Page 72 of Breaking Conviction
Gail was out of town and had given Naomi the okay to work from home. Normally, Naomi would’ve gone with Gail on the work trip, leaving Thea with Dean. But obviously, that was out of the question now. She could’ve kept Thea, but Naomi hadn’t worked without distraction in two weeks. Besides, it was good for Thea to get back into a routine. Maybe if they got back to normal, everything else would fall into place.
“She’d probably just be watchin’ TV if she was here, anyway.”
Naomi rolled her eyes, trying not to bristle at the comment. “You know what? I get enough of that from mean moms, alright? I don’t need to get it from some unmarried, childless twentysomething drunk-at-ten-in-the-morning guy who askedmeto fix him breakfast. Watch your ‘tude,dude.”
Phoenix cringed. “Shit, I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t know anything ‘bout bein’ a mom. As you can obviously tell from my perfect male body.”
“Gah, if I roll my eyes at you one more time, I’mma be stuck that way and you’re gonna have to finish this cookin’.”
“Please don’t,” Phoenix groaned. “The bacon is callin’ to me and I’ll burn this fuckin’ place down if I’m in charge of the oven.”
Naomi smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m hungry too, so I’ll leave you be this time. It’s just mommy bashers are everywhere these days, bullyin’ perfectly great moms and it’s ridiculous what people get self-righteous about. We already can’t sneeze without crossin’ our legs, maybe we should, I dunno, at least be nice to each other? The world’s already mean enough, ya know?”
She pivoted to find Phoenix scratching under his slightly raised ball cap while his face scrunched up in question. “Why do y’all gotta sneeze with your legs crossed?”
Naomi snorted. “You’ll find out when you’re older.”
“I’m older than you, though?” Phoenix countered in a question.
Naomi continued, shaking her head. “Mommy bashin’ aside. I’ve seen the writin’ on the wall. If I refused to let Thea near a screen, she’d be behind the rest of her classmates. These kids are smarter and quicker than we ever were—or will be—and they’ll never be told ‘you won’t have a calculator on you at all times’. My baby might learn how to code something into a computer that cures cancer, or some shit. It’s better for her to learn how to navigate the internet than Lincoln Logs in this day and age.”
“Jesus H. Christ, you and Snake are made for each other.”
Naomi laughed as she turned back to the stovetop. “I’m rollin’ my eyes again, just so you know. I’ve probably got one more eye roll in me before I’m stuck that way. It’ll be hard to keep cookin’ like that and this bacon ain’t near done in the oven. And no one likes overcooked eggs or lumpy grits.”
A watery belch behind her made her whip around to see Phoenix’s blanched face again. “God, why does that sound like heaven and hell in the same bite.”
“I figured you were sassy ‘cause you’re feelin’ last night a little.”
Phoenix groaned. “A lot, actually. I don’t remember the last time I got that gone. I guess Devil always kept me in check more than I knew.”
“Yeah, he doesn’t go anymore, right?”
“Nope.” Phoenix rested his head in his palms, squishing his face before declaring his woes with all the airs of a soap opera actress. “All the good ones are gone, Naomi. Stolen from me. I keep tryna tell ‘em, can’t be puttin’ pussy on the pedestal, my dude. But they don’t listen. “First Jaybird… then Devil…”
“Don’t be so dramatic. That’s growin’ up. We all gotta do it sometime. Besides, you’ve got Hawk and Wes still.”
Phoenix scoffed. “Yeah, sure. I’ll party with the machine and the robot. That’ll be greaaaat fun.”
“Hey,” Naomi turned and snapped the tongs at him, far away so that if any bacon grease or eggs flew off, it wouldn’t be anywhere close to hitting his whiney ass. “Wes is fun. Y’all gotta get all your issues out on the table.” A memory wriggled in the back of her brain. Maybe it was something Phoenix had said the night before? She’d been preoccupied, so it was hard to recall.
“That ain’t happenin’, Naynay.”
Naomi growled, all attempts at remembering the night before’s conversation forgotten. “Ireallydon’t like that nickname. But you and Nora are stickin’ to it, I guess.”
“I like it,” Phoenix joked. “Makes me wanna dance.” He did a shimmy and immediately turned an off shade of green. “Ugh, is it gonna be ready soon? If not, I might go pray to the porcelain gods first.”
“Should be done actually.” Using Wes’s tried-and-true T-shirt method, she pulled the hot baking sheet from the oven and laid the metal on the stovetop, careful to do it without hurting Phoenix’s delicate ears. “Where’s everyone else?”
Naomi crunched bacon into the grits and added cheddar cheese. Operating on autopilot, she piled grits, scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon on Phoenix’s plate before serving him.
He tilted his head before taking the plate. “Thanks. I know I’m a sad sack of shit this mornin’ but I coulda at least served myself.”
Naomi felt her eyes widen a fraction and she huffed an awkward laugh, confronted again with how fucked up her relationship had been.
“Shit, sorry, just habit from home, I guess. It was, um… expected.” She cleared her throat and added smaller portions onto her plate. “Should we tell everyone else it’s ready or eat it all?” Her pasted grin was brittle enough to disintegrate, but thankfully Phoenix was too consumed with his food to notice as she turned to talk to him.
“Everyone else?” Phoenix took a bite and groaned with his eyes crossed. “Gawd this is good. I didn’t know oven-baked bacon was even a thing. My mamaw always fried it over the stove.”
