Page 48 of 5 Golden Flings

“To Santa!” Alice couldn’t express how relieved she was to have that taken care of. Whether it was the magic ornament from Miss Tinsel, or more likely her badgering everyone in town until someone gave in, she didn’t care. She had a jolly butt in the seat and that was what mattered.

“I feel like our relationship has been sort of backward,” Foster said after taking a sip of his cocktail. “We went from the jail, to coffee, to bed, to a real first date tonight. It makes me feel like I know you so much better than I really do.”

Alice shrugged off his concerns. There wasn’t much about her worth knowing, in her opinion. “You’ve seen me naked. You know me well enough.”

“To a point. I know you’re dedicated to your job. I know you like peppermint mochas. I know you have a spot below your earlobe that makes you go crazy when I kiss it.”

“Foster,” Alice said, certain her face was blushing in the dim light.

“It’s lopsided. I feel like you know a lot about me. Tell me about your childhood.”

Alice fingered her martini glass, trying to find the right way to start the story. It wasn’t exactly a fun story, which is why maybe two people in the whole town knew anything about her life pre-Rosewood. “We’re supposed to be celebrating,” she pointed out.

“Is it that bad? Mother abandoning you on Christmas Day, bad?”

She sighed. It kind of was, but she knew about him, so it was only fair that she reciprocated. “Okay, but when I get done, we need to change to a totally different subject. I don’t want to drag it on when it’s supposed to be a nice date.”

“Fair,” Foster agreed.

“I was born on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My family all lives in that general area, still. I am the oldest of three kids. I have two younger brothers—Steven and Caleb. My father was a city councilman when I was younger. He was always campaigning and out hosting city events. Shaking hands. We didn’t see him that much. My mother stayed home with us until my youngest brother was in first grade and then she went to work part-time as a receptionist at an attorney’s office near the elementary school.”

“My childhood was pretty normal, I guess. We spent a lot of time playing on the beach. Sometimes my dad would rent a cabin in the mountains in the summer and we’d go there to escape the heat for a week or two. My dad taught us to fish on a lake up there. That’s the kind of stuff I like to remember.”

Alice paused for a moment to take a big sip of her martini. “And then, when I was about eleven, my mom got diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. The next few years were filled with treatments and progress, followed by recurrence and disappointment until she finally passed away. I was fourteen-years-old.”

Foster reached a hand across the table to touch her arm. “I’m so sorry about your mother. You warned me this wasn’t a fun story. You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to. I didn’t realize?—”

“No, it’s okay. That was the hard part. From there, we all coped differently with her absence. My dad threw himself into his work and I took over the household. I made sure my brothers were fed and had clean clothes to go to school. I cleaned the house and did the grocery shopping. All while maintaining my honor roll grades in high school.”

“That’s a lot for a kid to take on. Why didn’t your dad get some help?”

“He didn’t think we needed help because I handled everything so well and without complaint. I just took care of things. I didn’t want to let him down. Or my mom, although I know that sounds weird. Having my dad know he could depend on me made me feel good. Useful. I guess I liked being needed.”

“It’s a wonder I ever made it to Rosewood, really. I went to a local college and stayed at home to take care of the boys instead of going off somewhere the way I’d planned. I really didn’t even consider leaving until after Caleb went off to UNC.”

The waiter came to the table with a plate of large shrimp stuffed with cheesy grits, breaded and fried. Alice took the opportunity to take a break from her sad tale and eat a few bites. They were amazingly good, although she’d never tell Lydia as much.

“Anyway, once the house was empty, I realized I didn’t need to sit around there anymore. I moved to Rosewood and the family sort of dispersed from there. My dad ran for Congress and now he spends most of his time in D.C. My brothers have both gotten married and started their own families. And here I am. I went in search of someplace that needed me and foundRosewood. That is the story of how I got to be the neurotic Girl Friday of the Mayor’s Office.”

Foster sat back in his seat and nodded. “It certainly does explain a lot.”

“My therapist seemed to think so. I guess I’m just a needy mess.”

“No, no,” he said, reaching across to take her hand again. “That’s not what I meant. You learned to handle things early on and thrived on the praise of a job well done. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Unless I use that work as a sandy beach to bury my head like my ostrich father. To this day, I really don’t think he’s ever dealt with the loss of my mom. I don’t think he even dates. He’s just in a perpetual state of work. I’m not quite as bad as he is, but I could very easily allow myself to slide down that slippery slope.”

“I think you’re more self-aware than that.”

“Am I?” Sometimes she wasn’t so sure she wasn’t avoiding life just as much as he was.

“Well, you’re on a date here with me, with your work phone put aside and silenced. That’s something your father wouldn’t do. I know I’ve joked that you’re a distraction to help me pass the time here, but it’s more than that. More has changed for me in the last few days than in the last few years. And it can be more for you, too. So even if you have spent a while buried in the sand, you’re starting to dig your way out. Let me help.”

Alice looked down at Foster’s hand cradling hers and then up at his big, brown eyes as they focused intently on her. He was absolutely right. Everything had changed in the last few days for her too, and in ways she’d never expected when she hopped off the fire truck by the jail. She was not only putting work in its proper place, but she was thinking about her life outside of the office for once.

After running a household and essentially raising her younger brothers, a relationship with any kind of future potential hadn’t really been on her radar. She’d had enough of that for a while, especially after seeing her family’s dream disintegrate. And yet as she looked at Foster, she wanted nothing more than a future with him.

He’d offered to help her climb out of the sand. And she wanted to accept his help, but was it a limited time offer? Could she trust her heart to him and find herself alone on the beach when January rolled around?

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