Page 62 of A Conflict of Interest

“Oh—but—Kelcey,” Maria said, and I guess I was feeling like causing problems, because I beamed at her and said,

“I’d love to be there. I’ve missed your world-famous cinnamon rolls.”

Maria stopped, absolutely glowing at me. “Oh—Kelcey—you can come and have as many as you like. Finish the entire tray! You’re a part of the family and we love you. Anything you want us to have there? You don’t have any new dietary restrictions? No pet allergies? No—”

“Mom, go away,” Veronica said, ushering her again to the door. “It’s been lovely to see you! Sorry about the apple bake party, I’ll see you tonight!”

It took some work for Veronica to shut her outside, and she groaned, leaning against the counter next to me.

“Sorry,” she said, not quite looking at me. “You, uh, you can ignore her. You don’t have to attend anything with me. I can bring you a cinnamon roll, though. Or five of them.”

I shrugged, looking away. “Um… I think it’d be fun to go. Your family is full of interesting characters.”

She gave me a loaded look, thoughts balancing there on the edge of saying them, but in the end, she went with, “Like Miss Charlotte and the swingers, you mean.”

“Hey, love is love. If your parents have enough love for four people, then isn’t that beautiful?”

Veronica laughed. “Ah… I do love the way you look at things.”

“Miss Charlotte is, uh, a bit scary though, I’m not gonna lie.”

Veronica laughed. “Don’t worry. She’d be too distracted complaining about Anna. And about me.” She paused, her expression faltering. “Er… you’re sure, though? I mean…”

I didn’t exactly know how to say it—that after all those times of Veronica keeping me a dirty secret, I wanted to see how she’d be with me around everyone else. How she would be with me around her family. What they might say if I didn’t confirm or deny anything… the read the rest of her family had on her.

She was incredible, and like a hundred little dreams come true, everything I’d wished for back when Veronica and I were on-and-off, but I just—wanted to know for sure it was real. It was the only thing I could think of.

But I couldn’t really tell her that. Not without chickening out. So I made something up, and I said, “Anna and Lucy will probably both be there, and Matthew Gould will be there… so…” I shrugged. “I guess just—show them I can handle myself. That I’m a grownup who can be trusted.”

She stopped, studying me a while longer, before she melted into the sweetest smile, and she said, “I love getting to be privy to your clever strategies. In that case… let’s see if we can’t finish the main project body before the party. Just don’t let anyone know I’m the one behind the project, or it can get, uh, blurred at the edges.”

I frowned. “What, like, the video resolution goes down?”

“No—no, no. Uh—you know, conflicts of interest.”

“Ohh.” I nodded, and I mimed zipping my mouth shut. “Right. Well, I’ll tell them all about my contacts with the verytalented Nic in outreach. And, um, Anna and Lucy won’t say anything. I hope.”

“They’re both mature and responsible and trying not to cause a scene. We’ll be fine. Well…” She stood up taller, pushing her hand in the pocket of her pajama pants, leaning casually against the table. “Shall we take some showers and then get to work?”

I tented my hands, smiling. “Um… two separate showers seems awfully wasteful.”

She pursed her lips. “My sister’s too into shower sex. I’d feel derivative.”

“Wait, Anna is?” I dropped my arms. “Oh my god, they didn’t tell me.”

“Were you expecting them to?”

“No… but I know they have a thing for getting busy in the executive office, so, like, I can’t believe they have even more things I don’t even know about. Yeesh.” I laughed. “Two separate showers then. I’ll wait for another time.”

Veronica glanced down over my body, and she didn’t say anything, clearly trying to be respectful again. I bit down on a smile, and I stepped closer, putting my hands on my hips.

“Or we could have dessert first,” I said, and she closed her eyes with a low sigh.

“God, I kept watching you lick crumbs off your fingers during breakfast and it was killing me…”

“Well, we can’t have you getting killed, now, can we?” I said, and she laughed as she let me walk her backwards until she fell onto the couch.

“If this was how I died, though, I’d take it.”

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