Page 214 of Holding On To Good

Shit. She’d brought reinforcements.

“See?” she said to Toby who’d ambled in, Bella at his side. “I told you it was bad. He just snapped at me. He often mutters at me. At times he grumbles at me. And on a few rare occasions, he’s even growled at me. But he doesn’t snap.”

“We did interrupt his work,” Toby pointed out.

“And your entrance was rather hostile,” Miles added as he took a seat on the couch.

Verity slammed her hands on her hips—she’d straightened her hair and did her makeup for Lily Kincaid’s wedding but was still in a baggy Drillers’ T-shirt and gym shorts. “Okay, first of all, that right there, what you both did? That’s called gaslighting and it’s not very nice. Secondly, I am not the one in the wrong here. Although I do seem to be the only one who cares that our brother is suffering and needs our help.”

“I’m not suffering,” Urban offered, hoping that if he convinced her of that, she’d leave him alone.

But all that did was bring her full attention and ire back to him.

“Uh, you’ve been a complete grump ever since I got back from OSU. You’ve cut back on the actual words you say by about half. You don’t answer your phone or respond to text messages and as soon as you get home from work, you lock yourself in here for hours. Then you spend all night prowling the house like some modern-day Heathcliff pining over Catherine. And I don’t have to tell you how he ended up.”

“Heathcliff?” Miles asked, scratching behind Bella’s ears. “The cartoon cat?”

“I’m more of a Garfield fan myself,” Toby said.

She whirled on them. “Are you seriously poking the sister bear right now?”

Toby held his hands up in surrender as Miles shook his head.

Smart men.

Except that left her to once again focus on Urban.

“Look,” she said. “It’s obvious something life-altering happened to you while I was at orientation—”

“Nothing happened,” he said through clenched teeth.

And it hadn’t been life altering. His life was exactly the same as before he and Willow got together.

Exactly the same except he hadn’t seen her in nearly a week. Hadn’t talked to her.

The same except he’d spent the past week running their company alone and hating every minute of it.

The same except he wasn’t sleeping, was barely eating and yeah, he was being an asshole to Verity, his brothers and employees and anyone else who crossed his path. And there was the little fact that he couldn’t go more than fifteen minutes without thinking about Willow.

Without missing her.

Without having to stop himself from seeking her out if only so he could see her face. Hear her voice.

But he was handling it.

Even if he wasn’t sure he was ever going to get over it.

Verity raised her eyebrows. “No? Well, that’s a relief. Guess I’ve been worried for no reason then.”

“Yep,” he said, then, because he wanted this conversation over, he pretended to go back to his estimate.

His brothers got the hint and, luckily, had his back. Miles stood and Toby turned toward the door, but Verity didn’t move.

Not only was she smarter than all three of them put together, she was more stubborn.

Christ help them.

“So silly of me,” she said, sauntering closer to his desk, “to be concerned over you being a little quieter, a lot grumpier and ten times more reclusive. Everyone has an off week, after all.”

---