Page 78 of A Conflict of Interest

“Oh, yeah?” I said lightly. “I knew you liked those boots, but I didn’t realize they ranked asbest souvenirs ever.”

“Oh my god, you dumbass, I meant the engagement rings,” she laughed. “And you know I did! I accuse you of… of… tomfoolery.”

“I categorically deny the allegations. Say, Kelce?”

“Yeah?”

I shut off the car, turning to look at her. “How exactly do you suppose we should announce this? Because if it’s left up to me, I’d just walk in with the rings on our fingers and go about business as usual and see who’s the first to point it out, but you might want something nicer than that.”

She chewed her lip, casting her eyes up to the ceiling thinking it over. “Maybe I should have thought about this beforehand… we could have gotten a bigwe’re engagedbanner and walked in the door with it.”

“I would… rather not do that. Mom would make the banner her most cherished possession and force us to fly it everywhere at the wedding…”

“Maybe we could stage a proposal there and pretend we’re only just now getting engaged.”

I laughed, hanging my head. “Okay, maybe not that either.”

“Really?”

I paused. “Actually, that sounds great,” I said, slipping my ring off. “Damn, Kelce. You’re not bad at this. Lucky me getting to marry you.”

She gave me the smuggest smile anyone had ever given, but hell, she’d earned it. “Anna and Lucy are probably going to know we’re just putting it on and that, you know, we wouldn’t go to Milan and then wait until we were back here to propose, but your parents will totally buy it.”

“I can’t tell if I’ve corrupted you or if you were always this bad. Let’s go, gorgeous.”

We both hid our rings in each other’s pockets, and I pulled my coat tight around me and wrapped up in a scarf and hat and gloves and earmuffs, ignoring my beautiful fiancée’s very unfair commentary about how it waslike ten steps to the front door,and I braved the bitter cold with my head down, trudging through the thin layer of snow on the ground and getting up to where I banged on the door.

“Open up, I’m going to freeze!”

The door swung open, and of course it was Mom there in the doorway—it had opened so quickly I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d just been standing there waiting for me to show up. “Anna! Oh, god, you’re back, you were gone for so long!”

“Long enough you forgot my name. Oh my god, I’ll hug you in a second, let me inside before my nose freezes off.”

“Oh, Kelcey, darling,” Mom said, giving Kelcey a hug first as she stepped into the house behind me. “Oh, it’s so nice to see you again. How was Spain?”

“Um…” Kelcey scratched her head, and I spoke.

“Spain was beautiful, yeah, really enjoyed Lisbon. Now, where’s the eggnog?”

Mom chuckled. “Oh, you’re still every bit just like your father. Matthew and Miss Charlotte are on eggnog duty right now in the kitchen.”

“Oh… Miss Charlotte, huh,” I said. Maybe eggnog could be a later thing.

“Veronica, Kelcey,” a voice said, coming excitedly into the room—Chelsea Gould, my fiancée’s and sister’s firm’s client’s wife and my parents’ girlfriend, which was a hell of a way to describe someone. She beamed at us, putting a hand on Mom’s back. “Oh, it’s so nice to see you two again. How was Spain?”

My parents and the Goulds had allbeento Europe. How did nobody in this household have any geography knowledge?“Yeah, Spain was great, we really enjoyed Geneva,” I said, and Mom frowned.

“I thought you were in Lisbon.”

Kelcey sidled up next to my side, slipping her hand into mine. “I mean, you know, all the trains running around in… Spain… we had to go visit all the other hotspots.”

Chelsea absolutely glowed. “That’s so wonderful. A whole magical vacation all around Spain…”

Mom nodded quickly, eager to get to the good part. “Sounds like a pretty serious move to do together,” she said. “You two must be, uh… pretty serious, huh?” She winked.

Kelcey and I nodded in unison, both on the exact same page. “Very serious,” she said, right as I said, “Yeah, serious work trip, all kinds of serious work.”

Mom faltered. “Ah, well…”

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