Chapter 14
MAGGIE
Maggie was bent over the real design with her softest pencil between her fingers when the small chime above her drafting table went.
She looked up.
The security monitor on the wall over the door showed the front of the boutique in five neat squares. Front counter. Sales floor. Window display. Side path. Parking lot.
Kevin's car was pulling into the parking lot.
The car had barely stopped when Vanessa was already out of the passenger seat, smoothing her skirt down and checking her reflection in the side mirror.
"Showtime," Maggie murmured to herself.
She moved fast.
Maggie carefully rolled the real design, slid it into its protective sleeve, walked it to the closet, opened the safe, set it inside on top of the patterns, closed the safe, spun the dial, closed the closet, and pulled the decoy sketch out from where she'd left it.
She set the decoy on the drafting table at an angle that would make Vanessa's mouth water.
She rolled her shoulders, lifted her chin, smoothed her blouse, and sat back down with the pencil in her hand as if she had been there all morning.
It wasn’t long before there was a soft knock at the design room door.
"Maggie?" Brianna called, popping her head around the door.
"Yes?" Maggie answered.
Brianna pushed the door open.
"Your guests are here," Brianna told her.
"Send them in, please," Maggie requested.
"Right away," Brianna replied with a quick nod.
She stepped aside, and Kevin came through first, and Vanessa trailed behind him, her eyes sweeping the room, taking everything in before they landed on the sketch on the drafting table.
"Hello, Kevin, Vanessa," Maggie greeted them coolly.
"Maggie," Kevin replied, smiling. "You look well."
"Maggie," Vanessa cooed, gliding forward with both hands extended. "I’ve never been in here before. Your workshop is incredible.”
"Thank you, Vanessa," Maggie answered, neatly stepping back so that Vanessa's hands met air rather than Maggie's arms. "Have a seat, please." She indicated toward the chairs in front of her desk. Making a show of hiding the decoy sketched beneath the desk pad on her drawing table.
She walked to her desk and sat in her office chair. "You said you have a list of demands for me, Kevin," Maggie prompted.
"I do," Kevin answered, settling into the chair opposite Maggie's desk and laying the folder he had in his hand on the desk before sliding it toward her. "I think you will find these very reasonable, Maggie. I have tried to be fair."
Maggie opened it. She didn’t let her expression give anything away.
She didn’t let her face change. Maggie hadn’t expected fair.
She’d expected the kind of greedy nonsense Kevin had been spinning for two years, and what she was now looking at was a glossier, better-tailored version of exactly that.
Thirty percent of Maggie's Bridal and Couture as a going concern.
The Sanibel building at fifty percent on title.
Spousal support back-calculated to the start of the separation.
What nearly made the mask slip was a clause about Toby's visitation that didn’t match the guardianship he had already signed away.
Maggie didn’t blink, sigh, or look up. "Mm-hm," she murmured, turning the page.
"What are you working on now, Maggie?" Vanessa asked sweetly, drifting closer to the drafting table. "Something fabulous, I bet."
"A bridesmaid sketch," Maggie answered, pretending to be distracted by the garbage she was reading.
Right on schedule, there was another knock on the door.
"Come in," Maggie called.
The door opened, and Michael walked in. Maggie's heart flipped as she looked up and closed the folder.
“Michael," Maggie greeted him warmly, glancing at her wristwatch. "You’re early.”
"My meeting ended early, so I thought I’d collect you and we could stop off to get some more coffee for the house before going on to lunch," Michael answered, stepping inside. He glanced at Kevin and gave him the small cool nod. “Hello, Kevin."
"Hello, Michael," Kevin returned stiffly, standing to shake Michael’s hand when he drew closer.
"Hello again, Michael,” Vanessa’s smile spread slowly and sultrily across her lips, making Maggie’s eyes narrow dangerously at the woman as she stood beside Michael. “It’s so nice to see you again.”
She stepped up toward him, and before Michael could avoid her, she kissed both his cheeks like she was French.
Maggie watched it happen with the strangest unwelcome heat rising in her chest. It was small.
It was instant. It was completely irrational.
It was also, she noted with a thin private flicker of horror at herself, very real.
She pushed it down before she could name the emotion.
To give Michael credit, he did not move. He let Vanessa hug him with the loose, stiff arms and even let her stain his cheeks with her bright red lipstick.
"Hello, Vanessa," Michael said politely. Then he untangled himself and stepped closer to Maggie’s side of the desk. "I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d have visitors. I hope I’m not interrupting?" He turned toward Maggie, giving her an encouraging smile.
"No, not at all," Maggie answered, then caught herself. "Actually, wait. You’re an attorney. Could I ask you a favor? Could you take a quick look at this for me?"
She held out Kevin's folder.
Kevin sat forward. "Maggie," he protested. "This is between us. We agreed. No attorneys."
"It is between us, Kevin," Maggie answered smoothly. "I just want a second set of eyes on it before I agree to anything. I want to make sure you are getting what you deserve." She glanced at Michael. “Besides, Michael is family.”
She gave Kevin the small, sweet smile she’d perfected over the years of being married to him for situations exactly like this one. Vanity, she had learned a long time ago, was the easiest lock to pick where Kevin was concerned.
Kevin's chest puffed out like a peacock. "Fine," he conceded. "Go ahead. I am sure even Michael will agree the terms are more than fair."
"Thank you, Kevin," Maggie said sweetly.
Michael pulled a chair around to sit beside Maggie.
He took the folder, opened it, and began to read.
His face didn’t change. Maggie watched his eyes move down the first page, and the small, careful tightening around his jaw was the only sign that he had registered exactly what Kevin had put in writing.
A sharp clatter of voices broke out beyond the design room door.
Maggie's head came up.
On the security monitor, the front of the boutique had suddenly filled with a flurry of movement. Three figures in dark suits surrounded a woman in sunglasses. Brianna had rushed to the front door to open it for the woman and greeted her with the respect she always showed their clients.
"Oh, no," Maggie said, with the perfect pitch of shocked panic. "She’s early."
"Who?" Vanessa asked, her head snapping toward the monitor.
"My client," Maggie answered, standing. "I am so sorry. But I’m going to need all three of you to give me a few minutes? I need to get my client to sign off on this new design. She was only supposed to come here later this afternoon. It shouldn’t take too long."
“Is that who I think it is?” Vanessa gasped, her eyes widening.
“I’m sorry, Vanessa, but I can’t say anything about my clients,” Maggie said coolly. “Now, please, if you could wait in the breakroom. Help yourself to refreshments.”
"Of course," Kevin agreed at once, on his feet.
"No problem at all, Maggie," Vanessa breathed, all but sprinting for the door.
"Of course, Maggie," Michael said evenly.
He stood. He took the folder as his eyes met Maggie's for a single beat before he turned to follow Kevin and Vanessa out. The small ghost of a smile that moved across his mouth made her want to laugh out loud as she could see he was enjoying this as much as she was. It had been many years since he’d been part of one of hers or Linda’s schemes.
As Maggie walked out of the design room, she put a hand to her mouth to hide her amusement. As expected, the celebrity was standing in the middle of Maggie's sales floor looking like a queen.
She was in the outfit Maggie had couriered to her that morning.
The cream silk separates Maggie had pulled from the new rack at dawn and put in a box with no label.
The top fell from her collarbones in a perfect column.
The wide-leg trousers caught the morning light.
Maggie's smallest leather sandal, in the soft taupe Maggie had agonized over for a season, finished the line at her ankles.
Her sunglasses were pushed up into her hair.
Two of her three bodyguards were positioned at the door.
The third was standing a discreet two steps behind her and her assistant, a tiny slip of a woman, slightly behind her.
She turned the moment Maggie came through, and her face lit up.
"Maggie, darling," the celebrity called warmly. "This new Maggie Original outfit you designed for me is absolutely gorgeous." She lifted the pants slightly to show her delicate foot. “And these shoes, Maggie, are to die for. They are so comfortable.”
"I am so glad you like it," Maggie answered, crossing to her, for their customary cheek air kisses.
"Like it? I am never taking it off," she said with an exaggerated flair.
It was right at that moment that Vanessa moved. Maggie felt it more than saw it out of the corner of her eye, and then Vanessa slightly bumped her shoulder to stand right next to Maggie.
"Oh my goodness," Vanessa breathed, all but knocking Maggie sideways in her haste. "I am such a huge fan. I have followed your career for years. I’m Vanessa. I’m Maggie’s family. I would just love it if I could get a picture with you."
The celebrity's eyes flicked to Maggie's for the smallest fraction of a second.
Maggie kept her face completely neutral.