Page 14 of A Conflict of Interest

“Oh… uh, yeah,” I mumbled, looking away. Last time I’d seen Veronica’s and Anna’s mother Maria, she’d been insisting Veronica and I were a wonderful couple and thatevery couple has their bumps in the road, their little hiccups.It was hard not to think about Veronica when you had Veronica’s mother in your face telling you to go marry her daughter. “Yeah, we’ve met a couple times. They’re really nice.”

“Oh, no, not just in general. I mean here, tonight.”

“Uh?” I stood up taller, blinking fast, and I put the pieces together too late, because that was when I heard her voice come from behind me, and Matthew Gould beamed.

“Oh, Kelcey,” Maria Preston’s voice said, and I whirled back on where she and Veronica’s father Heath came strollingacross the room towards us, when I was pretty sure Anna had said specifically she was telling her familynotto be here this time because they weren’t supposed to—had she changed her mind? Oh, god, I wasn’t ready for this. “Hi, sweetheart. Oh, you look so beautiful in that dress.”

“Oh, um,” I started, shifting from one foot to the other. “Hi, Mrs. Preston. Hi, Mr. Preston. Thanks, it’s, um, I’m… wearing it.” That was about all I could summon to say about my dress right now, because I was mostly just looking for a way out. Maybe I could accidentally knock over a poinsettia display and run away? That might look weird. “You must be here to talk to Mr. Gould, I know how you’re all—I’ll be getting out of your way—”

Maria gave me a hug. “Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you here. I’m glad we made time to come visit.”

“I’m so glad… you did too. I didn’t know Anna invited you.”

She laughed, stepping back from the hug, giving me a conspiratorial nudge on the shoulder. “Oh, you know how it is. I get mom privileges.”

Were those… a thing? Jeez, I learned new things all the time. So anybody here could have their mom showing up at any point? I didn’t know how they kept these events in order. Also, did Anna’s dad get mom privileges too?

Heath put out a hand for Gould with a big smile, saying, “Matthew—how you been?” and clapping his hand into Gould’s for a big handshake and the kind of awkward one-armed hug men did. “Bit less bright this year, isn’t it?”

“I kind of liked it with the lights,” Gould laughed. “It was different from the usual.”

Maria laughed, like the three of them were all in on something together. “Well, it shines perfectly bright with Anna and LucyandVeronica and Kelcey here.”

“I don’t know about all that,” I laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of my head, and it took a second longer than it should have for it to set in what she’d said, and I think I experienced full-body prolapse as my insides dropped so hard they probably wound up in the subway. “Uh. Wait. When you say Veronica, does that imply that Veronica—”

Maria turned back to me with a glowing smile. “Oh, honey. You didn’t see her yet? Oh, no,” she laughed, a hand over her mouth with a mischievous look in her eyes. “She was probably planning on surprising you. I guess I ruined it. Ah… Anna, sweetie,” she called across the room, waving her hand, and she scrunched up her face. “No, dammit. Veronica! Veronica, come here a second, will you?”

Oh, god. I had to go… home. Had to fake an illness. I went with the only plan to mind—I stumbled and whacked solidly into the poinsettia display with a thud, sending a bucket of pretty red flowers rattling and scattering over the table, and I put a hand to my forehead. “Oh, god, I’m so sorry,” I blurted. “Oh, no, I’m feeling really sick, I’ve gotta go—”

I turned and bolted in the opposite direction from where Maria was waving, everyone looking at me with furrowed brows and anxious looks—well, not Gould, for some reason, he just smiled like he was enjoying the show—and I found out I had no idea what Maria was waving at, because I’d barely gotten around the table and past the Christmas tree before I collided headlong into the girl of my dreams.

I mean nightmares. My nightmares. Bad dreams.

I thudded straight into her, not realizing at first, and I caught onto her by the arms before I took us both down, gasping and stepping back red-faced.

“Oh, god, I’m so sorry,” I blurted. “I was… uh…”

Oh my god, Veronica Preston was beautiful. Beautifully… terrible. A beautiful example of a terrible person nobody would ever want to be around.

And I was standing there in her arms, hands on her upper arms and hers on my sides steadying me, as she looked wide-eyed at me with those perfect warm brown eyes, dressed like my daydreamy teenage fantasies in a short silver flared wrap dress with stunning crystal heels and drop earrings, smoky-eye makeup making her like a daydream I wanted to get lost in, just… dreamy perfect. Nightmare dreams, that was.

“You know,” she said, not moving her hands from my sides, “if you want me to hold you, you can just ask.”

I did want her to hold me. I wanted more than anything for her to pull me in tighter right now and tell me again all the things she’d said last time and ask me again if we could try like it was the first time, and this time I’d say yes, and she’d—

She’d break my heart again.Againagain again.

“Veronica,” I said, my voice soft. “Oh… I didn’t… think you’d…”

She smiled wider, a glow in her eyes. “Didn’t think I’d be here? I didn’t think you’d be here… I’m too nervous to approach you, so I—”

“I didn’t think you’d have the absolute—the absolutenerveto try to talk to me,” I said, my face heating up, and I moved without thinking about it—twisted my body and pitched her with all the force I could muster, wrenching her by the arm to get her off balance and leveraging from my back foot to fling her sidelong, clear into the Christmas tree.

She hit it with a crash and a cry of surprise, ornaments tumbling down around her and tangling in lights, and the whole room stopped to look at where the tree pitched, listed, and I watched in slow motion realizing I’d probably gone alittletoo far as the tree went off-balance, slowly tipping until it fellcompletely, dropping hard with a crash of ornaments bouncing off and rolling across the carpet, hitting tables and knocking glasses over, baubles rolling off the edges of tables and the massive star at the top of the tree fell the other way, the tree giving out underneath it and leaving it to drop squarely on Veronica, where I couldn’t see in the mess of tangled branches and lights how it hit her, but I heard from the noise she made that it absolutely did hit her.

Oh, god, I was in trouble. Boss Anna was going to murder me. Lucy was going to… laugh, but Anna was going to be so mad.

Chapter 6

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