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“I would never fake my appreciation for Maeve,” Ford says seriously. “Or my appreciation for her lunches.”
“You’re not going to get to mooch off my lunches much longer,” I remind him. “Whatever are you going to do?”
“Suffer,” Gabriel says dryly.
I burst out laughing.
“Ford, having to pick out his own lunches?” Hayden shakes his head. “It’ll be a dark day in the office.”
“An amusing day, you mean,” Gabriel corrects.
“You’ll have to set up a camera so I can watch while I laugh evilly and eat my lunch beautifully uninterrupted from my yacht,” I say.
“Your yacht?” Hayden asks.
“Oh, yes, I’m buying a yacht with what Ford’s paying me, didn’t you know?”
“Yes, you definitely strike me as the frivolous type who would blow all her money on a massive yacht,” Gabriel says in a deadpan tone.
“Can’t you picture me on a yacht? Wouldn’t I fit right in?” I strike a pose.
“You would never be caught dead on anything as tacky as a superyacht,” Hayden insists.
“Agreed.” Ford shudders and I grin at him.
“Reliving some trauma?”
“I have been on superyachts. I do not want to be on another one.”
“Oh, I have got to hear this story.”
“Hey,” Liam calls sourly from down another aisle. “We’re all over here, if you’d like to join us and actually help.”
Yeesh, what crawled up his ass?
We rejoin the others and help decide which tree to get. There’s actually a lot of debate that goes into it. Liam and Ford end up on opposite sides of the discussion, and I’m a little worried that it doesn’t have anything to do with the tree at all, but with me. Or maybe that’s just arrogant of me to assume, since they’re likely to be on opposite sides about everything. But I can’t help but worry that my presence is making it worse. Liam was being weird yesterday, and Ford has really staked his claim on me a few times pointedly in front of Liam now.
I don’t want to be the cause of friction in the family, even if I am also secretly pleased that Ford is getting one over on Liam. I know it’s petty, but it’s satisfying to get a bit of revenge after how he treated me.
What surprises me is when Elaine looks at me and says, “Oh, Maeve, what do you think?”
I’m figuring out that my three bosses might be more considerate about including me than I realized, but I’m taken aback by Elaine’s kindness. Between her and Lydia, they really seem to want to welcome me into the family.
“I agree with Ford, and trust me, I’m not saying that just because he said it.”
“Keller actually never tries to agree with any of us if she can help it,” Hayden says.
“Well, someone’s got to keep the three of you humble, with all the fawning yes-men surrounding you at work.”
Ford chuckles and Gabriel shoots me an amused look. Elaine beams at me, like she thinks I’m adorable. It makes my chest warm.
Finally, we all decide on a Christmas tree and arrange for it to be delivered to the house by the employees so that we can decorate it later. Everyone wants to do a little shopping, and we set off through the boutiques.
It really is high-end here. I scan the various windows and stores, seeing if I can find something small to give to everybody, something that will still seem personal. I don’t know Ford’s family very well except for Liam, but I want to at least make it seem like I got them something they’d actually like, not something generic like a gift card.
We all sort of drift apart as we walk, and I pause in front of a shop that sells leather goods including handbags. Maybe the men would like wallets… or maybe I could get Charles a nice pair of gloves…
I step inside to take a look. Maybe I shouldn’t get anyone anything and just bake after all, help out around the house. I don’t want to use the money the men have given me.
