The Bachelor and the Beauty Queen (16 page)

“So does Natalia Garcia Ruiz.”

Ears perking, Lexi glanced over her shoulder. “Who?”

Kimber's mouth twitched with a smile. “Not according to the tea being spread around Southwood.”

Lexi had been around enough of the young kids these days to understand “tea” was code for gossip. After years of being the center of a scandal, Lexi frowned at the unwanted attention. She shook her head from side to side. “People are going to talk.” Lexi shrugged.

“So you don't care if Uncle Stephen has been up here being caught on camera with one of the biggest reality stars around?”

The corners of Lexi's eyes twitched. “Of course not. What do I care if he meets up with what's her face?”

“Her name is Natalia Garcia Ruiz, and she's only the biggest internet sensation. Her family's only got the biggest perfume line, Azúcar. I can't believe you don't use her products.”

“Sorry.” Lexi shrugged her shoulders and went back to flipping through her clothes. Their conversations never revolved around exes. Her heart plummeted into her stomach.

“She's also the woman Uncle Stephen took out the other night to Owen's.”

A pang stabbed at the center of her heart. Lexi's mouth formed an O, and she tried to smile and shrug the hurt off. Owen's? “Your uncle meets lots of people in his business.”

“Not like I know a lot about the place, but it has these curtained booths and they were photographed exiting.” Kimber started pressing the buttons on her phone. “Here, let me pull it up.”

“You don't need to.” Lexi's voice squeaked. How foolish of her. He'd pulled the same routine with her.

“According to what I overheard from Uncle Nate talking, they dated.”

“Well, good for them.” She put out her chin.

“Yes, but you and Uncle Stephen belong together.” Kimber's eyebrows rose in amusement.

“Let's not talk about this.” Lexi quickly changed the subject. “How about we call Chantal and get her to bring something spectacular for you to wear to dinner tonight, and in the meantime, we'll get a little pampered?”

In a matter of a half second, Kimber scrambled off the bed and was right by Lexi's side. “You don't need to ask me twice!”

Lexi remembered those days where a mani-pedi healed all wounds. Her mother taught her a long time ago about the importance of therapeutic shopping. Days like today, Lexi wished she were in a better place with her parents. Trying not to think about the past, she draped her arm around Kimber's shoulder.

“Lexi, check out who arrived.” Kimber stopped walking once the elevators dropped them off at the lobby and nodded in the direction of the commotion going on at the front desk.

As expected, Rose Laing screeched at the front desk clerk. Somehow the pageant had lost their registration. Somehow it was always someone else's fault.
Poor Vera
, Lexi thought. She stood off to the side, completely humiliated by her mother's antics. Ernest Laing strolled around the lobby, casual as could be with his cell phone and dark sunglasses, while he stared at the behinds of the women on their way to the pool. Lexi shook her head. Nothing much had changed.

Unfortunately, the lobby lacked the different options to make a quiet exit. To the left of them sat the pageant registration team ready to take on-the-spot late registrations. To the right of them a group of two-to three-year-old girls from a pageant troupe worked on their cupcake walks, which meant their outstretched arms made it harder to walk by.

Taking a deep breath, Lexi grabbed Kimber's hand and dragged her forward. “Lexi, I'm not sure I can keep quiet if she starts talking to you all crazy again.”

“We'll take the high road,” Lexi said, “We'll see who's so smug when Waverly wins in Vera's category.”

Of course Rose noticed Lexi coming. She stepped in front of their path and gushed out a fake hello. “Well, I didn't think we would run into you here!”

With a tight smile, Lexi tried not to look directly into Rose's bright peach pantsuit. The flash of a smile from Vera disappeared quickly. “Why wouldn't we be here, Rose?”

“Oh, you didn't read the newsletter?” Rose reached into her giant matching purse and pulled out the weekly
Pageant Press
paper.

On the cover Waverly stood in front of a wrecked motorcycle. Bottles of beer lay everywhere. Waverly held a helmet and was covered in grime from head to toe. Lexi didn't need to read the article. Each pageant contestant was supposed to keep a clean nose and stay out of trouble.

“I figured, with your little beauty queen headed off to jail, you wouldn't even show up. Funny how you tarnish ever pageant you're near.”

Kimber lurched forward but Lexi held her back. “I'm not here for Waverly. I have another client.”

“Who?” Rose and Vera chorused.

With her hand on her hip, Kimber stepped forward. “Actually, she's been training me in the teen category.”

Chapter 14

A
wkward
—the understatement of the year.

Stephen drew a blank for words when Lexi entered the formal dining room on the rooftop of the Brutti Towers. Philly chatted aimlessly about everything she'd seen today. Chantal and Andrew drove up with the team to help out and helped fill the void of silence. Kimber and Lexi arrived at the same time. Kimber wore a new frock, pink, of course.

Stephen couldn't take his eyes off Lexi and her simple strapless black dress. Her hair, knotted in the back, directed his eyes to the silver-and-onyx necklace wrapped around her neck. Even though they sat right next to each other at the head of their table, she barely made eye contact with him.

Before everyone arrived for dinner, Nate had pulled Stephen aside to inform him he'd taken the liberty of explaining his absence, telling Lexi business called Stephen away to handle damage control. His dinner with Natalia had gone well. Natalia had needed a place to film a commercial in Atlanta and none of his assistants were good enough for her. She'd finally gotten the attention she wanted without having to use him or his family connections. Stephen was glad to call her a friend now. All the reality star wanted to do was go back home to Puerto Rico and hide from the world; she hated having all her secrets aired on national television. He hated to admit it, that traveling down Country Road Seventeen where the orange spray paint still stained the pavement, memorializing where his brother died, was another skeleton in his closet. He'd managed to avoid the road this long. For a moment, he had been paralyzed with what to do but Lexi took control of the situation, dragging him to her car and racing down the road. Whether or not she knew it at the time, she'd reached for his hand and given it a squeeze of assurance as they drove by the marked spot. Despite how things were left at the hospital, seeing this place again brought back the rush of feelings and desire for her. He wanted to hold her. Kiss her.

“Can we dance?” Stephen leaned over and whispered into Lexi's ears.

Lexi pretended to dab her white napkin over her lips. “Not on your life.”

He leaned an inch from her bare, gardenia-scented shoulder. “Lexi.”

“Stephen,” she countered quickly.

“Don't be like this.” He turned his head so only she could see his face. He might as well sit in her salad plate. “I want to talk to you.”

Finally she gave him a smile—one baring her teeth, but still a smile. “We're here for Philly, Stephen. We are going to focus on Philly.”

“Don't forget we're here for me, too, now.” Kimber, seated on the other side of Lexi, leaned over; obviously she'd been listening to their conversation.

Stephen sat up a bit so he could see his niece. “What are you talking about?”

“I entered the pageant today.”

“Yay!” Philly clapped her hands, “We can do the cupcake walk together!”

“Thanks, kiddo,” Kimber said, smiling, “but I'm entering the big-girl pageant.”

Something clicked in Stephen's mind and sparked anger. No one consulted with him on anything. “Over my dead body,” Stephen growled, recalling the teenagers flirting with the male judges earlier this summer in Savannah.

“She can do the pageant,” Nate, the Judas, stepped in. “We'll find a dress shop up here.”

“One is en route as we speak,” said Lexi. “Did you know, I had no idea you were interested in pageantry but the first time you came upstairs to the apartment above the store, I had a vision for a dress for you.”

Kimber beamed and Philly sat, cheering.

“I am well acquainted with the dresses you sell in Kimber's size,” Stephen sneered at Lexi.

“Excuse me?” Lexi jerked her head at him.

Anger blinded him. How had he forgotten so quickly? Stephen imagined his sixteen-year-old niece wiggling her hips on the stage in a dress from Grits and Glam Gowns. He didn't want her suffering from the problems Natalia said she'd received from people objectifying her at the young age of eighteen. Stephen did not appreciate Lexi and Nate making decisions for the girls without including him.

“I'm going to go get a drink at the bar.” Stephen glared at his brother and at Lexi. “When I come back, I want to pretend like this didn't happen.”

Crudely he pushed his wrought-iron chair away from the table. People looked, but he didn't care. He found a spot at the bar closest to the edge of the rooftop filled with other miserable men who didn't want to be at this event, either. He asked the bartender for a whiskey and sat and drank with his back to his family.

“Long weekend ahead?” asked the man seated next to him.

Stephen barely lifted his head from his tumbler and nodded. “Didn't we meet?”

The man slowly nodded, recognizing Stephen from his drunken fog. “Yeah, you're with Lexi Pendergrass. Ernest,” he said, extending his hand, “Ernest Laing.”

“Yeah,” Stephen said.

Ernest took in a deep breath of the cooling air and shook his head. “Man, you don't gotta tell me nothin'. I recognize that look in your eyes. Biggest mistake of my life was not picking her. Lexi is some hellcat in bed. Am I right or am I right?”

“What in the hell did you just say to me?”

Drunkenly, Ernest shook his head. “Don't get me wrong, my wife is smoking hot, but damn, what a bitch. Lexi, she sure did know how to heat up a man's bed.”

Stephen took several deep breaths of air. “Man, if you do not shut your mouth right now, you're going over the side of the building.” Stephen pushed away from the bar. He and Lexi needed to talk—
now
.

At the door, a security guard held his arms out, keeping someone who looked exactly like Marvin from entering the rooftop. Stephen did a double take.

“Mr. Reyes!” Marvin's voice cracked when called out to Stephen.

“What's going on?” Stephen asked the maître d.

“Mr. Reyes—” the maître d's face reddened “—I am sorry to interrupt your dinner, but these gentlemen say they're here with you and your family.”

Stephen nodded his head and the guard let Marvin in but held his hands up again. He recognized the little Marvin fellow, but he had no idea who the grown man-child was standing next to him. The boy was close to Stephen's height and had the nerve to sport a trimmed goatee like a grown man. His white shirt was a size too small to cover his overdeveloped chest and with his sleeves rolled up, Stephen figured the dark sky prohibited him seeing the boy's tattoos. “I don't know who this guy is.”

“Uncle Stephen!” Kimber skidded to a stop at his side. “This is what I wanted to talk to you about. I want you to meet my boyfriend.”

“I met your boyfriend, Kimber. Marvin. This is who has been coming to see you and pick you up to go study.” Stephen poked his finger against Marvin's bird chest. The push was hard, not enough to crack the boy's rib cage but enough to knock him into the man-child standing behind him.

Kimber wedged herself between the boys and her uncle. “No, Marvin's not my boyfriend. This is Philip.” Kimber reached for the giant. “Lexi said...”

“Lexi?” Stephen snarled and blinked in disbelief. He turned his angry glare at her. She'd come to stand by Kimber's side. “You knew about this.”

Wide-eyed and in shock, Lexi slowly nodded. “Yes, but...”

“Gonna throw this into the bucket of secrets you keep from me?”

“It's not what you think,” Lexi tried to say.

What else was he supposed to think? She'd hidden everything about herself. Stephen brought his nose to hers and gritted his teeth. “How many different ways are you planning on trying to ruin my family?”

“Uncle Stephen!” Kimber cried.

“Stephen!” Nate barked, snatching him by the arm and pulling him away. In the instant it took Stephen to glare at the spot on his arm where his brother touched him, Lexi had stormed off.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marvin and his friend back out of the door.

Kimber dramatically sobbed and took off out the door, crying, “Philip is my boyfriend. And I love him!”

* * *

When Stephen had made the phone call to arrange for the Southern Style Glitz Pageant to take place at this hotel back in the beginning of the summer, he had no idea it would triple the number of entries. Stephen had received a text from Gianni Brutti this morning, thanking him and cursing him—a running theme for him in the past twenty-four hours.

Stephen knew the funk he was in had spoiled everything today. Any other time, he would have cracked up at the outrageous dance routines mothers would do behind the judges' table while their daughters performed. Maybe the little two-foot-tall zombie girls would have made him laugh if he had someone next to him. It took Stephen a few minutes to decide if he wanted to come to the pageant show at all. He'd been too afraid to see what Kimber and Philly planned to wear. No amount of Torres rum could keep the horrific images out of his mind, but he tried. Now he paid the price.

Thank God it wasn't the talent part.
He didn't think he'd be able to sit through the noise. Maybe in an hour or two the medicine he took would kick in
.
Stephen sat in his seat, arms folded; everyone had lost their damn minds. A snarl on his upper lip only reminded him of his hangover. Why, for God's sake, was everyone so perky at eight in the morning?

To make matters worse, they were only in the beauty portion of the show. The pageant world needed to call this the world's longest and slowest walk. Stephen stifled a triggered yawn, not meaning to mock the boy resting his head on his mother's shoulder in the seat in front of him.

I'm with you, kid
, he thought to himself.

Stephen learned judges frowned on parents who had to coach their kids behind the judges' backs. Well, Philly had this contest on lock. Now he understood why Lexi made her practice over and over. Even on vacation, she made her practice. The one person who didn't practice was Kimber. She wouldn't even speak to him on the phone when he tried to wish her good luck this morning. As much as it pained him, coparenting did not work, not with Nate undermining him at every turn. Last night, he had not appreciated being outnumbered. Kimber had lied to them, and they rewarded her by letting her compete in a pageant she hadn't prepared for in order to satisfy Lexi's revenge against the Laings.

A woman in front of him turned around when he snorted. She curled her lip in disgust and turned back to the event on stage. Why should it matter if one more person hated him? Stephen spotted an empty seat closest to the front of the stage with better access to cheer on Philly. She was in the next age group, four-to six-year-olds. Nate buzzed around somewhere. Stephen cut his eyes to the left and right and found Kimber's fake boyfriend, Marvin, and her real boyfriend, Philip. His lip curled like the woman in front of him. This new boyfriend was exactly what he had feared—tall, a jock, tattoos and facial hair. Kimber tried explaining all about Philip—all the things he should have been told when they started to date. A round of applause shook him out of his funk. At least now Philly would be up. The emcee told everyone they would take a five-minute break and would resume with the next age group. There was no point for Stephen to get up. He stretched his legs a little farther, this time adding his arm. His back popped against the back of the chair. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of her.
Lexi
. The glittering pink-and-black T-shirt with Team Philly across the front caught his eye in the sea of waiting mothers and children. Her long, slender hands rested on Philly's shoulders. When Lexi turned to talk to the ladies near her, he easily read the back of her T-shirt: Team Kimber. He wondered how she found the time to make a shirt.

Three ailments afflicted him at once.
Anger
for her being so intrusive with his family;
anger
at her for still making his body stiffen like Pavlov's dog at the mere sight of her; and of course
anger
for her betrayal and secrets.

“Mami always told us if you frown like that your face might freeze,” teased Nate as he started coming down Stephen's aisle.

Why Nate needed to come here baffled him. “Go away,” Stephen groaned.

Still coming, Nate shook his head. “Last night you had this same sourpuss mug on your face, and see here, you still got the same.”

The emcee tapped on the metal microphone. Waverly had done a more entertaining job in Savannah. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll return to your seats, we'll get started on the four-to six-year-olds. If you have a child in the seven to twelve, please get them ready.”

Stephen pinched the bridge of his nose. Pressure relieved it a little. “Where have you been all morning?”

Nate shook his head. “Philly's flipper arrived. I had to make sure she got it.”

Stephen shook his head. “I am mad you know what a flipper is.”

Nate stretched out his legs and inhaled. “Keep in mind that it's the little things that get me all these numbers.” He waved to an Indian woman with a dolled-up baby on her lap.

“I've said it before, man—you're sick.” Stephen shook his head.

“Sick, but at least one of us has been with a woman in the last twenty-four hours. Can you say the same thing?” Nate teased.

“What number is Philly?”

“She's next, I think.”

Stephen tried to judge if Philly was next or not by the order of the mothers behind the judges. The last girl exited the stage and the mother walked behind the judges table to meet her on the other side of the stage. A wave of anger washed over Stephen when his eyes darted to the empty space behind the judges. Lexi had abandoned her? His thoughts were drowned out by the applause erupting from the room.

At the center of the stage stood his poised Philly, in a custom-designed peach-colored dress. Her little legs walked slowly in her white Mary Jane shoes. White ruffles fluffed the bottom of the dress. Strategically placed sparkles caught every aspect of the light. She glittered on the stage. Philly walked with her head held high and smile wide. Her front teeth now were perfectly white and even.