Sweet Georgia Peach Read online

  “Well, get in there and do your job.” She nodded toward the interview room, and he took off.

  He passed the contestants, who were sitting in chairs along the edges of the waiting room, and entered the next room, where Mayor Morgan and Elaine sat behind a long table. His chair, of course, was empty, and he felt a new pang of guilt when he saw it.

  “I’m really sorry,” he said as he slid into place. “I’m going to owe Mrs. Fitzpatrick a dozen roses after this.”

  “She doesn’t like roses,” the mayor said. “She’s more into tulips.”

  “And how would you know that?” Elaine asked him.

  His cheeks colored a little. “She and I courted for a while.”

  Elaine threw Kade a look that clearly said she was intrigued. “Was this a long time ago, Mayor, or more recently?”

  “Oh, it’s been about five years.”

  Elaine opened her mouth, about to ask something else, but just then, the door opened, and the first contestant came in. Kade smiled, trying not to feel bad for Elaine. There she was, hot on the trail of some juicy gossip, only to be interrupted. That had to hurt.

  Thankfully, all the interviews were done by noon. Chelsea did really well—or at least Kade thought she did—and he gave her high marks. Many of the other girls were poised and intelligent. One burst into tears, which totally confused Kade because nothing upsetting had happened. And then there was a girl named Lacey, who just made his skin crawl, she was so gushy.

  “Just a few more to go,” Mayor Morgan said, consulting the list. “Next is London Russell.”

  When London came in the room, Kade’s heart did a weird little flip-flop thing, and he had to take a deep breath. She wore a dress of pink satiny stuff, and her hair was down and sort of pulled to one side. She looked amazing.

  “Thanks for meeting with us this morning, darlin’,” the mayor said. “Please, have a seat.”

  London smoothed her dress and sat down, crossing her legs, which showed off her calves and ankles. They were very nice calves and ankles. A few of the other girls had shown quite a bit more than that, but Kade wasn’t interested—he liked subtlety.

  “Miss Russell, I hope you know that it wasn’t our idea for the newspaper reporters to go after you the way they did,” Elaine said, leaning forward a little bit. “I for one found it repugnant, and I was proud of you for handling it so well.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Denning,” London said. “I appreciate that a lot.”

  “And now we need to get down to business,” Mayor Morgan said. “We’ve asked each contestant the same questions to start with, and then we’ve asked a few additional questions that are more personal. It’ll take about ten minutes, if that’s all right.”

  London smiled. “Of course. Whatever you need.”

  The mayor asked the first few rather mundane questions—where London went to college, what sports she enjoyed, if she had any hobbies. Then it was time for things to get a little tougher, and the spotlight shifted to Elaine.

  “What can you tell us about your religious and political beliefs, Miss Russell?” she asked.

  “I’ll tell you anything you’d like to know, but I must say, that’s a rather odd question for this stage of the competition,” London replied. “My beliefs in these two areas can’t, by law, be used either to help me win or to make me lose, so it seems counterproductive to bring them up when we have so little time to spend together today.”

  Kade grinned. That was the best answer he’d heard yet, and he’d heard a lot of answers.

  Elaine nodded. “Thank you for your forthrightness, Miss Russell. Next question—”

  “No more about religion or politics?” London asked, a smile on her face.

  “I think we learned all we needed to,” Elaine replied, a note of humor in her voice. “I would like to know, though, about one social issue that is close to your heart.”

  “There are so many that it’s been difficult to narrow it down for my platform,” London said. “I’m very concerned about child trafficking, and have done some print ads and radio commercials pro bono for an organization that actually infiltrates the groups and brings them down. It’s called Operation Underground Railroad, or OUR, if you want to Google it. I’ve also been looking into childhood literacy rates and how they correlate to crime rates. Did you know that the better a child can read, the less likely they are to commit crimes later in life?”

  “I didn’t know that,” Elaine said. “That’s fascinating.”

  Kade couldn’t help but watch London’s eyes as she spoke. It was obvious that she was passionate about her topic, and her eyes were filled with fire. It just made her more beautiful. But he wasn’t going to think about that.

  “If you did have to narrow it to just one, and you do, actually, which one would you choose?” Elaine pressed on.

  London shook her head. “Difficult. Very difficult. But the one I’ve chosen as my focus for this week and for my reign, if there is a reign, is the power of believing in oneself.”

  Kade frowned. “I’m sorry, Miss Russell, but that doesn’t seem to fit with the other things you were talking about. Is there a connection, or did we just totally change subjects? Not that it’s wrong to change subjects—I was just wondering.”

  “Oh, they’re very connected, Mr. Smith. Think about it for a minute. When you believe in yourself and in your ability to influence the world around you, everything becomes possible. You can become educated. You can make a difference to those in need. You can start companies or defeat that bully or overcome that phobia. We each carry a seed of greatness within us—we just need to nourish it.”

  Why did she have to be so compelling just when he’d made up his mind to stay away from her? She was making this very difficult for him. “And how do you go about nourishing it?” he asked as a follow-up question, even though it wasn’t his turn yet.

  “You trust your instincts. You do the things you love to do. You spend time alone, getting to know who you are when you’re not surrounded by other people. And a lot of the time, you leap off cliffs and see where you land. Metaphorically, of course,” she added, and the three judges laughed.

  “I think our time is up, but we’ve enjoyed this little chat quite a lot, darlin’,” Mayor Morgan said. He stood up and reached out to shake London’s hand, and then she moved on to Elaine and then ended with Kade. As he clasped her hand in his, something jolted through him, like he’d stuck his finger in a light socket, but it was deeper. Warmer. He had no idea if she felt it too—and if she did, if she’d recognize it for what it was, or chalk it up to static electricity.

  ***

  Lunch was being set up in the dining room, and London couldn’t get out of that interview fast enough. Not only was she hungry, but she had to get out from beneath Kade’s gaze. She’d felt his eyes on her the whole time she was speaking, and she didn’t know if she’d made any sense at all. He just had that effect on her. She walked over to where the other girls were congregating in the hallway and leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath.

  “Well now, look what I just got,” Lacey said, walking toward her, holding up a newspaper. “Funny how you keep denying it when it’s right here for everyone to see.”

  “What is, Lacey?” London asked, too tired to play this game.

  Lacey handed over the newspaper, and London gasped. There on the front page was a picture of her with Kade at the swimming pool the night before. It had been taken right after she pulled the towel off her head and was running her fingers through it to dry it—it looked for all the world like she was flirting with him, trying to make herself look alluring or something.

  “How did they even get this picture? We were alone at the pool.” She couldn’t remember—had she seen a flash go off or heard anything? She didn’t think so, but she might have had water in her ears.

  “You were alone?” Lacey smirked. “I knew you weren’t telling me everything about this nonexistent relationship. I think I’ll enjoy watching the press
have their fun—there’s so little else going on to entertain me right now.” She snatched the newspaper out of London’s hand and walked to the other end of the hallway to show it to some of her friends down there.

  London needed her own copy. She walked as quickly as she could in her strappy sandals down to the check-in counter. “Excuse me. Do you have newspapers for sale?”

  “We do, and I think I might know just the one you want.” The concierge pulled out a copy of the same paper Lacey had been reading. He gave London a smile as he said, “Would you like me to charge it to your room?”

  “Yes, please.” She took the paper, her face burning, and walked over to a sofa in the corner of the lobby to read it. Yep, sure enough, they were making a big deal of the fact that she and Kade both happened to be at the pool at the same time. Well, in truth, he followed her in there, but that was totally different from going there together, which is what the newspaper was implying. She really didn’t need this right now.

  A small commotion from down the hall had her turning her head to see that the dining room doors had been opened. Thank goodness—she badly needed to eat. The first talent competition was that afternoon, and she had to bring her A game.

  When she walked into the dining room, she spied a table near the back, and she headed toward it. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself—she wanted exactly the opposite. But that’s not what she got. As soon as the other girls saw her, they crowded around her table, and she was bombarded with questions. She noticed Lacey standing in the back of the group, a little smile on her face. Good grief.

  Finally, she held up both hands. “Kade Smith and I are not an item,” she said. “We went to high school together, we ran into each other here, and we’ve chatted a few times. That’s all.” How many times would she have to give this little speech? She felt like that was all she’d said since she walked through the doors of this place.

  “Looks like our secret is out, London.”

  She whirled around at the sound of Kade’s voice. “And what secret might that be, Mr. Smith?”

  He turned to the group of girls. “We might as well admit it. London and I are secretly married, and we just learned that she’s expecting triplets.”

  The other contestants looked at each other in disbelief.

  “No, no, it’s true. I know it is because I read it in the newspaper, and you must believe absolutely everything you read in the newspaper.” He fixed them each with a stare, one at a time. “Isn’t that right?”

  They slowly walked away from London’s table and sat back down at their own. London couldn’t help but smile. They looked so dejected, so put in their places.

  “Well, Mrs. Smith, may I join you?” Kade asked, motioning to the chair next to hers.

  She wanted to say no, but really, what reason did she have? She’d wanted to avoid rumors, but that hadn’t worked at all. Anything else she tried would be pointless. “You might as well,” she said with a sigh.

  He rested his hand on the back of the chair. “You don’t sound very excited about it. If you’d like me to leave—”

  “No! Please sit down,” she said. “I don’t mean to be so testy. I’m just trying to move forward, and I keep getting dragged backwards to rehash the same things over and over again. I feel like I need to wear a sign around my neck explaining how you and I know each other, and that we’re not dating.”

  He chuckled. “That bad?”

  “The worst.”

  The wait staff came in just then, carrying trays with plates, and London smoothed her napkin on her lap. She was having lunch with Kade Smith. This wasn’t awkward. At all. And it certainly wasn’t awkward to remember that little zing of electricity that had passed through her earlier when she shook his hand. It meant nothing, absolutely nothing. Except that it reminded her of what Chelsea had said, about touching his hand and feeling nothing. And it sounded like Sleepless in Seattle. And of course, thinking about Chelsea reminded her about what Chelsea had said … Why had Kade been talking about her while he was on a date with another girl? Definitely not awkward.

  A moment later, Elaine Denning came in and joined them, and that made things much better. London asked her questions about the cosmetics company and about skin care in general, and they had a pleasant chat all during lunch. Plus, London was able to scoot her chicken away from her potatoes before any real damage—like touching—was done.

  “Well, I’d better get ready for the talent show,” London said at last. “I’ll see you in a little while.”

  Kade stood as she left the table. “Good luck,” he called out. “Or should that be, break a leg?”

  She turned and smiled. “Either’s fine.”

  The trick now was keeping her nerves under control until it was all over. And not getting distracted by Kade and all his mysterious weirdness and the fact that she’d just noticed that he had incredible eyes.

  Chapter Seven

  “I do hope each of you came prepared with two selections for your talent competitions,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said. “You will be performing once this afternoon and once again on Friday night, and it’s important that those two performances be different. The judges want to see a variety of what you can do, not the same thing over again.”

  She glanced around as though to make sure everyone understood her. “Now, we’ve done things in alphabetical order thus far, but we feel that it’s not fair to those first in the alphabet to be in charge of breaking the ice every time. For this afternoon, we’ll be going in reverse alphabetical order.”

  London tried to smile. That put her going third.

  Amanda Williams stood up and took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing,” she said as she left the room, and the other contestants gave half-hearted cheers. London shook her head—deep down inside, they were all probably hoping she’d sprain her ankle or something. She hadn’t noticed any outright sabotage, though, which was nice. And different.

  She stepped out into the hall and paced up and down it a few times. She’d warmed up her voice after changing into her gown, and she was as ready as she was going to be. She just prayed it was enough to make it into the next round with a respectable score. Why weren’t the judges telling the girls how they were doing after each event? The interviews that morning had been scored, and she’d love to know her standing.

  Or maybe it was better this way. Maybe she’d be more nervous now if she saw how she was stacking up.

  “London Russell, you’re up,” one of the staff members said, sticking his head out of the auditorium door.

  It was time to show everyone that she did believe in herself, just as she’d told them in her interview. She lifted her chin and strode through the door, the taffeta skirts of her red dress swishing as she came up the aisle. It was so much more fun to make an entrance than just to step out from the wings. She was glad it had been set up this way.

  She climbed the steps to the stage, found her mark in the center, and folded her hands in front of her. She tried not to look down at the judges, but that was really hard, as they were practically at her feet. “I will be singing ‘Vissi d’arte’ from Tosca by Puccini.”

  Mayor Morgan raised an eyebrow. She didn’t know if he was impressed or if he thought she’d bitten off more than she could chew. Sometimes she wondered that too.

  She closed her eyes to center herself as the pre-recorded music she’d provided came over the sound system. She kept them closed throughout the introduction, opening them only when it was time to sing.

  Her first couple of notes were softer than she would have liked, but she gained in power and control as she went, and as always happened when she sang, she felt herself being transported away to a different time and a different place. For those few moments, she was Floria Tosca, importuning the heavens for understanding, wondering why she had been so abandoned in her time of need. She almost felt as though her heart would break before she finished.

  When the music came to an end, she allowed herself to look at the judges, and
she was glad she did because she caught Elaine wiping her eyes. Tears were the highest compliment anyone could give her.

  “I just have to ask, Miss Russell. Why aren’t you majoring in music?” Elaine asked. “Where are you training?”

  “My mother was classically trained, and she’s been my instructor my whole life. My sister also sings, but her style is more Joni Mitchell.” London paused, her face heating up. “Um, can you forget I mentioned that? She’d kill me if she knew I told anyone that she sings.”

  Elaine smiled. “If I ever do meet your sister, I’ll be the soul of discretion. But again, why are you not majoring in music?”

  London looked down at her hands. “To be honest, I’ve asked myself that same question a million times. I think it’s a matter of going where my gut is leading me, and it took me a little while to discover what that was, but now that I’ve decided on the law, it feels exactly right. I’ll always have music, and fashion, and exploring these different facets of myself will take me on an interesting journey.” That was a little deeper than she’d meant to go—time for some levity. She held out the sides of her skirt. “Speaking of fashion, how do you like the dress?”

  “Is that one of your designs, darlin’?” the mayor asked, leaning forward as if to get a better look.

  “It is.” She gave a little curtsy.

  “Well, it’s just stunning,” Elaine said. “I’ve been admiring it since you got up there.”

  London glanced at Kade. He hadn’t said anything, not one word. What was he thinking? He was a judge—he was supposed to share his opinions. Then she smiled to herself. Was she actually eager to hear what he thought about anything? That was a first.

  “Thank you for sharing your talent with us, Miss Russell. We’ll see you tomorrow at the first elimination. Get lots of rest.” With that, Elaine dismissed her, and London stepped off the stage. She all but ran up the aisle, so relieved that was over with, and so ready to get out of her dress. She’d designed it to be as comfortable as possible, but the corseting through the torso was still a lot to put up with.