The Ex (The Boss 4)

“Oh my god, at the trailer?” My heart thudded in my chest. That trailer was my childhood home. “Is there much damage?”

“Oh, honey. It’s gone.”

My lower lip trembled. “So, everything…”

“Everything, honey.”

I covered my eyes with one hand. Neil touched my shoulder. “Sophie, what’s happened?”

I put my hand over the mic end of the handset. “My mom’s trailer burned down.”

“I still have my cell, but I’m not sure for how much longer. My charger is melted,” Mom said, grim humor in her tone.

When you’re poor and life fucks you over, you eventually just give up and roll with it.

“You can reach me at Grandma’s, okay?” she went on.

“Does she have some place to stay?” Neil asked quietly.

I cut my eyes to him, not sure what he was getting at. “Mom… Neil wants to know if you have a place to stay.”

“I’ll be at your grandma’s,” she stated again.

Neil made finger signals at me that were apparently supposed to mean something. “Hang on, Mom.” I covered the mouthpiece again. “What? What are you flailing at me?”

“Tell her she’s welcome to come stay here for a while,” he suggested.

My jaw dropped. I would have closed my mouth, but I was too horrified.

“For a little while,” he said, softer. Then, he gestured to the phone.

I was so shocked, I found myself putting the phone to my ear and saying, “Hey, why don’t you come out here for a little while? Just until we can get things fixed for you.”

“Sophie Anne, I already told you that I’m not taking a dime from the two of you.” This was a road we’d pushed a wrecked car down before.

“It’s not taking anything from us. Just come out here and stay. It’ll do you some good.” I pulled out my secret weapon. “You were disappointed that you couldn’t visit and help me with wedding stuff.”

Her silence told me I’d breached her defenses. She wouldn’t be able to resist the lure of telling me how to run my wedding.

After long pause, she said, “Oh, fine. I’ll come out. I don’t know when I can get a flight—”

“You just need to get yourself down to Green Bay or Sawyer,” I reassured her. “We’ll get the rest taken care of.”

“I said I wasn’t going to—“

“Take a penny from us. I know.” I rolled my eyes, and I had a suspicion that she could hear it through the phone. “But we already own the jet. Just let us send it, okay?”

“I don’t want to be an imposition—”

“You are calling us at three in the morning and then arguing when we offer to fly you to our enormous seaside mansion in our private jet,” I reminded her.

“Fine, fine!” Mom relented. “I’ll come out there. But Neil doesn’t like me.”

He must have heard it sitting beside me, because he sighed in irritation and lay down on his side, pulling the blankets up. “This is going to take some time, I presume. I’ll go back to sleep.”

I elbowed him lightly in the back, and the curve of a smile lifted his cheek.

“Neil is the one who suggested it. It’s a big house. You wouldn’t ever have to see each other.” I glanced over to him, expecting a mumbled, “Thank Christ for that!” but none came. “I’ll call you tomorrow when we have the details worked out, okay?”