The Ex (The Boss 4)

Something mean tightened up inside of me. I didn’t know that I would ever be over losing my job at Porteras. It had been totally my fault, but I still felt a prick of anger every time I remembered that Valerie now ran the place I’d loved so much.

“I’m not staying,” Valerie went on. I noticed she had her purse over her arm, so she must have been serious. She rummaged in her bag with one hand. “I have something…”

“You drove all the way out here to say happy birthday to Neil and drive back?” If I had fur, it would stand up. Oh, Neil, I drove four hours round trip to wish you happy birthday, because you’re so special to me. But then, I noticed what she was pulling from her purse, and my heart sank.

“I wanted to give you this. It’s an advanced copy.” She looked furtively over her shoulder then held out a book emblazoned with ADVANCED UNCORRECTED PROOF NOT FOR RESALE across the cover. Above a photo of a man with Valerie’s sparkling hazel eyes and perfect cheekbones was the title Don’t I Know You?, and below, Steven Stern.

I quickly tucked the book under my arm and glanced around to make sure Neil wasn’t near. “What the hell are you doing? Why did you bring it now?”

“Because I couldn’t think of a better time to do it,” she whispered angrily. She took a sip of her drink to compose herself. “I’m not in the Hamptons for Neil’s birthday. I’m staying with a friend for the weekend. It made sense to drop it off when I had an excuse to be here. You can give it to him when the time is right.”

“When is this supposed to come out?” I asked, still on the lookout for Neil. There was no way I would let this spoil his birthday.

“Late June.” Valerie looked down, avoiding the unspoken. We both knew that Neil and I were getting married in June, and that Emma’s baby would be born later that month. The timing was beyond terrible.

“I’m going to go put this away somewhere. There’s no reason this needs to ruin his night.” I took a step back, and Valerie grabbed my wrist. It was so unlike her to touch me at all, especially so aggressively, that it startled both of us.

She jerked her hand back and smoothed down the front of her blouse before saying, “Sorry. I just wanted… Look, I know you know Neil better than I do…” She hesitated, as though it pained her to admit that, or she just plain didn’t agree with it. “But don’t let this simmer too long. I don’t want to see this hurt the two of you more than it already will.”

I swallowed and nodded, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. So, I motioned to the book and turned, and hurried away to deal with my confusion. I headed to the bedroom—the safest place, where no one but Neil or I would find it—my head swimming. Valerie didn’t want this to hurt us? A year ago, she’d still been plotting to break us up. Was this some kind of new manipulation?

Ugh. What kind of a bitch was I that I jumped to nefarious purposes before just taking Valerie’s concern at face value? We’d made our truce, so why couldn’t I stick to it?

I went to our bedroom and looked around helplessly for somewhere to hide the book. I settled on the one place that Neil would, surprisingly, never look: my underwear drawer. I had a lot of panties, but he never went rummaging through the three-foot wide drawer of neatly folded underpants. He was usually more interested in the panties I was wearing at any given moment. I pushed the book under a stack of the least interesting ones, closed the drawer then made a quick visit to the bathroom, so I’d have cover for my disappearance.

Sure enough, Neil’s radar had kicked in while I was gone. He met me in the hallway with a worried look on his face. “Darling, is everything all right? Ian said he saw you talking to Valerie then you ran off.”

“Ian’s here?” I brightened up at that. I’d been wanting to see Gena for a while; maybe I had a little crush.

The corner of Neil’s mouth lifted. “He is. But Gena, sadly, is not.”

“Huh. I wonder why?” My heart sank with disappointment. But it wasn’t like I couldn’t see Gena another time. Besides, with my mom here, it would have been awkward trying to sneak in freaky couples’ sex.

Neil’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t think to ask him. He brought it up before I did, so I wasn’t sure I should press for more of an explanation than what he gave me.”

I wasn’t above pressing. My heart got a little tangle in it. I hoped Gena hadn’t stayed away because of me. Because of us, I quickly amended my thought. “Which was?”

“Just that she was sorry she couldn’t attend.” Neil paused. “If you have a chance…”

“I’ll see if I can’t just discreetly find the answer,” I promised.

I spent the evening trying to balance being polite to Neil’s friends while not neglecting mine. When I finally managed to get Holli and Deja away from my mom for a second, Holli got her maid-of-honor on, in a big way.

“Okay, so, we’ve been thinking…” Holli bounced on the balls of her feet and bit her bottom lip.

Deja rolled her eyes and laughed. “Fine, tell her. Even though we were trying to keep it a secret,” she added in an aside to me.

“We want to take you to Vegas for a bachelorette weekend!” Holli squealed.

I’d pretty much accepted as prophecy that Holli would pick Las Vegas as my bachelorette party destination. Especially since she’d so enjoyed the bachelorette weekend we’d had there prior to her wedding.

“We also want you to pay for it!” she added, still just as excited.

I’d also anticipated that. “Yes. We’ll take the jet, and it will rock.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Deja said, shaking her head slowly. She had to know that she was beaten already. “It’s Sophie’s bachelorette party. We’re supposed to pay for it.”

“Yeah, but Sophie has a shit ton of money, and we don’t. It’s what she would want,” Holli explained gently, like she was describing my wishes in a eulogy.