Page 85 of The Dreidl Disaster

If Isaac had any misgivings, he didn’t show them. Which was encouraging…maybe.

“Let me know if there’s anything you need,” Jacob added. “Tools, materials.”

Isaac shook his head, glancing around at the saws and the fasteners that sat on the work bench Jacob had brought in to the garage. “This should be it.”

And as Isaac went to work, Artur started to pace.

*

Liv lead Naomiinto town hall and closed the door to her office behind them.

“So,” she said, looking at her sister from behind her desk. “You said you have to tell me something. Talk.”

“I do,” Naomi said. “I have a message for you from Artur.”

“You said,” Liv told her sister. “And I’m angry with him right now, because he couldn’t tell me what was going on, which means he doesn’t trust me. And we’re done. So unless what you have to say is relevant to information I need to make sure this event goes without a hitch, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Artur didn’t tell you because he was given instructions not to, by his boss,” she said, as if it was the easiest bit of information in the world to figure out. “But because he knew you needed to know, he tried to circumvent it by telling someone who had nothing to do with the team or the celebration.”

And that was interesting, surprising even.

That he’d gone to that distance, even confided in someone who was still on shaky ground with her, to ensure she got the information, was astounding.

And a level of trust she hadn’t anticipated in her upset haze.

“Whoa.”

“Yep.” Naomi nodded, looking slightly vindicated. “That’s why I called you, but because you ignored my call and didn’t call me back, you didn’t know what was going on.”

“I was upset at him and took it out on the fact that he told me to call you,” she said. “But okay. So he chose to tell you what was going on in order to circumvent the NDA. What did he tell you?”

“Now we’re cooking,” Naomi replied, grinning like an LED. “His boss told him not to tell you that the sculpture had arrived damaged. And when he’s working a job like he is, when a company figure slaps an NDA on some kind of policy, even something that isn’t officially one, his hands are tied.”

“Which is great, but then I need to know these things. It’s important, I mean…”

“Which is why,” Naomi said, “stay with me here…there’s a reason we’re talking now.”

Liv nodded, swallowing back…something.

“Anyway,” Naomi continued, “the man engineered a way for you to find out something when he couldn’t tell you himself. Now I don’t know what you think of that or him, but the fact he trusted you enough to try and circumvent a situation when his hands were tied? Should tell you a lot more.”

Which made the conversation with Artur that she’d had much clearer. Much more understandable.

It wasn’tI don’t want to tell you.It wasI can’t tell you.

Emphasis on thecan’t.

Now much more aware of what was going on and what she was going to be told, she asked, “What’s going on now?”

Naomi tapped her fingers against the table. “My guess is that he’s with the dreidl, attempting to fix it.”

“And what should I do?”

“Act as if you don’t know a thing and decide what you are going to do when you see him.”

She had a lot to do and decisions to make.

*

---