Last Chance Book Club

Chapter 21


Savannah stood in the kitchen working on supper and trying to think of a good way to tell Miriam that she and Todd were leaving on Saturday.

She was wrist deep in biscuit dough when Dash came slamming into the house. His boots struck the hardwood floor like hammer blows as he stalked right into the kitchen.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“About Todd being interrogated at school by the Department of Social Services.”

Oh, good Lord. Todd must have spilled the beans. She closed her eyes and prayed for strength. “Because I knew it would hurt you. I didn’t want you to be hurt.”

“Don’t you think I’m hurting right now? Don’t you think this crazy decision of yours hurts me?”

He was breathing hard. His hands were folded into fists. His eyes were brighter than bright, which was saying something because no one had blue eyes like Dash’s.

“Dash?” Miriam’s frail voice came from the hallway. “Are y’all fighting again?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

They glared at one another as Miriam came shuffling into the kitchen leaning heavily on her cane and looking a little wild-eyed without her glasses. Her crown braids were a mess today. Guilt assailed Savannah.

She’d been so consumed by her own problems that she’d neglected Miriam. Lately the old lady needed help getting her hair done in the morning. Who would take care of Aunt Miriam when she left?

Dash would do his best, but he had no idea how to braid her hair. He couldn’t cook for her either.

“What is it now?” Aunt Miriam asked.

“It’s nothing,” Savannah said, glaring at Dash.

“Oh, you think it’s nothing? I want to know why some person at Todd’s school is asking nasty questions about me.”

“What kind of questions?” Miriam said.

Savannah let go of a deep sigh. “Look, this is just Claire White using every means possible to get me to see things her way.”

“So that’s why you’re leaving?”

“You’re leaving?” Miriam asked in a quavery voice.

Savannah wanted to punch Dash in the mouth. “Thanks, Dash. This is exactly the way I wanted to tell Miriam about my change of plans.”

“You’re leaving?” Miriam said again. “Oh, dear, I didn’t count on that.” The old lady immediately started messing with her hair. It sure did look as if she was taking it down so she could rebraid it, right there in the kitchen.

“Yes, Aunt Mim, she’s leaving. She’s running away from a fight.”

“No, I’m not doing any such thing. And for the record, Dash, the last thing I want is for Claire White to smear your reputation in this town the way I did when I was ten. And furthermore, if I fight this thing, social services could swoop in and put Todd in a foster home. Is that what you want?”

He seemed to back down a little. “You don’t have to go.”

“Yes, I do. I told you before. Greg was here today, and he made it clear that if I don’t go back, then I’m going to have to fly Todd up to Baltimore every other weekend.”

“It could be done. Or you could work something out with him so Todd spends his summers up in Baltimore. You don’t have to go.”

“If I did that, Claire would smear your name from one end of this county to the other. And where would you be? No one would trust you. Your business would be gone. Little League and Pop Warner would shun you. Dash, I have to go. I won’t do that to you. I care about you. Don’t you realize that?”

He stood there breathing hard. She wanted to run to him. She wanted to tell him how much she wanted to stay. But she couldn’t be that selfish.

“Will you let me finish the theater?” he asked.

She opened her mouth to ask him why, but then she thought better of it. Maybe he needed the theater, too.

“I’ll give you the theater,” she said.

“You’ll give it to me?”

She shrugged. “I’ll be living in Baltimore. I can’t exactly take it with me, and I haven’t been a great owner these last ten years. I let it fall down before I found the courage to do something about it. And even then, I couldn’t have started the project without your help. So I’ll talk to Eugene Hanks and see about having the deed transferred. It’s the least I can do, given all the money you’ve poured into it.”

“The money’s not important.”

“Yes, Dash, it is. It’s important to me.”

He took a deep breath. Then he turned and walked out of the house. It was an ominous sign when he didn’t slam the door.

The theater was his. Dash had signed the papers on Friday afternoon in Eugene Hanks’s office. And then he’d come here and collapsed onto this hard folding chair in the lobby. Champ’s muzzle rested on his boot top. The puppy was asleep for the moment.

The workers had gone an hour ago. The theater was mostly dark, except for the utility lights strung up on the ceiling. The old, ornate carpets had been pulled up, leaving a bare concrete floor. The woodwork was beginning to come alive under Zeph’s care.

Maverick sprawled on the top of the candy counter, purring like a fiend. The cat was not all that friendly to Dash or Champ, or anyone for that matter, except Savannah.

The cat had a serious thing for Savannah. Whenever she came into the theater, he would wrap himself around her legs and meow until she picked him up. Dash had never seen a half-wild mouser behave so shamelessly. The cat even let Savannah carry him around like a babe-in-arms.

“You and me, Mav,” he said to the cat. “Just a couple of old toms in love with the wrong woman. And that, cat, is the story of my life.”

He picked up his Nehi orange and took a long swig. “I wonder what Uncle Earnest would do in a situation like this?”

“Meow.”

“Thanks. That was very helpful advice. I reckon Uncle Earnest never would have gotten himself into a situation like this.”

Dash let go of a long breath. “She’ll be gone tomorrow, and all I have is the theater and a dog and a cat. I guess it could be worse. Although I’m having a hard time figuring out how.”

He wanted to fight for her, but it was a lost cause. He couldn’t keep Todd from his father. And he sure couldn’t risk the fight that might ensue if Savannah stayed. He’d checked with Eugene earlier, and what the lawyer had told him made his blood run cold. A fight over Todd could be expensive. And since Dash already had a reputation, the fight would get ugly.

Dash didn’t want Todd to have to endure something like that. He’d promised himself that he would do the best thing possible for Todd, and that was pretty clear.

It meant giving up Savannah. It meant letting her go. It meant letting the boy go. And it hurt. Bad.

He closed his eyes and thought about the twelve steps that he’d been working on as part of his recovery. The first step was to admit that he was powerless, and the second was to admit that only a power greater than himself could restore him to sanity. And the third step was to decide to give his life over to God as he understood Him.

He’d known from the start that Savannah was like an addiction. And even if it hadn’t felt like a destructive addiction, he still wanted her with his body and his soul. He didn’t think he could live without her. A part of him just wanted to find a bottle of bourbon in order to numb the pain.

But he also wanted to be the kind of man she saw in her dreams. He wanted to be her hero. He wanted to be a man like Uncle Earnest, who had been married to the same woman for fifty years. He didn’t want to let her go. He didn’t want to let her down. He wanted to be Todd’s father. And this situation was tearing him apart.

“Please, God, please help me.”

And he lost it. The tears flowed in a way that had never happened before. Not since he was old enough to know that crying only made Gramps beat him harder. He wept. All alone in Uncle Earnest’s theater.

Champ woke up and put his front paws up on his knee. Dash sank down onto the bare concrete and hugged that dog the way he’d hugged Murphy all those years ago.

When he’d cried himself out, he just sat there holding the dog. Letting the pup lick his face. He’d have to take up reading. Maybe he could learn to be alone like Zeph. Maybe. But it was going to take everything he had to do it.

And then his cell phone vibrated. He didn’t answer it. Five minutes later, it vibrated again, and this time he pulled it out of his pocket as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.

It wasn’t a number he recognized.

He checked his missed calls. There were more than a dozen from this same number.

He pressed the talk button. “Dash Randall.” His voice sounded gruff. His throat was still thick with emotions he was working overtime to keep contained.

“Finally,” a male voice said.

“Who’s speaking?”

“This is Andrew Prior of Prior, Jacobson, and Howard.”

The investigation company Dash had hired weeks ago. He’d almost forgotten.

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t pick up before.” He pressed the heel of his right hand into his right eye.

“Mr. Randall, we’ve just discovered something that you need to know.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s about Gregory White, the man you asked us to investigate.”

“Yes.”

“Well, he’s a deadbeat, but that’s hardly very interesting. He’s behind on all his bills, and he spends a lot of time at Pimlico. He’s also at least a year in arrears on his child support payments, which makes him a scumbag. But that’s not the most important thing.”

Dash straightened, the knot in his throat easing. “What else?”

“We didn’t figure it out until today. Back on April thirteenth, he had lunch with someone at McCormick and Schmick’s in Baltimore. We didn’t know who the guy was. We have photos, though.”

“Yeah. Tell me it was a Mafia don.”

“Sorry. It wasn’t anything that dramatic. But we finally figured out that the guy in the photo is John Rodgers, the principal of JBR Construction of Allenberg County. White’s been in South Carolina for the last few days, and he stopped by the offices of JBR. And then we realized that JBR was the contractor on the job when the fire was started. We haven’t been able to find any link between White and the snake incident, but since that happened before we were retained, I’m not that surprised.”

“April thirteenth, you said?”

“Yes, that’s a week before the arson at the theater. And near as we can tell, John Rodgers doesn’t have any reason to be in Baltimore. He’s never traveled there before or since.”

“You have a photo?”

“I do. Would you like me to e-mail it?”

“Yeah, right away.”

They ended the conversation.

He stood up and started pacing the lobby. It seemed to take forever for that photo to arrive. The minute it hit his inbox, he forwarded it to Stone Rhodes, the Allenberg sheriff.

Stone called him before Dash could finish dialing the number. “Did you get the photo I just sent?” Dash asked.

“No, I didn’t. I was calling to let you know that we’ve got a lead in the snake mystery. We think those snakes were purchased at Jungle Jim’s Reptile World on Long Island. It turns out there aren’t a whole lot of places where someone could buy a diamondback rattlesnake, so we were able to track down most of the dealers and review the purchases made in the weeks prior to the incident. It’s very unusual for someone to buy two diamondbacks, but we found someone who did. He used a credit card, and he has a rap sheet a mile long.”

“Who bought them?”

“His name is Nathan Martel, but he prefers to be called ‘New York Nate.’ He’s a pool hustler. We haven’t figured out a connection between this guy and Savannah, though.”

“I think I can help you. Savannah’s ex-husband regularly participates in pool tournaments. So Greg would probably know a few hustlers. And what’s more, I just sent you a photo of John Rodgers having lunch with Savannah’s ex. It was taken in Baltimore about a week before the fire. I’ll bet you Greg White paid Rodgers to set that fire, and he probably got this New York Nate person to arrange for the snakes.”

“So you think this is just some kind of domestic dispute between Savannah and her ex?” Stone asked.

“I don’t know, to tell you the truth. I have a theory, though. I think Greg White is a gambler. I’ve heard Todd talk about how he plays pool a lot. And according to my private investigator, Greg is behind on all his bills as well as his child support, even though he’s a partner in a fancy law firm.”

“So Savannah was playing hardball with him and he got mad at her?” Stone asked.

“No, that’s not what I’m thinking. I’ll bet Greg’s well-heeled mother has been bailing him out on his gambling debts. But this time, she told him he needed to get Savannah to bring Todd back to Baltimore as a condition for any further financial help. Claire White would use any means to get her mitts on Todd. She’s even got the South Carolina Department of Social Services on my case.”

“What?”

It took a lot for Dash to say the next words, but he forced them out. “They want to call me a pedophile.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Dash, everyone in town knows you’re not some kind of predator. Jeez, these people are evil. I’m glad Savannah and Todd escaped.”

Dash’s shoulders relaxed a fraction, and he realized that he was going to be okay. The local law was on his side, and probably always had been.

“I’m looking at the picture you sent right now,” Stone said. “I guess I need to go down to JBR tomorrow and have a little chat with John Rodgers. And I think I need to call the Baltimore police, too. Thanks, Dash, and… I’m sorry about what happened. You know I have to chase down every lead.”

“It’s okay, Stone. I know. And everyone in town is happy that we finally have a sheriff who knows what he’s doing.”

Dash disconnected and headed for the janitor’s closet, where he washed his face.

He looked down at Champ, who stood at his feet with a smiling face and a happy tail.

He laughed. “I guess I do know what Uncle Earnest would have done,” he said to the dog.

How many times had Uncle Earnest told him to believe in the goodness of people? How many times had he also said that when the road seemed impassable you just had to trust in God and pray?

“Thank you,” he whispered as he turned off the lights and locked the door. And in that moment it almost seemed like Uncle Earnest was right there with him. Like a guardian angel or something.

Savannah folded her last sweater and zipped up the suitcase. Tomorrow at this time, she would be unpacking in Claire’s big house in the Roland Park section of Baltimore.

It depressed her to think about it. Claire had a cook who didn’t like Savannah messing around in her kitchen. And even after Savannah found an apartment, there wouldn’t be a crowd to cook for.

There wouldn’t be frog jumps, Easter dances, or Watermelon Festivals. She wouldn’t have friends at the book club or The Knit & Stitch. She wouldn’t be able to go to the theater every day and see it rising from the ruins. She wouldn’t wake up and feel like she was doing something important.

And there wouldn’t be any moments at the bathroom door. Or in the kitchen when she poured Dash a cup of coffee and handed him a thermos and a sandwich. There wouldn’t be any stolen moments at the river house.

But she had to give these things up. The alternative was unthinkable.

She put the suitcase by the door and turned off the light. It was early yet. But she didn’t want to sit on the porch and visit with Miriam. Her guilt ran so deep when it came to Miriam that she didn’t even know how to plumb its depths.

This situation was breaking her heart into a million pieces. She threw herself on her bed, but she didn’t cry. She’d cried herself out last night. She didn’t have any more tears. She had only the determination to do the best thing she could for her son. And for Dash.

She lay there listening to the quiet in the house until Dash came home. His big car’s tires crunched on the gravel driveway. His boots sounded on the porch and the landing. At the top of the stairs, he turned left instead of right. Damn him. Didn’t he know that she didn’t want to see him?

He knocked on her door.

“Go away.”

“No.” He opened the door. She should have locked it. The light in the hallway silhouetted him. He was wearing jeans and a western shirt. She couldn’t see his face, but his presence made her heart sing.

“What do you want?”

“Savannah.” He took a step into the room. “Honey, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And you know, there are some people on this earth who are so toxic that you have to accept that they have no part in your life. My father and grandfather were people like that. It’s taken me a lifetime and I don’t know how many AA meetings, not to mention a bucket of tears, to come to the conclusion that I was better off without my father and my grandfather.”

She sat up in the bed and squinted against the sudden light. “Please. This situation is more complicated. And besides, Todd deserves time with his—”

“Hush, let me finish.”

She shut her mouth. She listened. What else could she do?

“I know you want Todd to have a relationship with his father. And I know why. I even understand it. But you can’t send him back there.”

“Dash, I have to. I—”

“But he’s a gambler and a jerk. He doesn’t have any intention of spending quality time with Todd. You need to rethink.”

“Well, thank you for that. I think I’m capable of figuring out what is the right thing to do.” Of course she wasn’t really, but she wasn’t about to let Dash tell her what to do.

“Honey, listen, your ex is—”

“What in the world is going on up here?” Miriam’s voice came down the hall. She walked into the bedroom and turned on the light. “Are y’all arguing again?”

Her hair looked perfectly braided, and her gaze was sharp and lucid behind her trifocals.

“Aunt Mim, I’m trying to have a serious conversation with your niece.”

“Well, son, you’re doing a terrible job at telling her what she needs to know. And all she needs to know right now is that you can’t live without her.”

The exasperation in Miriam’s voice was clear as she turned her gaze on Savannah. “And as for you. Well, honey, I’m getting really old, and I’m tired of playing the poor, senile, old lady in order to guilt you into staying here. And I’m tired of you dancing around Dash making him crazy. And then there is the fact that I’m ready to retire as Last Chance’s matchmaker. You have to stay so I can turn it all over to you.”

Dash and Savannah stared at Miriam. She stared back at them. She raised one of her white eyebrows in an attempt to give them both her evil eye. “What?”

“You’re ready to turn over matchmaking to Savannah?” Dash asked.

“Of course. She’s got the sight.”

“I do?” Savannah said.

“Of course you do. You knew Hettie and Bill were a match before anyone else did. I don’t blame you for not figuring out Dash, though. He’s always been a little hard to figure. Inside that tough hide of his beats a golden heart. You have figured this out by now, haven’t you?”

Miriam turned toward Dash. “And you’ve figured out that not only can she cook, but she’s got a kind heart. Not at all what you thought when you were young, but see what she’s ready to do now, just to spare your reputation?”

The tears Savannah thought she’d cried out suddenly sprang to her eyes. She stood up and walked toward Dash. “There’s no way I can stay.”

“But there is.” Dash took her hand and pressed it against his chest, right above his beating heart. “You can’t go. Because I have a home for you right here. In my heart. I don’t care what anyone says about me. I want to be with you. And I swear I will be there for you, Savannah, no matter what happens. You can come to me with all your problems. I’ll be the guy cheering you on. I’ll be here to pick you up when you fall. Savannah, I love you. I love Todd. I would endure anything in the world if I could have you in my life. If you leave me, it will break my heart.” He pressed his hand on hers. “I’ve been left so many times in my life…” His voice faltered.

She didn’t let him falter for long. She rushed into his arms.

“I don’t want to go.” She sagged against him. His arms came around her. “I only decided to go because I didn’t want to hurt you, and I thought—”

“Hush, now. No one is going to hurt me. And no one is ever going to hurt Todd, as long as I live.”

“I don’t want to live in Baltimore. I love you.”

His mouth came down over hers in a kiss that made her toes curl. She almost lost herself in that kiss before her common sense returned. She pushed away.

“We can’t do this.”

“Of course we can. We’re not really cousins.”

“No, I mean, Claire is going to ruin you if I stay, and I—”

He put his fingers over her mouth. “Honey, that’s not going to happen. First of all, I realized tonight that everyone in Last Chance with the possible exception of Lillian Bray is going to give me the benefit of the doubt. People in the rest of the world might not, but I don’t really care about the rest of the world. And second, it’s not going to happen.”

She pulled his fingers away from her mouth. “But it is.”

“Nope. Not after Stone Rhodes is finished with your ex.”

“What?”

“Well, I think Greg is going to go to jail for arson.”

“No.”

“I’m afraid so. John Rodgers met with Greg in Baltimore a few days before the fire. And Stone’s got a lead on the snakes, too, that points in the direction of a pool hustler named New York Nate, of all things. So I think I’m off the hook.

“But all this is still going to hurt Todd. It’s never easy to be the son of someone who is an addict. And I’m thinking Greg is addicted to gambling. So you and I are going to have to be there for Todd. I’m going to do my best to help your son get over this disaster in his life. Just like Uncle Earnest was there for me. That’s my solemn promise, whether you marry me or not.”

“Marry you?”

“Finally,” Miriam said on an exasperated breath.

“Will you?” he asked.

She blinked up into his craggy face. “I want to.”

“Then say yes.”

“Yes.”

Dash’s mouth came back down on hers in the sweetest, most tender kiss ever. She wrapped her arms around him. She wasn’t ever going to let him go.

“What’s happening?” Todd came wandering into the bedroom with Champ dancing around his feet.

“Your mother and Cousin Dash are having a moment,” Miriam said.

“A moment?” Todd said. “It looks like they’re playing tonsil hockey.”

Miriam sniffed. “Boy, where did you hear that term?”

“From Oliver. He wants to play tonsil hockey with Sherrie Ann.”

“Oh, my, she’s all wrong for him,” Miriam said. “You tell Oliver not to kiss that girl.”

“Yes, Aunt Mim, I will.”

The old woman and the boy stood there for a moment observing the kiss that went on and on. “I told you your mother and Dash loved each other, didn’t I?” Miriam finally said.

“Yeah, you did. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. But hey, this is tight.”

“Yes, very tight, indeed.”

Todd gave Champ’s big head a little pat. “C’mon, boy, Aunt Miriam was right after all. Looks like Mom and me are staying. C’mon and help me unpack.”





READING GROUP GUIDE


Discussion Questions for Last Chance Book Club

1. The romance in Last Chance Book Club is similar in some ways to the romance portrayed in Pride and Prejudice. Discuss some of the ways that Dash and Savannah are similar to Darcy and Elizabeth. In the contemporary story, who is the Darcy character? Who better embodies Elizabeth?

2. Matchmaking occupies a central part of both Pride and Prejudice and Last Chance Book Club. Compare and contrast the matchmaking efforts of Mrs. Bennet and Miz Miriam Randall. Which matchmaker would you prefer to consult if you were looking for marital advice? Why?

3. Savannah ends up tackling a pretty big undertaking even though the theater project overwhelms and frightens her. What strategies did she use to face her fear and lack of confidence? Was the community a help or a hindrance? Have you ever undertaken a big project where people were depending on you? Did it make you confident or scare you to death?

4. Discuss the ways Dash Randall becomes the man he has always wanted to be. Do you think Dash’s transformation would have been possible without Todd?

5. Scattered throughout the novel are several scenes that mirror Pride and Prejudice. Can you find them? Email your answers to [email protected] to be entered to win prizes and swag.

6. The loss of reputation is an important theme in Last Chance Book Club and Pride and Prejudice. Discuss how the threat of a lost reputation provides a barrier between the lovers in both books.

7. How is Reverend Ellis similar to Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice? How is he different? Is Hettie like Charlotte Lucas?

8. Discuss how Dash works through his various addictions and implements parts of the twelve-step program. In particular, how does Dash make amends for his past actions? How does he make a “searching and fearless inventory” of himself? How does Dash admit his shortcomings to Savannah and others? How does he turn his life over to a higher power’s care?

9. Uncle Earnest was an important parental figure for both Dash and Savannah. Other than your parents, who was a major positive influence while you were growing up? Uncle Earnest instills many good values. What values do you think are most important for children? Do children need a religious education to learn these values?

10. Miz Miriam knows when a man and woman are right for each other, even when the couple can’t see it for themselves. Do you think outside advice can be helpful when choosing a mate? Were you surprised when the townspeople wanted Savannah to get together with Reverend Ellis? Were you surprised when Dash ended up with Savannah, rather than Hettie? Or when Hettie ended up with Bill? Were you surprised when Elizabeth ended up with Darcy?





Molly Canaday is a tomboy with a passion for cars—and little time for romance.



But Simon Wolfe is about to race in and change her priorities.

Please turn this page for a preview of

Last Chance Knit & Stitch.





Simon Wolfe drove his rental car south on Route 321 toward the small town of Last Chance, South Carolina. He gripped the wheel and tried to quell the emotions tumbling through him.

He didn’t want to be on this road. Eighteen years ago, after a particularly hostile Thanksgiving spent with his parents, Simon had vowed never to come home again.

But Aunt Millie had called yesterday, and when she said, “Your daddy’s dead,” something had snapped inside his chest.

Those three little words had sent him tumbling back in time, to his early years running interference between his mother and father. He loved them, but he couldn’t stand to be with them both together for more than five minutes at a time.

He called on holidays. Daddy had come for a visit ten years ago. But Simon had not seen his mother for almost two decades. She had not forgiven him for abandoning her.

And so he had come home for the funeral. Mother would expect it. Mother would expect other things, too. He halfway dreaded them.

He let go of the breath he’d been unconsciously holding, his filial obligations pinching acutely. He could not let his father’s death suck him back into his mother’s world. He had to return to his little house in Paradise, California, and his studio tucked among the redwoods.

He had a big commission he had to finish.

He topped a rise in the road, and the rented Hyundai hesitated. Then the radio and the AC kicked out. He floored the gas, but the car stalled completely.

He coasted to the side of the road.

Damn. He was going to be late to his father’s wake.

Molly Canaday pulled the tow truck in front of the silver Hyundai Sonata. She killed the engine and used her side-view mirror to assess the stranded motorist.

He was not from around these parts.

For one thing, he was driving a rental car.

And for another, he was standing in the bright May sunshine wearing a black crew-necked shirt, dark dress pants, and a tweed sport jacket. The sun lit up threads of gray in his dark chin-length hair. He hadn’t shaved today, but somehow the stubble looked carefully groomed.

This guy was seriously lost.

She straightened her ball cap and hopped from the truck’s cab. “Howdy,” she said, putting out her hand for him to shake. “I’m Molly Canaday from Bill’s Grease Pit. We’re located in Last Chance, just down the road a ways. The rental agency sent your distress call to us. What seems to be the problem?”

Mr. I’m-so-cool-and-sexy did not shake Molly’s hand. Instead, his gaze took in her battered Atlanta Braves hat, favorite Big and Rich T-shirt, and baggy but comfy painter’s pants. And the jerk smiled, sort of. His mouth curled at the corners like a couple of ornate apostrophes. The smile was elegant and sexy. Molly might have been impressed if the expression on the guy’s face hadn’t also been just a tiny bit smirk-like.

She was tempted to tell him that he had a lot of nerve smirking when he was standing in the May sunshine and wearing dark clothes. But she held her tongue. LeRoy, her boss at Bill’s Grease Pit, was always telling her that she needed to close her mouth and keep her opinions to herself.

She forced a customer-service smile to her face, even as she dropped her hand. Obviously the guy was above shaking hands with a mechanic like her.

He finally spoke in an accent that sounded like it came from nowhere. “Canaday, huh? Does Red Canaday still coach the Rebels’ football team?”

Whoa, this guy didn’t look like your average football fan. Much less like anyone who would know anything about Davis High’s football program. “Uh, yeah, he’s my daddy.” She studied his face, trying to place him. He had nice brown eyes and a masculine nose, and he didn’t look a lick like anyone Molly knew.

Mr. Cool continued to give her a deeply unsettling stare from underneath a pair of masculine eyebrows. His eyes weren’t as cool as the rest of him. There was kindness there, even though he hadn’t shaken her hand. She got the feeling, maybe, that he was just a little shy. “Nothing ever changes here, does it?” he asked.

“Uh, do I know you?” There was no way this guy had ever set foot in Last Chance before.

He shrugged. “You might remember me. I mean, I knew your father. But that was a long time ago, and you were little.”

“Are you saying you’re from around here?” No way.

“I’m Simon Wolfe. Carrie Jean and Ira’s boy. I was the kicker on the team.”

Oh. Wow. Talk about prodigal sons. She didn’t really remember Simon exactly. She’d been like ten when he left Last Chance, but she’d also sort of been the Rebel’s good luck charm back in 1990, when Stone Rhodes had taken the Rebels to the state championship.

But even if he had been a member of her team, she still didn’t like him much. Anyone who would run away from his folks and never come back was a no-account useless person as far as Molly was concerned. Family was everything, and this idiot had thrown his family away.

And now his daddy was dead. Two days ago, Ira Wolfe had keeled over right in the middle of his Ford dealership’s showroom. He wasn’t a very old man either.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Molly said. Although Simon didn’t look all that brokenhearted. In fact, the idiot shrugged as if he really didn’t give a darn.

Then he changed the subject. “So Red Canaday’s little girl grew up to become a mechanic. I guess that was totally predictable.”

She clamped her back teeth together. If she kept her mouth shut, she wouldn’t tell him where he could take his rental car and shove it. Instead she took a deep breath just like she’d learned in her yoga class. It only helped a little. “What seems to be the problem?” she asked in her sweetest voice, which admittedly was not very sweet. She tried to be sweet, but she was a miserable failure at it.

“I have no clue what’s wrong with it. It stopped running,” he said.

Boy, he might have been born in the South and even played football, once. But let’s face it, he’d been the kicker on the team, and not a very good kicker either. Over the years, he’d clearly lost his southern accent and attitude somewhere. Any local man worth his salt would have already popped the hood and taken a look. Local men would also have dozens of theories about what had gone wrong.

Not this guy. This guy spoke in short sentences, dressed like a GQ model, and didn’t want to get dirty.

“Did it make any funny noises before it died?”

“Nope. The AC and the radio went out right before the engine quit.” He looked at his watch.

“I’m sorry, you have a wake to get to, don’t you?” She didn’t mention that she, also, had to get to Ira Wolfe’s wake. She owed that man a great deal.

Simon shrugged again and turned his back. He put his hands on his hips and frowned at the cotton fields that spread on either side of Route 321. “God, this place is like being nowhere at all,” he muttered.

“Yeah, well, some of us like living here,” she snarled as she popped the hood and started poking around. “So, are you planning on staying a while?” she asked a moment later as she aimed her flashlight down into the engine to check the fan belt.

“No, I have to get back to Paradise.”

“Paradise? Really?” The fan belt looked okay.

“It’s a place in California.”

“Ah, yeah, of course.” He would live in a place called Paradise. She had a feeling he was about to discover that there could be hard times in Paradise, but far be it from her to be the bearer of bad news.

Instead, she inspected the battery terminals and connections, but didn’t see anything obvious. There was probably a problem with the generator, or maybe the voltage regulator.

She pulled her head out of the engine compartment. “I’m going to have to tow it.”

He checked his damn watch again. Boy this guy was wound up tighter than a spring. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you to the church on time. Or the funeral home, as the case might be. You know, being late to a funeral is not the worst thing in the world.”

Simon stifled his laugh. It didn’t seem right to find Molly amusing on the day of his father’s wake.

She helped him transfer his luggage from the Hyundai’s trunk to the back of her truck. Then he stood back and watched while Coach Canaday’s only daughter hooked the Sonata up to a heavy chain and then winched it up onto the truck’s flat bed. The woman sure had a way with machinery.

Which didn’t surprise him, actually.

The last time Simon had seen Molly Canaday, she’d been a little kid in overalls, standing on the sidelines with Coach. She never missed a game. She could talk intelligently about football even as a five-year-old.

Simon never attempted a field goal without first patting Molly’s head. Her hair had been short and curly, and he could almost remember how soft it felt under his hands. Her hair was longer now, but it was still almost inky black, and barely contained by the ball cap on her head. He had the sudden desire to paint a portrait of her, with all that glorious hair undone and falling like a curly black waterfall to her shoulders.

“It’s going to be tomorrow before we can figure out what’s going on with the car. So I’ll drop you by the funeral home. I’m sure Rob or Ryan Polk or one of their kids can give you a lift home from there.” Molly’s words pulled him back from his artistic flight of fancy.

He climbed into the passenger seat and checked his watch.

“So, I guess you’re just counting the hours until you can leave again? Paradise is calling, huh?”

He kept his gaze fastened to the cotton fields that whizzed past as she pulled the truck onto the road and headed into town. He saw no point in responding to her question. She had summed up the truth. He needed to get back home and back to work, especially since the work had not been going very well lately.

The fields eventually gave way to houses with big yards. Then the Last Chance water tower, painted to resemble a tiger-striped watermelon, came into view on the horizon.

It was a familiar view, frozen in his memory. And yet, nothing was quite the same as he remembered it. A large commercial building with a big parking lot occupied what had once been cotton fields just north of town. A big sign at the gates of the facility said deBracy Ltd. Not too far away, another parcel of land was being developed into new single-family homes.

Last Chance didn’t look gray and used up, as he’d remembered it. There were bright awnings over some of the shops. Pedestrians hurried about their business on the sidewalks. The Kismet, the old movie theater, was covered in a scaffold where workers were repainting it. The place looked alive.

He wasn’t prepared for the emotion that gripped him. It wasn’t nostalgia. He’d buried a piece of himself here when he’d run away from home and the promise he’d made to his mother. He’d never planned on coming back and unearthing it. But here it was, stuck in his throat.

For all the pain he’d suffered here, Last Chance would always be home.





THE DISH

Where authors give you the inside scoop!



From the desk of Hope Ramsay

Dear Reader,

I have three brothers and no sisters. So when I was young, I read a lot of “boy” books—mostly having to do with space travel. When I reached the ripe age of thirteen, my aunt decided I needed to have my horizons broadened. She put three “girly” books in my hand: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Little Women. Need I say more?

I was hooked the moment I read the immortal line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Holy moly, I had no idea what I was missing!

So it’s not surprising that I turned to these favorite books when I decided to write a series featuring members of the Last Chance Book Club.

In the first book in this series, LAST CHANCE BOOK CLUB, the ladies of the club decide to read Pride and Prejudice. And before long some of them are finding some interesting similarities between the book and their lives.

In the beginning of my story, the hero and heroine dislike each other intensely. Like Darcy, Savannah White has come to Last Chance from the big city. She’s there to renovate the old run-down theater. Dash Randall, like Lizzy Bennett, isn’t at all pleased with this new arrival in town. Dash thinks Savannah is a stuck-up snob. And she thinks he’s a no-account good ol’ boy. My hero is the one with the snarky sense of humor, and my heroine the one with the preconceived notions that will have to soften. Even though my plot and setting are wildly different from Austen’s, the underlying theme of pride and prejudice is what makes the love story of Dash and Savannah so much fun. I’ve also included a few other Austen-inspired complications, like a minister who is looking for a wife, a whole passel of matchmaking matrons, and a street dance that’s surprisingly like the Netherfield Ball.

I had such a fun time writing this story. It allowed me to connect in a much deeper way with one of my old favorites. I’m sure Jane Austen fans will enjoy searching for the Easter eggs I’ve sprinkled through the book. But even if you aren’t an Austen fan, you’re still going to love this story about a couple who discover the hidden depths of character in each other as they grow from enemies to friends to lovers