Elizabeth Lynn Casey - Southern Sewing Circle 08 - Remnants of Murder (15 page)

After a momentary hesitation, he tucked the drawing into his back pocket and began the slow climb up the side of the ledge, the huffing and puffing that had accompanied her effort next to nil with his. “So, what is this all about …” His question disappeared into the air as he reached the top and took in the blanket, flowers, and nearby basket.

“Ta da!” Tori flung her arms out to the side and did a little turn on the edge of the blanket. “So? What do you think?”

He looked from the blanket to Tori and back again, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. “How did you get all of that up here on your own?”

She pointed to the opposite side of the ledge and the more forgiving grade it boasted. “I came that way, though I’m sure I was quite the sight struggling to get the basket around that tree over there. Step to the side too much and you’re lucky if you don’t fall all the way down the hill.”

“You’re nuts, you know that?” he finally said as his gaze met and held hers.

“Nuts about you, yes.” She put one trembling hand inside the other as she took yet another calming breath. “I went to the store this morning and tried to think of all the things you might like. Then I went back to the house and baked up a batch of brownies and got everything together.”

“And the map?” he asked, reaching into his pocket and retrieving the drawing she’d done with the handful of crayons Margaret Louise had supplied.

She felt her face warm under his scrutiny and looked away. “Margaret Louise helped me with that. I—I’d never been here before.”

“So what’s in the basket besides brownies?”

Careful not to get too excited by the inquiry, she plopped down beside the basket and considered the responses she could give, opting to go the route Leona would take in a similar situation. “How about you sit down next to me and find out?”

His laugh warmed her from the inside, out, allowing her to finally relax. “Don’t mind if I do.”

As soon as he sat, she reached for the basket, her hands still shaking despite the positive signs. “To start us off, I figured we could have a little—”

He reached across the blanket and pulled her close, the feel of his arms around her midsection finally permitting a real smile. “You can show me what’s in there in a minute. After I get to hold you for a while.”

She snuggled against his chest, the smell and the nearness of the man lifting the stress of the last fifteen hours or so off her shoulders. “Oh, Milo. I’m so very sorry I forgot about last night. I—I have no explanation beyond stupidity. It certainly wasn’t a case of not wanting to see you. Please believe that.”

A momentary pause gave way to the kind of kiss that let her know everything was going to be just fine. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she took comfort in the reassurance his lips offered. When the kiss finally broke, she tapped his nose with the tip of her finger. “I love you, Milo.”

“I love you, too, Tori. It’s why October can’t come fast enough for me,” he said by way of a huskier than normal tone. “I want to be your husband. I want to come home to you every night and wake up with you every morning. And I want to know you feel the same way.”

“I do. It’s just that … well”—she pulled her hands into her lap and searched for the best way to explain how they’d gotten to that point—“I guess I needed the library events during the holidays to go well … and then the stuff with Charlotte Devereaux came up and I couldn’t walk away from figuring out what happened to her husband and …” She let the words disappear as she saw them for what they were—excuses.

He reached out, tilting her chin upward until their eyes met. “I’m not questioning any of that, Tori. I’m really not. I just want to know that our wedding is important, too. Because if it’s not … I mean, if you’re not ready yet … we can wait. Or if I’m not the right guy—”

She covered his mouth with her index finger and shook her head. “Trust me, Milo, you’re the right guy. The
only
guy that’s right for me. I just need to give myself permission to focus on my own life for a while instead of everyone else’s.”

At his nod of agreement and the tender tilt to his head, she scooted backward and pulled the picnic basket into the now empty space between them. “Today is our day. Just you and me. Time for us to catch up on everything we’ve missed in the busy-ness lately.”

Finally, the smile she’d come to draw on for strength over the past two years reached into his eyes and made them twinkle. “Sounds good to me.”

Over the next two hours they ate their way through the food she’d prepared, their progress hampered only by snuggle breaks, kiss-athons, and endless laughter about everything from the latest jokes making the rounds of the third graders at Sweet Briar Elementary, to details of the ongoing war of words between Rose and Leona.

“Think those two will ever get along?” Milo asked as he fit the last bite of brownie into his mouth and then flopped onto his back to peer up at the clouds as they marched across the spring sky.

Tori gathered up the last of the food and put it in the basket before claiming a spot beside him. “Who? Rose and Leona?”

At Milo’s nod, she laughed. “Don’t be fooled by their antics. Underneath Leona calling Rose an old goat, and Rose taking potshots at Leona’s prissiness, they care about each other immensely. If they didn’t, Leona never would have given one of Paris’s babies to Rose, and Rose never would have teamed up with Leona to get rid of Sweet Briar’s very own Grinch back in December.”

“I suppose you’re right.” He pointed to the sky, drawing her attention to an oddly shaped cloud as he did. “See that one right there? Looks sort of like a kayak, don’t you think?”

She squinted against the late afternoon rays, trying her best to see Milo’s vision. Unfortunately, all she saw was a long cloud. “Do you like to kayak?”

“I love it. Would love to give it a go in the ocean one day.”

Rolling onto her side, she studied the curve of his cheek as he continued to search for shapes in the sky. “We could go ocean kayaking on our honeymoon …”

He turned his head, his gaze mingling with hers as she offered a playful wink. “We could, I suppose. Heck, there are lots of things we could try depending on where we go.”

“Like?”

“Like zip-lining if we did a mountain/woodsy kind of trip. White-water rafting if our location offered a river. Ocean kayaking if we gravitate toward a coast.”

The animation in his eyes nearly took her breath away, and she found herself hoping the next six months would fly by just so they could live out some of the things he mentioned. “That all sounds wonderful, Milo.”

He, too, rolled onto his side, his hand reaching out across the space between them to tuck an errant strand of light brown hair behind her ear. “Then again, there’s a part of me that just wants to hole up in front of a fireplace, holding you all day. Or wrap my arms around you as we jump waves together.”

“Both of those sound great, too.” And they did. Basically anything and everything sounded great so long as they experienced it together.

“We need to pick something soon. So I can make the reservations and so we can start looking forward to it.”

“Then let’s pick.”

He stared into her eyes for a moment then rolled onto his back and got to his feet. “Wait right here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She felt her smile disappear as he headed in the opposite direction. “Wait. Where are you going?”

“To get the brochures.”

“You brought them?” she called after him.

He stopped just before he headed down the side of the ledge and grinned back at her over his shoulder. “I guess I was hoping that wherever that map was taking me would give us a chance to look through the stuff from the travel agent and finally pick our honeymoon spot.”

“Then hurry up, will you? I can’t wait to see what you got.” Then, while he headed toward the car, she collected the last napkin or two from the picnic blanket and tossed it into the basket. When the blanket was clear, she pulled the closed basket into the middle once again so they could use its lid as a place to set the brochures.

Five minutes later, Milo was back, a burgeoning manila envelope in his hands and an ultrawide smile on his face. “Here we go.” He set the packet on the top of the basket and lowered himself to the blanket beside Tori. Then, reaching inside the envelope, he extracted two distinct bundles. “This bundle”—he held up the stack in his left hand—“has mountain-y kinds of places—with cabins and lakes and rivers. And this other stack is more about beaches. Popular touristy ones and more secluded ones, too.”

“If we go beach, I think I’d prefer secluded.”

He placed both stacks on the lid and then slid his left arm around her waist. “I couldn’t agree more. And by its very nature, a cabin in the mountains would give us that secluded kind of feel, too.”

She couldn’t help but smile as she imagined cuddling up with Milo in front of a fireplace after a day spent hiking or rafting or simply sitting on a dock tossing bread crumbs to the fish. Just the simple notion of a date that didn’t have to be rushed because of work or other commitments was fun to imagine.

“What are you thinking about right now?” he asked as he nuzzled her cheek with his chin. “You look so happy.”

She pulled back just enough to run her hands through the burnished brown hair he kept short on the sides, yet longish on top. “I am happy. Because I’m here with you.”

He tilted his head into the sun, the dwindling rays picking out the amber flecks in his warm brown eyes. “No, I meant at that moment … while you were looking down at the stack of brochures. Your smile came from deep inside. It was beautiful.”

She glanced down at the brochures and shrugged. “Oh, that. I guess I was just imagining being alone with you in a cabin somewhere with no worries or cares except the two of us. For an
entire
week.
”

The dimples that usually unleashed the butterflies in her stomach lived up to their reputation as his smile stretched wide across his face. “Aww, Tori, you have no idea how much I needed to hear you say that.”

“But that was easy. It’s how I feel.” She pointed at the stacks. “So? What are you leaning toward? Mountain or beach?”

His gaze dropped to the stacks just before his hands did. “I’m torn. I’ve got two favorites in each category and I’m just not sure which would be best.”

“Well, whatever we don’t pick we can go back and do on our first, fifth, tenth, twenty-fifth, and fiftieth anniversaries.” Feeling the warmth of his gaze directed back on her, she pointed again at the brochures. “So show me what you’ve narrowed it down to.”

He shook his head. “I can’t do that. Maybe something that speaks to you will be outside the four I’ve found.”

“Trust me, I know enough about you at this point to know that if you’ve narrowed it to four, they’d probably be the same four I’d have zeroed in on, too.”

A quick and thorough search of her face resulted in an endearing shrug. Then, with careful hands, he unleashed the stacks from their rubber bands and liberated the top two from each pile. “First, the mountain ones. This one”—he handed her the top one—“is for a place in Tennessee. The Smoky Mountains, to be exact. It’s got lots of hiking, rafting, and kayaking opportunities. And the cabins are pretty awesome, too. This second one is up north in Vermont. Same basic stuff with the possibility of seeing some moose added into the mix. The cabins look good but don’t have the romantic feel of the place in Tennessee.”

She flipped through both brochures, her excitement over their looming honeymoon accelerating rapidly. Each pamphlet held its own intrigue, but the cabin company in Tennessee gripped her interest more. She said as much to Milo as she set that one aside and pointed toward the two beach selections he’d made. “Okay, and now for the beach?”

He handed the first of the tropical brochures to her, adding some commentary as he did. “This one is for a resort on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It has everything you could want to do—snorkeling trips, ocean kayaking, swimming, nightlife, et cetera. That all looks great, but I’m not sure how well it would hold up in the private-time category.”

She glanced through the pictures depicted in the flyer and then back up at Milo. “I definitely want some private time no matter where we go.”

“Me, too.” He took the brochure back and dropped it onto the stack that didn’t make the final cut. “And then there’s this one. It’s here in South Carolina but down at the very edge. It has lots of stuff to do if we want, yet they also do a really good job of making you feel like you can be alone regardless of how full the resort might be at any given time.”

The brochure itself was more like a small book with each page devoted to a different aspect. There was a page for water activities, a page for resort activities, a page for on-site restaurants, a page highlighting favorite sightseeing spots in the local town, and finally, a page that boasted the specific amenities offered in each guest room.

“Wow, this place really outdid itself, didn’t it?” She reclined back against Milo’s chest and made her way through the entire brochure a second time, the pictures the company had selected for the advertisement making it easy for Tori not only to imagine being there, but also to motivate her into putting it on her personal vacation bucket list. “I like it. And I want to go here with you sometime soon. But honestly? I have to say the cabin in the Smoky Mountains feels more honeymoon-ish to me.”

His arms tightened around her waist as he released a happy sigh. “We really are a good fit, aren’t we?”

She peered up at him, surprised. “You were leaning toward that one, too?”

“It was top on the stack for a reason.” He met and held her gaze with the kind of look that got the just-settled butterflies on the move once again. “So it’s settled then? I can call and make the reservations?”

She nodded then looked back down at the booklet in her hand, the pull of the South Carolina beach resort refusing to go lightly. “But we can check this place out one day, too, right?”

“Sure. Why not?” Milo continued talking, his thoughts, his energy now entirely focused on the trip they’d be taking in conjunction with their autumn wedding.