I compared that amount to what I saw on the check. The so-called bonus was for one hundred measly dollars. Okay, a hundred dollars was nothing to sneeze at, but in the big scheme of things, it was hardly worth the grief I'd suffered while working my ass off to keep up with all of the payments and repairs.
Cripes, I'd paid more than a hundred dollars just on credit card interest alone for the groceries I'd had to finance with plastic after sending Jason most of my money.
Not bothering to hide my contempt, I said, "Wow, a hundred bucks, huh? How very generous."
He grinned. "I know, right?"
I sighed. "I was being sarcastic."
His grin faded. "Hey, legally, I didn't have to give you anything."
"That's not true," I told him. "What, you thought I'd just let it go?"
"Well…" He paused. "You wouldn't sue me or anything. I mean, we're family, right?"
It was such a pretty thought. But for all I knew, the check wasn't even good. And Jason hadn't been acting like family at all.
Undaunted, Jason continued. "So it seems to me you'd be at least a little grateful."
"Grateful?" I practically sputtered. "After you lied to me about the house?"
His mouth tightened. "I didn't lie."
"Sure you did."
"About what?"
"Well, for one thing, about the repairs. Just admit it. You didn't repair a darn thing."
He glanced away. "Well…I did some repairs."
"Oh, please," I said. "You did not."
"I did, too."
"Really?" I gave him a no-nonsense look. "Like what?"
"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 he had trimmed them, he'd done a pretty sorry job, considering that they'd been way overgrown by the time I ever 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, 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 the bottom of it. Until then, we were just spinning our wheels.
I said, "We'll talk when I get back, alright?"
"And when will that be?"
"A week, maybe sooner."
"Terrific." She sighed. "And when you get here, where exactly will you be staying?"
"At the crew house. Where else?"
"But don't you have your own condo?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So why don't you stay there instead?"
If I wanted to be a dick about it – which I didn't – I might've told her that I owned the crew house, which meant that I could stay there any time I wanted.
But this was Arden, and she meant something to me. And hey, if the situation were reversed – if she'd taken off with no warning – I'd be pissed, too.
With an effort, I softened my tone. "Because you're not at the condo."
"That's right," she said. "And I never was. Why is that?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," she said, "why is it that I never – not even once – saw the place that you call home?"
It was a good question, one I should've been asking myself. The truth was, the condo didn't feel like home. It never had.
But the crew house, it felt different, almost like a real home, even if I'd been living out of a duffle.
Giving it some thought, I suddenly realized why it felt different. It was because of Arden. She made the crew house – as unimpressive as it was – feel like something I'd never had.
Come to think of it, it was the same way with the house we were fixing up. And that place wasn't even livable.
Holy shit.
Home was where she was.
It was the only thing that made sense.
The realization was a kick to the gut, and I wasn't ready for it.
I got another nice kick when Arden informed me that if I was planning to return to the crew house, she'd be finding a different place to stay.
This wasn't what I wanted to hear.
Still, I tried to keep my cool. "Listen, I don't want you to go."
With a humorless laugh, she said, "Oh, I just bet."
The more she talked, the less I liked what she was saying. But I was the one who'd messed up, and I didn't want to make it worse.
What I wanted to do was hop on a plane and fix this, whatever it was. But I'd flown out to California for a reason, and the reason hadn't changed.
The house in wine country was next on our list, and it was dangerously behind schedule – even more so after an electrical fire had gutted its kitchen less than twenty-four hours ago.
I'd gotten the emergency call maybe an hour after leaving Arden's bedroom late last night.
Into the phone, I said, "So, you wanna hear why I left?"
"Where?" Now, she sounded ready to cry. "My bedroom? Or the state?"
Like a dumb-ass, I realized far too late that she hadn't been asleep. She'd been crying.
The realization cut me to the core. In a softer voice, I said, "Both."
"How about neither?" she said with a choked sob. "Because I'm just saying, I don't care."
"Baby—"
But already, she'd hung up.
Shit.
If she didn't care, she wouldn't be crying. And I wouldn't feel like a dick for hurting her.
I hadn't meant to. But I saw why she was upset. Last night, I'd been an ass. And then I'd left with no warning.
On top of that, she'd had a whole day of radio silence, giving her plenty of time to assume the worst.
I wanted to make it up to her.
Maybe what she needed was a nice surprise – something to make her smile until I returned to fix things.
A few phone calls later, it was a done-deal.
The surprise – she was going to love it.
Chapter 51
Arden
In the crew house living room, I woke to the sounds of knocking. It was a Saturday afternoon, and I'd fallen asleep on the living room sofa – mostly because I'd slept so badly after last night's tense conversation with Brody.
On the phone, I'd been awful to him, but I refused to regret it. After what I'd learned from my cousin, I should've called Brody every name in the book.
But I hadn't.
I was saving that for the next time I saw him – whenever that would be.
As I rubbed the sleep from my aching eyes, I got up and trudged to the front door. Without much enthusiasm, I opened it up, only to come face-to-face with someone I never expected to see today.
It was Cami.
Her auburn hair was tied in a loose ponytail, and she was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and white sneakers. With a happy smile, she squealed, "Surprise!"
Huh? For a long moment, I was so disoriented I forgot to smile back. With sleep-addled confusion, I took everything in – the sleek town car idling in the driveway, Cami standing out on the front porch, and the battered suitcase resting by Cami's feet.
I was still trying to make sense of everything when Cami lunged forward and gathered me up in a hug so tight, it took my breath away.
For the first time in what felt like forever, I felt myself smile. And then, I laughed.
Into her hair, I asked, "How'd you get here?"
It was a valid question. Since college graduation, Cami had been staying with her parents, who lived nearly three hours away in Petoskey. She had a car, but it wasn't what you'd call reliable. And forget hopping on a plane. Between security checks and the lack of nearby airports, flying would've taken twice as long.
Of course, it would've been better than taking a bus, which I knew all too well from my own pathetic experience.
In reply to my question of how she'd gotten here, Cami pulled back and pointed to the town car, still idling in the driveway. "I took that."
I shook my head. "A town car? Seriously?" Okay, yes, I realized that the unfamiliar vehicle had obviously brought her here. But from where?
The airport?
Or the bus station?
On the porch, Cami glanced toward the vehicle. "Is that what you call it?"
"Actually," I admitted, "I'm not really sure."
The vehicle was long, dark, and expensive-looking. It wasn't quite a limo, but it wasn't a regular car either.
Whatever it was, it wasn't leaving. In a hushed voice, I asked, "Do we need to pay him or something?"
Cami shook her head. "Nope. It's already paid for."
"But what about the tip?"
She grinned. "That's paid for, too. And it must've been bigger than what he normally gets, because the driver was so happy, he smiled the whole way here."
None of this was making any sense. I felt my brow wrinkle in confusion. So, Cami had tipped him ahead of time?
I felt like I was missing something, but I had no idea what
. Absently, I murmured, "Really?"
Cami nodded. "Oh yeah. Like every time I caught his reflection in the rear-view mirror, he'd be grinning like he just won the lotto."
I didn't even play the lotto. But sleepy or not, I was suddenly grinning, too.
Cami was the closest thing I had to a sister, and I'd been dying to see her.
Still, I never would've expected her to travel all this way, especially knowing that her car tended to break down at the worst possible times.
And then, there was the matter of money. Much like myself, Cami was drowning in student debt. And although we'd both recently graduated from college, she wasn't yet employed, even if she did have something lined up for the fall.
This begged a serious question. How on Earth had she come up with travel money?
I planned to ask, but now wasn't the time.
She'd obviously gone to a lot of trouble to surprise me, and there was no way on Earth I'd ever ruin it by dwelling on our financial troubles.
So, with a smile, I said, "And you are staying here at the house, right?"
Whether she realized it or not, her visit had been perfectly timed. Waverly was gone, possibly forever. And Brody was away, too.
This meant that I didn't need to feel guilty or awkward for having a surprise houseguest stay at a place that wasn't truly my own.
But already, Cami was shaking her head. "I'm not staying here."
I glanced down at her suitcase. "Oh?"
"Because," Cami said with a laugh, "I'm whisking you away."
I wasn't quite following. "To where?"
Her eyes brightened. "To a hotel on the river. We've got a suite and spa treatments, and—"
"But wait." I couldn’t help but wince. "Who's paying for all of this?"
I really hated to ask, but I'd rather be a kill-joy than put a friend further in debt.
With a smile, Cami replied, "He is."
He? I still wasn't following. "Who?"
"Brody."
Chapter 52
Arden
That single word – the name of the guy who'd given me so much grief – hung between us in the open doorway.
Cami was still smiling. "I'm so glad the two of you made up."
I shook my head. "But we didn't." At the mere thought of him, my eyes stung with unshed tears. "And we won't. It's over." I swallowed a lump so big, it literally hurt. "Really over."
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