“And what happens to the Gingerbread House next?”
“Stop,” Amanda says. “Please. Please stop. Grandma, weddings are hard enough when the familiesdoget along. And you can’t just tellsomeone that she has to give up her entire life to move home and expect her to just go along with it when I’ve never been able to bake, I’ve never loved baking, and I’ve always been told Ben would do it, and now I’m supposed to walk away from a job I love and a community I love and volunteer work that I love to move home because you don’t want to consider that maybe it’s time for the Gingerbread House to have new owners.” She yanks off her prep gloves and sets them on the table. “I can’t do this today. I need a break. I need to breathe. I need to think. Okay?”
She spins to me and grabs my hand. “Let’s go pick a tux. Lorelei, tell your dad we’ll be by to try fruitcake soon, okay?”
“Amanda, if you walk out that door ...,” Vicki says.
Amanda’s shoulders bunch even higher.
And that’s when Lorelei breaks through the tension with a single question. “Where’s your engagement ring?”
Chapter 26
Amanda
The ring.
The ring is gone.
I had it when I left the house this morning, and it’s no longer on my finger, and I don’t know where it is.
I don’t know where it is.
Was it on my hand when Grandma chastised me to put on gloves?
Oh my god.
It wasn’t.
It wasn’t.
Was I wearing it when I got here? Was it on my hand during the gingerbread candle ceremony? Did I have it on when I left the cabin?
Yes.
Yes, I had it on when I left the cabin. I smiled at it glinting in the light when I was driving into town.
But I stopped to thank Mrs. Briggs for her gift the other day. And then I got distracted when I saw Pia walking down the street, and I popped into her bakery to get cookies for Dane.
I decided today and tomorrow require my soon-to-be-former-fake-fiancé to have a stash of his favorite cookies.
And I don’t remember if my ring was on my finger when I was talking to Mrs. Briggs and Pia.
I’m already off-kilter from telling Grandma that I don’t want the bakery, but now, I’m gaping at Dane. I need to say something. Anything. Apologize. Make this better.
For him.
He paid thousands of dollars for that ring andI lost it.
I’m completely and totally frozen.
This is it.
This is when he’s going to break up with me—for real and for pretend—and it’s all over.
We’re done.
He’s going to yell at me and dump me and our grandparents still hate each other and his uncle is still not convinced and all of this is over and I just told my grandma that I don’t want the bakery and we didn’t get done what we wanted to get done.
