Rogue's Revenge - By Gail MacMillan Page 0,24

but you should still arrive in time for my opening remarks. Believe me, I need all the sympathetic faces I can get in the audience tonight. This is the biggest money raiser of the year. I have to be at my persuasive best.”

“Normally, I’d be glad to.” Paul turned to Myra. “But I came by cab. I just flew in from Vancouver and haven’t had time to get my BMW out of the garage.”

“We’ll take my car.” Allison struggled to keep an exasperated sigh out of her voice.

“Well, that solves one problem.” Paul took Allison’s arm possessively. “But I’m not sure about the wine. This is a new tux, and those cases can be dirty.”

“Here.” Cameron Armstrong reached into the closet near the door and pulled out one of his white lab coats. His tone reflected the exasperation his daughter had suppressed. “You can cover it with this.”

“Sure…sure…no problem.” Paul gingerly accepted the smock. “Let’s go, Al. It’s starting to rain and, like I said, this is a new tux.”

“Good Lord!” Allison breathed as she started her car two minutes later and swung it around the circular drive toward the street. “You’d have thought Mom asked you to bury her father, not just pick up a case of wine.”

“What are you talking about?” Paul looked over at her. “Your mother wouldn’t ask me to do a thing like that. What’s wrong with you, Al? God, you’re irritable. PMS or something? I thought you’d be glad to see me. It’s been nearly two weeks.”

“I’m sorry.” Allison braked before turning out onto the tree-lined avenue. She looked over at him and forced a smile. “I’ve got a lot on my mind. Let’s start over and concentrate on having fun tonight, okay?”

They had picked up the wine and were on their way to the country club through Myra’s suggested shortcut twenty minutes later when a ragged bolt of lightning rent the black night sky, freeing a downpour.

“Want me to drive?” Paul asked as the car slid in the mud of the dirt road.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

“Al, let’s stop for a few minutes. It’s private out here, and I haven’t seen you alone in a fortnight.”

“I’d rather not, Paul. Mom and Dad are waiting.”

“Ah, come on, Al. They know you’re in good hands. Pull over…here.”

He grabbed the wheel. Allison yanked back. The car skidded and lurched into a shallow ditch.

“Oh, great!” Allison stared out at the beams of her headlights shining into the trees, reversed, spun tires, and gave up. “We’ll never get out of here without a tow.”

“So use your cell. While we’re waiting to be rescued, we can do some serious making out.”

“I didn’t bring my phone.” She shrugged off his attempted embrace. “What about you?”

“In the pants I wore on the flight. Didn’t think I’d need it tonight.”

“Okay, fine. One of us will have to go for help. The club can’t be more than a quarter mile ahead.”

“One of us!” He sat bolt upright to stare at her. “Well, not me! This is a…”

“I know, I know,” she muttered. “A new tux.”

She cracked the trunk, pulled the keys from the ignition, and started to get out into the pouring rain.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He grabbed her arm.

“Going for help.” She shrugged away from him, then swung back to face him. “I have a poncho in the trunk. Lock the doors once I’m gone. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you…or your tux.”

****

She was trying to resuscitate Gino’s hairstyle in the ladies’ room at the country club an hour later when Candace Breckenridge joined her.

“I heard about your little adventure.” The older woman, in an elegant ankle-length white sheath, moved to the mirror beside her and patted her hair. “Apparently Paul wasn’t up to rescuing a lady in distress. Now if that sinfully sexy camp foreman of your grandfather’s had been with you, it would have been an entirely different story, wouldn’t it? He wasted no time rescuing me when I had that distressing little incident up at the Lodge on our last vacation. There’s a man who knows what to do…both during and after a crisis…especially after, if you know what I mean.” She dropped a false-eyelashed lid in a slow wink. “But then, I assume you discovered that fact while you were up there alone with him last week?” Her eyes narrowed, her lips pressed into a smile that was more like a smirk.

“That’s really none of your business.” Allison swung and left the room with as much

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