A Fool's Gold Christmas

by Susan Mallery

  Evie shook her head. “I have to thank you, too, Mom. For making the effort. I’m not sure I would have been able to put pride aside and risk reaching out.”

  “You mean it about staying here?”

  “Yes. Dominique wants to expand the dance school, and I have some ideas for that.”

  “You could do a dance exercise class for women my age. To help us get in shape. Everyone I know wants to move like you do. You’re always so graceful.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “I’m not sure what we’d call it. Exercise and dance for old women probably isn’t a good name.”

  Evie started to laugh, and her mom joined in.

  May sniffed, then glanced around. While no one was overtly watching, Evie was pretty sure they were the center of attention.

  “All right then,” her mother said, wiping her cheeks. “Is my mascara running?”

  “You look beautiful.”

  May smiled. “I think that’s an exaggeration. I’m going to duck into the bathroom and spruce myself up. Then I’ll be back and we can see what we can do about getting the rest of these pets adopted.”

  * * *

  “HERE IT IS,” Evie said, carefully lifting the cat carrier out of the backseat of her car. “I’m sorry to make you ride back here, but I didn’t want to have to worry about the air bag deploying. Not that I’m a bad driver and we’re at risk for being in an accident.”

  She pressed her lips together. “I’m babbling, I know. I’m a little nervous. I’ve already been rejected by one guy in my life. I guess I’m afraid you’ll be critical.”

  She closed the car door and walked into her place.

  The previous night she’d set up the cat supplies. She’d put the litter box upstairs in the guest bathroom. She’d folded an old, soft blanket on the window seat in the guest room. On sunny days Alexander could sun himself there.

  The food and water bowls were full and on a placemat in a quiet part of her kitchen. She wasn’t sure where to put his cat bed. From what she’d read, he would find where he was most comfortable, so for now, it was in a corner, tucked next to a chair. He could see out, but still feel a little protected.

  She took the carrier upstairs to the guest room. She figured they would start near the bathroom and let him find his way from there. She set it on the floor and opened the wire door.

  “You’re home,” she said in a quiet voice. “Alexander, come on, big guy. This is it. Where you belong.”

  He slowly, cautiously, stepped out of the carrier. After glancing at her, he walked into the bathroom and sniffed. He paused at the litter box, but didn’t use it.

  “I hope I got the right kind,” she said. “It has baking soda in it.”

  He walked past her and went under the guest bed. Before she could wonder if he was going to hide there for a while, he came out the other side and headed for the hallway.

  She’d closed the door to the master, thinking she didn’t want to confuse him. He headed downstairs, and she followed.

  He made a circuit of the rest of the place, pausing to delicately lap at the water and sniff the dry food. Then he walked to the sofa, jumped up and stared at her.

  She paused at the bottom of the stairs.

  “I should probably tell you about myself,” she murmured, thinking she was being an idiot, but not sure how else to start a conversation with a cat.

  “I’ve never had a pet before, so it’s possible I won’t get everything right. If you could just be a little patient with me, I would appreciate it. I’m, um, a dance teacher, which I like a lot. Do you like children? Because there might be some around, from time to time. I just broke up with the guy I was seeing.”

  Evie paused, feeling the pain of the words. “I thought he was pretty great. I thought…” She swallowed against the tightness in her throat. “I was in love with him,” she whispered, fighting tears. “Stupid, huh?”

  She crossed to the sofa, sitting at the opposite end from Alexander, so as not to frighten him. “I’ve never had a successful romantic relationship, so it’s really just going to be the two of us. But I’m hoping you and I can get along. I want to take good care of you.”

  Steady green eyes regarded her.

  “It would really help if you could tell me what you’re thinking,” she said.

  Alexander stood and walked across the back of the sofa. He jumped down on the cushion next to her and then sat, looking at her. Slowly, carefully, she reached out to pet him. She stroked the length of his back, then rubbed the side of his face. When she scratched under his chin, he raised his head up and forward.

  “Do you like that?” she asked. “Is that nice?”

  Without warning, he jumped onto her lap and stood facing her. She rubbed his soft fur. He turned once and then curled up on her lap and began to purr.

  She continued to pet him, feeling the quiet rumble as she rubbed his chin. More tears fell. She didn’t try to stop them. She knew that acknowledging the pain was a part of the process. Eventually she would heal, and one day she would be able to look back, saying she’d learned something. Until then she had to figure out a way to survive with a Dante-size hole in her heart.

  * * *

  EVIE FOUGHT AGAINST a pounding headache. She’d spent most of Sunday holed up in her townhouse, getting to know her new cat and sobbing uncontrollably. She’d been forced to duck out for food in the afternoon, then had retreated to her ongoing pity party.

  For a second night, she’d mostly been awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering what she could have done differently and asking impossible questions. Like was she ever going to meet “the one” and fall in love?

  Alexander had settled the issue of his sleeping arrangements by joining her. He was a thoughtful roommate, curling up at the foot of the bed and sleeping silently. When she’d started crying again at four in the morning, he’d draped himself across her chest and had purred until she’d managed to calm herself.

  This morning she’d heard Dante leave around five. As it was way too early for work, she’d assumed he’d been leaving for the airport. Sure enough, she’d checked the parking lot by his office and his car wasn’t there. He was well and truly gone, flying off to be with another woman.

  All of which made her heart break more but wasn’t anything she could deal with right now. After spending the past two hours working with the lighting guy, she had to pull herself together for the dance rehearsal. This would be the first full run-through, with music and lights. Based on her professional experience, it could go very badly and it was up to her to stay calm and positive.

  Every part of her hurt. Her eyes were puffy, and she was pale. Falling in love was a bitch, she told herself but no one else’s problem. She had to pull it together for her girls and for the town. In less than a week, she would be done with all this and able to freak out as much as she wanted. She planned to spend the day after Christmas having an emotional meltdown. That would be the end of it. On the twenty-seventh, she would get her act together and move on with her life. What was that saying? She would fake it until she made it.

  The rehearsal was due to start at two. By one forty-five all her dancers were there. Grace, the lithe, talented star of the school, had gathered the girls who had the most trouble with their steps and taken them through their section. The tap team was going through their routine, their stocking feet silent on the stage. The rest of the groups were practicing as well.

  Short and tall, skinny and round. All working hard. Happy and determined, she thought.

  Gideon walked up to the stage. “Hey,” he said. “I’m here to be the voice from beyond.”

  She turned to him. “Aren’t they amazing?” she asked.

  He glanced at the girls and nodded. “Beautiful and unique.”

  “So speaks the Zen master.”

  “Have you been practicing your breathing?”

  “Sure. In my free time. I’m also working on a plan for peace in the Middle East.”

  “Let me know how
that goes.”

  She waited until he’d climbed the steps up to the stage, then followed him back behind the side curtains. He would watch the show and do the narration from there. For the dress rehearsal and the actual show, he would be farther away from the action, so there wasn’t background noise. At that point, they would depend on musical cues to stay in sync.

  “Thanks for doing this,” she said as she handed him the microphone. “I know it’s been a lot of time.”

  He shrugged. “I got the music together and learned a script. No big deal.”

  Her voice got a little tight. “It is to me. And the girls. Plus, you’re here. We can depend on you.”

  Gideon’s dark eyes narrowed. “Uh-oh. What does that mean?”

  “Nothing. Sorry. Personal stuff.”

  He took a step back. “Are you okay?”

  “No, but let’s not talk about it.”

  “What happened?”

  She drew in a breath. She was going to have to start telling people at some point. She could practice now. Get the first telling over with. After all, Gideon wasn’t a close friend or part of her family.

  “Dante and I broke up. I guess it’s more accurate to say we’re not seeing each other anymore. Breaking up implies a relationship. We never had that.” She felt her eyes starting to burn and blinked away the tears. “It’s fine. Or it will be. I just wish I hadn’t fallen in love with him, you know.”

  Gideon’s face took on the expression of a trapped animal. Despite the ache in her heart, she started to laugh.

  “I’ll stop talking now,” she said. “You look like you’re going to faint.”

  “I don’t like the emotional stuff.”

  “But you’re all one with the universe.”

  “That’s different. I can be in the moment.”

  “As long as it’s not an emotional moment?”

  “So the system is flawed.” He seemed to gather strength. “Are you all right? Can I, ah, help?”

  “You’re sweet, but, no. I’m fine.” She grinned. “So the big tough guy thing is just an act?”

  “Some people are afraid of spiders.”

  “You’re afraid of emotions.”

  He shuddered. “I avoid them. But I could storm a South American country and overthrow a dictator if that would help.”

  “Not this week, but I do appreciate the offer.” She stared at him. “You’re really strange.”

  “I get that a lot.” He picked up one of the two microphones and handed it to her. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “I’ll get the girls.”

  She walked to the center of the stage. Gideon was dangerous, she thought. The kind of man who knew things, had seen things, the rest of the world could only guess at. But in the end, Dante was more lethal. Gideon might be capable of overthrowing a government, but Dante had shattered her heart.

  The really sad part was if he walked in the door this second and begged her to take him back, she would. In a second. Which meant a trip to the self-help section of the local bookstore was in order. She needed some serious healing.

  But that, too, was for later.

  She turned on the microphone and faced her dancers.

  “Thank you all for coming,” she said. “I’m so excited about this show. Each of you has worked so hard. You should be proud of yourselves.” She paused and smiled. “All right. Let’s start from the top, shall we?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Hey, big guy,” Evie said as she walked into her townhouse. She’d just taken her dancers through a second day of rehearsing the entire show. “It went really well. I’m so proud of them.”

  She paused in the living room, not sure where to find Alexander. The cat had only been living with her for a few days, and they didn’t have much of a routine yet. But as she shrugged out of her coat, she heard a soft “meow” from the stairs.

  Alexander stood about halfway down, his green eyes wide, his expression expectant.

  “Hi, you,” she said, walking toward him. “How was your afternoon? Did you sleep in the sun?”

  She moved up a few steps, and he moved down. They met somewhere near the bottom. She sank onto the carpeted stairs and began to stroke him. He stepped close and rubbed his head against her hand. His kitty eyes closed, and he purred.

  “Wow, that’s some greeting,” she said. She slowly picked him up, careful to support his rear, and held him in her arms. He relaxed against her, his whole body vibrating with a contented rumble.

  “I’m going to assume you’re happy to see me and not anticipating that dinner is in a few minutes.”

  She set him on her lap. He planted his back feet on her thighs and put his front paw on her chest, by her collarbones, then pressed his nose to hers.

  She laughed and scratched his chin. “Okay, so that act in the shelter was you playing hard to get, right? You were making sure I was committed before you gave your kitty heart. I can respect that.” Her smile faded. “I should have done the same with Dante. Then I wouldn’t feel so sucky about the whole falling in love thing.”

  She scooped him up in her arms and carried him down the stairs. “I stopped at the pet store and got you some canned food to try.” She set him down and reached for the small paper bag she’d carried in with her. “It’s organic and supposed to be very supportive of your urinary health. Apparently we’re going to have to watch that.”

  Alexander followed her into the kitchen. She served him a couple of teaspoons of the canned food on a dish and watched him polish off the snack. When he’d finished, he glanced up at her.

  “Nice?” she asked. “That was the chicken flavor. I also got tuna.”

  She put a lid on the can and stuck it in the refrigerator, then paused to survey the complete lack of people food. While she’d gone to the store, her efforts had been halfhearted at best. She had eggs and milk, along with a couple of apples. In the freezer were a few frozen entrées.

  She could order a pizza, she thought. Or go get takeout. But that would be so much effort. It had been different with Dante. Easier. She missed that, and his energy. She missed how he made her laugh and the way she felt in his arms. Mostly she missed him.

  Before she could make a decision, or simply collapse on the floor and give in to tears, she heard a knock on the door. For a second, her heart froze.

  “It’s not Dante,” she whispered. “He’s gone. Off having sex with an old girlfriend.”

  She walked to the living room and pulled open the door. Instead of a lost tourist or a kid selling who-knows-what, she found herself staring at Patience, Heidi, Annabelle, Charlie and several other women it took her a second to place. She saw her mother waving from the back of the group.

  “Hi,” she said, not sure what was going on. All the women were holding grocery bags. Was this a shopping intervention?

  “We heard,” Heidi said. “About what happened.”

  “This is not the time to be delicate,” Charlie said. “We know Dante is a complete jackass and we’re sorry.” She held up a bottle of vodka in one hand and Baileys mint chocolate liqueur in the other. “We’re here to help.”

  Evie stepped back, mostly because her porch was small and she couldn’t figure out how to tell them all to go away.

  “I’m Pia,” a pretty brunette said. “We’ve met, but you probably don’t remember.”

  “I brought my own blender,” Jo, from Jo’s Bar, told her, holding up a very professional-looking machine. “And ice. I didn’t know if you had an icemaker.”

  “Oh, honey,” her mother said and pulled her close. “I’m so sorry about Dante.”

  The women trooped into her living room which, fortunately, was clean. One of the triplets came out holding Alexander.

  “I’m Dakota and he’s adorable.”

  “Thanks. I just adopted him last Saturday.”

  Dakota nodded. “Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll warn everyone.”

  Still confused, Evie followed her into the living room.

 
“We have a new-to-the-family cat here, ladies,” Dakota said, patting Alexander. “Let’s try to keep it down.”

  Evie still wasn’t sure what “it” was, although it obviously involved total strangers taking over her house. Jo had already set up her blender and was pouring generous amounts of liquor in with ice. Someone had set out martini glasses and little candy canes.

  Charlie was putting out bowls of what looked like dip and guacamole. There were regular chips, tortilla chips, crackers and spreads, plates of cookies, brownies and the largest box of fudge she’d ever seen.

  “I’m doing a nonalcoholic cranberry sparkler as soon as I get these peppermint martinis done,” Jo called. “For Annabelle and Nevada.”

  “For me, too,” Heidi said. “I ate way too much last night and my tummy’s been unhappy all day.”

  Evie met her sister-in-law’s gaze but didn’t say a word. Heidi’s problem had nothing to do with the volume of food she’d eaten and everything to do with being pregnant. But Evie was going to keep her secret.

  Charlie walked up to her and put her arm around her shoulders. “Gideon came to me this morning,” she said. “I made a few calls and here we are. We would have come sooner, but you had your rehearsal and we didn’t want to get in the way.”

  “I don’t understand,” Evie told her.

  “It’s a Fool’s Gold thing. We come, we show support, we get drunk and eat crap. You cry.”

  “In front of everyone?”

  “Trust me, you’ll feel better.”

  “Did you go through this?”

  “No. I ran because I wasn’t brave enough to face my friends. But you’re tougher than me.”

  “How can you say that?” Charlie was the most impressive person Evie knew.

  Charlie stared at her. “Evie, look at yourself. You’ve been on your own since you were seventeen, with no support. You practically raised yourself and you turned out great. Two months into a new job, you get the whole Dance of the Winter King dumped on you and you manage to pull it all together. Who else could do that?”

  It was a question she didn’t know how to answer. Honestly, she’d never thought of herself as special. In her mind, she’d actually screwed up a lot. She wasn’t talented enough to stay in Juilliard and she’d never been able to settle on a job she loved. Until now.