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

“He was humiliated, not hurt,” Evie assured her.

While they’d been talking, Charlie had finished mixing the chocolate chip cookies and was putting spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. When she turned to put the trays into the oven, Annabelle picked up the spoon.

“I’m not supposed to eat raw cookie dough, right?” she asked. “It’s the eggs.”

Charlie pushed the cookie sheet onto the oven rack, closed the door and straightened, then grabbed the spoon from Annabelle’s hand.

“No, you’re not supposed to eat that.” She held up the bag of chocolate chips and shook it. A few rattled inside. “I saved you some.”

Annabelle smiled, then sniffed. “You’re so good to me.”

“I swear, if you cry, I’ll…”

“Yes? You’ll what? Hit me? Hit a pregnant woman? I don’t think so.”

“You’re so smug.”

“I know. It’s not as good as being tall like you, but I’ll take it.”

“They’re always like this,” Heidi told Evie. “They squabble and then they make up. I think it’s because they’re total opposites and yet completely alike.”

“That’s not possible,” Charlie said.

Evie studied the two of them. “I see what you mean.”

Heidi handed her a fork to start making the cross marks on the peanut butter cookies.

This time last year, Evie had been in Los Angeles, in her tiny apartment, working as a waitress and spending her Sundays as an L.A. Stallions cheerleader. She’d been pretty much on her own, with only a few friends she could depend on. This year everything was different. She was with her family, had new friends and was crazy in love.

Sure there were complications, but she had to admit, when comparing the two scenarios, her life had taken a turn for the better. The much better.

Chapter Sixteen

Evie stood on the stage in the high school auditorium and looked out at the rows of empty seats. With the upper-level seating, there were nearly eight hundred seats. That was a huge intimidation factor for her students, which was one of the reasons all their practices were now going to be here. They had to get used to the bigger stage and the—

Her cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“It’s Gideon. Where are you?”

Evie frowned and glanced around at the empty auditorium. She and Gideon had a noon meeting to discuss the changes he wanted to make in the voice-over for the show. He was late. “I’m at the high school. Where are you?”

“At the convention center. The sound system sucks, by the way. I’ve already put a call into Mayor Marsha. She said I can bring in any equipment I like.” He chuckled. “She has no idea what she’s agreed to.”

“Why are you at the convention center?”

“Because that’s where the performance is.”

Evie’s stomach contracted. “No. It’s at the high school.”

“It was at the high school. But there isn’t enough seating. This was all decided months ago. Didn’t anyone tell you?”

“No.” She had a feeling Miss Monica knew, but that was just one more detail the dance instructor hadn’t shared when she’d run off with her gentleman friend. “Wait. The adoption is there. How will there be room?”

“It’s a big convention center,” Gideon told her. “There’s room.”

She promised to hurry and raced to her car. It only took a few minutes to drive to the convention center. As she waited at one of the few stoplights in town, she tried to recall the conversations she’d had with her students. Now that she thought about it, she’d always talked about the stage. She’d meant the one at the high school but hadn’t been specific. No wonder no one had corrected her. They hadn’t known she was wrong.

She pulled into the convention center parking lot and stopped at the entrance that had a large pickup truck in front of it. It looked like the sort of vehicle Gideon would drive. She grabbed her bag and paperwork and raced inside.

Sure enough, a big stage had been set up, and there were rows and rows of chairs.

“Oh, no,” she said, coming to a stop and staring at the empty seats. “There has to be room for at least a couple of thousand people.”

“Three thousand, two hundred,” Gideon said, strolling up to greet her. “Mayor Marsha is convinced the program is going to be a success.”

“That’s too many people. My girls will freak. I would freak if it were me.”

“They’ll be fine.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one doing the dances.”

She was still trying to process the change in venue. All this time she’d had the high school auditorium in her head. Why had no one mentioned the convention center?

“Look at it this way,” Gideon said with a wink. “At least you won’t have far to go after the pet adoption.”

“I’m going to throw up.”

Gideon held up both hands and took a step back. “No reason for that to happen. Take a deep breath. In for the count of four, hold for the count of four, exhale for the count of four.”