"Lots of things," he said. "I even did some of them myself."
Jason and I weren't terribly close, but I'd seen enough of him to know that he barely knew which end of the hammer met the nail. Plus, according to Brody, absolutely nothing in the house had been fixed.
I believed him, too. When it came to construction, Brody definitely knew what he was doing.
But even without Brody's expert opinion, I knew what I'd seen with my own two eyes. Unless I was terribly mistaken, Jason hadn't done a single thing to keep the house from falling down around him, even while hitting me up for all kinds of money.
With a scoff, I said, "Oh yeah? Which repairs?"
"Well, like the shrubs," he said. "I repaired those last year."
Oh, for God's sake."You don't 'repair' shrubs. You trim them." I didn’t bother pointing out that even if hehadtrimmed them, he'd done a pretty sorry job, considering that they'd been way overgrown by the timeIever got to them.
When Jason's only response was a sullen look, I asked, "And what about the roof?"
"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,thisI 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,youmentioned snacks."
"Well, I reallyamhungry," 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?"
