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“You spent years wanting me to dislike Valerie,” Neil said, an accusation and a reminder at the same time. “Now, I’m not being as warm toward her as you’d prefer?”
“You’re too smart to not know that there’s a difference between our past situation and our current one. Yes, I didn’t like it when Valerie was, like, aggressively trying to sabotage us. But she’s not a hundred percent bad. She’s been there for me when I’ve really needed her. We’re never going to be best friends, but I’m not going to let you treat her like she’s unworthy of spending time with her own granddaughter.”
Now, he looked hurt. “Do you really think that’s how I feel about her?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” I said with a shrug. “It matters how you treat her.”
He considered. “I suppose if you’re defending Valerie, perhaps there’s some truth there.”
“I would never steer you wrong.” I cast a glance to the intercom, to make sure it was off. I lowered my voice, anyway, even though the back of the Maybach was practically a sound-proof capsule. “Speaking of steering, we’ve got another problem to deal with.”
“Oh?”
“Tony. We can’t let him keep driving for us when he’s about to become a part of the family.”
“Why not?” Neil asked, his brow creasing.
“Because it’s weird. How am I supposed to treat him like an employee when he’s my step-dad?” Ugh, that sounded so bizarre. “Am I supposed to be like a teenager asking my parents for rides?”
“Am I supposed to fire an employee who’s been with me for years right before he gets married?” Neil countered. “I understand this puts us in a strange position, but I can’t justify letting him go. What will he do for work?”
“Be a chauffeur to someone else?” There were plenty of rich people in New York who needed people to drive them around, and plenty of companies who hired drivers to do that. “I’m betting there’s some weight behind a personal reference from Neil Elwood.”
“Then, he would have to move into the city. And your mother would go with him,” Neil pointed out.
Oh, right. There was that.
I ignored that part, for now. “Look, Tony already knows a little more than I would like a family member to know about our private lives. Can you blame me if I don’t want that to continue?”
“Tony is bound by a non-disclosure agreement,” Neil reminded me, not for the first time.
“Families shouldn’t have non-disclosure agreements!” I rubbed my temples. “This shit is bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s.”
“Oh, dear. We’ve reached frustration level Stefani. This must be quite serious.” With a long-suffering sigh, he relented. “I will carefully consider all of this. And I’ll try to…tactfully discuss the issue with Tony. But only after their vacation. I don’t want to spoil it for them.”
“I don’t think we could possibly spoil Vegas for my mother. And she is going to freak when she gets there.” Since the trip was a gift, I’d really gone overboard.
“I hope you didn’t go overboard,” Neil said, reading my mind, as usual. “It isn’t the money, of course. I just don’t want your mother to feel she has come to us and say, ‘Oh, that was too much,’ is all. She’s very uncomfortable taking our money.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, but does she take it?”
Neil chuckled.
“I got them a great trip. Huge suite, VIP status, Britney Spears tickets—”
“Which I’m sure Tony will appreciate.” Neil looked like he’d swallowed a thumbtack at the prospect.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find any mopey hipster bands playing the Strip.” I reached over to playfully smack his shoulder. “Seriously, the Marcus Aurelius Villa at Caesar’s Palace? They are going to die.”
“It just occurred to me that we’re always sending people off on lovely trips, and we hardly ever go anywhere ourselves,” Neil mused aloud.
My laugh stuttered in my chest. “Excuse me, but what? We go all over the place, all the time. We just went on a trip.”
“To Calumet, for your class reunion. And before that we were in Iceland.”
“No, that can’t be right.” I chewed my thumbnail. Neil and I had gone on all sorts of lavish vacations, hadn’t we? But as I ran through it in my brain, I realized that he was right. The last real vacation we’d gone on was our honeymoon, and before that, a New Year’s trip to Paris. All the other traveling we’d done had been for business or illness or family. My heart swelled with possibilities—we could take Olivia to Disney World!—before deflating entirely.
“I can’t take the time off work, right now,” I said with an apologetic wince.
“I wasn’t suggesting it as something we should do right away,” he said uneasily. Which told me that, yes, he absolutely wanted to run off and do something.
“Let’s make a plan, okay?” I suggested. “For a real family vacation somewhere. It doesn’t even have to be anyplace fancy.”
