The Bachelor and the Beauty Queen Read Online Free Page B

The blood rushed to her head and swelled against her ears.
    â€œYes, the property next door.” Mr. Reyes gave a half smile, clearly enjoying dropping this news. He pointed toward the space standing between her boutique and the coffee shop.
    â€œMr. Reyes, I am busy.”
    â€œYes, you are.” His voice trailed off as his eyes cast disapprovingly over her. “Please, since we’re going to be neighbors, call me Stephen.”
    As a former beauty queen, Lexi held her composure with a stiff smile. All this over a dress? What a petty man. Contestants received extra bonus points based upon behavior. Stephen’s score now dropped to a zero.
    â€œNeighbors?” Andrew asked for her.
    â€œWell, we need to go over the legalities,” he said casually, “but I need a place to move my business, so I put a bid on the place next door.”
    â€œThis is ridiculous!” Chantal spouted what everyone thought. “You seriously outbid her because of a dress?”
    Stephen’s attention turned toward Chantal for a brief moment, then to Lexi. Unlike Chantal, Lexi did not cower. She squared her shoulders and jutted her chin forward.
    â€œYou gave me some sound advice,” he said to her. “You told me I needed to keep a better eye on my niece, so here I am—making sure she never sets foot in this shop again.”
    Silence fell over Lexi, who was not sure what to say. “I did promise we weren’t done.”
    â€œAll this because you think I sold your niece a dress?”
    â€œI don’t think,” he clipped.
    Lexi inhaled a sharp breath. “I would like to meet this niece of yours. No one here has sold my personal dress to a child.”
    â€œSo now my niece is a liar?”
    â€œI am saying there has been a mistake.”
    â€œShe’s either a liar or a thief?” Stephen raised a brow.
    The room grew hot. Lexi’s cheeks flushed red. She had to get her bearings. Pressing her nails into the palms of her hands as she made a fist, Lexi slowly breathed in and out. “If you would be so kind as to bring your niece in here, we can get to the bottom of this mystery.”
    â€œHa!” he scoffed. “I think you’ve done enough damage to my family.”
    Lexi opened her fists. “So this is like some sort of revenge plot?”
    Stephen sniffed the air and contemplated his next words. “Actually, it’s going to be a lot like that. I think, instead of never selling my niece a dress again, I may decide to have you never sell a dress again, period.”
    From the arrogance in his voice, Lexi imagined him to be the type of man to stroll into a restaurant without a reservation an hour before closing and order Lobster Thermidor or a rack of lamb. His entitlement irked her.
    â€œWell. I see that no one left my keys here with you. I guess I’ll be on my way to their home and pick them up.” He nodded his head goodbye in Chantal and Andrew’s direction.
    Once the bells over the door stopped chiming, Lexi let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “What just happened?”
    * * *
    Turning a bakery into an office would take most of the summer, but doing so made sense. Things in his current home office were too close for comfort. Technically he blamed himself for the loss of his keyboard. One of these days he needed to remind Philly not to take food out of the kitchen. The wonderful cotton candy her grandparents had bought deflated and brought in a trail of ants on his desk. The new building was hardly turnkey ready. Thankfully he had Nate and his toolbox to help get things in order to open up the brand-new location of Reyes Realty. He needed this space. The fact it irritated the beauty queen was icing on the cake.
    The brief glimpse of upturned pink lips displaying her disappointment, however, did not satisfy him. For a brief moment, a twinge of guilt hit him. Stephen did not, by nature, set out to be