Sophie (The Boss 8)

“Well, you know how I feel about her.” Mom had been #TeamSophie from the moment I was born, and woe to anyone who might cross me.

Which Valerie had already done—many times.

“There’s more to it than the Neil stuff.” That, we’d put behind us, at least. I was glad for it; catfighting over my husband with his ex hadn’t been a good look for either of us. “She and Laurence know about El-Mudad living here, and now we’re not dancing around it with them anymore.”

“Oh…” There was no way mom knew how to respond to this situation. Her staunch Catholic morals were already at odds with the idea of her daughter getting doubled up. She was probably as horrified at the thought of Olivia being raised in a poly household as Laurence and Valerie were. But I could tell she wanted to be on my side so, so badly. “How did they take it?”

“We haven’t had a full-scale talk yet. That comes today. But things aren’t good.”

Though I’d tried to keep the anxiety out of my voice, Mom picked up on it. “You don’t think they’re going to try to take her, do you?”

My stomach knotted. I wished she hadn’t guessed our fear right off the bat like that. Somehow, that made the threat more real. “Neil wanted to make sure they didn’t have her passport or birth certificate. That freaked me out.”

“I don’t think they would kidnap her,” Mom said hopefully. “They wouldn’t risk jail time.”

“That’s true.” Although, it would have been fun to see Laurence in prison. Well, not actually see him. I wouldn’t have visited or anything. I just wanted him gone from our lives. “You don’t think they could get custody, do you?”

“I couldn’t tell you, sweetie.” Mom’s voice was like a hug. “But I’m sure Neil has talked to a lawyer about this, right?”

“He’s going into the city on Monday to strategize.” Being proactive would make him feel less helpless, at least. “But step one is having dinner with them. And having a really uncomfortable conversation.”

“You’ve already done the most uncomfortable conversation,” she reminded me. “And look, we’re fine.”

“I think it went better for you than it did for us,” I said wryly.

“Fair enough. But I’m coming around. I still don’t like to think about it—”

“I know what the ‘it’ is, and I would prefer you never think about it, either.” Maybe it was overly picky, but I really would have liked for my mother never to imagine me having sex. “Everyone is so hung up on that. Laurence thinks we’re deviants having some kind of nonstop orgy in full view of Olivia.”

“A lot of people are going to see it that way. It’s not fair, but people assume the worst wherever sex is involved. Remember when Carla’s nephew came out as gay, and they fired him from his youth pastor position?” Mom reminded me. That had been a massive scandal in our small town when I was in high school. We’d heard about it even though we didn’t go to that church.

And she wasn’t wrong. People assumed a lot when sex was involved, and the idea of three consenting adults living together in a romantic relationship was scandalous as hell. “I was hoping Valerie, at least, would understand.”

“Why would she make anything easy for you?” huffed the other woman who made absolutely nothing easy for me. “Olivia and the girls won’t be there for this, will they?”

“No, of course not. We’re trying to keep them as far from any of this as possible. They’re going through an adjustment period, too.” At least Amal and Rashida came from a very open-minded background.

“Well, of course. Their parents got divorced, now their father is getting...serious with other people…” She paused. “You can’t all get married, can you?”

“Um, no? Since when have three people ever been able to get married?” I snorted a laugh, but deep down, it wasn’t all that funny. El-Mudad was permanent whether we could be married or not, but Neil and I had done a big celebration to declare our permanence to our family and friends. Missing out on that part with El-Mudad made my heart ache. “But yeah, they understand that this is a marriage-like arrangement. We’ve taken this slow. Literally years.”

“Maybe you should point that out to Laurence and Valerie,” Mom suggested. “This isn’t a freaky sex thing. It’s a marriage.”

“In my experience, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.” I couldn’t resist embarrassing her just a little bit.

“Sophie Anne.”

“Oh, chill out. You’re right, though. I’m just hoping we can get that through to them.” Maybe it wouldn’t hurt for them to at least see the way the girls interacted. The way El-Mudad interacted with Olivia. If they could see we were a family, even just for a few minutes. “I’m going to go talk to the guys about this. Thanks.”