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Kofi snickered, and Caden threw a balled-up T-shirt he’d grabbed from the closet earlier at his head. “See what I’m dealing with, Mama Kit?” Kofi stood in front of the screen.
“I’ll keep praying for you,” said Kit. “Have we gotten Caden to take on any lady athletes? I’ve been watching that sports channel.”
Shy of a lawsuit, everyone knew A&O did not take on women clientele. Caden argued there were plenty of other sports agencies and talent agencies to represent women during and after their sports careers.
“Mama,” Caden said, hoping his tone didn’t come off rushed. “To what do I owe the pleasure? The pageant isn’t until the end of summer. Are you checking to make sure I’ve got an emcee lined up for you?”
“Wait, what’s going on there?” Caden’s older brother, Chase, leaned into the frame. “So the rumors are true. You are in town.”
Confused, Kit pinched the bridge of her nose. “Caden, am I correct in my understanding? You’re in Savannah, yet you cannot come in to my conference room?”
Kofi stepped out of view, and Caden cursed under his breath. He avoided being around his father and brothers at all costs. It was on his calendar to visit his mother before he left for Miami, his home away from home. The beachfront condo was where his private life and business were located.
Oblivious, Chase continued. “Did I hear something about a bachelor party at your riverfront place?”
“I doubt it,” Caden clipped. He made sure his guests left their cell phones at the door, and the nude models, art instructor and the rest of his staff signed nondisclosure agreements, so no one would have to worry about embarrassing photos or stories turning up later. The party might have been meant to send Shawn off properly, but it had been one of Caden’s most epic events ever. And his biological brothers were not allowed.
“That’s messed up, man,” complained Chase.
“You called this meeting, Mama?”
Kit started off her agenda in typical fashion, announcing all the things she needed done before the fiftieth annual Miss Southern Style Glitz Beauty Pageant. Multiple sclerosis had left her in a wheelchair for the last eight years, but that did not stop her from an active life or from calling spur-of-the-moment conferences.
Distracted by the two empty chairs in his mother’s conference room next to his own on the screen, Caden thought about what his mother had been through and what they might face. It was only a matter of time before their fifty-year-old pageant fell under public scrutiny—due to missteps by the men who should have been occupying those empty seats—Caden’s brother Heath and their cousin Spike. Heath and Spike had been relieved of their duties when emails between the two on their private accounts were discovered after one of them lost his phone—emails filled with sexist remarks about last year’s contestants. Though it was truly a private conversation not done on company time or property, it was still in poor taste, and for that, Kit had needed to have them step down. After what had happened to other contests last year involving sexist and possibly even harassing behavior, SSGBP wasn’t going to come under fire for similar transgressions. He wanted to make sure it was clear the pageant had dealt with the problem before it became a bad headline.
Jason, Caden’s other brother, sat across from Caden’s empty spot, and judging from the bored look on his brother’s face, this was the last place he wanted to be as well, which surprised Caden. If memory served him correctly, Jason usually acted like a kid in a candy store when it came to the pageant, using his charm to pick up disappointed beauty queen candidates. Caden also deduced from Jason’s rumpled attire that this last-minute meeting had interrupted a morning tryst. With a shake of his head, he moved on to the man seated next to Jason—Bruno Archibald, Caden’s double cousin.
Wide-eyed, Bruno opened the manila folder Kit had obviously had waiting for them when they entered the boardroom and all but salivated. Aunt Emily, Kit’s right-hand woman, elbowed her son for the low, adolescent moan he emitted when he fanned out the photos of former beauty queens in Kit’s file.
Caden took a moment to glance over the agenda his mother had sent him over his phone. Given this was the pageant’s fiftieth anniversary, Kit wanted to make it special. He scrolled down, trying to figure out what got his cousin drooling. The first page of the to-do list was filled with names of folks his mother wanted to attend this year’s fiftieth anniversary. This included an appearance by the band that first played during the intermissions, a slew of zydeco players. She wanted the caterers, flowers, cakes and former contestants from previous pageants there, as well.
One name in particular caught Caden off guard, somehow causing the air in the private office to become scarce and his body to respond in an adolescent way. To avoid attracting attention of Kofi or anyone on the screen, Caden slipped into the soft leather seat behind his desk.
The memory of her soft fingertips tracing along the center of his back haunted him after every failed relationship he’d had over the last decade. Caden shivered and shook the image out of his mind. Maggie hadn’t been one of his mother’s first beauty queens, but she definitely was the most memorable.
“I would very much appreciate it if someone could bring Magnolia Swayne,” Kit went on, pulling Caden out of his reflection. Kit pointed at the slides of various photos of Maggie in the front row at every show during last year’s fashion week.
“Is she the hologram star?” A woman’s voice asked.
A smile touched Caden’s mouth when he remembered the first time Maggie used that technology. Certain levels of the Southern Style Glitz Beauty Pageant were always predetermined over the weekend before the big event itself, and it was easy for contestants to figure out from those scores where they stood. When she knew she was not going to make it into the top ten, Maggie Swayne had used her technology talents to have some fun. On her own she’d hosted pageant participants backstage, recording their images and projecting them as holograms on all the aisles for people to have a better glimpse of the backstage action.
It had never been done before, and while other concert venues used holograms to bring back deceased celebrities for a performance on stage, it just wasn’t the same as Maggie’s up close and personal appearances. After the pageant, Caden had received an up close and personal session with the beauty queen. Clearing his throat, Caden adjusted the knot of his tie at his neck and watched the screen.
“The exact person.” Kit beamed at Caden’s cousin Alana. “I want to have her appear at the press conference coming up soon.”
“In person or as a hologram?” someone asked out loud.
Kit half grinned. “I’d prefer in person.”
“Do you think she would?” Uncle Samuel, Kit’s brother, flattened his hands on the conference table. “Do it, I mean. She’s scaled back her social media presence, and when she posts, there’s no record of her location. Does anyone know how to reach her?”
“I may,” Caden blurted out. The moment everyone turned to face him, he regretted speaking up. Brows shot up on everyone’s faces around the conference table. Kofi spun on his feet. “I said I may. Let me do some digging and get back with you.”
The screen paused with Maggie’s beautifully freckled face on the screen as the conference call ended. Light filtered through her naturally red hair. And her smile, damn. Still stole his heart.
“I take it you know her?” Kofi asked him.
Never one to kiss and tell, Caden briefly glanced up. His index finger stroked the screen on his phone.
