The Bachelor and the Beauty Queen (18 page)

“Kimber! You didn't have to do that,” Philip said behind her.

“Boy—” Nate shot a glare over his shoulder “—shut up.”

“Lexi took the rap for me,” Kimber continued, “and never said anything, but she did talk to me about it. She's talked to me about so many other things, even about being truthful to you guys about Philip.”

The room grew quiet for a second too long, Lexi staring at the ground, her arms folded across her chest awkwardly. She felt Stephen's eyes on her, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of eye contact.

“How is she trying to get your property if I'm helping her expand the apartment above her shop?” Nate chimed in.

Another silence fell across the room. Embarrassed to the hilt, Lexi wanted to bury her head in the sand. A haughty laugh filled the open door.

“This is classic.” Rose snickered. She turned her head to exaggerate her laugh with the other two pageant mothers. The door had been left open and they were in the hallway. “I tell you, ladies, drama follows her wherever she goes.”

Lexi had to stop wondering if this day could get any worse. The buzzer in her back pocket went off. The show had to go on.

Chapter 15

A
hangover would have been something survivable. Stephen didn't think he could handle much of anything else today. Humiliation, loss, shame, jealousy. He'd been an ass. His family hated him. Hell, he hated himself. His fist still ached from where he had punched Kimber's new boyfriend but it was nowhere near as painful as his jaw, where Nate had punched him. He deserved it. No amount of physical pain hurt as bad as his heart did at the idea of losing Lexi.

Ever the professional, Lexi held her composure during the talent portion for the toddlers. She kept her dark eyes focused on the stage. Before anyone else occupied the prime location, Stephen sat in the front of the ballroom and angled himself off to the side to get a view of the contestants backstage. He watched with guilt as she smiled brightly after Philly finished her rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” in her patriotic red, white and blue skirt and top. Lexi had been correct to add a tap-dance routine with patent leather shoes and white lacy socks. It differed from all the cloggers in cowboy boots he'd seen already.

Lexi
. His heart ached at the thought of her name. She knew everything—she really did. She knew Kimber better than he; she had gained Kimber's and Philly's trust before he did. She knew what to say and what not to say and why. Stephen had to admit, he may have gone even more ballistic if he had learned Kimber stole. Lexi could have pressed charges against her, but that wasn't her style. At any point, she could have told Kimber's secret. But she didn't. Because she was Lexi, and she knew what was right.

During Kimber's beauty walk, Lexi's smile filled with pride, wide and toothy, and she laid her hand over her heart as if she was legitimately touched. Stephen tried shifting in his seat in hopes of catching her attention but while her smile for Kimber never faltered, she always managed to never look quite at him.

Despite the family ignoring him, the pageant continued. The snarky view he'd taken on changed. He was the crazy one. Guilt crippled his insides each time Lexi glanced over him and into the crowd. Stephen focused on the dress Kimber wore and remembered being with Lexi when she picked up the fabric. Everything she touched seemed to blossom, the dress, his family. Him. Given Lexi's magical touch, it began to made sense why the Laings held on to their bitterness. They understood the loss of having Lexi out of their lives.

The idea of Lexi exiting his life scared him. He needed her. He needed her in his life. Nausea swept through him. He slid his hand down the length of his sweating face and shifted in his seat. He sat and listened to the emcee announce Kimber's age group without a sour thought on the length of the competition.

“You look as miserable as I feel.”

Stephen's eyes turned upward to the hooded stranger standing over him. “Waverly?”

Dressed in a red sweatshirt with the hood up and a pair of oversize glasses on her face, Waverly nodded nervously and took a seat next to him. “Hi!” she said quickly.

“Aren't you banned from here?” His eyes narrowed on the girl.

Waverly slipped her glasses down the slope of her nose. “Aren't you?” she asked sarcastically.

“Bad news travels fast, huh?” He slouched back down in his seat. The room had thinned out for everyone to get ready for the next part. The judges were deliberating over their scorecards.

“More like fast texts and blogs.”

“What?”

The lights on Waverly's phone came to life when her finger swiped across the screen. “Natalia Ruiz, Stephen? Seriously?” said Waverly, holding the photograph of him exiting the booth with Natalia the other evening. “I hope you know you lost all your points on the scorecard and you're a douche for the way you treated Lexi. She's a good person.”

Stephen nodded and accepted the teenager berating him. In this world of technology, of course someone had shown her. The question was when. He only found out about it today, but his meeting with Natalia was the night before. If she'd seen it yesterday, it easily explained her attitude toward him at dinner. The teenager took a break from giving him an earful. Waverly sat back into her seat and sighed.

“So you came this way to tell me about myself?”

“Actually, I came looking for Lexi, but I got here right after the beauty segment ended. I can't run into anyone.” She nodded her head toward the judges' table, where Rose Laing had strolled over with a tray of cookies.

The two of them snorted in disgust at the desperate woman. “I hate her. She will do anything to win.”

“So it seems.” Stephen sighed.

“I blame her for my accident.” Waverly folded her arms across the front of her sweatshirt.

“The motorcycle accident?”

“Yeah.”

Stephen sat up in his seat. “Did she run you off the road?”

Waverly shook her head. Her hood came off but she quickly put it back on. “Not the actual accident but the pictures after.” People began wandering around the room. Waverly stretched her legs against the chair in front of her. “Ohmigod, I forgot how boring this part is when I'm not working a pageant. They seriously need to learn how to entertain while we wait.”

“Let me ask you something.” Stephen cleared his throat and turned toward Waverly. “This scorecard I keep hearing about. Do you and your friends keep one on your boyfriends?”

Waverly gave him a side-eye glance. “Why?”

“Lexi mentioned one before. I was curious what my score would be.”

“I wasn't kidding when I said you're at a total zero right now.” She blew a bubble from a piece of gum he didn't realize she had.

“What do I need to do to bump my score up in her eyes?”

He listened intently to Waverly's ideas about making things right. The beauty queen came up with a bevy of ideas, the majority of which he shot down. They'd been so engrossed in their conversation he hadn't noticed the room filling back up or when Nate reentered the room. No one from his family or from Grits and Glam Gowns acknowledged Stephen.

“Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for the final event of this evening?” The emcee's voice brought a round of applause from the packed room.

“She sounds tired,” Waverly commented as she leaned over. “I don't think I've been to a bigger pageant. At this point, we'll never get through it until tomorrow evening.”

Stephen was eager to watch Kimber in the next event. Like their mother, the girls' talents lay in their singing. He also feared, after tomorrow, Lexi might walk out of his life for good. Could he imagine living in the same town as Lexi and not being able to be with her?

The music began and one by one the teenage girls worked their talents. Stephen closed his eyes during most of the routines. Anyone who dared to clap should have been shot. A few girls showcased clogging, baton twirling, juggling and even some gymnastics. The buildup of excitement for Kimber mounted. She had this in the bag. The red curtains moved and he caught a glimpse of Kimber in a simple solid white dress and a white gardenia tucked behind her ear—a scene right out of
Lady Sings the Blues
, another movie they'd stayed on the phone and watched.

“Kudos for Lexi's choice in costume,” Waverly whispered behind her hand. “The judges will enjoy the break from the stripper outfits some of the other girls wore.”

With hope, Stephen craned his neck to try and find Lexi in her usual spot off to the side. She wasn't there. His eyes averted to the spot behind the judges' table. No way would she stand behind them to coach Kimber from the front. Kimber didn't need help.

Waverly stated the obvious “Lexi's not here. Where'd she go?”

“I'd like to know.”

“This isn't like her. She's always backstage. Something's wrong.” A vise-like grip clamped down on Stephen's hand.

Stephen shot to his feet before she finished her statement. Yanking her hand, he dragged her down to where Nate was. Kimber was on stage, singing a Billie Holiday medley with a set of powerful lungs.

“What's going on?” Nate hissed in a whisper and with a frown. “Waverly?”

“I need you to keep a close eye on her,” said Stephen.

He ducked out of view from the onlookers and made his way to the lobby. Nate, not following his orders, was hot on his heels. Any sign of tension between the brothers dissipated. Once the ballroom doors closed behind them, Stephen filled Nate in on what happened to Waverly.

“And you're afraid something's happened to Lexi?” Nate asked stroking his chin.

“You're the one who said she is always off to the side.” Stephen stretched his neck all around toward the other entrance to the backstage of the ballroom. He found a few late stragglers making their way down the hallway. He took off with fast strides, not wanting to alarm anyone with a full run. Nate was behind him, spouting off the
excuse me
,
pardon me
,
sorry
to all the people they shoved out the way.

“Stephen—” Nate nodded his head in the direction of a stout woman wearing a headset on top of her bouffant hairstyle “—the coordinator. Excuse me, ma'am?”

The woman licked her chops at the sight of Nate. “Well, hello, Mr. Nate. I hoped to get a chance to meet you this evening. Two nieces in the competition—are you excited? They're certainly the crowd favorites.” She scrunched up the tip of her nose as she batted these come-hither glances at him.

“Thanks, we wish them the best of—”

Stephen did not have time for pleasantries; he stepped forward, glanced at her name tag and asked gruffly, “Peggy, have you seen Lexi Pendergrass?”

Taken aback by his rough tone, the woman cocked her head to the side at him, and then saw the resemblance. “Oh, you're brothers?” She purred and slipped her cat's-eye glasses down the slope of her long nose. “I hope you guys are going to enter the Mr. Southern Style Glitz Pageant in the morning.”

“Have you seen her?”

“Yes,” Peggy went on, oblivious to their impatient sighs, “and may I say what a joy to have her in the circuit again. Such a shame the way she got caught up in drama with the Laings.
I
for one rooted for Lexi and Ernest. She was the best thing to ever happen to Vera.”

“What?” Nate asked, doing a double take.

“Everyone knows how desperate Rose was to get her husband back. He'd seen how good he was with Lexi and Vera. Oh, look at me, gossiping. I don't care what the cameras caught. I don't care how many diamonds he's donated to the circuit.”

Stephen's height allowed him to glimpse above everyone's head. Kimber was exiting the stage to a standing ovation and he didn't want to upset her with his presence. He tapped Nate's shoulder. “I don't think I should be here when she walks off the stage.” He turned his attention to the gossiping woman, “Ma'am, do you know where Lexi went?”

“Oh, yeah, sure, she went looking for your other niece.”

“What?” Nate and Stephen chorused.

“Yes, she walked off the stage on the wrong side.”

And Stephen didn't notice this? Damn it!

Peggy barely finished before Stephen took off toward the back of the stage behind the curtains. Maybe he could meet her halfway. Philly got off the stage a while ago. Why hadn't anyone noticed? Stephen took a few deep breaths and tried to remain calm. He tried to remember to take long, slow breaths again when he made it to the other side of the curtain and still saw no sign of Philly or Lexi. He craned his neck and made eye contact with Nate, who threw his hands in the air, indicating he hadn't found them.

Before he ran upstairs to check the rooms, Stephen figured he needed to check outside to be safe. The door slammed shut behind him. Access to the streets was blocked on either side with a satellite truck and a catering van. Stephen tested the closed door but the slam already told him he was locked out of the back entrance. He began squeezing by the satellite van and walking down the alley and back through to the front of the building.

The smudged brass bar of the revolving door's entrance warmed his hand. “Do you have ID, sir?” The gray-and-maroon-uniformed guard stepped in Stephen's way.

“ID?”

“It's okay, Barry.” Lexi appeared at the guard's side, her manicured hands on Barry's forearm. “He's with me.”

From the way Barry gave Stephen a once-over, Stephen could only imagine what he was thinking. “Thanks,” Stephen mumbled, passing by Barry. With no idea of how Lexi would treat him, he stiffened when she neared.

Lexi placed her hands on her hips. “Now is not the time to be mad at me.”

“I'm not mad.” Stephen reached for Lexi's arm. Her warm skin electrified him. “We need to talk after we find Philly. What happened?”

Folding her arms across her chest, Lexi's eyes watered and she looked around the lobby. “One minute she was doing just fine on stage, the next she exited the complete opposite. I ran back behind the curtains, figuring Nate caught the mistake and met her in my spot.”

“No—” Stephen shook his head “—he didn't. He's backstage looking for her.”

“I've posted guards at the exits.”

A part of him was amazed she thought so quickly and the other part of him wasn't. The lobby swarmed with contestants and their families, and with all the chaos, Lexi had been able to pull guards from their duties.

“Follow me.” He laced his fingers with Lexi's. They fit perfectly, as they should.

“Stephen.” Lexi pulled her hand away a bit, but he tugged her back gently.

“We're going to find Philly.” He took a chance and tipped her chin with his free hand. “Together.”

A line began to form into the hallway leading to the outside pool. Stephen elbowed his way through the parents with Lexi in tow. There, outside, sprawled out on a white beach chair sat Philly, still in her tap-dance outfit, licking away on a candy apple. So much relief flooded Stephen's senses, he almost cried. Lexi did. Blood began to pulsate in his fingertips and his temples throbbed.