Read Online A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery - Free Book Online

told herself. She and Dante weren’t dating—she wasn’t that stupid. She knew better than to fall for her brother’s business partner. But some gentle flirting, a little handsome male company, wasn’t going to hurt anyone.
    “You’d be amazed what this town can do in a day,” he told her.
    “You sound impressed.”
    “You will be, too. How’s the dance prep coming? I heard the clog dancers earlier.”
    She laughed. “Sorry about that. I don’t know how to make it quiet.”
    “I’m getting used to the noise and they’re getting better.”
    “How can you tell?”
    “They’re more rhythmic.”
    “That’s true. At least most of the students are studying ballet. It’s quieter.”
    “Unless they fall.”
    She winced, remembering the mass tumble during her two o’clock class. “You heard that?”
    “It registered as a minor earthquake. The local seismology office called to see if we were okay.”
    She shoved him in the arm. “It wasn’t that bad.”
    “They didn’t do it on your head.”
    “Smug lawyer type,” she grumbled. “They’re learning. It doesn’t always go well.”
    “I didn’t say it had to stop. I’m looking forward to seeing the performance.”
    “You’ll be intimately familiar with the music.” She glanced at him. “Will you really come see the show? Won’t you be off visiting family?”
    “There’s just me.”
    “What about your dad?”
    “I never knew him.”
    “I didn’t know mine, either. But you probably guessed that from the slight altercation you witnessed yesterday.”
    He drew her close and kissed her cheek. “It sucks.”
    The blunt assessment was oddly comforting. “It does,” she admitted. “Hey, I don’t know anything about you.”
    “I like being mysterious. Sort of a James Bond of the lawyer set.”
    She laughed. “Hardly. So tell me something interesting.”
    “That’s too much pressure. Ask me a question.”
    “Have you ever been arrested?”
    “Yes.”
    She stopped on the sidewalk and stared at him. “Seriously?”
    “More than once.”
    “You went to jail?”
    “I served time.”
    “No way. You can’t have a criminal record and be a lawyer.”
    “Pretty and smart,” he told her. “That makes you irresistible. Okay, you’re right. I was a juvenile. My records were expunged.”
    “What did you do?”
    His normally open expression tightened. “Bad stuff. I was in a gang.”
    Evie tried to imagine the well-dressed, smooth man next to her as a kid in a gang. Her imagination wasn’t that good. Before she could figure out what else to ask, he tugged her along and they turned a corner, entering one of the main streets of Fool’s Gold.
    Just yesterday the stores and windows had featured turkeys and pumpkins. Any lights had been orange, and garlands had been made of leaves. In the space of a few hours, the transformation to the Christmas holidays had begun.
    Baskets of holiday greens with shiny silver and red decorations hung from the lampposts. The windows were now covered with painted holiday displays—pictures of wrapped packages or snowmen, a few nutcrackers. Morgan’s Books had stacks of popular children’s books on tables and a sign promising Santa would be coming to read ’Twas the Night Before Christmas next Saturday, after the town Christmas tree lighting.
    Up ahead, in the main square, a large crane was being attached to the biggest live Christmas tree Evie had ever seen in real life. It had to be twenty feet tall.
    “But it was Thanksgiving yesterday,” she said, feeling as if she was going to see snow and Dickens carolers any second.
    “Tell me about it,” Dante told her. “There’s more.”
    He led her toward the center of town, past the tree on the flatbed. Booths had been set up selling everything from hot chocolate to pizza slices.
    “Because nothing says the holidays like pepperoni?” she asked.
    Dante grinned. “Come on. I’ll buy you a slice.”
    They got pizza and soda and walked over to watch the tree