Chapter 28
Amanda
“You haven’t broken up with me yet,” I say quietly to Dane as we head back to the Gingerbread House. I have to concentrate on something other than my suspicions if I’m going to keep my cool.
“I don’t like to ruin fun” is his only answer.
He doesn’t parrot it back at me—you haven’t broken up with me yet either—and he doesn’t sayI was thinking we should do blah blah blah to break upeither.
I slip my hand into his and squeeze.
He squeezes back.
And we walk the rest of the way back down Kringle Lane looking exactly like what we’re pretending to be—a happily engaged couple who apparently forgive each other nearly everything.
No one would look at us and think we were faking this. That we’re breaking up sometime in the next twenty-four hours. That in three days, hopefully I’ll be back in New York running auditions for my play and Dane will be back in San Francisco.
They wouldn’t even know I lost Dane’s engagement ring.
“I’ll pay you back for the ring,” I say.
“No need.”
“But I—”
“It’ll turn up.”
“Dane!” someone calls from across the street.
We both look over at his uncle, standing in the doorway of the Fruitcake Emporium.
Rob winces. “And Amanda,” he adds. “Have you found the ring?”
We both shake our heads.
“Your grandpa said to tell you that your grandma lost her engagement ring once too,” he says. “She found it later inside a fruitcake.”
“If you’re offering to let me eat your whole stock to see if my ring’s in there, I’m game,” I call.
Dane looks down at me and smiles a soft smile. “You are truly one of a kind.”
“I’m pretty sure every person who’s ever bought an expensive engagement ring for another person is very grateful for that.”
“Stop.It’ll turn up.”
He doesn’t addand if it doesn’t, it’s probably because it was stolen.
But that’s another thought that’s started lingering in the back of my mind.
Did my grandmother steal my ring during the ceremony this morning?
Did we hold hands at any point?
I can’t remember.
But I know she doesn’t want me to marry Dane. I know she’s known all week that I’m hesitant about taking over the bakery. And it wouldn’t be the first time someone in our family did something shitty in the name of winning.
Or so I’m reasonably certain I’m about to prove.
