Just One Kiss (Fool's Gold #10)

“I hadn’t said anything to anyone. It sounds so sad. A broken engagement. Like it got dropped on the floor or something.”


Felicia picked up her drink. “I can’t bond on this subject. I haven’t been in any kind of romantic relationship and my sexual encounters have all been extremely short. I’m considering the possibility that I have responsibility in that beyond the barrier of my intelligence.”

“That you’re avoiding men who might want more from you?” Patience asked.

“Yes, and that I’m not putting myself in the appropriate social situations. I say I want to fall in love and have a family, but until I moved here, I hadn’t done anything to facilitate that occurring.”

Isabel leaned into Felicia. “We’ve all been idiots. Don’t beat yourself up about it. You see what you’ve been doing and now you can correct the problem.”

“I’m not always successful at self-correcting.”

“None of us are,” Noelle told her. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep on trying.”

* * *

“DO YOU know what you’re doing?” Lillie asked.

Her tone was gentle and her gaze warm and affectionate, but Justice still felt the sting of her words.

“I’m trying,” he muttered, carefully combing her hair.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, he thought grimly. One of the staff had called in sick, so Ava had gone in to help at the store. Patience had phoned and promised she would be back in time to get Lillie ready, but she was—he glanced at the clock—twenty minutes late. Apparently the last day of school was a big deal for a ten-year-old, so Justice had stepped in to fill the breach, so to speak. Or in this case, try to figure out how to make a fancy braid look right.

“I can show you on a doll,” Lillie offered.

He sectioned the hair, as he’d been shown and tried to manipulate it the way he’d seen Patience do it a hundred times. Her fingers flew through the process. It had looked so easy.

“If you and Mom get married, you need to think about having a boy,” Lillie told him. “You’d like that and you wouldn’t have to worry about his hair.”

He dropped his hands and stared at her, at her pretty face, at the affection in her eyes. He heard the acceptance in her words. She’d taken him into her heart, much as he suspected her mother had.

“Lillie,” he began, not sure what to say.

She flung herself at him, hanging on tight. He hugged her back, barely aware of the twinge in his midsection.

“You’d be a good dad,” she whispered in his ear.

The front door flew open.

“I know, I know,” Patience said as she hurried inside. “I was watching the clock. Then I turned around and I was late. I ran the whole way.”

She was flushed and panting, proof of her point. She hurried toward them, then paused. “You look so grown-up. When did that happen?”

Lillie smoothed the front of her pink-and-white dress and smiled. “Mom, we can talk about me growing up later. I need to get to school.”

“Right. French braid.”

Patience took the comb from Justice and smoothed her daughter’s hair. Seconds later her fingers were moving in rapid sequence. More quickly than he could have thought possible, it was done and she’d tied a pink ribbon on the end.

Patience rose and headed for the stairs. “Wait right there. I have something for you.”

Lillie turned to Justice. “Do you know what it is?”

“I don’t.”

“Mom gives the best presents. Just wait until Christmas. You won’t believe what you find under the tree.”

Christmas. He’d never had much reason to acknowledge the holiday. He’d usually been working and often out of the country. He would guess that in Fool’s Gold the season was celebrated with gusto and festivals.

There would be snow, he thought. Traditions. It would be a time of memories and belonging. Did he want that? Could he let go of his past and be a part of something that lasted?

Patience raced down the stairs and handed her daughter a pale silver box. The fancy script said Jenel’s Gems in the corner.

Lillie’s eyes widened. “For me?”

Patience hugged her. “I’m so proud of you. You’re a good student. You’re interested and curious and you work hard. This isn’t all about your grades, though. This is because you’re a wonderful daughter and I love you so very much.”

Lillie’s eyes filled with tears. She held on to her mom and mumbled, “I love you, too.”

He watched them, both in the moment and separated from it. He’d never had anything like this, he thought. He was sure his mother had been tender with him when he was young, but by the time Justice was six, Bart didn’t allow any signs of affection. He didn’t want to “weaken the boy,” as he put it.

What his father had never seen was the power and strength in love.

Lillie straightened then she opened the box. Inside was a gold butterfly charm on a delicate chain. She gasped.

“Do you like it?” Patience asked. “I saw it and thought of you. Here, let me put it on you.”

Lillie turned.