“In a nutshell.”
“Great.What can I do?”
“Honestly?”Steven said.“You need to show them your plan.Where you’re going, what you’re doing and what you’re using those contacts of yoursfor.It doesn’t matter what it is, it just needs to be clear.”
Which meant as he sat at his brother’s table, enjoying brunch, he tried to figure out how he could demonstrate a business path for a business he wasn’t quite sure about.
*
Naomi wasn’t thebest at dealing with the depth of her own emotions.Especially when so many other things took up so much of her time.Her experience told her that the best way to handle things was to go from item to item as if nothing was wrong.Don’t stop.Don’t think.
Thinking, analyzing what you’re feeling will send you down the rabbit hole of an emotional breakdown and that cannot happen when you’re on a deadline.And Naomi had learned that lesson the hard way.Ida always used to remind her that ‘people’s dreams remain unfulfilled if she missed a deadline.’
Unfortunately, the disastrous meeting with her cousin had awakened every single feeling she’d tried not to feel.Every single flimsy boundary she’d built up in her mind had come crashing down.
And hours after she’d come home, she was still trying not to lose her mind.Then the phone rang.She’d half expected the caller to be her sister, knowing the family gossip train as it was.
But it wasn’t.
It was Jason’s number on her caller ID.
Feeling no need to hide what a mess she’d become, she immediately answered.
“Hey…”
She wanted to fall into the sound of his voice, wrap the sound waves around her.
“Jason,” she managed.
“I’m coming,” he replied.
She didn’t mean to sit on the couch, staring at the door, waiting for him to come back.But that’s what she’d done.
And when the knock on the door came, she moved quickly to answer it, stopping herself short of falling against the door before she unlocked it.
“Hi,” he said.
She restrained herself long enough to let him walk inside and put the bag he was carrying down on the table before she threw her arms around him.
He caught her, and she breathed in the scent of the food he’d cooked that afternoon with his brother.
“Didn’t go well?”
She buried her head in his shoulder.“I…somewhat.”But she pulled back and looked up at him before asking.“You?”
He sighed, and in his expression and the cast of his features, she could see clear signs that she wasn’t the only one going through something.
What was wrong?
What had happened?
“I need a shower,” he finally said, as if he’d convinced himself of something, “then we’ll debrief?”
She nodded, but there was something else she could offer him, some extra comfort.“You want me to join you?”
She waited a few moments.Watching his face as he settled into the idea, watching his face as he shook his head.“I want nothing more,” he said, “but I need time to think before we debrief.Next time.’Kay?”
She nodded; he’d put up boundaries and she’d respect them.“I’ll get into pajamas and make us some tea.”
