“What are the good restaurants? I’ve never even been here becausesomeone,”—her eyes slid to the corners of her black eyeliner toward Maxence—”never mentioned he was from Monaco, let alone that he might own the place someday.”
Dree laughed. “There’s this place over on the other side of Monaco, which means a fifteen-minute walk, that calls itself an Irish pub. They have the best Thai chicken salad I have ever had in my life. It’s phenomenal. Just enough chili-garlic sauce to make it interesting, but not Los Dos-type interesting. They have really good hamburgers and French fries, too. And then there are some Monegasque restaurants here that serve a whole bunch of fish.”
Mairearad’s eyes flared wider. “That sounds fantastic. I’d love to try that Thai chicken salad sometime.”
“I’ll show you around. Two Phoenician girls on the loose in Monaco! What could go wrong?”
Maxence stepped closer to Dree and slid his hand around her waist. He said to the other woman, “Mairearad, Dree is my fiancée.”
“Oh!” And then lower.“Oh.Well, congratulations to you both. I didn’t even know that was a thing, Max.”
“I haven’t announced it to the charity staff yet. It just happened a few days ago.”
“I think it’s wonderful. I hope you have the happiest of marriages.”
Mairearad’s smile remained perfectly unchanged.
Not changed at all.
Frozen.
Dree was trying very hard not to quietly freak out. Mairearad wasn’t making a scene, so Dree probably shouldn’t either.
But that was weird.
Dree said, “So, we’ll have to go get that chicken salad sometime?”
Mairearad’s freakishly robotic smile still didn’t waver. “I’ll have to take a look at my schedule. Setting up the new office is going to keep us pretty busy for a while.”
Maxence pulled Dree a little closer to his side, weirdly possessive.
Or defensive.
“Okay,” Dree said. “I’m over at Maxence’s business office a lot, likeall the time.I was filling in for his secretary for a couple of weeks to help out, you know? So you can always call me over there if you want to go get the Thai chicken salad.”
“Yeah, sure,” Mairearad said. “Thanks for the rec!” Her bright smile was still plastered on her face.
Casimir joined them, and Mairearad turned her grin toward him. “Caz, how’s married life treating you?”
“We have a toddler,” Casimir said. “Did you know that the fastest land animal on Earth is a toddler with something in her mouth?”
Mairearad laughed at him. “I’ve heard that.”
Isaak came back over to them, holding a paper bag. “Mairearad, Aina and Deshondra are having problems deciding on a filing system for those binders. Could you mediate the discussion?”
“Oh, thank God,”Mairearad said. “Yep, I’ll go right over and help them.” She walked over to where the Francophones were standing around a pile of fat three-ring binders.
Dree looked up at Max. “Do we need to talk?”
“No.”
Dree told him, “I said that wrong.We need to talk.”
Isaak handed a crackly paper bag to Dree. “I believe this is yours.”
Dree reached inside, and she knew exactly what he’d brought her the instant her fingers touched the cloud-soft wool.“Oh!”
She dragged the pale blue pashmina that the grandmother in Nepal had given her for saving her grandson from scurvy out of the bag. The last time Dree had seen the shawl, it had been knotted around the premature infant Chirasmi, who had survived Dree’s insane motorcycle dash through the icy Himalayas to get her to a hospital.
