Dreaming Of Christmas. Susan Mallery

      “You’re right.” He studied her over his wineglass. “What about you? No fancy Mr. King of the Dance coming to rescue you from the backwater that is Fool’s Gold?”

      “I’m between kings right now. And, at the risk of sounding like Jane Austen, content to be so. Miss Monica is welcome to her gentleman friend. I’m more focused on the upcoming performance.” Not to mention avoiding her family as much as possible.

      “Did you see all the Thanksgiving decorations around town?” he asked.

      “The turkey population is well represented.”

      “Christmas is going to be worse,” he grumbled.

      “Candy canes on every mailbox.”

      “Wreaths on every door.” He looked at her. “It’s going to be like living in a snow globe.”

      “Tell me about it.” She sipped her wine. “Do you know this town doesn’t have a grocery store that stays open twenty-four hours a day? What’s up with that? What if someone needs something at two in the morning?”

      “Like aspirin after listening to clog dancers for an hour?”

      “You’ll adore them when you see them perform.”

      “Maybe.” He frowned. “Hey, why aren’t you a big fan of Christmas? With your family, I would think loving the season would be a given. I’ll bet your mom made Christmas special for you.”

      Evie put down her wine and pressed a hand to her stomach. Sudden churning made her uncomfortable.

      No doubt Dante saw May as a warm, caring parent. The kind of woman who would bake cookies and sew Christmas stockings. Maybe she had once—Evie’s brothers each had a carefully embroidered stocking. But Evie’s was store-bought and not personalized. There hadn’t been many traditions for her. She’d always found Christmas kind of lonely and wasn’t looking forward to an entire town showing her all the ways she didn’t fit in.

      “I suppose I’ve gotten out of the habit of the holidays,” she said, hedging. She barely knew Dante. There was no reason to go into the gory details of her past with the man.

      “Then we’ll have to stay strong together,” he told her. “There’s only the two of us against all of them.”

      She laughed. “Grinches together?”

      “Absolutely.” He pointed at her nearly untouched plate. “Okay, you’re either going to have to eat more or explain to the chef why you didn’t like his very excellent lasagna.”

      “I wouldn’t want that.”

      An hour later, they’d finished most of the wine. Dante had explained more about the Shanghai project and she’d told funny stories about her days touring with a third-rate ballet company. He insisted on packing up the leftovers for her to take home and then escorted her across their shared driveway and to her front door. Once there, he waited until she’d put her key in the lock and pushed open the door.

      “If you need anything, pound on the wall,” he told her. “Ah, the one between us. If you pound on the other one, you’ll confuse the neighbors and get a bad reputation in the development.”

      “I wouldn’t want that.” She held up the bag of food. “Thanks for this.”

      “You’re skinny. Eat more.” With that, he bent down and lightly kissed her cheek. “’Night, Evie.”

      “’Night.”

      She watched him walk back to his place and step inside. Then she stepped into her house and shut the door. She stood in the dark for a second, the feel of his kiss lingering on her cheek.

      She’d had fun tonight. Talking, sharing a meal with a friend. Dante was easy to talk to. Charming. He was the kind of man who made a woman think about more than kissing. Even someone who knew how dangerous that could be.

      “My brother’s business partner and a player,” she said as she turned on the light in the entryway. There were a thousand reasons not to play the what-if game with Dante Jefferson. She was smart enough to remember every one of them.

      * * *

      “YOU KNOW THIS ISN’T normal, right,” Dante said as he stood on the porch of the house and stared out at the elephant. “Ranches are supposed to have things like horses and goats. What were you thinking?”

      Rafe shook his head. “It wasn’t me.”

      Dante continued to study the elephant. “What is she wearing?”

      “A blanket. It gets cold here. She goes into a heated barn at night, but she likes to be out during the day. Mom had the blanket made for her.”

      Dante thought longingly of his life back in San Francisco. Season tickets to the Giants and the 49ers. Poker nights with his buddies. Dinners with beautiful women. Okay, sure, he’d had a beautiful woman at his place last night, but that was different. She was his partner’s sister. The price of getting lucky could be the loss of a very treasured body part. Although he would have to admit watching Evie move was almost worth it. He supposed it was years of dance training, but she made even the act of picking up a fork look graceful.

      “I know what you’re thinking,” Rafe said.

      Dante doubted that.

      “I changed my life for Heidi,” Rafe continued. “It’s worth it. And I want to be here on the ranch. I like Fool’s Gold.”

      “I figured as much when you moved the business here.”

      “Come on.” Rafe turned toward the house. “Let’s go inside. We’ll have brownies while you tell me about what’s going on in Shanghai.”

      They settled at the kitchen table. The company’s rented office space didn’t have any private offices, which meant any sensitive business had to be discussed elsewhere.

      Over the next couple of hours, they reviewed several ongoing projects, and Dante brought Rafe up to date on a few legal matters. When they were finished, Rafe poured them each more coffee.

      “You staying in Fool’s Gold for Thanksgiving?” he asked.

      Dante shrugged. “Probably.”

      “Come to dinner, then. I wasn’t going to get between you and your latest conquest, but if you’re flying solo, we’d love to have you.”

      “Thanks. I’ll bring wine.”

      “Not a salad or dessert?” Rafe joked.

      “Maybe next year.” He collected the folders he’d brought. “Evie’s pretty panicked about the Christmas Eve dance show.”

      Rafe frowned. “What are you talking about?”

      “The show. The Dance of the Winter King. The manager of the dance studio took off and left everything to her.”

      “I didn’t know that.”

      The statement confirmed what Evie had hinted at the previous night. That she and her family didn’t have much to do with each other.

      “You and your brothers have always been close,” Dante said. “But you barely mention Evie. We’d been in business about three years before I even knew you had a sister. What’s up with that?”

      Rafe shrugged. “After my dad died, things were tough. My mom was devastated, money was tight. I tried to handle the family, but I was a kid.”

      Eight or nine, Dante thought, remembering what his friend had told him over the years. He knew what it was like to look out for a parent. He’d done the same with his mom. It had always been the two of them against the world. Until Dante had joined a gang. His actions had broken her heart and ultimately cost her everything.

      What he would give to go back and change that, he thought grimly. To have his family back. But he’d learned