Page 109 of Bang

"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."