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

“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.”