Page 17 of Indescribable

“Also hear you and Wyatt got into it at Lola’s this morning.”

I roll my eyes this time. That conversation happened all of ten minutes ago. “Red Oak is too small of a town,” I mutter.

My siblings laugh at my annoyance before Corbin speaks up.

“He’s delusional if he thinks Naomi’s taking him back.”

I hope so. I don’t say this out loud, of course, even though it’s no secret how I feel about Naomi. At least to my family. And Lola. Wyatt had his suspicions which were valid, but he expected me to act on it. Since I’m not a supreme dick, I never did. I respected the fact that she was married.

“All right, enough of gossip. We need to get to work.”

“It isn’t gossip if it’s the truth,” Cash says, stealing one of the sausage pastries out of the bag. “Thing is, Wyatt’s butthurt and when you finally go there with Naomi, he’s going to flip his shit. When that happens, we’ll be by your side, but prepare yourself for a battle because way I hear it, his mouth was running and what was coming out of it was bullshit. He’s blaming you for the downfall of their marriage and we all know that’s not true. My feeling is he’s the cause but doesn’t want to admit it.”

“You heard right and yeah, that’s my feeling, too, but unless Naomi decides to open up about it, it’s not my business. Now, can we go over the jobs we have lined up before everyone gets in here?”

I look at each of my siblings and they give me a nod but it’s when my eyes land on Corbin that I grow uneasy. Her left eye is doing the twitching thing which means she’s lying or hiding something. In this case, I know there’s something she isn’t telling us.

I don’t have time to grill her about it, though, our employee meeting is about to start. The meeting goes smoothly and I’m back in my office an hour and a half later, digging into work, replying to emails, making phone calls. Once I’m caught up, I head out of the office to grab some lunch and check on job sites. We have a great crew that manages well, but I’m a hands-on guy and have a hard time staying away from the sites.

Problem with being in public today, though, is that the drama and gossip in Red Oak is flowing freely and everywhere I go, someone feels the need to let me know what they heard. Most of it is fabricated from the long line of the age-old game of telephone, even if there is a little bit of truth to it.

By the time I make it back to the office, I’m exhausted and concerned for Naomi. If I’m on the receiving end of this much contact from the nosy townspeople, I can only imagine what she’s hearing.

Me:Probably should have warned you, had a conversation with Wyatt this morning and that got around town pretty quickly.

Naomi:Guess it’s a good thing I’ve been in the writing cave all day long so haven’t heard anything.

I snort. She’s right about that.

Me:Good. Stay there. This’ll blow over.

Naomi:Considering you felt like you needed to tell me about it, doubt it’ll blow over soon. What was the conversation about?

Me:I’ll give you two guesses but you’ll only need one.

Naomi:*sigh* Me? He’ll get over it. He’s just butthurt and probably embarrassed.

Me:Yup. Cash said the same thing.

Naomi:Thanks for the warning.

Me:Anytime. I’ll let you get back to whatever book you’re writing now.

Naomi:Taking a break anyway. Realized I hadn’t eaten yet today.

I growl to myself. She hasn’t eaten? All day? That’s not good. At all. My girl always eats, loves to snack and munch. I used to tease her because her purse was always full of snacks. Trail mix, granola bars, Slim Jims.

Me:Naomi…

Naomi:I’m good. Promise. Just got caught up in the words. Nothing to do with the divorce. You just haven’t been around as much since I started writing more and don’t know that once I get into my groove, I go all in.

The reminder that I haven’t been around irks me but isn’t something I’m going to let myself dwell on.

Me:Need me to order some food for you? I can have a pizza sent over or bring you something from the diner.

Naomi:Ooh! A mushroom swiss burger sounds freaking amazing!

Naomi:Dammit, Brock. I was planning to eat something healthy and now I want a burger.

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