Tempting The Beauty Queen. Carolyn Hector

be seated at the family table.”

      “With any luck you won’t be seated with Auntie Bren then,” said a deep voice from behind Lexi. “I’m sure she put a hex on me.”

      One could hope, Kenzie thought before she realized who the deep voice belonged to at her door. The half laugh she almost shared with Lexi died and in its place came a scowl. By cruel fate, Kenzie’s high school boyfriend, Alexander Ward, had been appointed city manager by his best friend, Mayor Anson Wilson. Kenzie was positive Anson had placed Alexander on the same City Hall floor just to annoy her since he held her responsible for not being able to get close to her friend Waverly. Last year Waverly Leverve came to town as a dethroned beauty queen being taunted by mocking memes of her crying when she’d had to give up the crown. Anson thought he could win her heart but Waverly was destined to be with someone better. “What do you want, Alexander?”

      “Aw, babe, is that any way to talk to the higher-ups?”

      Kenzie sneered and cut her eyes over at Lexi who made room for Alexander to stand in the doorway with her. “When the higher-up refers to me as babe, he reverts back to an ex-boyfriend.”

      Foolish as it sounded, Kenzie had accepted Alexander’s marriage proposal at their high school graduation, caught off guard in front of hundreds of witnesses. She’d figured since they were both attending Florida A&M in the fall there’d be no problem. But the problem came when Alexander made several friends of the female kind over the summer semester. Kenzie didn’t find out about his extracurricular activities until the first week she arrived on campus and was greeted by several other women who claimed Alexander as their boyfriend.

      She’d returned to Southwood for a semester and endured a pity party from family and friends every turn she took. Not being able to take it, she’d left town for Georgia State and come back with her PhD in history. So far all she had done was archive the town’s information to bring it into the digital world but Kenzie had been destined to be the first historian of her hometown. Southwood was in her blood and her family made history. The Swaynes, her daddy’s side, and the Hairstons, on her mama’s side, helped found the town a hundred and fifty years ago. So to come back to town after everything she’d been through, in Kenzie’s mind, she’d had the bounce-back of the decade. In her family’s eyes, she was twenty-eight and unmarried with no children.

      Alexander doubled over with laughter. “She’s still in love with me,” he explained, giving Lexi a slight elbow to her ribs. Nobody loved Alexander more than Alexander. Everyone had had their role in school. Alexander had been president of their senior class, captain of the basketball team and shared the accolade of most likely to succeed with his best friend, the current mayor. Regardless of the morning’s temperature starting off in the high eighties, Alexander wore a dark suit, including the jacket. The air conditioning these days was spotty, having to work overtime to fight the summer heat.

      “Anyway, how are you doing, Mrs. Reyes? Ready to expand your studio?” Alexander went on to ask Lexi. “There’s space right by your building.”

      “The building next door to Grits and Glam Studios, is next door to the old barber shop, and it’s historic,” Kenzie retorted and heard the contempt in her voice as she spoke. A hardware store had already disappeared when Lexi expanded her Grits and Glam Gowns to accommodate her successful pageant training studio.

      “It’s old, not historic,” Alexander corrected. “The block of land belongs to the city, not the Swaynes, Kenzie. We’re allowed to sell it to developers if we wish.”

      Kenzie cursed under her breath and shuffled through the stack of folders on her desk—her contribution to Southwood—and found the file she needed. “Here’s the decree, marking the barbershop as a historic site. Martin Luther King Jr. had his hair cut here and spoke in front of the buildings in the sixties.” The proof shut the city manager up and an awkward silence fell in the room. Both ladies waited for Alexander to leave. He lingered.

      “Well, I’m good for now, Alexander,” Lexi replied dismissively. “Thank you for the option.”

      Alexander ignored the dismissal. “What brings you to City Hall?”

      When Lexi raised a questioning brow at Kenzie, Kenzie refrained from rolling her eyes.

      “She’s here to see me,” Kenzie answered. “Is that okay with you?”

      “You’re allowed to have visitors,” said Alexander. “It’s kind of cramped in here. Would the two of you like to go into my office and talk? I have a beautiful view of the town square. It’s beautiful this time of year.”

      “Yes, it is,” Lexi answered, “but I just needed to drop off Waverly’s dresses for all four events this month.”

      “Ah yes, starting with your cousin’s wedding. I thought I saw Corie around town, or more importantly, her fiancé, Hawk Cameron.”

      Everyone who was anyone knew about Hawk Cameron, the star athlete for the Georgia Wolves basketball team. In the Hairston family, Hawk was more known as the man who’d knocked up the golden child of the HFG, the Hairston Financial Group. When Corie admitted her pregnancy, she’d been the topic of brief gossip. All seemed to be forgiven since Hawk stepped up as a father. No, Kenzie thought with a frown, since Hawk the athlete stepped up to the plate. Meanwhile, Kenzie was considered a pariah in her family’s eyes.

      “Was there anything you needed, Alexander?” Kenzie swallowed past the irritation growing in her throat.

      Alexander admitted he had nothing and then said goodbye, leaving Kenzie and Lexi alone. Finally.

      “Must be tough working with your ex?”

      Kenzie frowned. “Not as bad as working with him as a boss.”

      “No chance he’d...”

      Kenzie held her hand up to stop her old friend and mentor. “No, thanks. I’d rather run naked through Four Points Park at the height of mosquito season.”

      Mosquito season in the South was unlike anything else in the world. “I’ll take that as a definite no.”

      “Exactly. I shouldn’t be embarrassed or single-shamed just because I don’t have a date, or a boyfriend, or anything to pass off as a boyfriend,” said Kenzie.

      “Hey, last summer you and...”

      With a cut of her eyes Kenzie quieted Lexi once again. Days after the abrupt end to her summer fling with him, Kenzie had perfected the art of masking her hurt and frustration with spite and irritation. “Do not mention his name.”

      “Don’t be so stubborn,” Lexi joked. “I don’t understand how you can work with Alexander but you can’t with—” Lexi gave pause and consideration for saying the name “—him. You two bonded last summer.”

      Kenzie didn’t miss the way Lexi’s fingers bent into air quotes as she said bonded. “And then he humiliated me by standing me up for the party after the Miss Southwood Pageant. You know I hate to be embarrassed,” said Kenzie. “And sure, I was mortified when I found out about Alexander cheating back when we were college freshmen. I could at least deal with Alexander when we started college, and thanks to a lot of therapy, I accept he’s the one who should be ashamed, not me. Working with him, well, he annoys me but that’s it. We have no...”

      “Feelings for each other?” Lexi supplied.

      An uncontrollable upper lip curl tugged at Kenzie’s face. “Feelings?” She scoffed and waved off the notion. “Not a chance. I want nothing to do with him.”

      “That’s why you had his truck towed?” Lexi mused and played along with Kenzie by not saying the name.

      Feigning innocence, Kenzie batted her lashes. “Anyone who parks one inch too close to a fire hydrant needs to be reported, Lexi,” explained Kenzie. “I was looking out for the good citizens of Southwood.”

      “Yeah, right,”