Kiss Me (Fool's Gold #17)(68)

After a couple of days on the range with their small group, the noise level was a little shocking. It seemed like organized chaos as the people called out to each other, setting up two portable picnic tables and loading them with food.

The sun was still visible low on the horizon, painting the Western sky in warm purples and reds. The soft light on a summer night in the mountains filled Phoebe with a feeling of contentment.

“Reese!” Chase called out in a voice about an octave lower than normal. He and a gangly teen did a complicated handshake that devolved into fake punches.

“Phoebe, over here!” Maya said. “I want to introduce you to my bestie from tenth grade. This is Dellina Hopkins.”

She had her arm around the shoulders of a pretty woman with long, brown hair.

“Dellina Ridge now,” her friend said.

Maya grabbed Dellina’s left hand and whistled at the beautiful ring set flashing on her fourth finger.

“My husband’s over there,” Dellina said, pointing toward a black Jeep with flames on the side, where two men were lifting out a heavy cooler from the back.

Eddie and Gladys were behind the men. Gladys was holding up a lantern while Eddie was getting close-up video of their butts.

“That’s Ford Hendrix,” Maya said. “So you must be married to the other guy— Wait a minute! Is that—? You’re married to Sam Ridge? The football player? I’ve done a couple of stories about him and that tell-all his ex-wife wrote.”

Dellina laughed. “We don’t talk about that.”

“Ohmigosh,” Maya said breathlessly. “Is that Mayor Marsha?”

She grabbed Phoebe’s hand and pulled her toward a lovely silver-haired woman who was standing with Andrea near one of the tables. The woman was dressed with casual elegance in lightweight gray slacks and a teal-colored sweater set. Around her neck, she wore pearls, and Phoebe wondered whether she should warn her about the raccoons.

“I brought Baked Ziti with Butternut Squash and Risotto,” Mayor Marsha told Andrea. “The recipe is from the Fool’s Gold Cookbook. I hoped you might like it because there’s no meat.”

Andrea looked nonplussed. “How did you know?”

“Maya,” Mayor Marsha said as she pulled her into a warm embrace. “What a pleasure. And you must be Phoebe. Welcome to Fool’s Gold.”

“Mayor Marsha is the longest-serving mayor in California,” Maya said.

Phoebe enjoyed her friend’s enthusiasm. She’d never lived in a small town before, but she thought she might like it. In LA, she rarely bumped into friends. The city was so large and spread out, they had to make appointments to see each other, and the appointments had to be scheduled around the flow of traffic. Life seemed simpler here.

“I have something I’d like to talk to you about,” the mayor said to Maya. “Come to my office when you’re done with the cattle drive.”

“Will do.” Maya turned to Phoebe. “You doing okay?”

“Sure. This is fun. A little strange to have all these people show up in the middle of our cattle drive.”

“It’s Fool’s Gold. You gotta go with it.”

* * *

“WHAT MOST PEOPLE don’t know is that Cinderella had a brother,” Thad said.

Tommy looked surprised by the news, but Lucy simply snorted.

“She did not,” the little girl told him. “She had wicked stepsisters. There weren’t any boys.”

Thad smiled. “Her brother had been sent away by the wicked stepmother. He was working in the castle as a groom for the horses, when he heard about a tournament. It was being held the day of the ball.”

C.J. continued to stroke the brush through Lucy’s hair. After playing all evening with a few of the children from Fool’s Gold, Lucy and Tommy seemed quite content to sit near the dying fire with her and Thad. The party had broken up about fifteen minutes ago, and Thad wanted to tell the children a story before bed.

“It’s true,” she said. “He wanted to win for the glory, but also because the prize money would mean he could finally rescue his sister.”

Tommy nodded, as if that made perfect sense, but Lucy looked skeptical.

“That’s not the real story,” she complained. “You’re supposed to talk about the fairy godmother and the glass slipper and stuff.”

“I’ll get to that,” he promised.

C.J. glanced at her husband. He sat on a blanket in front of the fire. Tommy leaned against him. C.J. and Lucy were next to them. She’d already unfastened the girl’s braid. As she continued to brush her long hair, she admired the glow of the fire in the dark strands.

“I’ll bet her hair wasn’t nearly as pretty as yours,” C.J. told the girl.

Lucy turned around and stared at her in surprise. Her mouth parted slightly, but she didn’t speak.

C.J. felt badly that a simple compliment would be so unexpected. For the first time she wondered where Lucy and Tommy had come from. Where were their biological parents? Had Lucy and Tommy been abandoned? Had their parents died? What circumstances had forced them into foster care?

She looked at both kids, noticing how small they seemed in the vast darkness of the night. They were enthralled by Thad’s twisted version of Cinderella.

Watching them set up a familiar longing deep inside. A need for a baby of her own to hold and love and see grow. She wanted to hold the sweet-smelling infant and listen to the steady breathing. She wanted to be there for the first smile, first word, first step.