"What about it?"
"Did you know it was shot?"
He drew back. "Like, with a gun?"
Was he joking? "No," I said. "I mean, 'shot', as in used up, in need of repair, leaking, whatever."
"Oh." He visibly relaxed. "Then why didn't you say so?"
"I did. Just now."
"No. You told me it was shot."
"Alright, forget the roof," I said. "The house – why'd you sell it?"
"Because I had to."
Now, this I had to hear. "Oh yeah? Why?"
He glanced toward the kitchen. "Didn't you mention snacks or something?"
Oh, I'd give him a snack, alright. Through gritted teeth, I said, "No, you mentioned snacks."
"Well, I really am hungry," he practically whined. "I've been sitting in the car for hours, you know."
"Fine," I sighed. "I'll find you something. But I'm warning you, you'd better tell me everything."
And to Jason's credit, he actually did.
By the time he finished, I wanted to kill him. And this time, I didn't mean my cousin.
I meant Brody.
Chapter 50
Brody
Arden answered my phone call with a sleepy, "Hello?"
I smiled at the sound of her voice. "Hey, it's me."
She paused. "What do you want?"
Now I paused, too. "I wanted to talk."
"Oh, really?" she said, sounding half asleep. "Then maybe you should've called sooner."
I was sitting in a rental car outside a strip mall, where I'd just purchased a basic burner phone. "I would've," I said, "but my phone's missing."
"So?"
"So I had to get a new one."
"Gee, it must be nice," she said.
I didn't get it. "Nice how?"
"I’m just saying, it must be nice to buy a brand-new phone without even thinking."
It hadn't been nice. It had been a pain in the ass. I wasn't an entourage type of guy, so I'd hit the store on my own. I didn't mind the effort, but when it came to the attention, I wasn't in the mood.
I glanced toward the cell phone store and frowned. At least a dozen people were standing at the front window, staring out at my car. The car was a basic rental, just like I'd asked for. But the gawkers weren't staring at the vehicle. They were staring at me, just like they'd done inside.
So much for keeping a low profile.
I fired up the engine and backed out of the spot.
As far as the new phone, it was a temporary thing. I still figured the old one – the one with all of my contacts – would show up eventually.
To Arden, I joked, "Hey, if you want it, it's yours."
She sighed. "What?"
"My new phone." As I spoke, I pulled into traffic and turned toward the hotel. "If you want it, you can have it."
"Forget it. I don't want your hand-me-downs."
Shit.
Sleepy or not, she sounded ticked. But it wasn't about the phone. I knew that.
I'd left this morning with no advance warning and no kiss goodbye. And I'd been out of touch all day.
Here in California, it was just past nine o'clock at night, which meant that it was after midnight in Michigan.
I asked, "Did I wake you?"
Sounding sleepier than ever, she said, "Would you care if you did?"
What the hell?
"Yeah, I'd care." And I would. I almost hadn't called for that reason. But I'd wanted to clear things up between us, and I'd been dying to hear her voice.
On the phone, she replied, "Well, if you cared so much, maybe you would've called sooner."
"Except I didn't have a phone. Or your number."
With a sleepy scoff, she said, "Right."
Okay, I felt bad for messing up, but something wasn't right. I asked, "Is there a problem?"
"Well, I guess I'm just wondering which story you're going with. Did you not have your phone? Or did you not have my number?"
Arden was smart. But her question wasn't. Still, I didn’t want to be a dick about it, so I explained, "Your number's in my phone, so to answer your question, I didn't have both – my cell or your number."
In the end, I'd gotten her phone number from the production company after finding their number on the rental car paperwork. The trip itself wasn't for fun, and the missing phone wasn't helping.
And now, Arden was saying, "Then maybe you should've learned it by heart."
"Is that so?" I asked, "Do you know my number by heart?"
She paused. "What?"
"My cell number," I said. "What is it?" When I heard fumbling on the other end, I added, "And don't look in your contacts. That's cheating."
"Cheating, huh?" With a sleepy laugh, she said, "Well, that's rich."
"Meaning?"
"Forget it."
I didn't like where this was going. "What, you think I'm cheating on you?"
"Oh, please," she scoffed. "You can't 'cheat' if we're just screwing around, right?"
I gripped the phone tighter. "What?"
"Sorry," she said. "What I meant to say is, we were screwing around, as in past tense."
Fuck.
Okay, I realized that I had some explaining to do, but the more she talked, the more aggravated I was getting, too. "Listen—"
"No. You listen," she said. "Whatever you're up to, I don't care. I just want to buy the house and be done with it, okay?"
What the hell?
Again, with the house?
I asked, "What are you getting at?"
"Just what I said. I want to buy it."
"With what?"
"Money," she said. "What else?"
"I already told you, you can't afford it."
"That's what you think."
"Wrong," I told her. "It's what I know."
"No. You're wrong," she said. "After I get my bonus—"
"Forget the bonus," I said. "You'd need double that for just the down payment."
"Excellent," she said. "Because I have it. There, it's settled."
Settled, my ass. There was no way on Earth that Arden had come up with that kind of money in less than a day. She was bluffing.
She had to be.
But hey, I'd play along if it would take the edge off. I asked, "So, where'd you get the money?"
"That's none of your business," she said. "But trust me, I've got it."
It didn't sound like a bluff. And now I took a moment to think. Had she come into a decent chunk of money? It seemed unlikely, but hey, stranger things had happened. When I returned home, I'd get to
