Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,58
a lot.”
She couldn’t help but stare as the woman resumed her path toward the dessert table. Little by little the wall was crumbling around Dixie’s tough-as-nails façade, their common love of children and books forging a bond between them she hadn’t thought possible. Yet there it was. And she was glad.
“Must I really open the door myself, dear?”
Whirling around, she felt the smile before it even completed its trip across her mouth. “Leona, hi!”
“The door?”
She closed the gap between them with two quick strides. “Oh, sorry. I got sidetracked by Dixie.”
“Dixie?” Leona asked as she, too, stepped inside. “Is she nailing herself to a cross again?”
“No, she’s not.” She heard the disbelief in her voice, felt the contentment that chased it away. “It’s getting better. It really is.”
“I told you it would, didn’t I?”
She looked a question at her friend.
“Don’t furrow your brow at me like that, dear. It’ll encourage wrinkles.”
“Wrinkles? Who’s got wrinkles?” Georgina’s voice bellowed through the screen just before she yanked open the door and stepped inside. “Are you badgerin’ Victoria again, Leona?”
“Badgering?”
She rushed to head off a tiff before everyone could be present for the show. “I set up the dessert table just inside the kitchen door. Feel free to set your dishes down and find a seat for the evening.”
“I’m here, I’m here.” Debbie peered through the screen, her hair pulled into a high ponytail that only accentuated her already high cheekbones. “Jackson had a lot to say at the dinner table this evening so things ran a little late.”
“As good a reason as any, I’d say.” She pushed the door open once again, her nose seeking out the woman’s covered plate. “Something from the bakery?”
Debbie shook her head. “From my secret stash.”
She drew back. “Secret stash?”
“Those are the recipes I try at home. Some make it onto the menu at the bakery, some stay exclusive to the Calhoun household. The kids usually decide which recipes stay exclusive.” With a flip of her finger, Debbie lifted a section of the foil and held it up for Tori to see. “Anything chocolate and gooey tends to stay exclusive.”
“Chocolate? And gooey?” she echoed.
“That’s not what I brought.”
She felt her shoulders slump then caught the glint of amusement in Debbie’s pale blue eyes. “Hey! That’s not nice.”
Debbie laughed. “But it was fun. You should have seen your face.”
“Ha ha. Besides, Margaret Louise has chocolate.”
“She may. But I bet she doesn’t have gooey.”
“Okay, go. Go put your stuff on the table.” She trailed behind her friend, breaking off in the direction of the women already seated in the living room. “So how is everyone this evening?”
“I think the better question is how are you, dear?” Leona tilted her head forward and pinned Tori with a stare from atop her glasses.
She swept her gaze across a wide-eyed Georgina, an abnormally subdued Margaret Louise, a distressed Rose, and a hard-to-read Dixie before focusing on Leona once again. “What? What’s going on?”
“You didn’t act fast enough, dear.”
“Act fast enough? On what? What are you talking about?”
“Milo. And that little hussy he’s picnicking with around town.”
“Must you always be so insensitive, Leona?” Rose snapped before patting the empty cushion beside her. “Come now, Victoria, come sit by me.”
Hussy?
“It sounds to me as if it was a good thing Milo was with that woman this afternoon,” Dixie mused. “He may have stopped something horrible from happening.”
Debbie stopped midway into the living room, her hands no longer carrying the exclusive treat. “Did something happen at the school?”
“This has nothing to do with the school.” Georgina gestured Debbie toward a folding chair to her right and then drew forward in her own seat, prompting the others to do the same. “Now ya’ll know I’m not the one to go’round spreadin’ rumors, so you better listen close the first time.”
Leona rolled her eyes skyward as Georgina’s voice grew hushed. “Seems someone has been lurking around Milo’s college sweetheart since she arrived in town. She’s been followed in the parking lot of the inn, she’s heard the sound of someone trying to pick their way into her room—”
“She did?”
Georgina nodded in her direction. “And she had a threat written across her windshield with soap.”
“Good heavens! Why would someone want to do that?”
Why indeed.
“Because she’s trying to get her former knight to climb back on his horse and ride to her defense.” Leona lifted her chin and grabbed for the stack of magazines Tori had left beside the plaid armchair. “And Victoria here is allowing it to happen.”
“I think