"What messages?"
"I left a voicemail on your cell phone, and few texts, too." I hesitated. "But I didn't hear back."
Livia frowned. "Yeah, because the monsters stole my phone."
"Seriously?"
"Oh yeah. And Ijustfound it this morning." She grimaced. "Wanna know where?"
From the look on her face, I wasn't so sure. And yet, Iwasmorbidly curious. "Where?"
"In the cat box."
Hoping for the best, I said, "Like, where he sleeps?"
"No. Where he pees."
Now,Iwas the one grimacing. "You mean thelitterbox?" I wasn't even sure what surprised me more – that the kids had done something so disgusting, or that Livia had cleaned out a litter box.
When she replied with a disgruntled nod, I said in a gentler tone, "So, you're on litter-duty, too, huh?"
"Me?" she scoffed. "No way. He's got a service who doesthat."
"But you just said—"
"Okay, so it wasn'tmewho actually found the phone, but the phone was still mine."
"So, what are you gonna do?" I asked. "Like… can you clean it?"
"Me? Hell no," she said. "I called Lorenzo on the land line. He's sending me a new one."
"Wait, who's Lorenzo?"
She grinned. "The dad."
"Oh. Well, that's nice."
She gave a happy nod. "I know, right?" She glanced past me, toward the interior of Mason's house. "So, aren't you gonna invite me in?"
"Gosh, I'm really sorry." Oddly enough, I meant it, too. Still, I continued. "But I can't. We're in the middle of homework. And besides, I'm not supposed to have company without prior authorization."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, it’s not my house. This is a job, remember?"
With a perplexed look, she said, "But I thought Mason was your boyfriend."
Dang it.Regardless of my mixed feelings, it was definitely time to come clean. Reluctantly, I admitted, "Actually, he's not. He was just kidding."
"But I saw the two of you holding hands."
"Right. Because he didn't want me to trip."
"Oh, please," she said. "I saw the way he looked at you."
I sucked in a quiet breath. "What?"
"I don't know what you're doing in the bedroom," she said. "But it's obviously working."
