A Tiara Under the Tree

“I didn’t do anything,” Dominic defended himself.

“Dominic,” Kenzie said with a giggle, “I apologize for putting you on the spot. Most of us have seen your Crowne’s Garage logo on the back of our Little League team shirts, but not a lot of us have met you. Would you mind standing?”

Dominic rose as asked. Waverly couldn’t help but keep her eye line at his tight butt in his chinos. She pressed her lips together and let her eyes trail down to the definition of his thigh muscles, where the fabric pressed against his legs. She bet he looked good in a pair of boxer briefs.

“I understand Mr. Myers is trusting you with his car,” Kenzie went on. “I would like to ask everyone in this room that if your car or your grandparents’ old car needs fixing, to set up an appointment with Dominic to fix it, because I am going to ask everyone with an old-timey car to participate in pulling the floats. We can use the cars of the decades, too, right, Waverly?”

Eyes widened. Waverly shrugged. “Sounds great to me.”

“Well, great.” Kenzie beamed again. “And now the more I think about it, the more I realize the two of you could work together, gathering up some old outfits.”

“Wait, what?” Waverly asked.

“I can think of a dozen people around Southwood who have a wardrobe filled with vintage clothes from the sixties. I bet seeing you riding around in one of Mr. Crowne’s restored antique cars from that era will spark up their memories of what they used to wear back in the day. Maybe they’ll want to schlep through their attics for some cute outfits the kids can wear on the parade floats.”

Beside her, Dominic brushed his leg against hers. “Sounds like a great plan to me.”

Great, Waverly thought. She and Dominic in close quarters. How was she supposed to follow her morality clause?

Chapter 5

As Miss Southwood, Waverly’s schedule was hectic and busy to say the least. Her summer of reign dipped into the fall schedule. Waverly and Dominic made appearances in various surrounding counties. She kicked off fairs, cut the ribbon for several restaurant and business openings and judged events at surrounding county fairs, from pig races when there was a tie, to small beauty pageants. A lot of these brought some of the other Southern pageant queens to the stage. With everyone vying to enter the Miss Georgia competition, things became testy. Waverly witnessed a few elbows and slight hip bumps that had made another beauty queen stumble; a few had fallen off a shared stage. The pageant world was becoming a contact sport and social media captured every slip and fall, and added them to the epic-fail category.

Thank goodness Dominic stood by her side and always pulled Waverly out of any confrontation, keeping her morality clause intact. Each time her hero kept her out of harm’s way, it became harder for Waverly to concentrate on her goals. Every morning before working with Dominic, Waverly gave herself a little pep talk and reminded herself that she needed the crown, not a man. Dominic didn’t make the resistance any easier showing up in a pair of jeans and a plain white T-shirt or even a suit on some occasions. Waverly’s first thought after seeing him was to rip off his shirt and run her hands over every inch of his muscular body. Dominic’s body wasn’t just a turn-on. His mind and patience were, as well. He took the verbal jokes about being Mr. Southwood or Miss Southwood’s handmaiden in stride. The memes died down a bit as she spent more time in Southwood. However, after the last event at a small county fair, someone took the infamous picture of Waverly tearfully handing over her tiara and made it appear she was e

xchanging her crown for a shovel.

Waverly enjoyed the local Southwood events she attended where she didn’t have to share the spotlight with other beauty queens. Just before little kids went back to school, Waverly was able to emcee the annual bachelor auction, which every single—and not so single—woman loved to attend.

One of the better parts of being Miss Southwood and part of the Christmas Advisory Council was being able to spend extra time with Dominic. She enjoyed their camaraderie and she immensely enjoyed not having to talk about the pageant world all the time with him. He didn’t pressure her about her family history or her relationship with her mother and she gathered early on he did not enjoy talking about his father. Thanks to sticking to her new diet, there were no more misdelivered pizzas, either. Dominic proved his muscle worth by helping her work out at the Southwood Premier Gym. He had a personal workout area at his ranch but Waverly didn’t want to chance anything. It was hard enough watching his muscles flex or the gentle way his hands caressed her backside to help her with some of the workout machines.

People seemed to enjoy watching the two of them together. They were the beauty and the brawn. Together they traveled around town and made appearances at the Senior Citizen Center for donated vintage clothes for the Christmas parade for the participants to wear. During the week, Dominic worked in his garage. On the weekends she and Dominic—with Kenzie and Anson in tow—drove around and gathered donations from just about every decade possible from local sources.

Lexi offered to store the dresses in her boutique and alter them if needed. The list of Christmas parade participants grew each day. Waverly wondered if there’d be anyone standing on the sidelines to watch.

The biggest concern for Waverly right now was Lexi. Stephen Reyes had sent a group text to everyone; Lexi was in labor. Thankfully Waverly was with Dominic at the time in a 1970s Corvette, and he got Waverly to the hospital just in time to learn Lexi needed an emergency C-section. While they waited, Waverly couldn’t help but wonder about her future. According to her life plan of obtaining tiaras, Waverly would be almost in her thirties before it was time to settle down and have children. A part of her heart ached at the idea of waiting so long.

Kimber, Lexi’s niece, paced the floor. Stephen and his brother Nate had rearranged their lives to move to Southwood to take care of their nieces when their brother, Ken, and his wife passed away.

Waverly wrapped her arms around Kimber’s shoulders to comfort her. Philly, her eight-year-old sister and a pageant queen in her own right, ran over to Waverly and Kimber to make herself a part of the group hug.

“She’s going to be okay,” said Amelia, Nate’s wife. Amelia came into the picture last year; Waverly hadn’t been in Southwood at the time, but she’d heard the stories. Amelia returned to Southwood hell-bent on revenge on Nate; she purchased Nate at the annual bachelor auction for the highest price to date. Waverly wondered whatever happened to the revenge plot. Clearly it backfired on her. The former reality show producer and now part owner of The Scoop, Southwood’s premier ice-cream parlor, patted the girls on their backs. She knelt down to Philly’s level. “She and the baby are in good hands. I vetted the doctors personally when I proposed a reality show in town.”

“Yeah,” Nate chimed in. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Waverly gulped down a large lump in her throat. She prayed Stephen was right. She didn’t know what she’d do if something happened to Lexi.

“Hey—” Dominic spoke up “—why don’t I get everyone some coffee?”

Philly turned her head upward for approval from Amelia and Waverly. Nate answered for them, “No, you can’t.”

“How about some hot chocolate?” Dominic offered. “With marshmallows.”

“Can I have as many as I want?” Philly asked.

Lips quivering at Dominic’s gentleness, Waverly placed her hand over her heart. She’d been so busy all her life planning her pageants, she never stopped to think about a family. Waverly told herself she loved pageants. She did. But she wouldn’t be in this world if it weren’t for her mother. Yes, Jillian had sacrifices, but so had Waverly. She didn’t have a traditional upbringing and missed out on a lot of typical teenage things, like sleepovers with friends. At a young age, Waverly had decided if she ever had children she would never force the pageant world on them. This tender side of Dominic’s, however, made Waverly rethink her whole life, especially when he knelt to Philly’s level.

“You may have two,” Nate warned, putting two fingers in the air.