“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
Awkward—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 for
gotten 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.