The Boyfriend (The Boss 7)

Neil scooped her up. “I see that. Give Afi a kiss.”

She complied, then reached out for me. I took her into my arms, but she seemed to have gained sixty pounds over Christmas. “You’re getting too big to pass around!”

“Oh yes, I’m very big,” she confirmed. “Grandpa Larry is going to put a brick on my head.”

“Is he, now?” Neil asked, his smile stiff. “I didn’t realize we were calling him Grandpa Larry.”

“Yes, we are. Because of the wedding,” Olivia said breezily.

Horror and shock dawned on Neil’s face. “Is that wedding you’ve been talking about?”

Olivia nodded proudly and held a finger to her lips. “But it’s a secret. You have to shhh about it.”

“I promise, I won’t tell a soul.” Neil took her back and hugged her tight. “Tell El-Mudad goodnight, and I’ll take you to the nursery.”

“Night-night,” she called over Neil’s shoulder, blowing a kiss to El-Mudad.

As they walked away, he and I stared at each other in silent dread.

“Do you think he’s going to have that big, dramatic reaction you mentioned?” he asked finally, nodding down the hall.

“I think you just witnessed the beginning of it. The calm before the storm.” I got a sudden, stabbing headache. I didn’t have to doubt that Neil loved El-Mudad and me. Not to mention Olivia. But some horrible, jealous voice in the back of my head insisted that my husband was more in love with Valerie, that he would always be, and that I was just another ex-wife that had to be waited through, the way she’d tried to wait out Elizabeth.

“Let’s go to the living room,” El-Mudad suggested, still holding my hand as we walked. “We can sit down and talk about this like rational adults.”

Unlike our den, the living room was a bit more formal. There was no television, but there was a great view of one of our patios. The furniture was covered, but the raised fire pit could have been so cozy, even on a cold night like this one.

I sat beside El-Mudad on the couch, snuggling myself into the corner. Neil had left a book on the end table. The Accidental President. I opened the cover and flipped a few pages before I put it back. Truman wasn’t particularly interesting to me, but Neil always seemed to be reading something about this or that historical politician.

He passed through the walkway between the living room and foyer and came to a halt at the sight of us. “Ah. There you are.”

“Here we are,” I confirmed. Maybe the Valerie and Laurence thing was done? That would be a fucking miracle.

“I was just going to step away and call Valerie. To congratulate her,” he clarified without being asked to.

I stared at him, silent.

“I thought Sophie said that Valerie was waiting to tell you,” El-Mudad said coolly. “It seems as though you should wait. Unless it doesn’t matter to you that it will look as though Sophie broke her confidence. Considering their history...”

Neil waved that off. “Oh, I’ll just tell them Olivia let it slip.” After a pause, he changed tactics. “And you know, I don’t think it’s at all appropriate for her to ask Olivia to hide things from us.”

“You’re right,” El-Mudad agreed. “And that’s a concern you can raise with her some other time.”

Neil’s brow creased with his frown. He seemed confused at our reactions, but there was no way he couldn’t have known why we were miffed. He wasn’t that clueless.

“It’s late—“ I began.

“It’s eight-thirty,” Neil interrupted.

“Excuse me, I was speaking.” Normally, I wouldn’t have objected; we talked over each other often, and it was no big deal. But this was too raw and personal a discussion for me to let it slide. He looked appropriately chastened, so I continued. “It’s eight-thirty at night. We just finished dinner. Olivia has been put to bed. We’ve all been apart for a week. Instead of chilling out with us, maybe watching some Netflix or playing cards or something, you want to spend this time calling your ex, whom you haven’t been involved with for thirty-ish years?”

“Sophie, I’m retired. You’re unemployed. El-Mudad doesn’t work. There will be plenty of time to spend with each other,” Neil protested in his infuriatingly reasonable tone.

“There will be plenty of time to discuss all of this with Valerie, as well,” El-Mudad said, his expression stone cold.

“I don’t understand why you two are reacting this way.” Neil had somehow convinced himself that we were the ones being unreasonable.

And maybe our suspicion was a little unreasonable. Valerie and I had put a lot of our animosity behind us, especially now that she’d moved on from Neil and we had to all raise Olivia together. But just because she had moved on didn’t mean Neil had, entirely. At least, it appeared as though he hadn’t, and that broke my heart.