Sweet Georgia Peach Read online

  “And where should I be buying my buttons?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “At a cute button shop, of course.” He glanced up and saw Elaine waving at him from across the room. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m wanted over there.”

  “Of course,” she replied, and he walked away, glad to have an excuse. London Russell, a blast from his past. A reminder of everything he’d once been. The only girl who had ever gotten under his skin.

  The only girl he’d ever really had a crush on.

  Right here, in this hotel, and they’d be together for a week.

  Well, not together together. They each had their own responsibilities, and he’d be spending time with a lot of other girls too. But London made all the other girls fade into the background—she always had. It was her superpower. And she was his kryptonite.

  “There you are,” Elaine said when he reached her side. “Kade, I’d like you to meet Miss Apricot Blossom. Well, her real name is Gina Malloy, but it’s just so much fun to call her Apricot Blossom.” Both women laughed, and Kade forced a chuckle. He could do this for a week. He just had to smile, look thoughtful, and make insightful comments. And maybe spend a little time with London, too, before fate pulled them apart again.

  A few minutes later, there was a tapping on a microphone at the front of the room, and Mrs. Fitzpatrick, the founder of the pageant, asked for everyone’s attention. She was a classy-looking lady of probably about sixty. If it wasn’t for her no-nonsense attitude, she’d remind Kade of his grandmother.

  “We’d like to welcome you all to this year’s Miss Sweet Georgia Peach pageant,” she said, and everyone clapped. “I hope you’ve had the chance to mingle and to meet our distinguished judges. They will be with you at each event throughout the week, and will even be evaluating your media interviews tomorrow. This way, they can see you in several different situations and get to know you better. This is a change from how we have done things in previous years, but we feel that it will be invaluable in helping the judges choose the very best representative for our program.”

  Everyone clapped again, and Kade joined in to be polite. It reminded him a little bit of a State of the Union address or something.

  “As you know, we pride ourselves on being one of the largest providers of scholarship funds in the pageant industry. We believe in rewarding our young ladies for their hard work by allowing them to continue their educations. I look forward to meeting with each of you and learning more about your college aspirations.”

  Now that was something Kade could applaud. He was glad that at the end of the day, these girls would have something more substantial to take home than a ribbon and a crown full of fake diamonds.

  Mrs. Fitzpatrick outlined the schedule for the rest of the week, and Kade allowed his eyes to wander the room—he’d already read the schedule. There were a lot of pretty girls here, but not one of them could compare to London. Not a single one. And that was part of what had made it so hard to forget her.

  Chapter Three

  “You went to high school with Kade Smith?” Chelsea’s eyes were huge. “He’s the hunkiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. I almost dropped my water glass when he introduced himself to me at the mingle thing. How did you get any studying done in class?”

  “I found it very easy to ignore him,” London said wryly as she reached for another slice of pizza. The next day was going to be crazy, so she’d invited Chelsea over to chill out for a while and load up on cheesy carbs so they’d have strength for all those silly media interviews. “Trust me, he’s not that hard to ignore.”

  “I doubt that. I seriously do.” Chelsea grabbed another piece for herself. “You realize I’m never going to fit in my bathing suit after eating this.”

  “Hush. You’ll weird yourself out thinking that way.” London wiped her mouth on a napkin. “I have to tell you some of the stuff he did to me in high school. Once, after our team won a game, he had the football team come over to the sidelines, pick me up, carry me to the middle of the field, and dump a cooler of ice water all over me. And for Homecoming, he went around and talked to every single guy in school and told them not to ask me.”

  “No way,” Chelsea said, her piece of pizza halfway to her mouth.

  “I’m serious. Then the day before the dance, he gave the guy who was the head of the chess club a hundred dollars to ask me. So here I was, thinking I wasn’t going at all, and Wendell Hansen shows up at my locker with a dozen roses. Well, turns out, we had a great time, which rubbed Kade totally the wrong way, and he confessed everything to me. I’m telling you, going to high school with him was not the joyful experience you seem to think it was.”

  “I’m sorry,” Chelsea said. “But look at everything you’ve accomplished since then! You can just put high school behind you, right? It doesn’t even have to matter now.”

  “In a perfect world, that would be true, but seeing him again tonight brought back all those memories, and I feel like I’m seventeen again, standing in the middle of that football field, dripping with ice water.” London tossed her crust back in the box. “How am I supposed to win a scholarship when I feel so . . . I don’t know. Stupid and vulnerable?”

  Chelsea reached out and patted London’s shoulder. “I think you should use this as your motivation. You know—the fuel to your fire. That sort of thing.”

  “I guess I could. I think I’ll have to.” London took a sip of her water. “I’ve got this, right? I can survive a week with him.”

  “This is what I’m saying.”

  Just then, London heard a click at the door, then it opened. Her mother stepped inside, followed by a bellhop pushing a luggage cart loaded with dress bags.

  “Hi, Mom,” London said, hopping up to give her mother a hand.

  “Hi, Mrs. Russell,” Chelsea added.

  “Chelsea! It’s good to see you.” Evelyn Russell gave the girl a quick hug. “How have you been?”

  “Good. Really good.”

  London took her dress bags from the luggage cart and hung them in the closet, then slipped the bellhop a tip as he left. She set her mother’s luggage in the corner—she hadn’t chosen her bed yet because she knew her mother would want first dibs, so she’d leave everything in neutral territory until that decision was made.

  “It’s been such a long day.” Evelyn sank onto the edge of one of the beds and kicked off her heels. “I had to convince Hattie Lovell that we weren’t serving Spam sandwiches at the fundraiser. She thought that since it’s inexpensive, it would be a good choice, but I can’t see us serving tinned meat to people and then asking them to hand over their wallets.”

  “I hate Spam,” Chelsea said. “My friend’s mother would make Spam sandwiches for us whenever we had a slumber party, and I just . . .” She shuddered.

  “Oh, London, guess who I saw in the lobby just now. Kade Smith, the football player. Didn’t you go to high school with him?”

  “I did, and he’s one of the judges for the pageant,” London replied. She’d never told her mother about her ongoing feud with Kade. There wasn’t anything Evelyn could have done about it, and London hadn’t wanted to burden her already-burdened mother with one more thing to think about.

  “That will be nice, having someone you know on the judging panel.” Evelyn paused and looked around. “Which bed is mine?”

  “I thought I’d let you choose.”

  “I’ll take the one where I’m sitting.”

  London hid a smile. It was the one closest to the bathroom—no surprise there.

  “I’m going to head off to bed,” Chelsea said, standing up. “Thanks for the pizza and the chat, London. Good to see you, Evelyn.” She waggled her fingers as she left the room and closed the door.

  “I’m glad Chelsea’s here,” Evelyn said. “She’s the one girl I’ve never wanted to strangle at one of these things.”

  “I agree.” London plopped down on the other bed and tucked a pillow under her head. “So, what are you serving at the fundraiser?”


  “Chicken salad on croissants. Still inexpensive, but it’s not Spam.”

  London grinned as her mother went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Evelyn Russell and her fundraisers and her cotillions and her everything else. As long as women like her still existed, the South would never die.

  ***

  Kade glanced around the lobby one more time. If Mrs. Fitzpatrick didn’t show up soon, he’d have to turn in without talking to her. When he’d had the concierge ring her room, she hadn’t picked up, and he had to get an answer to his question before he could carry on in good conscience.

  Finally, he saw her crossing the lobby, her low heels tapping on the floor. He rose from his seat and approached her. “Mrs. Fitzpatrick, may I speak with you for a moment?”

  She raised a sculpted eyebrow at him. “Yes, Mr. Smith? What can I do for you? But make it snappy—we all have an early morning tomorrow.”

  She was the one who’d been out late, but he didn’t point that out. “Yes, ma’am. I wondered if there was anything in the pageant rules about a contestant knowing a judge. It turns out that London Russell and I went to high school together.”

  “Were you ever an item? Do you have any reason to favor her above the other contestants?”

  “We were never that close,” he replied, feeling warmth rise in his face.

  “Then it’s not an issue. You see, Mr. Smith, in the thirty years I’ve been running this pageant, I’ve learned that it’s impossible to find judges who don’t know the contestants and vice versa. There’s a certain set of people on the pageant circuit, and you’ll run into them over and over again throughout the year. As long as you’re not related to a contestant, we have to give some leeway.” She glanced at her watch. “If you’ll excuse me, the term ‘beauty sleep’ is not one I use lightly. If I don’t turn in right now, my face will be dragging on the floor come morning. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” Kade replied as he watched her turn toward the elevators. He’d hoped that this would be his ticket out of here, a graceful way to make his escape without coming across as a total jerk. But nope. Looked like he was stuck. He shook his head and pushed the elevator button for himself. Looked like he’d better get his beauty sleep too.

  Chapter Four

  “I’m sure Mr. Smith will be here any minute,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick told the impatient photographer who had been pacing in the lobby. “Everyone else is here, see? We’ll be ready to go before you know it.”

  London edged a little closer to the conversation. She couldn’t help it—if there was some kind of trouble involving Kade, she wanted to know every juicy detail.

  “I was told that everyone involved with the pageant would be here at nine sharp and that I’d be able to get my pictures before ten,” the man told her. “If I don’t get these pictures turned in, they won’t run. And if they don’t run, that throws your publicity schedule off. I don’t think that will make you very happy.”

  “It’s very inconvenient, I know,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said. “Let me have the hotel ring his room. Perhaps he overslept. I did see him in the lobby quite late last night.”

  London stepped back a little so she wouldn’t be noticed as Mrs. Fitzpatrick bustled across the lobby to the front desk. The concierge placed a call and waited on the line, then shook his head and hung up.

  Hmm. This was very interesting. Where was Kade? Doing something she could tease him about mercilessly later?

  He finally pushed through the front doors of the hotel, looking a little out of breath. “Sorry I’m late,” he said to Mrs. Fitzpatrick when she descended on him like a dive bomber. “I had an emergency.”

  She put one hand on her hip. “You do realize that you’re twenty minutes late, Mr. Smith. That sort of thing might be all right for famous football players, but we don’t have that kind of luxury around here.”

  “It’s actually not all right for football players, Mrs. Fitzpatrick. I’d be running laps around the field right now if I pulled this on my coach.” Kade chuckled, obviously trying to lighten the mood, but Mrs. Fitzpatrick didn’t look like she wanted to be lightened. London was glad that glare wasn’t focused on her.

  “I’ll have you running laps around this hotel if you’re not careful,” the woman hissed. “Now get over there and look pleasant.”

  Kade glanced over, saw London, and shrugged. She fell into step behind him as he walked over to the rest of the group.

  “An emergency, huh? I hope everything’s all right,” she said, forcing herself to sound civil.

  He shook his head. “It’s crazy. I bought an old house thinking that I’d restore it, got in a little over my head, asked my buddy Dillon to help me, and he called at dawn to tell me that the water main broke. His guys are over there right now pumping it out and fixing things, but it was an unbelievable mess.”

  “You bought an old house? With all your money?” London raised an eyebrow. “I saw the news when you signed—you make a pretty penny. Why not get a new place?”

  Kade shook his head. “I wish they hadn’t publicized that. Yes, I bought an old house. It’s one of Atlanta’s gems, and I figure, I’m lucky enough to get to play here where I was raised, so I should give something back to the community and save this awesome property.”

  Hmm. London hadn’t expected such a deep answer. She’d pictured him living in some super-posh condo somewhere, surrounded by artsy stuff that cost a gob of money and was really ugly to look at.

  She was interrupted in her thoughts by the photographer, who asked everyone to pose, but they had to squish in so they’d all fit in the group shot. She found herself plastered to Kade’s side as another girl pushed her way into the photo from the left.

  “I’m not sure we know each other well enough for this,” Kade whispered to her, his tone mocking.

  “I’m sorry, but this really wasn’t my idea,” she replied.

  “I remember how you used to flirt with all the football players. Are you sure this isn’t just London 2.0?”

  London turned and smiled for the camera, then went back to glaring at him. “I was not flirting with the football players. I was being friendly because that’s what human beings do.”

  “So you’re admitting that you’re human?”

  “What are you talking about? Of course I’m human.” She turned and smiled again, glad she could hear the photographer over the blood pounding through her ears. Kade knew how to push all her buttons.

  “Where’s my phone? I should be recording this.” He made a show of patting his pockets.

  “Now I need a picture of each contestant with the judges,” the photographer went on. “Let’s go in alphabetical order.”

  London stepped off to the side, watching with a smirk as each girl went up and took her place with the judges. Every one of them without exception giggled as they walked up to Kade. London rolled her eyes. Yes, he was a gorgeous football player. But if they knew the real him, they wouldn’t be so flirty and giggly.

  When Chelsea was done, she bounded over to London’s side. “I touched Kade’s arm, and it’s rock hard. That man is pure muscle.”

  “Could you be any more twitterpated?”

  “I don’t know.” Chelsea glanced back over to where the judges were standing, smiling for the camera. “Hey, I know this is really crazy of me to ask, but would you introduce me to him?”

  “Uh, didn’t you just meet him? And touch his arm?”

  “Yes, but that was totally different. That was for the picture. He’s not going to remember me out of all these girls.”

  London shook her head. “You realize that I’m not his favorite person, right? If I’m the one who introduces you, he might decide to hate you too. That’s not the best way to start a relationship.”

  “But it’s better than what I have now. Please, London? Please?”

  She was giving her puppy-dog look, and London knew she was sunk. “Okay. I’ll introduce you. But this is entirely against my principles. I usually try to keep my friends awa
y from horrible people—not put them together in the same room.”

  “I promise that I’ll be very careful, and if he’s still horrible, I’ll run far away. I just think that it’s been a long time since high school, and people can change.”

  “Four years isn’t long enough for a total personality overhaul.”

  Chelsea grinned. “I can hope.”

  When it was London’s turn, she did not giggle as she took her place. She had no reason to, and she refused anyway. “Are you dating anyone?” she asked Kade out of the corner of her mouth.

  “Are you asking me out?”

  “No, never! But I have a friend who’d like to meet you. She’s one of the contestants here.”

  “Okay. Can you point her out to me?”

  “Yeah. She’s standing right over there.” London nodded that direction.

  “Excuse me! No talking,” the photographer called out, and London tried a little harder to behave herself.

  “Have her meet me here at five,” Kade said as London walked away to make room for the next contestant. She waved at him over her shoulder to indicate that she’d heard.

  “Meet him right here at five,” she told Chelsea, who bounced a little up and down. Why did the girl have to be so excited about the prospect of being thrown into a lions’ den?

  She didn’t have long to think about it, though, because next it was time for the interviews they’d be having with the media.

  A long buffet table of snacks had been set up on the side of one of the conference rooms, and everyone was invited to go in and eat while waiting their turn. They were going alphabetically again, so London had plenty of time to help herself.

  “I see you still like chocolate,” Lacey Johnson said as she used a pair of tongs to choose out some melon. “It’s a wonder you fit in your gowns.”

  “I see you still eat like an impoverished rabbit,” London replied, glancing down at the three items on Lacey’s plate. “You know, the body does need calories in order to function.”