Page 77 (1/2)

Chapter 1

Death by chocolate Waverly Leverve licked the dark, shiny ganache off her fingertip until she cleaned her finger down to her chipped French lanced over the double cupcakes standing proudly on the crisp white china plate and settled on a Slow Torture Southern Peach Cobbler Cupcake

For the last week Waverly had tried toin self-pity and fatty foods Why not? Any career as the future Miss Georgia and eventually Miss USA disappeared the ia crown So what if she’d colorfully told off a reporter? The journalist deserved her outburst He’d propositioned her, assuirl and when Waverly reacted, no one wanted to hear her side He was the one with the recording In hindsight, Waverly’s idea wasn’t a bright one, to tell a eant establishh money to sit around and s with her telling the man to self-fornicate She should have just explained she was tired Now here she sat in a bakery, shoveling carbs into her body

The pink bejeweled cell phone rattled against the silver two-top table in the corner of The Cupcakery Waverly flipped the gadget over and blinked back at the turquoise-blue screen and fat black letters

You can’t drown yourself in food

“Want to bet?” Waverly asked the phone Her snarky response garnered the attention of the pretty cashier at the counter

“Did you say soister The late-afternoon sun glinted off the arched glass protecting the cupcake display and shining against Tiffani’s face in a golden glow

Waverly shook her head Tendrils falling from herto my cell”

“Is that one of those phones you can see the person you’re talking to on?”

It was, but these days Waverly turned the feature off The only person calling her was herto give up her tiara for the antics provoked by an angry journalist, but in the end she hated even hest crown the two of them had dreaeant

“Not this time, Tiffani,” Waverly said

“You think after you finish we can work on eant wave and walk?”

Another ding sounded and Waverly’s phone lit up Waverly expected a roup of friends who understood the pageant life Waverly picked a peach from her cupcake and savored the fruit while she read her text

Reirls seldoeant The ladies are just gathering tonight You won’t

Waverly responded with two letters N-o

At least co

And be around other people achieving what she’d failed? No, thanks She scoffed to herself Waverly turned her frown into a srinned at the cashier The last person she wanted to piss o

ff was the only person not judging her for the dethroning ceremony: the cashier who supplied her with cupcakes “Sounds like a plan to me,” said Waverly to herself

Wallowing in her self-pity, Waverly cleared the text with her frosting-covered finger and took another glance at the latest ly-cry face as she tearfully handed over her sparkly Miss South Georgia crown The meme in question superimposed her body onto a basketball court While her hands were on her crown, the star basketball player on the court blocked her crown as if it was a basketball

Part of the deal for becoia meant a contestant needed to maintain residency in the state for sixher foundation and all hell broke loose Instead of going hoe in the town of Southwood, Georgia, a small town just above the Florida border Well, hell, since her dreaive a few pointers for this weekend’s big pageant?

“Are you sure you don’t want to try out?” asked Tiffani “Don’t you need the Miss Southwood title more than me?”

If only Waverly thought with a frown Talk about a conflict of interest The sender of the recent texts was not just Lexi Pendergrass Reyes, but the Lexi Pendergrass Reyes, hostess of the Miss Southwood Beauty Pageant The foreant ru low-cut dress she designed coeant dad, and ended up with the last laugh