13. Maeve
MAEVE
I don’t take Ford’s hand this time as we land, not wanting to push my luck, but I watch him out of the corner of my eye.
The rigid set of his jaw, the white-knuckled grip on the armrests—none of it eases until the wheels are on the ground and the engines begin their slow, whining descent into silence.
I can’t help but feel a strange, unfamiliar empathy for him.
I know that sounds crazy. Ford is a powerful man who can do whatever he wants, have whatever he wants. He just got permission from air traffic control to let our plane circle for over an hour so that I could keep sleeping, and I’m sure he thought nothing of it.
But maybe that’s exactly it. Ford has always seemed so untouchable to me, even emotionless at times. Seeing that he has this phobia makes him more human. It’s a crack in his armor, a glimpse of the man behind the carefully constructed fortress of ice and steel.
When we land, there’s a car waiting for us with a driver. The driver loads all our luggage for us, then holds the doors as we get into the car.
It’s silent as we drive up. The driver keeps to himself, playing some soft jazz through the radio.
Hayden is still on his phone, his thumbs moving with relentless, efficient taps across the screen.
Gabriel pulls his book out again. Ford is silent, but it’s not a peaceful quiet.
He’s a coiled spring, his gaze fixed on the passing landscape, his thoughts a thousand miles away.
I stare out the window, watching the snow fall as the lights of the city, and then the country, fly by. Colorado is beautiful, although I can’t see much of it in the dark. The family estate is in a small town a bit outside of Denver, so we have a drive to get there.
While I really needed that rest, it’s not enough to get rid of the knots that are slowly forming and tightening in my stomach as time goes on. I have no idea how this is going to go and now that we’re here, the time to back out is shortening with every mile this car eats up.
“Excited to be back?” I ask Ford, looking over at him.
Ford shrugs. “I suppose.”
“You must come here every year, right? Liam does.”
“I haven’t been here in a couple of years.”
I frown. Not since my breakup with Liam, in other words. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence, but I wasn’t aware that Ford had a bad relationship with his family. Sure, he’s a workaholic, but this feels like more than that. “Is… everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” His voice is flat, a wall I’m not meant to scale.
“Will my being here—that won’t make things worse? If things are tense…”
“Trust me, it wasn’t you that caused Liam and me to not get along,” Ford says quietly.
Gabriel is still looking at his book but is obviously listening in. Hayden looks like he’s fallen asleep.
“Liam, um, didn’t talk about you much,” I admit.
Ford gives a small, sardonic smile. “I know. You told me as much when we met. Although you said it very politely and kindly.”
Well, glad to know I didn’t make a total idiot of myself when I first met Ford. “He said you were just always busy working.”
Not that Liam would know hard work if it hit him over the head with a gigantic mallet like in a cartoon.
“Of course he’d say that.” Ford’s tone is annoyed, although not at me.
“Liam and I might’ve grown up in the same environment, but you wouldn’t know it from how he handled it.
He’s never wanted to do anything except use the wealth that was gifted to him and party.
I wanted to make something more of myself and use what I was given as a jumping-off point to become someone. ”
“I think you’ve definitely succeeded in that,” I say softly. I feel a strange urge to defend him, even from his own family. In retrospect, it’s truly a good thing I didn’t marry Liam. His spending habits would probably have reminded me of my mother and kept me constantly stressed.
Ford’s face does something complicated, like he can’t figure out what expression he wants to show, and then he says, so rough and quiet I can barely hear it, “I stopped caring what my father thought a long time ago.”
I glance over at Gabriel, wondering if I should push and say something more. Gabriel is still supposedly reading his book, but his eyes aren’t moving across the page. He arches an eyebrow as if to say, the choice is yours.
I look back at Ford, but before I can speak, the car comes to a stop at a massive gate.
“We’re here,” the driver announces.
He pulls up to the gate and speaks into the intercom, and the gates are opened. We drive up through massive grounds that are all lightly dusted with snow, reminding me of the classic winter wonderland. It’s beautiful, and breathtaking.
The car rolls to a stop in front of a huge stone mansion. It looks like it was plucked right up from somewhere in England and then plopped here in the middle of Colorado, classic and imposing in equal measure. I swallow hard. I definitely do not fit in here.
Ford offers me his arm as we get out of the car, and I’m startled until I remember that, Oh yeah, this is it. It’s showtime .
I take his arm, and we walk up the steps to the front door, where Ford rings the doorbell. Hayden and Gabriel flank us, their casual confidence shifting into a more formal, guarded posture than the way they act when they’re just around each other, or with me.
The double front doors open, swinging inward to reveal a massive marble foyer with a curving central staircase and filled with golden light. I have to bite my lip to keep my jaw from dropping open.
The two staff members who opened the doors take our luggage with the help of the driver. I see Gabriel tipping the driver from a roll of cash out of the corner of my eye, and then I’m swept inside as the doors close quietly behind us.
“Ford, darling!”
I turn—we all do—to see Elaine Kingsley headed toward us. I swallow hard, my nerves so bad it’s like my stomach is trying to crawl up my throat.
Elaine looks exactly how I remember her, although I only met her a couple of times, and that was years ago now.
Everything about her is elegant, poised, sophisticated.
She’s a petite blonde, with the same blue eyes as her son, the kind of woman you can’t help but think would have been a queen if she’d been born a few hundred years earlier.
She comes forward and kisses Ford on the cheek, her hands on his arms. There’s a half foot of height difference between them, but Elaine doesn’t crane her neck up, and somehow she gives the impression that they’re the same height.
“Gabriel, Hayden, always lovely to see you. We’re so glad you could join us. I’ve had rooms made up for you.” Elaine kisses them both on the cheek, and then her gaze lands on me.
I almost do a little wave and just barely stop myself in time, digging my nails into my palm. “Hi, Elaine, it’s lovely to see you. I hope you’re well.”
“Maeve.” Elaine doesn’t seem to dislike that I’m here, which is a relief. Or she’s good at hiding it. “I’m so sorry they’re making you come here and keep working over the holidays! When Ford told me you were coming, and so last minute, I could hardly believe it! I made up a room for you?—”
“She’s not here to work,” Ford interrupts her.
Elaine doesn’t startle the way most of us would. She just blinks once, almost like a cat. “Oh?”
He slides an arm around my waist, a band of steel pulling me flush against his side, and it takes everything in me not to jump in surprise. If I were really his fiancée, I wouldn’t jolt. I would be used to these kinds of touches. I’d expect them.
“She’s here as my fiancée. We’re engaged.”
This time, even someone as polished as Elaine can’t hide her surprise. Her eyes go a bit wide and she lets out a small, “Oh.”
“Look what the cat finally dragged in,” a familiar voice drawls, and I instinctively tense.
Liam enters the room, his stride languid and his blond hair artfully tousled as always. I used to think he was the most handsome man in the world, and I loved how effortless his charm seemed to be, how he always had a quip handy and wanted to be the life of the party.
Now, all I see is the casual cruelty that lurked beneath the charm.
Liam walks up to us, hands in the pockets of his jeans that I know probably cost more than a month’s salary.
“What’s got you looking like a boiled fish, Mom?” he asks, glancing sideways at his mother.
Elaine clears her throat, opens her mouth, then closes it again, in too much shock to say anything. My stomach twists. I feel like I might be sick.
“I was just introducing her to my fiancée,” Ford says, tightening his grip on my waist a bit so that I’m fully pressed against his side. “You and Maeve are already acquainted, right?”
Acquainted. Like my relationship to Liam meant nothing and we weren’t ever that close. It’s just the sort of cutting power move that Ford loves to pull, I just wouldn’t have expected him to pull it on his brother of all people. Their relationship must be worse than I thought.
I keep myself pressed to Ford’s side, focusing on his warmth and sturdiness.
Liam stops in his tracks and looks back and forth between us, as if he thinks that at any moment we’re going to announce this is a prank. “You’re serious?”
Ford doesn’t even blink. “I’m always serious.”
Liam huffs a breath, and for a second, there’s a flash of something else on his face—envy?
Resentment? But before I can identify it, it’s gone, and he’s forcing a smile onto his face.
“True, you always have been a stick in the mud.” He looks at me.
“I must’ve left quite an impression if you moved on to the second-best brother. ”
I hate how I want to wilt and hide. I can be so bristly with my three bosses without even thinking about it, but in front of Liam, I just feel humiliated.
“I think you mean she upgraded,” Ford says smoothly. “She chose the man, not the boy.”
With that, he hooks two fingers under my chin, tilts my face up—and kisses me.
It doesn’t last long, but it’s been so long since I’ve been kissed, it lights my whole body up. Ford kisses me possessively, but in a casual way, like he gets to do this all the time. Like he knows in his bones that I belong to him.
He pulls away after a moment and looks back at his brother while I struggle to remember how to breathe. Holy shit . Just one firm, confident press of lips and I feel hot all over.
I hate to admit it, but Liam’s kisses never did that to me.
My ex has a sour expression on his face. “I don’t understand. How come none of us have heard anything about this until now?”
“Maeve was worried about the optics,” Ford replies. “She didn’t want anyone thinking that she had slept her way into a job, and she didn’t want to make things awkward for you if it seemed like she moved on too quickly. I was more than happy to keep it private and respect her wishes.”
It takes everything in me not to let my jaw drop onto the floor.
I had no idea that Ford knew me so well.
We didn’t even discuss this ahead of time, but he’s right.
I would have worried that people would think I was just some gold digger who moved on to the next brother once the old one tossed her aside, hungry for money and prestige.
And I would’ve been very conscious of what people would say about Ford dating his assistant.
Gabriel and Hayden both look like they’re trying not to smirk.
“Right,” Liam replies, drawing out the word. “So you decided to spring it on all of us during the holidays. Much better.” He glances down at my left hand. “I see you picked the tackiest ring you could find for her.”
I bristle at that. I picked this ring out myself, and I love it. It’s beautiful. Honestly, it’s going to break my heart a little to give it back to Ford when this is all over.
“Jealousy isn’t a good look on you, brother,” Ford replies, his voice sharpening. When the interns at the office hear that tone, they all scatter. “I think Maeve chose the perfect ring.”
Liam flushes as Ford’s words sink in and he realizes that I’m the one who picked the ring out. I expect him to say something about my having no fashion taste, since he was always more than happy to point that out before, but before he can speak again, Elaine steps in between them.
“Now, now, boys, is this any way to behave during the holidays?” She clucks her tongue, like they were just getting a little too rough while playing instead of two seconds away from a duel.
“That’s enough of that, I think. I understand everyone’s tired from traveling and that can lead to crankiness, but there’s no excuse for forgetting your manners. ”
“Yes, ma’am,” both Ford and Liam chorus immediately, although their gazes are still throwing daggers at each other.
I take a deep breath. It means a lot to me that Ford is so ready to leap to my defense, and I have to remind myself that it’s not really because he cares. It’s because he wants to get one over on his brother, and because defending me is what a proper fiancé would do.
Clearly, I’m lonelier than I thought, and angrier at Liam than I thought, if Ford showing a bit of staged protectiveness is enough to have my stomach erupting in butterflies like this.
I already know I’m going to think about that kiss for a while, though. Even though I shouldn’t.
“Why don’t I show you all to the wing of the house where you’ll be staying?” Elaine says with a smile. “I saw they brought your luggage in, you’ll find it in your rooms.”
We all murmur thanks and she leads us upstairs. I feel Hayden lean in, over my head, to whisper to Ford, “Nice one.”
“He should’ve been put in his place ages ago,” Ford mutters.
Elaine shows Hayden and Gabriel each their room, and then Ford’s. “But of course you’ll also be in here now, too, dear,” she says to me.
“Yes, I told them to put her luggage in with mine,” Ford says.
I’m actually a little surprised that Elaine is letting us share a room.
She seems the old-fashioned type, so I would’ve thought she’d insist on separate bedrooms for us.
But before I can say anything or even finish the thought, I step inside the large, impressively decorated room and everything stops.
Oh. Right .
There’s only one bed.