Read Online Taken In by Elizabeth Lynn Casey - Free Book Online

pulling her head back as she did. “Nothing. Things here are far too expensive. Anything I really need I can get in Sweet Briar.”
    “But they won’t be from New York.”
    “That’s okay, Leona. Sweet Briar is fine with me.”
    Leona rolled her eyes then turned to Tori. “Let me guess. You bought something for Milo, right?”
    “I tried to, but I haven’t found just the right thing yet.” She pointed to the bags on her arm. “These are actually Rose’s.”
    Leona’s left brow arched upward at Rose. “Oh? I didn’t know Bengay came in a soft pink shopping bag. Or is that to carry the slippers you usually wear morning, noon, and night?”
    “No. It’s for the duct tape I purchased for your always-flapping mouth,” Rose quipped. “But now that I’m standing here, looking at you, I realize I should have gone with the extra-wide size.”
    Tori laughed despite her best efforts, her desire to remain neutral during Rose and Leona’s showdowns not always easy to fulfill. Especially when Rose was a master at the comical comebacks.
    Leona’s gaped mouth shut just long enough to twist in anger at Tori. “You find this nasty old goat to be funny, dear?”
    “I can’t speak for Victoria, Twin, but I sure as shootin’ found it funny.” Margaret Louise turned to first Debbie and then Beatrice, their smartly placed hands a poor disguise for their own reactions. “Yes siree, it’s just as I ’spected.
Everyone
thinks Rose made a funny.”
    Leona’s foot came down hard on the carpeted floor. “I can’t win with all of you, can I? I stay behind to look after Dixie while you all go off gallivanting, and
this
is how I’m treated upon your return?”
    Four heads slowly lowered in shame, Rose’s following suit with the help of Tori’s gentle hand.
    Leona, seeing an opportunity to ride the martyr train a little longer, continued on, the wounded tone to her voice akin to the smack of a rolled newspaper on their noses. “Of everyone here,
I’m
the one who needed this trip to New York City. I’m far too cultured and intelligent for life in Sweet Briar. But I gave that all up to be closer to you, Margaret Louise. And even though my mind is wasting away in that one-horse open town, I stay as my gift to you, Victoria.”
    “Your gift?” Tori echoed during a fast upward glance.
    “Of course. If it weren’t for me, you’d still be plucking your eyebrows by hand and missing more than seventy percent of those stray hairs.”
    Debbie’s shoulders began to shake, bringing Leona’s full attention in her direction. “And you, Debbie Calhoun? If it weren’t for my being in Sweet Briar, all those handsome reporters who come to town to interview your husband wouldn’t ask to come back with each new book release.”
    Beatrice stepped in closer to Rose, cowering unnoticed under Leona’s reproachful stare. “And Rose? You’d be drooling away in some rest home, the victim of an unchallenged mind. Because
I
keep you sharp. My intelligence keeps you sharp.”
    Rose’s response was unintelligible behind Tori’s hand, and for that, Tori was glad. The last thing they needed was for Dixie to wake to their battle sounds. She said as much to Leona and Rose, their grudging agreement quickly drowned out by a hard knocking sound just over their shoulders.
    “Did you order room service, Twin?” Margaret Louise asked.
    Leona shook her head then pushed her way to the door, smoothing her hands down her form-fitting skirt as she did. “No. But I’m not usually the one who summons men. They just flock to me all on their own.”
    Wrapping her bejeweled hand around the doorknob, Leona yanked it open, a smug smile stretching her lips wide. “Mmmm,” she fairly purred as her lashes began to bat. “See? They flock.”
    Five heads craned around and over Leona’s shoulder to take in the handsome, well-built, uniformed police officer eyeing them from the hallway. One by one he took in each of their faces, his thoughts—save for the