I look up at Dane. “I’m so sorry.”
He quirks a brow at me, and then the best-worst thing ever happens.
He smiles.
He freakingsmiles.
“We’ll find it,” he says. “And if we don’t, it can be the next great Tinsel mystery for all of the tourists to look for it. People love a good treasure hunt. And as you so wisely pointed out earlier this week, you don’t need a ring to get married.”
It’s the best and the worst thing he could possibly say.
He spent thousands—thousands—of dollars on a fake engagement ring, and I lost it, and he’s already on the bright side.
“I don’t deserve you,” I blurt.
It’s the absolute truth.
But he doesn’t take advantage of my statement to break up with me.
Instead, he pulls me closer again and squeezes tightly, like he never wants to let me go.
“You deserve so much more than you know,” he murmurs quietly.
It’s been years since I actively wanted a man in my life.
And I don’t know how I’ll ever let Dane go.
Chapter 27
Dane
Vicki Anderson is breaking.
In the good way.
We’ve been searching the bakery for hours. Every time Amanda tears up, Vicki flinches.
I’ll never claim to be an expert at reading people I don’t know, but I don’t think those are flinches of a woman who’s horrified that her granddaughter has made a terrible choice in fiancés and doesn’t want to inherit a bakery.
I think that’s the flinch of a woman who’s starting to feel bad for standing in the way of her granddaughter’s happiness.
She might never like me.
My family.
She might never likemy family.
But I think she’s starting to see the harm that the feud has done.
“Did you get on the floor and look under the prep table?” she says to me at one point. “My old bones don’t like me bending that way anymore.”
I look under the prep table. I shine a light under the fridge and under the ovens. I help pull everything out of the fridge and ovens. I help put it back. I search the dining room. Behind the counters, eventhough Amanda says she wasn’t behind the display cases and checkout counters.
I don’t get kicked out.
And honestly, they’d have to call the sheriff if they wanted me to leave. So long as Amanda wants me here, I’m here.
By early afternoon, it’s pretty clear the ring isn’t in the bakery.
