Southern Seduction ; Pleasure in His Arms

by Carolyn Hector

  “At the crab boil last weekend. You know how Mom likes to invite us and the whole neighborhood so we can listen to the cannons being fired over at Fort Jackson, but then gets mad when she can’t hear because she invited so many people.”

  “Yeah.” Caden remembered some of the few good times the family had out there.

  “Where were you?”

  “I told Ebony I was going to Canada to meet with a client,” Caden said, glancing over at Ebony.

  Ebony shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not my job to relay those messages to everyone. When you hired me to cook for you, I had to sign an NDA.”

  It was a good thing all around for Caden’s staff to sign nondisclosure agreements. The things that used to go on in this household didn’t need to get out. He sighed and leaned back against the counter and stroked his chin. Those days were behind him. “I have nothing to hide.”

  “Anymore,” Ebony added.

  “Speaking of hiding things,” EJ began with an ominous tone.

  Before giving EJ a chance to say anything, Ebony tightened her grip on his fingers. “Honey,” she said through gritted teeth, “I thought we weren’t going to bring that up.”

  Caden watched in amusement as the two of them stretched their eyes and smiled at each other in this nonverbal argument. He thought about the little disagreement he and Maggie had a few minutes ago. It was the first one where he knew she was truly upset; he just couldn’t understand what the big deal was.

  “While you two have this...whatever,” Caden interrupted them, “Ebony, let me ask you a question about cooking.”

  “Uh-oh,” EJ moaned. “You’re cooking now?”

  Nodding, Ebony whipped out her cell phone and began scrolling. It was something Maggie never did. Maggie gave him and everyone they met her undivided attention. “Go on,” Ebony said, not making eye contact. “I’m listening.”

  “Maggie just tore out of here upset because the bakery ran unto some trouble.”

  “Oh no.” Ebony briefly looked up. “The one at the market that got hit by lightning?”

  “That’s the one,” he confirmed.

  “Here, babe.” Ebony passed her phone to EJ. “Watch these.”

  Caden could only assume Ebony had caught the vlog where he and Maggie had cooked together a budget-friendly meal this summer. “Is it reasonable for her to get upset?”

  Not even needing a moment to think about it, Ebony bobbed her head up and down. “I’d be upset, especially if I’d been planning on it being part of the menu.”

  “It was one of the first things we secured,” said Caden.

  “Damn. I assure you it’s frustrating. Maggie has a lot on her plate,” Ebony tried to explain. “I know when I have a party planned out and my most reliable source for the freshest fish doesn’t come through, I’m pissed off for days.”

  “Months,” mumbled EJ.

  Ebony rolled her eyes and focused on Caden. “I’m not a baker, but I can help.”

  Caden shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t even know where to start. She just ran out of here practically in tears.”

  “Damn.” EJ sat back and wiped his hand over his beard for a moment.

  Proud, Caden puffed out his chest. “You’re looking at that chicken and spinach dish we made, aren’t you?”

  Thanks to Maggie, Caden would be able to cook on his own if Ebony ever decided not to make meals for him and Helen went on vacation. Haute Tips didn’t help just socialites. It helped bachelors as well.

  “No,” said EJ. “I’m looking at these comments.”

  “What?” Caden asked pushing away.

  Ebony shook her head. “No one reads comments, babe. You just watch the video.”

  “Yeah, but these comments, though...”

  Like Ebony, Caden didn’t read the comments. The way Maggie worked her Haute Tips, she recorded the video, watched it and then uploaded it for another date. He never saw Maggie interact with her viewers. Caden snatched the phone and scrolled through the screen with his thumb.

  Haute Tips on How To Marry a Millionaire.

  So much for being independent.

  Who I did over my summer break.

  The unflattering comments by anonymous users only became cruder. Caden set the phone facedown on the table. Maybe that’s what was bothering Maggie? But no. She never hopped on social media. Ebony picked up the phone and read the comments as well.

  “What the hell? Why bother commenting if all they want to do is be mean and nasty?”

  “Because people are emboldened behind the keyboards, babe,” answered EJ. “This has to be cyberbullying. Has she reported it?”

  “I doubt it,” said Caden, scratching the back of his head. “She doesn’t get on social media anymore.”

  Ebony snapped her fingers together. “You know, now that I think about it, she never did take a picture of one of my fabulous meals and post it.”

  “Are you offended?” EJ teased her.

  “No, I just thought it was, what’s the word?”

  “Old-school?” EJ provided.

  “Refreshing,” answered Caden. “Maggie lives in the moment.” Rage boiled beneath his skin. Caden balled his fists together. “She doesn’t need this right now. Her family doesn’t need that. Not with the Swayne farm in financial troubles.”

  “What?” Ebony nearly choked on her water. EJ patted her on the back.

  Not meaning to let the cat out of the bag, Caden winced. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “The best pecans come from Swayne’s farm,” Ebony declared. “I use them in the pecan-crusted bass you like,” she said, giving EJ a wink.

  Caden didn’t want to know more, especially after the way EJ’s hand slid down Ebony’s backside. He cleared his throat.

  “Sorry.” Ebony blushed and pushed EJ off her with a slight shove of her shoulder. “Caden, I promise you there is absolutely no way they’re under any financial troubles.”

  Interesting, Caden thought.

  “Poor Maggie,” EJ sighed. “She’s a sweet kid. You know Mom’s really taken a liking to her.”

  “Yeah, I know,” said Caden. “It was imperative she had Maggie be a part of the meeting earlier this summer when she planned on announcing her retirement.”

  EJ laughed and shook his head. “You think that’s why she wanted her here?”

  On the defense, Caden squared his shoulders. “Yeah, EJ. If you were a part of the pageant...”

  “Like you are now? I at least have made it known that I want nothing to do with it.”

  “That’s irrelevant. Maggie has single-handedly changed the face of the pageant. It’s because of her this thing is going to be a smash.”

  “Wow.” EJ reeled. “You’re still so blind. I guess Mom was right.”

  “What?”

  EJ flattened his hands on the table. “When you found out about Dad’s infidelities years ago, Mom did her own investigation.”

  Caden looked away for a moment, still angry about his father’s actions.

  “Mom has known about you and Maggie all this time. She had a sinking feeling that the reason you’ve led your foolish playboy lifestyle all stemmed from the day you found out about Dad.”

  Chapter 12

  “You can’t stay here forever.”

  Maggie looked up from her plate of Death by Chocolate, Coo-Coo for Coconut German Chocolate and Daringly Double Peanut Butter Fudge cupcakes and found her brother standing over her with a disapproving stare. Coming up beside him with forks in their hands were Bailey and Erin, both pushing him out of the way to dig into Maggie’s plate. She already knew why they were here. Maggie had decided she was no longer going to be a part of the pageant. She used all the money she had left in her coffeepot and put a down payment toward the thousand-plus cupcakes Vonna had promised to make as well as bring down to Savannah in t
he new company van she purchased. She was done fooling herself. She’d look for another full-time job to satisfy her father.

  “Go away, Richard,” said Maggie, pushing her plate toward her cousin and niece. “I’m in no mood.”

  “It’s Friday,” Richard pointed out. “The thing you’ve been waiting for all summer long is tomorrow.”

  With a carefree shrug of her shoulders, Maggie licked the rest of her frosting off her spoon. “It’s covered. They don’t need me.”

  “Maggie,” Richard grunted. “You’ve worked so hard. What about your trust fund deadline?”

  Annoyed, Maggie frowned at her brother. “What is it with you and my trust fund?”

  Richard patted Bailey’s shoulder. “Because I’d like for my daughter to have a decent role model in the family.”

  “Hey now,” Erin interjected with chocolate icing on her lip. “I am a respectable physical therapist. Athletes have been coming to Southwood for a year now to rehab at my center.”

  “Sorry,” Richard said. “Yes, Bailey has you as a role model.”

  “Y’all are going to stop treating me like the brunette-headed stepchild around here.”

  Everyone else at the uninvited table laughed at the joke. Maggie half smiled. Her heart wasn’t in it.

  Erin set her fork down and looked up at her cousin. “Would you mind giving us a moment, you know, for some girl chat?”

  Richard shook his close-cropped red head. “I am going down to get in my truck and wait fifteen minutes before I drag you down to Savannah.”

  Bailey leaned in close. “He’ll do it, you know.”

  Right now Maggie wanted to wallow in her own pity party. Her cell phone rang again for the umpteenth time. There was no longer room for voice mail. She didn’t need to see the name to know who was calling. Caden. The earlier messages from yesterday had turned from concerned to angry by now. She didn’t know why he was upset. He’d get the job, the one he was positioned to get in the first place. What was the big deal?

  “Mags,” Erin started once the bells over the entrance stopped jingling. “It is important that you attend the pageant.”

  “Why?” Maggie shrugged her shoulders and scanned the dining area. In order to get Vonna to help, Maggie had promised to cover the register if help was needed. Everyone in Southwood seemed to be taking a break from the sweets today. The streets bustled with back-to-school shoppers getting a head start at the boutiques.

  Erin dramatically checked left and right for anyone within earshot. “Have you checked social media?”

  “You know I haven’t,” Maggie replied. “I may have stupidly bet all my money on this president’s job, but I kinda got used to not being distracted.”

  Bailey covered her face. “Girl,” she groaned. “You need to see.”

  “I’m not logging on,” said Maggie with a shake of her head.

  “Well, I don’t think reading what we printed out is partaking in social media,” said Erin. She reached into her oversize black pocketbook and extracted a series of papers. She slid them across the silver top of the round table.

  Though it had been over ten months since Maggie was on Twitter, she felt a calmness at the sight of the blue bird icon. Nervously she ran her fingers over the paper. When she’d decided to take this challenge seriously, Maggie had deleted the majority of her social media accounts. So since there was no account to link to, her name had become a hashtag: #MaggieSwayne.

  Under it, a post by Gossip with Gigi, she’d reposted a video from her friend Rochelle, or at least her former friend. There was an arrow where if online, one could watch the video. Instead, Maggie read the comments.

  Hot for him then, hot for him now #MaggieSwayne

  #MaggieSwayne Foul Mouthed Beauty Queen

  #DoubleStandards #MaggieSwayne

  #Haute tips to sack a bachelor

  There were three pages of this. Rochelle had taken their private conversations from eleven years ago and posted them now? A tweet from Rochelle’s account said, I was so excited to meet up with my friend after so many years but she never responded to my FB request #SoMuchForFriendship #FakeFriends.

  “I haven’t been on social media in forever.” Maggie looked up from the papers.

  Bailey’s hazel-green eyes welled. “I’m so sorry this is happening.”

  Taking the documents away from Maggie, Erin shuffled them together and cleared her throat. “See why you need to go down there and be at the pageant?”

  “So these people can say this to my face?”

  “No.” Erin shook her pixie haircut. “You’re going to show your face and kill them with grace and kindness. Like I’m doing with my latest client.”

  “Who is your latest client?” Maggie asked.

  Erin frowned her freckled nose. “Just some know-it-all surgeon whose godson is a budding one-and-done basketball star. The kid needs rehab in a quiet place.”

  “Welcome to Southwood,” Bailey moaned.

  “But we’re talking about you,” Erin said, refocusing.

  Just as Bailey said the word, the bells over the door jingled. Maggie’s heart raced at the sight of the former Miss Southwood, Waverly Crowne. She had almost been Miss Georgia. Lexi Pendergrass-Reyes followed close behind with Kenzie in tow. They all wore custom-made shirts from Grits and Glam Gowns with the words Team Maggie bedazzled in glitter on the front. All of them wore tiaras in their hair.

  “Oh, look,” Erin said with a sarcastic eye roll, “It’s the entire tiara squad.”

  “Not now, Erin,” Kenzie snapped. “Maggie, we need to talk.”

  “Too late,” said Maggie, reaching for the papers Erin had. “I’ve already read what’s being said about me.”

  Lexi pushed her naturally blond hair over her shoulder and placed her hand on her hips. Maggie always liked Lexi. Before becoming such a local star, the beauty queen made a lot of waves back in her college days. Beside her stood Waverly.

  “Richard sent us a text,” said Kenzie. “He said you’re not going to the pageant after all.”

  Through the windows Maggie spotted her brother shaking hands with Waverly’s husband, Dominic. Dominic held a long red leash with a small toy pig attached to one end and a toddler over his shoulder.

  “I’m not,” replied Maggie.

  “Maggie, honey,” Lexi began. “Do you know what all of us here have in common?”

  Slowly Maggie glanced around the table, then shrugged her shoulders.

  “We’re all former Miss Southwoods,” said Waverly.

  “Except for Erin,” Kenzie interjected with a snarky laugh that came out as a snort, but Maggie kicked her under the table. “Ouch.”

  “Are y’all going to finally take her out of here?” Tiffani asked, coming from the back of the kitchen after one of her long breaks.

  Maggie leaned forward to see the counter and the register where Tiffani stood. “I am here to help you.”

  “Oh yeah, me and all of the busy customers we have today?”

  The tiara squad, as Erin noted, giggled. Waverly tapped Maggie on the shoulder. “Don’t be like me. I let social media send me into hiding.” When Waverly had to give up her crown, she was photographed in ugly-cry mode and the photo went viral for months. “You need to get ahead of this.” She squeezed Maggie’s shoulder. “Trust me.”

  “I don’t have...”

  “Don’t say you don’t have anything to wear,” exclaimed Lexi. “We’ll run down the street and grab something from the boutique and head out.”

  A bus with tinted windows pulled up in front of the bakery. The doors opened, and Maggie recognized the girls from British Ravens’s class as they stepped down and trotted into the bakery. Once her eyes adjusted from the outside glare, Maggie registered who all stood in the dining area. “Tiara squad!”

  Erin and Maggie stayed at the table while the res
t of the girls hugged out their reunion. “You need to go,” said Erin. “Forget the trust fund. Forget what you and Caden have together. Just finish what you started with this pageant. Do it for yourself.”

  Maggie’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Her argument over the cakes dwarfed compared to how Caden might flip now after reading what was going on in the social media world. According to him he wanted to preserve his mother’s legacy and not tarnish it with the trouble his brothers and cousin had already caused and might cause in the future. He wanted the SSGBP to not fall under the shadows that had besmirched other, larger pageants. And here she was, with social media shadowing her with trouble—trouble that could taint his mother’s legacy if she were the center of attention.

  After the former beauty queens were all caught up, everyone turned to Maggie and waited. Outside, the girls wandered off the bus to play with the pig and the baby.

  “Well, ladies,” Maggie said with a huff, “looks like I’ll need to return Caden’s car anyway. I might as well get this thing over with.” Her heart ached. This little scandal was surely going to put the nail in the coffin of their fake engagement. What better way to find an out for him and explain to everyone in the world about their breakup? As a piece of her slowly died inside, her sister and friends all cheered, unknowing how in love Maggie was with Caden. Too bad she realized it once it was too late.

  “Road trip!”

  * * *

  Saturday morning when the pageant festivities began, Maggie was still a no-show. Based on the way some of Maggie’s associates summed up their relationships with the socialite, once she was done with a person, she was done. Caden recalled how Maggie had wanted just one night with him, and she meant it. They’d wasted eleven years in between, but that was what she wanted. But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t resent her for not showing up today, at least for his mom. Had she arrived, the seat beside him would have been occupied by her rather than his fussing mother.

  “Mom, seriously,” Caden said, swatting the helpful hands of his mother. “I’m going to need you to stop. I can tie my own tie.”

  Kit pulled her hands back and set them in her lap. “I’m sorry. I just can’t help myself. You look so handsome.”