Christmas on 4th Street (Fool's Gold #12.5)(28)

Noelle gasped. Her stomach clenched and she regretted all the pizza she’d eaten.

“They were gone,” he said, staring past her. “All of them. Just gone. It happened so fast.”

“I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible.”

“It was. Everything about it. But it also affirmed what I’ve always believed. That there’s no point in getting married.”

She stared at him. “Excuse me? You’re dismissing the entire institution?”

“Sure. Life is tenuous at best. We could all be dead tomorrow. I’ve seen it again and again.”

“I know what happened is a tragedy, but you learned the wrong lesson.”

“No. I didn’t.” He glanced around. “I’ll admit it’s less likely to happen here than where I was, but we still don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. Why risk it?”

“All the more reason to risk it,” she told him. “We should grab happiness while we can, because you’re right. There’s no promise of more time.”

“I’m not saying other people shouldn’t get involved and get married. Just not me.”

“What about a family? Don’t you want kids?”

For a second, his expression turned wistful, but then the softness was gone. “I don’t see that happening.”

“You’re going to be one lonely old guy.”

“Ana Raquel will enjoy being right about me.”

She wanted to say more, to tell him he was wrong, but she knew there was no point. Gabriel was an intelligent man who had obviously thought a lot about his future. He’d seen that life was tenuous and had decided to avoid future pain by not getting involved. She’d learned the same lesson about life’s tenuousness, but with opposite results. She’d thrown herself into her new life in Fool’s Gold—buying the store, making friends, having plans.

“I’m thinking about getting a cat,” she said firmly, because a pet was the next step for her.

“I like cats,” Gabriel told her. “They make you earn their respect. Webster would go home with anyone.”

“He’s a puppy.”

“You think he’ll be any different when he’s older?”

Noelle thought about the friendly dog and how he seemed to adore the world. “Probably not,” she admitted. “But he’s really sweet.”

“A good quality in a large dog.” He picked up his beer. “How did you come to live in Fool’s Gold?”

“I wanted to make a change. I’d been practicing law for a while and—”

He raised his eyebrows. “You were a lawyer?”

“Yes. You don’t have to sound surprised.”

“You’re not ruthless.”

“No, I’m not. That was part of the problem. I went into the profession with the idea I could help the world. Unfortunately, I was seduced by an offer from a corporate firm.” There had been a guy involved in that decision, but she didn’t want to go into that.

She sipped her beer. “I didn’t love my work but I also didn’t want to quit.”

That decision had been taken out of her hands when she’d gotten sick. She’d taken a leave and when she’d returned, she’d been taken off all the important clients. Instead, she’d been relegated to research and writing reports. The firm wouldn’t outright fire her for what had happened, but they’d made it clear they didn’t trust her anymore.

“Eventually I knew I had to walk away,” she continued. “I spent a few weeks figuring out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and kept coming back to my family. Mostly my grandmother. She loved Christmas so much. It was a huge deal for all of us. She would tell me stories about when she was a little girl and all the magical things stored in the attic.”

“That’s where the name comes from.”

She nodded. “I decided to open a store. The only problem was finding a location. It didn’t seem like an L.A. kind of establishment. I wanted someplace smaller. So I spun until I was dizzy, then put a pin in a map of the States.”

He stared at her. “You’re kidding?”

“Not even a little. Under the pin was Fool’s Gold, which I’d never heard of. I moved here a few weeks later.”

“And the rest is history. You were determined. I’m lucky you didn’t attack me with that umbrella. You could have disemboweled me.”

She laughed. “I was only going to try to knock you out. I could never disembowel anyone.”

“That’s right. You’d faint. Probably for the best. It keeps the rest of society safe.” He studied her for a few seconds. “You’d never worked in retail but you packed up your life to move to a town where you didn’t know anyone and you opened a store?”

“Yes.” She waited for him to tell her she’d been an idiot.

He raised his bottle toward her. “I applaud your bravery.”

“Thank you. Life is short. You have to do what you can while you have the chance.”

His gaze sharpened. “Is that what you believe?”

She nodded. “Same as you, with an entirely different theory. I want it all. Love, kids, an IRA. I could go tomorrow, but what if I live to ninety-seven? What if you do?”