“Pleased to meet you, Dominic.”
“So, what brings you to Savannah?” Waverly asked. “Surely you’re not here just for the pageant,” She stepped forward and wrapped her arm around Dominic underneath his jacket.
“Half-right,” he said. “I live in Jacksonville, but I thought I’d drive up for this and see how you’re doing. And from what I can tell, you’re doing just fine.” Johnny extended his hand again to Dominic. “Congratulations to you.”
“For?” Dominic asked.
“You have a beautiful queen here,” Johnny said with a wink at Waverly. “When we dated, she never allowed me backstage in her dressing room. That speaks volumes to me. Take care of her.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Dominic cleared his throat and almost turned toward Waverly. His light brown eyes twinkled with amusement. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve got to go meet up with my frat brother. You keep Waverly company until it’s curtain time. I trust you won’t let anything happen to her.”
Johnny saluted Dominic, and Waverly shook her head and smiled. Damn, she loved that man.
* * *
“And so you left her alone with her ex?” Will Ravens turned in his theater seat and shook his head. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m good,” Dominic answered truthfully. He was glad his brother flew in with his fiancée. And why wouldn’t he? According to the fraternity newsletter, Will had been able to get his family’s company back in order, and the person he had to thank was seated with them. Zoe and Will were expected to marry soon. Dominic touched his top pocket just above his heart. He loved Waverly and knew she was the woman for him. Though Waverly had fought her feelings for him in the beginning, she and Dominic had built a strong foundation based on friendship. Dominic smiled to himself. Even without putting a ring on Waverly’s finger anytime soon, he’d surpassed his fears of ending up in life like his father. If Johnny Del Whatever wanted to talk to Waverly alone, Dominic was cool with it. Dominic didn’t believe Johnny was the stalker. But someone out there was.
Will’s presence offered a brief moment of normalcy but nothing about this situation made Dominic comfortable. Waverly didn’t take it seriously and wanted to continue as if things were okay. It irritated Dominic to know the tiara meant more to her than her safety.
Dominic’s eyes scanned the auditorium. Crowds were filling up the rows. People from all the Southern counties were here to cheer on their beauty queens. He chuckled to himself, thinking they all wasted their time. He’d passed a few of the open doors down the hall backstage and none of the other contestants had anything on Waverly.
Zoe leaned forward and tapped Dominic on the knee. “If it’s the same guy who passed me in the hall,” Zoe began with a deep breath, “you’re a confident man.”
“I trust Waverly,” Dominic explained and laughed to himself at the questioning look Will shot her.
A cell phone rang somewhere by them. Dominic continued to talk to Will and Zoe about their future plans. Dominic had missed the whole engagement due to his father’s illness. The cell phone continued to ring. The whole situation reminded Dominic of the last time one went off when he was watching Waverly—just this time he was getting ready to watch her.
“I believe your phone is ringing,” Will said, nodded his head toward Dominic’s lap.
“My cell’s here.” He reached into the pocket of his jacket to double-check his phone.
“I gave you your phone in Waverly’s dressing room.”
Suddenly he remembered the object Zoe had given him. “Well, it’s not mine.” He leaned to the side and extracted the ringing device. The phone buzzed again and shut off. Dominic swiped the screen and noticed it wasn’t password protected. Easier to find the owner, he thought. The screen lit up the space between the now-curious duo of Will and Zoe, who leaned over to see, as well. Confused, Dominic shook his head. The screen saver popped on and it was none other than Waverly. This wasn’t her phone.
Dominic thumbed the pictures icon to get an idea of whom the phone belonged to. Something told him to take this to the police, but he needed to see who the owner was. What he found in search of selfies were airbrushed photos and everything necessary for making a meme...every meme of Waverly possible. Angry blood pounded in his ears. A text buzzed through, accompanied by Vera Laing’s photo.
Hey, Anson, heard you came down here to see your girl lose to me lol.
Dominic was already out of his seat, pushing his way through the crowds trying to find their seats. Will called after him and tried to follow. He knew his frat brother shouted for him to stop. For Anson’s sake, he hoped Will or Zoe went ahead and called the police. Because he was about to kill Anson.
As expected, Dominic found Anson pacing outside Waverly’s closed dressing room and stopping at each turn to listen at the door. Jillian fawned over the man, practically petting his shoulders. Another group of pageant ladies and their entourages stepped between Waverly’s mother and the mayor. The pink paisley ascot wrapped around Anson’s neck was immediately replaced by Dominic’s left hand. He slung the man against the wall and punched him in the face. The contact of his fist to Anson’s face wasn’t satisfying enough. Dominic threw Anson down to the ground.
“Jesus!” Jillian screamed. “Someone help.” Her pleas caused a trickle effect of screams and a stampede of stilettos and sequins in the hallway.
Someone came from behind Dominic and grabbed him by the shoulders, but Dominic shrugged out of his jacket and hit Anson a few times. Anson tried to grip Dominic by the forearm to release the pressure on his neck.
“Are you crazy?” Anson asked. “Do you know who I am?”
“Dominic,” Waverly screeched.
Only the sound of her voice gave Dominic pause. He saw her petrified face and came to his feet. Somewhere in the background a flash went off. In his peripheral vision Dominic noticed all the cell phones recording the incident. A blonde figure barreled through the crowd; he figured it was Lexi but at the moment Dominic didn’t give a damn.
“This is just great, just great,” Jillian huffed and sidled up to her daughter. “You see what you get for mixing with this trash?”
“Trash?” Will repeated and stepped over to Dominic, handing him his jacket. “Now, hold on a damn minute.”
“Trash,” Jillian reiterated. “You can put an expensive suit on, but no matter what you’re still, and are always going to be, trash.”
“What is going on, Dominic?” Waverly inquired. He hated the look of fear across her face. In an attempt to soothe her, Dominic reached for her with his hands. She recoiled.
“What is going on, Waverly?” Lexi demanded to know, the Morality Committee in tow.
No one spoke, not even Dominic. He needed to see, hear and feel from Waverly that everything was okay. He wanted to talk to her alone. She had never looked at him with such fear and disappointment.
Vera brought up the rear of the group and rushed to Anson’s side. She extracted a tissue from her top to wipe away the blood from his bleeding face. “You monster!” Vera cried.
Dominic didn’t give a damn what anyone else said, filmed or did, or how they looked at him. The only person he cared about was Waverly...who stood still, frozen, in the doorway.
“This man assaulted the mayor of Southwood, Georgia,” Jillian said dramatically, a finger pointed at Dominic’s chest. Two uniformed officers began to make their way through the crowd.
“Dominic, is this true?” Lexi asked.
“With good cause,” Dominic growled. “Anson is Waverly’s stalker.”
“What?”
Dominic wasn’t sure who said that. It wasn’t Waverly. Her lips remained tight. “Waverly, the phone Zoe found and gave me, it wasn’t mine. It was Anson’s.”
“Where is this phone?” Anson asked. The tissue at his nose soaked up his blood. “He’s lying, Wave
rly.”
Finally Waverly blinked and began to breathe. Dominic tried to reach her again, but she backed up into Johnny, whether intentionally or not. Johnny held on to Waverly’s shoulder.
“You!” Jillian gasped and paled at the sight of Waverly’s ex.
“I’ve missed you, too, Jill,” Johnny responded.
“Why are you here? Jesus, Waverly. Must every bad choice you ever made show up today?”
“All right now, Jillian,” Lexi said, taking the woman by the shoulders. Lexi pushed Jillian to the side, where Stephen embraced her. “Everyone, please,” she said over her shoulder.
“Everyone,” Zoe shouted at the top of her voice. The whispers and gossiping ceased. “If you have a dressing room, get to it. If you have a seat, go find it.”
Some of the viewers dispersed. The police showed up but took Anson’s statement first. Dominic resisted punching Anson again when he tried to play dumb about not knowing why he was assaulted.
“He’s her stalker,” Dominic said calmly. “Zoe gave me a phone earlier and thought it was mine. I looked through the photo files for any evidence of a selfie and came across all the photos Anson leaked to social media, including the one from the cookie contest, Waverly. He’s been the one doing it.”
“For what?” Anson sneered.
“Oh, come on, you’ve been trying to get Waverly’s attention for months now. Dying for a chance to get her all to yourself. You’ve been tearing her down, chipping away at her pride with the memes, all so you can build her up again and she would fall in love with you.” Dominic shrugged.
“Dominic,” Waverly said. “The memes started before I met you.”
“I suppose I posted these memes to corral you to Southwood.” Anson grandly gestured, sarcasm oozing from him with a smug smile. “Get out of here with that, Mr. Waverly.”
Dominic lunged for Anson again. The crowd of ladies screamed but the police stepped in the way. “I’m good.” Dominic shrugged off their hold.
“Dominic,” Stephen said, “do you still have the phone?”
Patting his chest and pocket, Dominic couldn’t find it. He couldn’t remember where he placed it once he discovered the photos. Did he leave it in his seat? Dominic snatched his black jacket and searched the pockets, tearing the material inside out. No phone. He shook his head at the authorities.
“Sir,” said one of the officers, “we’re going to need to bring you in for a statement.”
Dominic understood and knew the routine. “Waverly?”
“I can’t believe you did this, Dominic. You knew I was up against the Morality Committee.”
Of course he knew. The damn committee came between their relationship at every turn. “Seriously, Waverly?”
Waverly folded her arms beneath her breasts. “You need to leave.”
“Waverly.” Dominic said her name once more and when she didn’t respond, he left.
* * *
“I don’t know what happened to the phone,” said Zoe, retouching Waverly’s eyeliner. “He had it when he was sitting with us. Yep, he saw the pictures and took off like a crazed man.”
Waverly preferred to go without the makeup. The fat tears threatening to spill were marring Zoe’s every attempt to make her pretty. The beauty portion of the show was going to be aired tonight and then narrow down the competition to the top three. Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, those contestants would continue on to vie for their spot to enter Miss Georgia with the blessing of the pageant committee.
For now, the incident took the Morality Committee a couple of hours to sort through. Sponsors pulled out of tomorrow’s live event and without them, the pageant would lose funding. Lexi ended up bringing in her sister-in-law, Amelia Reyes, to help call in a few television network favors. While they waited for a ruling, Waverly ended up sending her mother out of the dressing room. The rest of the pageant would be aired tomorrow. Tonight they would film the beauty rundown, where the Southern contestants would each introduce themselves with small, one-minute reels of their lives in the counties they represented and splice it into the live show for tomorrow. Waverly wasn’t sure of the professional jargon but she took Amelia’s word for it. Knowing it was going to take a few more hours before she found out if she made it to the top three, Waverly decided she couldn’t take another minute of Jillian bad-mouthing Dominic. He wasn’t crazy. Dominic had a reason to attack Anson. Anson’s innocent stance was fishy at best.
“I don’t know what happened to the phone, but I did see Vera consoling Anson shortly after everything happened. She could have easily found the phone and hidden it for him.”
“What are you saying?” Lexi inquired.
“I believe him,” Waverly admitted. A deep shudder pulsed in her shoulders. She believed Dominic. Warning bells blew in her ears. Everything Dominic said made sense. The memes stopped once the threat was away—the threat being Dominic. Anson had worked harder to get close to Waverly at the time. But she’d been too busy working toward the tiara. Waverly scolded herself for not speaking up sooner to defend Dominic. The look of hurt in his eyes would burn her soul forever. She was about to lose the one thing she cared most about: Dominic.
Lexi pushed away from the makeup dresser. “Why do you believe him?”
Zoe took a step backward. “Girl, if you did, why did you let him leave?” Zoe asked, but went on without letting Waverly answer. “Don’t get me wrong. Dominic scared the hell out of me when we first met. I actually thought he and Will plotted together to get you to win.”
Funny, Waverly half laughed to herself. She’d thought the same thing. “Dominic wouldn’t go off on Anson without reason. It was more than the emasculating taunts Anson has been hurling since I was crowned Miss Southwood. But I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“We searched everywhere for a phone,” said Lexi. “We didn’t find it.”
Waverly shrugged. “I don’t care. I don’t need to see any evidence. I trust Dominic.”
“You do?” Lexi asked.
“With all my heart, Lexi,” Waverly replied. “I love him so much that I am sitting here contemplating if this runoff is even worth risking my chance at the Dominic.”
“Waverly.” Lexi gasped and clutched her heart.
“I’m not sorry.” Waverly slid out of her makeup chair.
Lexi flipped her blond hair off her shoulder and inhaled deeply. “That’s good to know, because, well—” Lexi stumbled as she pulled an envelope from her back pocket. “When we searched for Anson’s phone, I found this.”
Waverly took the envelope and looked up at Lexi. “What is this?” She opened the envelope and found a deed to a structure. Not familiar with what one looked like, Waverly sorted through the other pieces of paper. She found a copy of a bill of sale for a 1940 Packard and an application for a Union Soldier Reenactment participant. Waverly’s lids became heavy when she read Dominic’s name on the application.
“That’s a deed for a place upstate,” explained Lexi. “Mr. and Mrs. Harvey sold their house at a killer rate. Stephen said the buyer made off with a sweet deal.”
“Buyer?” Waverly still did not process what the documents meant. “Why is this in here?”
“Because Dominic bought the house,” said Lexi. She flipped the page over and pointed her finger at one line. “He bought the house and put it in your name, Waverly.”
“Girl.” Zoe spoke up. “I reiterate, what are you still doing here?”
Chapter 12
“I found the channel,” Alisha exclaimed from the family room at Dominic’s ranch.
The scent of pepperoni pizza filtered through the air. Dominic swore underneath his breath and cursed the fates for not answering his prayers. He didn’t want to watch the Southern Runoff Finale, as it was now being called. While other channels broadcast back-to-back Christmas movies, some even the sa
me film, Alisha took the twins’ advice and found MET—the Multi-Ethnic Television Network, which aired the special showing of the pageant.
“We interrupt your regularly scheduled program, Christmas Dinners around the World, for a special presentation of your local affiliate station.”
Dominic stood up from the couch and stretched. “Well, I’m going to hit the hay.”
Hamilton jumped from his makeshift bed in the corner of the room and trotted over to Dominic’s bare feet. “Alone, pig.”
“God—” Alisha groaned “—you’re so grumpy.”
“Leave our big brother alone,” Dario said. “He’s upset he was banned from his girlfriend’s pageant.”
Being banned from her pageant was one thing. Banned from her life was another. When Waverly refused to leave with him after he pointed out Anson’s dealings, Dominic was through. Why bother waiting around for someone who didn’t believe him?
Blindsided. Dominic thought parental abandonment was bad but at least he’d learned from it. He strived to be an upfront, honorable guy. He’d never thought he’d feel such raw, emotional pain. Waverly ripped his heart out and basically handed it back to him.
“Aw, look,” Darren chimed in, “his jaw is clenching. I think he’s getting mad all over again.”
Everyone lounged around in the same blue sweatpants and gray shirts with Crowne’s Garage written in blue. The plan was to get up early and meet downtown for the parade. The fleet of cars left to him by his father was completed and hooked up to floats put together by the high school students and other groups from around town.
“You two are welcome to stay over at Alisha’s.”
Darren and Dario looked up from their spots on the black leather recliners and in sync put their feet up. “You can’t kick us out on Christmas Eve.”
Christmas Eve, Dominic thought with further irritation. On top of losing Waverly, he’d lost the Christmas present he’d got her. Yesterday morning the official paperwork was signed and filed. Waverly was about to be the new owner of her dream home for when she retired. Earlier this month the Harveys had come to Southwood and offered him a sweet deal. The only thing it cost Dominic was his time in the future, when he would have to participate in Civil War reenactments with the older guys around town. At the time, it had been worth it. Right now? Dominic frowned and started to leave the family room. His leg hit the empty, open cardboard box.
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