Upside Down by Fern Michaels Page A

being part of a team, so let the chips fall right on their feet for all she cared. If she was no longer a part of their team, then they were the opposition, whatever it was they were doing.
    Eyes wide open now, Maggie bounced upright in her chair as she peered through the glass wall that allowed her to see Emily Davis’s desk. She felt like she should rush out and put a nameplate on her secretary’s desk that said TRAITOR.
    Maggie took a moment or two to wonder if she was jealous. No. Yes. Well, maybe a tad, but not really. She had no strings on Ted. They’d talked their relationship to death so many times that she’d lost count. Finally, they had agreed to be friends and partners but not romantic partners, which in turn meant they could each see other people if they chose to do so. Nothing was said one way or the other about a booty call if the opportunity presented itself at some point along the way. Obviously, Ted had chosen to see Emily Davis. Or, at least, he was on the verge of taking that particular new friendship to another level.
    It was amazing how she hadn’t noticed anything during this past year. And a hell of a year it had been. In her mind, things started going south after Myra’s Thanksgiving dinner last year, when Charles left for parts unknown. There wasn’t any one thing in particular that she could put her finger on or point to, but things hadn’t been the same since his departure.
    Maggie knew it wasn’t her imagination that no one seemed to have time for anyone else. Isabelle was in England and hadn’t crossed the pond since she’d left. Abner had made the journey back and forth a few times, but if what Ted said was true, Abner hadn’t been to England since July, five months ago. Since Abner was a very wealthy man, money was not an issue. So she couldn’t help but wonder if there was trouble brewing in their marriage.
    Then there were Espinosa and Alexis, who had chosen her career over a relationship with the man who was now her ex-fiancé. He’d been in such a funk over her rejection that Ted had hauled him off to a shrink to talk it out. He was better now but not whole, in Maggie’s opinion. As far as she knew, Espinosa wasn’t seeing anyone and sat around hoping that Alexis would call him.
    Then there were Jack and Nikki. She knew there was trouble there because she only lived a few doors away and couldn’t help but notice the crazy hours each of them kept. That, plus Jack’s sudden neighborliness, stopping over almost every day just to talk and have coffee. Nikki’s obscene hours were driving him nuts.
    Tears sprang to Maggie’s eyes at how, in just a single year, their tight-knit little group was disintegrating. Not only the group as a whole, but the individual relationships among the various partnerships were being turned upside down. She couldn’t help but wonder if it all had something to do with Charles’s abrupt departure last Thanksgiving. Was Charles the glue that held them all together? Actually, when she thought about it, she always considered that it was Myra, Annie, and Charles who kept them together. A trio. A trifecta. Take away one, and everything started to unravel.
    Maybe she was the one who could get them all back on the same page.
    Without stopping to think, Maggie pulled out her phone and hit the number that would reach Yoko. “Hey, I want to put my order in for my Christmas tree and ask if you’re free for lunch tomorrow.”
    Yoko laughed and asked if she could bring a friend. That wasn’t exactly what Maggie had in mind, so she said, “What friend?”
    â€œKathryn. She’s delivering my bales of balsam and my Christmas trees. You get the first pick. I’m sure she’ll be free for lunch, but she’s heading up to Delaware to drop off another load of Christmas trees, all fresh from Oregon, before she heads back to Vegas. Does that work for you, Maggie? You