Brody's mouth tightened. "Is that so?"
Just then, my cell phone rang in my pocket. From the ringtone, I knew exactly who it was – my cousin Jason.
My breath caught.Finally.
I blurted out, "I've got to take this." During the past couple of days, I'd been going crazy trying to reach him. I'd called. I'd sent text messages. I'd even sent him a few emails.
In return, I'd gotten nothing.Until now.
Frantically, I dug the phone out of my pocket, rushed back into the bathroom, and slammed the door shut behind me.
Waverly called out, "Hey! That's my bathroom."
"In a minute!" I called back, even as I tapped the screen to accept my cousin's call. "Jason?" My voice rose. "Where have you been?"
On the other end, I heard with nothing but silence.
I tried again. "Hello? Jason?"
"Uh, yeah," he finally said. "So, um, how's it going?"
I felt my jaw clench. Judging from the tone of his voice, he knew exactly how it was going.
"Terrible," I said. "What happened with the house?"
"Well, you see…it's kind of a long story."
"I'm sure it is," I snapped. "So what happened?"
More silence.
"Oh, for God's sake," I said. "Just spit it out, will you?"
"Alright. Jeez, calm down."
Calm down? Seriously?Through gritted teeth, I informed him, "Iamcalm."
"You don't sound calm to me."
He was right. I wasn't.But I had plenty of reasons to be agitated. He'd given me a promise. He'd taken my money,repeatedly. And then, in spite of everything, he'd sold the house anyway, with no warning whatsoever.
Adding insult to injury, he hadn't even bothered to tell me any of this himself. Instead, he'd let me find out on my own, the hard way.Cripes, even Brody discovering me naked in the shower was my cousin's fault in a roundabout way.
Still, I wanted answers, not a scene. So in the calmest voice I could muster I said, "On Tuesday, you were supposed to meet me. Remember?"
"Tuesday? Are you sure?"
"Oh, come on," I said. "Youknowyou were. I waited for you all day. And half of the night, too. But you never showed."
He mumbled, "Sorry 'bout that."
"You should be," I said. "And then, I find out from someone else that you sold the house – the one wesupposedlyowned together. So tell me. What happened?"
He hesitated. "Who told you I sold it?"
"Well, for one thing, the sign."
"What sign?"
