Deadly Notions (33 page)

Tori swallowed over the lump that rose in her throat. Somehow, some way, things were starting to thaw between her and Dixie. And it felt good.

Real good.

“Which is something I’ve known from the very start.”

Tori whirled around in her seat to find Milo standing less than two feet away, a strange smile on his lips. “Milo, I didn’t know you were there.”

“I was counting on that.”

“You were?”

He nodded, his feet closing the gap between them as his focus remained trained on her face. “I was also counting on finding you at home . . . alone. Only you weren’t there.”

“That’s because she’s here. With us.” Margaret Louise tugged her still closer, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “She saved most of our necks by pluggin’ away ’til she figured out the truth.”

“Lulu calls Victoria the expert finder-outer.” Melissa reached across the table and patted Tori’s hand. “She says there’s nothing in the whole wide world her Miss Sinclair can’t find.”

Milo cleared his throat to reveal a voice that was unnaturally raspy. “Actually, there’s one thing.”

She swiveled in her chair to meet his gaze head-on. “There is?”

He nodded. “Though just the other night you claimed you had, only you hadn’t. Not the right one, anyway.”

One by one she looked from Milo to Margaret Louise to Melissa to Leona to Rose to Debbie to Georgina to Beatrice to Debbie to Dixie and back again, each face sporting the same look of confusion she felt on hers.

Except Milo.

His face was simply unreadable.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she finally said.

Reaching for her hand, he tugged her off her stool and into the center of the room, the bakery virtually empty except for the members of Tori’s sewing circle. “Remember what you said about finding me?”

“About finding you?” She felt her brows furrow only to settle back to normal as her memory filled in the missing blanks. “Yes, I remember. I said I’d found the diamond in the rough when I found you.”

“And do you know you almost gave me a heart attack at first?”

She stared at him as the confusion returned. “Milo, I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Dropping to his knees amid a burst of squeals, Milo glanced over at Margaret Louise and shrugged. “My apologies to Lulu.”

“
Lulu?
”

“Hush, Victoria,” hissed Leona. “There’s a time and a place for all those silly questions of yours. But now is most definitely not that time, dear.”

“What is everyone talking—”

The words disappeared from her lips as Milo reached into his back pocket and extracted a red velvet box. With careful fingers he opened it and held it in her direction. “I’d intended to do this in private but, once I got here, I realized I couldn’t have picked a better spot if I tried.”

She gazed down at him through lashes that were suddenly tear-dappled. “Milo, I—”

“Let me finish.” He reached up, pulled her left hand down, and entwined his fingers with hers. “It was here, in this very bakery, where we had our first date. And it was in front of these exact people that I began falling in love with you. So, when you take all of that into account, you’ll realize there really isn’t a better place on earth for me to ask this question.”

“What question?” she whispered as the butterfly brigade took flight in her stomach once again, their constant presence tied to all things Milo.

“I said
hush
, Victoria. He’s getting to that.”

Margaret Louise clapped a hand over her sister’s mouth. “Don’t mind her, she won’t make another peep.”

Shaking his head softly, Milo tightened his grip on Tori’s hand and smiled up at her as if they were the only two people in the room. “Tori? Will you do me the great honor and pleasure of becoming my wife?”