Tempting The Beauty Queen. Carolyn Hector

       Chapter 1

      “I was able to find a Hamilton ticket easier than trying to find a date for this month,” said Kenzie Swayne, Southwood, Georgia’s town historian. To say she had problems was the understatement of the century. Her strictly platonic go-to date, Rafael “Rafe” Gonzalez, bailed on her this morning. Something about the time being right to go after the woman he loved. Deep down inside, Kenzie knew she needed to be happy for her friend, but damn, couldn’t love wait a month?

      With a heavy sigh, Kenzie flipped her word-of-the-day calendar over. “Lugubrious,” she announced. “Yep, gloomy, bummed and bleak pretty much summarizes my life right now.” Where else could a girl get a hot guy who lived in the next town over to show up for important dates and who wasn’t looking for long-term commitments?

      At the hint of a chuckle, Kenzie glanced up at her dear friend, Lexi Pendergrass Reyes, who graciously hid her laughter behind her left hand, where her blindingly gorgeous wedding ring caught the fluorescent lights of the room. Kenzie grumbled and leaned back in her black leather office chair and rolled her eyes when the chair hit the wall behind her. Sure, her tiny headquarters in City Hall were small but she had bigger problems. She needed an escort for her cousin’s wedding tomorrow and the four major events of June, when three friends were tying the knot, along with a gala and a beauty pageant.

      “Come on now,” encouraged Lexi. She shifted the four teal garment bags into her left hand and leaned against the door jamb. “What about one of the Crowne twins? Surely they’re going to their brother’s ceremony?”

      The last wedding Kenzie agreed to attend and be in was a surprise for the bride. At least with Waverly Leverve, knowing about the nuptials meant she could at least back out of this one. Kenzie shook her head from side to side. The coppery, red-gold hair fell over her shoulders. She frowned as she twisted it up into a bun. She couldn’t control her hair in this humid weather, so what made her think she’d be able to control her life?

      Last winter Kenzie became fast friends with the handsome Crowne twins, Dario and Darren. They took Southwood by storm when they moved here to run their brother’s garage. The single ladies in town were smitten with the twins and their playboy charm but alas, neither Dario nor Darren would work well as a believable date for her cousin’s wedding tomorrow. Most of the Hairston clan, her mother’s family, coming back to Southwood wouldn’t believe Kenzie was involved in a relationship with either twin. Kenzie did not date playboys. Anymore. Playboys were a waste of time and she saw no need to be strung along by a man with a commitment phobia.

      Four weeks. That was how long Kenzie was going to have to endure the scrutinous gaze of her kinfolk, especially Great-Auntie Brenda—Auntie Bren for short. She’d be there for Cousin Corie’s wedding tomorrow, Felicia Ward’s next week and the Southwood Sesquicentennial Gala. In her mideighties, Auntie Bren was a force to be reckoned with. You’d never know her age by looking at her or witnessing her spunk. At her assisted living home in Miami, Florida, she kept friends like a queen held court. At the hundred-and-fifty-year celebration, more of Auntie Bren’s friends would come and hear the story of her twenty-eight-year-old great-niece who was still not married or dating anyone serious. Both the Hairston and Swayne sides of Kenzie’s family were attending and everyone would have a date but her.

      “The twins offered to split two of the weddings, one with each, and the Southwood Sesquicentennial Gala and thought the three of us could attend Dominic’s all together,” said Kenzie, “but I can’t. I need someone, as in the same guy, who will be here every weekend. Dario can do the first two but then he’s swapping places with Darren. I think they’re working on a project with Dominic, something about the baby’s room.”

      “Aww,” Lexi cooed.

      “They look alike but not that much. You know Erin Hairston has an eagle eye. She came here last summer to help Chantal pack up for her big move overseas and had to point out to everyone in the studio how I had more freckles from being in the sun so much.” Kenzie scowled and pressed her fingers against her freckle-covered face. As a child it was bad enough she sported this distinct red hair, but to top it off with more than a splash of freckles was downright cruel. Cousin Erin...perfect Cousin Erin, turned her nose up at beauty pageants to become an occupational therapist. In Auntie Bren’s eyes, Erin was the closest thing to a doctor on the Hairston side of the family.

      Lexi, gorgeous since the day she was born, rolled her eyes toward the barbaric florescent lights in the room. “Your freckles are what make you, you.”

      “Whatever. The least these spots can do is shield me when I’m dying of embarrassment when my eighty-five-year-old aunt is quizzing me about my sexuality.”

      As hard as she tried not to, Lexi laughed. “What? She wouldn’t.”

      “She