A Fool's Gold Christmas (Fool's Gold #9.5)

She wanted to say it didn’t matter, except she kind of liked the idea of having family who cared. She’d been alone for what felt like forever.

No, she told herself firmly. She wasn’t getting sucked in to home and hearth and all that crap. It was the season and Fool’s Gold. The town was holiday obsessed. How was she supposed to maintain a sensible amount of emotional reserve when she was going to things like tree lighting ceremonies?

She drew in a breath, then walked purposefully into the kitchen. Her brothers sat at the bar stools by the counter. They each had a mug of coffee and plates littered with dark crumbs. Her lone bag of bread was now crumbled and empty.

“You don’t have a lot of food around here,” Shane said. “You need to go to the store. Toast isn’t breakfast.”

Clay nodded at the refrigerator. “You don’t even have milk.”

“I drink my coffee black.”

“Why?”

She sighed. “You can’t do this. You can’t show up with no warning.”

“Because we might find you in bed with a guy?” Rafe asked flatly. “I don’t like you sleeping with Dante.”

Evie faced him. “You don’t get a vote. I’m over eighteen.”

“That’s not the point.”

“It’s exactly the point. He’s a good guy. I like him. It’s not your business.”

“I work with him.”

“Then don’t ask how his weekend was because, believe me, you don’t want details.”

Clay stood and leaned toward her. “Is it a money thing?”

Evie stared at him, unable to grasp what he was asking. Then she realized he was still talking about the lack of food in her refrigerator and not her reasons for sleeping with Dante.

“It’s not money. I don’t keep food in the house because if it’s here, I’ll eat it.”

Shane picked up his mug. “What else would you do with food?”

Clay punched him in the arm. “It’s about weight, moron.” He turned back to her. “You need to eat. You’re too thin.”

“Is that possible?” she asked, trying to go for humor and suspecting she failed.

“You’re not dancing anymore, Evie,” Clay told her. “It’s okay to be like everyone else.”

“Is that what you’re doing?”

He patted his stomach. “Charlie’s making sure of it.”

She waved her hand. “Okay, whatever.” She looked at all of them. “While I appreciate the effort, you can’t barge in here without calling first. Understood?”

They nodded.

“We wanted to surprise you,” Rafe said.

“Then you achieved your goal.”

He studied her. “Evie, I know it was bad before. When we were kids.”

It had been, she thought. She could be mad at them forever, but to what end? They were her brothers. They’d had their own growing up to do. She’d been a lot younger and the only girl.

“We all did the best we could,” she told him.

For a second she thought one of them might ask the inevitable “Even Mom?” But none of them did. Shane walked around the counter and pulled her close. Clay and Rafe joined in for the group hug. For the first time in as long as she could remember, her brothers held her.

When they’d released her, she smiled at Rafe. “Just so you know, I wasn’t a virgin.”

He groaned and covered his ears with his hands. “Stop! You have to stop.”

Clay chuckled. “Feeling pretty good about yourself, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

Chapter Eleven

Late Monday morning, Evie parked in front of the Fool’s Gold animal shelter. There was a large sign stating that over nine hundred and forty-seven animals had been adopted by the community and that donations were always welcome. When she got out of the car, she heard a couple dozen dogs barking and figured the meeting would be loud, if nothing else.

She walked toward the front door. Another car drove in and she recognized her mother’s Mercedes. As May got out of her car, Evie braced herself for whatever was to come. She was relatively sure her brothers would have shared the details of their visit to her place the previous morning. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about discussing her sex life with her mother, but she wasn’t sure she could actually get out of the conversation.

She waited for her mother to join her. May smiled broadly as she approached.

“This is going to be so exciting,” she said happily. “I can’t wait to meet all the animals. Rina was telling me that last year there was an iguana up for adoption. Though she said she decided not to give it any special beauty treatment for the holidays.”

“Aren’t iguanas huge?” Evie asked. “What was she going to do? Paint its toenails?”

“As long as she doesn’t expect us to do that.”

They walked inside and were met by a pretty young woman in her mid-twenties.

“Hi. I’m Tammy Blalock. I work here at the shelter.” Tammy smiled. “I also have a shift at Starbucks. So if you think you’ve seen me around town, you have.”

“You keep busy,” May said.

“I know. Life’s more fun that way.”