A Fool's Gold Christmas (Fool's Gold #9.5)(62)
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.”
* * *
EVIE’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.
She rolled over and found Alexander was already up and busy with his morning ablutions. She watched him carefully wash his face, first licking the side of his paw, then wiping it across his face and over his ear. He was thorough and patient, but in the end, clean.
“’Morning,” she said when he looked up at her.
He started to purr and walked toward her for his cuddle. She pulled him next to her and rubbed him all over before finishing with a good chin scratch.
“You’ve been very good to me,” she told him. “I was really stupid with the martinis. That won’t happen again. I’ve learned my lesson. About liquor if not love.”
She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She’d never been in love before, so had no idea how long it took to feel better. One thing she knew for sure. As soon as she got through the holidays, she was going to start looking for a new place. There was no way she could live next door to Dante. She would be around him too much to forget him.
Her friends would help with finding a place, she thought, that knowledge easing some of the pain. Plus her mom had offered to loan her the money for a down payment. Knowing May, she would probably want to make it a gift, but Evie would prefer to pay her back. It seemed the grown-up thing to do.
“Would you like a yard?” she asked. “Do you like going outside? I can see you lying in the grass, sunning.”
Alexander draped across her, his eyes half-closed, his purr comforting her.
She would keep busy, she told herself. Maybe take some classes at the college. There were also her ideas for the expanded teaching schedule. And that exercise class her mom had mentioned sounded fun.
“I’m going to get over him,” she told her cat. “I swear I will.”
But the ache in her heart seemed bigger every day, and sometimes she wondered how anyone survived losing a great love. How did you learn to forget? To be happy again? She wondered if maybe that was simply a matter of finding small joys in life and stringing them together. Maybe after a while they became bigger than the pain.
She could only hope.
* * *
“OKAY,” GIDEON SAID from his place backstage. “They win.”
Evie looked at the nearly sixty excited, squealing, running, jumping and dancing girls careening around the stage and nodded. “Right there with you. I feel like if we back away slowly and don’t show fear, they won’t attack.”
It was the long-anticipated afternoon of the dress rehearsal. Everyone was in costume for a run-through of the show. Wings quivered, sequins glittered and tap shoes rang out on the wooden stage. Evie had been worried about getting the girls dressed and having them work with their costumes. What she hadn’t anticipated was the excitement that would send them into a giggling, bouncing frenzy.
She told herself to simply pick up the microphone and speak with authority. That the girls would instantly quiet and listen. What she didn’t know was what she was going to do if she was wrong.
“Breathing isn’t helping,” Gideon said quietly. “I don’t like that.”
“They’re my responsibility,” Evie told him. “I’m going in.”
But before she could gather her courage, the door to the convention center opened and Dominique swept inside, followed by Morgan, who played the Winter King.
The petite former dancer moved with a grace that captivated the girls. As one, they turned to watch the elegantly dressed woman. Dominique’s hair was perfectly coiffed. She had on a trim, tailored suit, the color of her green eyes, and four-inch heels. She stopped in front of the stage and faced the students.
“Good afternoon, ladies.”
“Good afternoon, Ms. Guérin,” they answered in unison.
Dominique offered a smile. “I see you’re all ready for your dress rehearsal. What I want you to remember as you prepare for your moment in the spotlight is that each of you is a star. A beautiful shining light that will transform those privileged enough to see you.”