”

  “No.”

  He seemed annoyed. A warm and intoxicating flush hit her blood. She liked fighting with him.

  “Are you always like this?” he asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Afraid to make a choice?”

  “I’m not afraid.” Caroline straightened her spine and set her shoulders as if to prove the point.

  “No, of course not,” he said, his eyes twinkling in that superior manner of his. “I must have been mistaken then.”

  Dottie returned. “Sorry, sugar, I can’t find any olives. Why don’t I get you a Budweiser?”

  Like she was going to drink a Bud when his Lordship was over there sipping scotch and being superior about his knowledge of mixology. Not bloody likely. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll have what he’s drinking.”

  Dottie rolled her eyes. “You sure about that, sugar?”

  “What do I have to do to order a drink in this place?”

  Dottie nodded. “Okeydokey, we aim to please.” She turned and started pouring scotch.

  “Might I inquire—have you ever been a scotch drinker before tonight?” Hugh asked.

  Dottie put the drink in front of Caroline. She wasn’t about to admit anything to his Lordship or Dottie Cox so she picked up the glass and knocked it back like a tequila shot. She had tried tequila shots with Tulane once. They made her lips numb. And of course, she had ended that particular evening hung over a toilet bowl.

  Never again.

  But scotch was not tequila. And she was trying to make a point. So she dumped that liquor into the back of her throat and promptly choked on it. She ended up coughing like some little girl who didn’t know any better.

  Across the room, she heard Clay’s brotherly voice of concern, “Little gal, are you all right?”

  Hugh gave her a thwack between the shoulder blades, and Dottie replied to Clay, “Oh, I think she’s in capable hands. But someone needs to tell her that you don’t shoot single malt scotch.”

  The men at the bar laughed.

  And that, more or less, did it for Caroline.

  She caught her breath, slid off the seat, and started toward the door without paying her bill. But Hugh followed her. He touched her arm and stopped her midstride. He didn’t need to grab her, or haul on her, or twist her arm like Bubba had done last night at the Pig Place. Nope. He merely touched her and it was like some kind of electrical charge. She couldn’t move.

  “Caroline,” he whispered into her ear. “Stop trying to be something you aren’t.”

  She wanted to turn and spit in his eye. Not for insulting her, but for being so astute as to recognize the truth of her most recent behavior. She had seen him at the bar, looking debonair and aristocratic even in blue jeans, and she’d tried to prove she was some kind of sophisticated person.

  But she wasn’t. She was a country girl. That’s what she saw every day in the mirror, and her business suits and professional haircuts could never hide that.

  Shame crawled right through Caroline. She was acting like an idiot. She should get out of here, now, and remember to keep a lid on her libido whenever Hugh was around. “I should go,” she said as she turned back toward the door and took a step.

  Hugh wasn’t about to let her go. He grabbed her by the arm in a move that was similar to what Bubba had done last night. But instead of pain, Hugh’s touch made electricity run right up her arm. “Come back to the bar. Let’s start over, shall we?” His voice made her insides quiver.

  She sucked up her pride (and her sanity) and let him lead her back to the bar. He helped her up onto a stool, just like a real gentleman, and then he did the unthinkable in Dottie’s establishment.

  He stepped behind the bar.

  No one ever stepped behind Dottie’s bar, ever.

  Dottie made to protest, but Hugh waggled his eyebrows and then pulled out his wallet. He produced a fifty-dollar bill and tucked it, with great savoir-faire, in the V of Dottie’s western shirt. “I assure you, madam, I know my way around a bar.”

  Dottie batted her false eyelashes. “Honey, I have a feeling you know your way around more than that.”

  Hugh inclined his head, and Caroline could actually imagine him in one of those Masterpiece Theater productions where everyone is always bowing and curtseying.

  “So,” he said, leaning on the inner edge of the bar, “since you’ve started the evening with whiskey, we’ll need to stay there.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s never a good idea to drink different kinds of alcohol in one go. Didn’t your brothers teach you that?”

  She glanced over her shoulder to where Clay and the rest of the Wild Horses were fixing to start their first set of the evening. Clay was, mercifully, not paying attention to her right at the moment.

  She let go of a big sigh. “No. My brothers tried to keep me from learning about alcohol and anything else that was even remotely interesting. Southern brothers are brought up to protect their sisters that way. Of course, they are not above teaching their friends’ sisters all the important things. Most of the naughty things I learned came from Dash Randall.”

  Hugh’s eyes widened a bit. “So you and Dash were…”

  She shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. But Dash got around and taught a lot of girls a lot of stuff. And the girls passed on what they learned. I avoided Dash like the plague when I was younger. He was one of my brothers’ friends, and that made him automatically gross and annoying.”

  She glanced over her shoulder again. This time Clay was watching her out of his silver eyes.

  Hugh followed her gaze. “I gather that bloke over there tuning his violin is another one of the aforementioned brothers? He looks rather like your father.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, he’s the big one. You’ve already met Stone.”

  “Right, I have. He’s the one who frightens me the most. So I promise to be on my best behavior.”

  She snickered but didn’t otherwise comment that, compared to the average good ol’ boy in Allenberg County, Hugh was always on his best behavior, even when he was punching Bubba in the mouth.

  “It’s time to find the right alcoholic beverage for you,” Hugh said. “But since you refuse to tell me if you like sweet more than sour, I’ll have to use my imagination.” He turned and pulled down an old-fashioned glass, then he grabbed a bottle of blended whiskey, which
he proceeded to toss into the air so that it flipped over, spout down. He caught it as it tumbled, like a juggler, without spilling a drop, until he poured a shot’s worth into the glass. Then he tossed the bottle up and behind him before he pirouetted and caught the bottle in its flight and returned it to its place. He repeated the entire move, adding a few additional embellishments, with a slightly dusty bottle of Drambui.

  By the time he tossed some ice in the glass and placed the glass on his bent elbow, Dottie’s mouth had sagged open, while half the patrons were watching in utter fascination. He levered his elbow up—tossing the drink, ice cubes and all, up in the air. He caught the drink on its way down, not sloshing a single drop as he placed it, with a flourish, in front of Caroline.

  The men at the bar clapped.

  “Honey, if you ever decide you need a job, I’m sure I could find a place for you,” Dottie said to him.

  Hugh bowed to one and all, then scooted around the bar and took a seat beside Caroline, retrieving his own scotch. He raised it in salute. “To the novice drinkers we all were at one time.”

  Roy Burdett lifted his long-neck Bud and said, “Hear, hear.”

  Caroline picked up the cocktail. “I’m not a novice drinker.”

  Hugh’s lips quivered. “All right, then here’s to the journeyman drinkers we’ve all become.”

  “Hear, hear.” Roy lifted his Bud again.

  “What is this?” Caroline asked before she brought the glass to her lips.

  “That, my dear, is a Rusty Nail, the classic cocktail of the rich and famous.”

  “Really?”

  “It was popular in the 1960s in Hollywood.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Because I was a barman near a university and studied mixology rather seriously at one time. Believe me, I have helped many a novice drinker discover their inner drunk. Go on then, try it.”

  She sipped. It was strong. And not sweet. It burned on the way down and made her body flush.

  “Hmmm,” he said, studying her closely. “By that wrinkle in your nose, I’m thinking that the Rusty Nail is not exactly the right fit. We’ll have to explore other options.”

  “Now?”

  “Oh, no, you have to finish the Rusty Nail first.” He smiled and sipped his drink.

  She sipped hers as the band began their first set, which made talking a lot more difficult. So they sat and listened to Clay play fiddle while Caroline finished her Rusty Nail. Then Hugh made her a whiskey sour, which she liked a little better, but it still made her mouth pucker.

  She finished that one, too, and started in on the whiskey Collins, which she actually liked the taste of, but maybe because she was getting seriously buzzed by this time.

  Then Clay’s band, with Jane singing lead, struck up the old standard “Can I Have This Dance.” And damned if Hugh didn’t lean in and ask her to dance. It didn’t really occur to Caroline until she reached the dance floor that “Can I Have This Dance” was a slow song. A waltz, in fact.

  The folks who had been line dancing had all left the floor, and there Hugh and Caroline stood, just the two of them.

  She found herself looking up into Hugh deBracy’s incredible brown eyes. knowing that she was more than a little drunk and way out of her league. But, oh, her hormones were enjoying this moment.

  “Well, it appears to be a waltz, doesn’t it?” he said, his eyes smiling but his mouth remaining quite serious. “Now you will see just how badly I managed in cotillion classes.”

  Cotillion classes? He had to be joking.

  Fear swept through her. “Um, ah, I didn’t go to cotillion classes. The truth is I don’t know how to waltz, and I’m just a little…” She let her voice trail off. No sense telling him she was heading toward serious inebriation.

  But Hugh, the ex-bartender and English baron, seemed to know everything without being told. He placed his hand at the small of her back, lower than she expected, his palm pressing over her spine in a move that was utterly possessive, even though he was not very close to her. He adjusted her left hand down from his shoulder onto his upper arm, where her palm connected with the skin, just below the edge of his shirtsleeve. The warmth of it jolted through her, just as he took her right hand in his left.

  His hand caught her by surprise. An aristocrat’s hand should be soft, but Hugh’s hand was dry and rough and seemed to have more than a few calluses on it. It enveloped hers, and her pulse climbed right into the stratosphere.

  They stood almost eighteen inches apart. And yet she had never been more aware of a man in all her life. God help her, she had the hots for this guy, and that was a ginormous problem.

  “Just start on your right foot and let me lead.” He arched his eyebrow. And then…

  Well, then he created magic. He accomplished this feat despite her lack of skill, the slightly seedy dance floor, and the copious quantities of whiskey she had imbibed.

  Every little girl who has ever seen Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast has a moment when she longs to transcend the story and become the heroine in the arms of the hero, wearing some wonderful dress, moving lightly and gracefully on her feet as he waltzes her around the dance floor. Caroline might have devoted her life to career advancement, but down deep, she wanted romance in her life even if she knew it was a silly desire for a working girl like her.

  But for one shining moment, Hugh deBracy gave her romance. Never mind that it took place in a honky-tonk bar, or that she was wearing a white sleeveless golf shirt and a pair of khaki capri slacks, instead of some fabulous gown.

  It didn’t matter.

  The moment was utterly magic.

  Hugh glided her across the floor, his right hand aiming her in the proper direction, while his left hand connected them in a carnal way that took her breath away. He never lost the beat of the music. He made her feel completely beautiful despite her casual clothing. He twirled her until she became dizzy with more than the alcohol.

  And all the while, he never once broke eye contact. He sucked her into the fantasy with his dark eyes. As the music died, she knew she would never, in all her life, forget this moment.

  God help her. She suddenly wanted to rush headlong into what was clearly a fantasy of her own making. And that was just plain stupid. She had crossed a line, and she needed to get safely back on the other side of it. She was Senator Warren’s aide, and she had no business dancing with Baron Woolham.

  So she did the only sensible thing she could think of. She turned on her heel and ran from Dot’s Spot like a raccoon with a hillbilly dog on her tail.

  Caroline concentrated really hard on walking without stumbling and made it safely across Palmetto Avenue without being run over—which was no great big thing seeing as it was midnight, and there wasn’t any traffic on Palmetto this time of night.

  She was halfway down the main block before she became aware of the headlights behind her. She turned just as her brother, Stone, pulled up in his police cruiser.

  He stopped the car and rolled down the passenger side window. “Girl, you’re drunk as a skunk, aren’t you?”

  “Go ’way.” She turned and kept walking down the street, trying to pretend that Stone wasn’t following her in his big ol’ impressive police car.

  “Honey, quit being stubborn and get in. I’ll take you home.”

  “Clay called you, didn’t he?” she called over her shoulder.

  “Uh-huh.” Stone pulled ahead, stopped the cruiser, and unfolded himself from the driver side. He strode up the sidewalk in her direction. “Don’t make me arrest you. After what happened at the Pig Place last night, I’m starting to wonder what’s going on with you.”

  “Look, you can’t pin anything on me about last night.” She stood there bobbing and weaving for a moment. “I had the whole thing under control until Lord Woolham smashed Bubba’s face. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “C’mon, little gal, I’ll get you home safe.”

  She stood there for a moment weighing her options.
There were no options. So she let Stone guide her firmly to the cruiser and help her into the front passenger seat.

  “From what I’ve heard, you’ve been dancing with that Englishman. You know Momma and Daddy won’t approve. I know I don’t,” he said when he got behind the wheel.

  She slid down into the seat and closed her eyes. The world spun, and her stomach gave a little lurch.

  Stone fired up the engine. “What in the world were you thinking?”

  “About what?”

  “About going into Dot’s and getting drunk with that man.”

  “That man. You mean Hugh.”

  “Yeah, him.”

  She thought for a moment. “Um, I don’t think he was drunk. And it was not my plan to get drunk with him. My plan was to pump Roy Burdett for information.”

  “What? What information?”

  Stone pulled the car from the curb and headed toward Momma’s house.

  Caroline let go of a sigh. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

  “Right. What information?”

  Caroline leaned her dizzy head back on the headrest. “It’s not important,” she lied. “Just something to do with Lord Woolham’s land purchases.”

  It wasn’t long before Stone pulled the cruiser to the curb in front of Momma’s house. The lights were ablaze even though it was past midnight. “Honey, you need to listen to me,” Stone said as he killed the engine. “It’s not a good idea to be seen taking sides with the man who wants to force Daddy off his land. You already have a reputation in this town.”

  “Was that a reference to Bubba?”

  “It was.”

  “That’s not fair. You know good and well that—”

  “It doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not. This is a tiny town, honey. Folks talk, and they have long memories. I may not like Golfing for God, but I know good and well that the Rhodes family needs to hang together when it comes to things like this.”