A Fool's Gold Christmas (23 page)

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

“H
ey, 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.

“I’m sorry about Dante,” Charlie told her. “For what it’s worth, I think he’s going to regret losing you for the rest of his life.”

“I really hope so.”

Charlie grinned. “That’s my girl.”

Evie was led into the living room and settled in the middle of the sofa. All the other women gathered around. Her mom sat next to her. Jo handed out the peppermint martinis, which turned out to be delicious and went down far too easily.

Evie sipped, aware that everyone was watching her.

“I’ll start,” a redhead said. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, Alexander draped over one thigh. “I’m Liz, by the way. Married to Ethan.” She pointed at the triplets. “He’s their brother.”

Nevada groaned. “I suppose that makes what he did our fault?”

Liz laughed. “Technically, it does.”

“We’re sorry,” Montana told her.

“I accept your apology.” Liz turned back to Evie. “Ethan and I had a past, which made things complicated.”

“And a kid,” Charlie said.

“Yes. A son that Ethan didn’t know about. When things got ugly, I didn’t know what to do. I was trapped here, alone. But everyone came through for me.”

“Me, too,” Heidi said. “When Rafe was being stupid, my friends had buttons printed up. Team Heidi and Team Rafe.” She smiled smugly. “There were a lot more Team Heidi buttons around town.”

Charlie shrugged. “I can’t bond. I ran.”

While Evie appreciated the stories, they all had something in common. Each of the men in question might have acted stupid, but in the end, one by one, they’d come around. There was a shiny wedding band on every left-hand ring finger. Well, except for Annabelle and Charlie, who had engagement rings. No one in this room had lost the man of her dreams. Only Evie.

She swallowed against the familiar tightness in her throat. The last thing she wanted was to start crying. The problem was, she knew the truth. There wouldn’t be a happy ending for her. Not really. Dante had the best reason of all to avoid love. He believed the emotion was dangerous. His mother had died because he’d fallen in love.

Tears filled her eyes. She fought them, but one trickled onto her cheek, followed by another. Her mother pulled her close.

“Remind yourself he’s a jerk, and one day you won’t be in love with him anymore,” May murmured.

“Does saying that help?”

“No, but eventually it turns out to be true. You go ahead and cry. When you’re done, we’ll have ice cream, and I happen to know that really does help.”

* * *

E
VIE’S BREAKUP PARTY HANGOVER
lasted for nearly two days. The first day she’d had to excuse herself twice from rehearsal to go throw up, and if she never, ever tasted peppermint again in her life, it would be too soon. The second day the only lingering effects of the alcohol and cookies was a gently pounding headache. On the morning of the third day, she woke feeling like her regular self.