Never Have You Ever (The Love Game #1)- Elizabeth Hayley Page 0,87

awkward, the dark-haired, bikini-clad woman next to him leaned over to kiss his neck.

One hard stare from Mr. Mason had me asking, “Where are you? Looks gorgeous there.”

“Dude, you have no idea. The women, the view, everything here is beautiful. If you ever get the chance, you definitely need to check out the Amalfi Coast.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.

With that, Mr. Mason reached for the phone. As Sophia let it go from her hand, she muttered a quick, “Mom and Dad are here,” before the Masons made face-to-face contact with their delinquent son.

“What?” Brody squeaked out.

“What are you doing in Italy, Brody?” Mrs. Mason said. “I’ve been worried about you.”

“She’s right to worry,” Mr. Mason said, “because I swear to God, I’m going to kill you when I see you.”

“Sorry, bad signal.” Brody quickly tried to muffle the call with fake static he created with his mouth. “Hard to…er.”

“You’re on FaceTime, you fucking idiot,” Mr. Mason said. “I can see you doing that.”

“¿Todo bien, mi amor?” the woman asked.

“No,” Brody said, which I at least knew meant the same thing in Spanish as it did in English.

Mr. Mason gritted his teeth. “Start talking.”

Unfortunately, as his stare stretched from Brody to me and Sophia, I knew his directive was to all of us.

Brody tried convincing them he’d only been gone two weeks, but the lie detector known as the Masons determined that was a lie.

“We’ve been trying to reach you for over a month,” Mrs. Mason said. “I thought you were avoiding us because you’re gay.”

“I’m not gay,” Brody said, sounding more confused than he usually did, if that was even possible. “See?” I assumed he’d pulled the woman beside him again so his parents could see that he was not, in fact, gay.

“What I see,” Mrs. Mason said, “is a selfish spoiled brat who’s too lazy to ever take school seriously. We’re the idiots to ever think you’d grow up.” A tear crept into her eye, and I thought about how hard being a parent must be, especially when it was to a fuckup like Brody. Then she turned to me. “So what? You just had this boy going to your classes for you?”

Brody didn’t answer.

“I’ll assume that’s a yes. Explains why you have good grades for once.”

“Yeah,” Brody said, and even I could hear the sadness in his voice. A part of me almost felt bad for the kid until I remembered he was the reason I was in this mess to begin with.

“You have a degree in business?” Mr. Mason looked me up and down like he was surprised that I could do so well.

“No. This is the first time I’ve taken any college classes,” I said, my voice holding a similar sadness to Brody’s. “I’m just a bartender. Thought it might be fun to see what college was like. Figured I could learn some things.”

“Well…” Mr. Mason let out a disgusted laugh, and I wasn’t sure if it was directed at Brody or me. Maybe it was meant for the both of us. “I hope you did.”

I was sure even someone as dense as Brody knew his dad wasn’t talking about academics.

Mr. Mason turned his attention back to his son. “I don’t know what to say anymore or what to do.” He rubbed his temples with his free hand. “A bartender did well in classes you couldn’t even find the motivation to attend.”

The way he said “bartender” made me wish I’d never told him what I did for a living.

“When are you coming home?” Mrs. Mason asked.

Brody was quiet for a moment, like he was truly contemplating the question and trying to answer as honestly as possible. “I’m not,” he finally said.

“The hell you’re not,” their dad said, his voice rising.

Probably used to it, Brody seemed unaffected. “Are you coming to Europe to get me?”

It was more of an actual question than a challenge, and Mr. Mason didn’t reply. Instead, he chose to end the call, not even bothering to say goodbye.

“I’ll deal with him later.” He rubbed a hand over his creased forehead in frustration before allowing his gaze to settle on me and Sophia. “I think the four of us still have some things to discuss anyway.”

Not wanting to actually reply, I looked to Sophia to gauge her reaction.

“I know this is a mess, and I’m sorry,” she said. “But I wasn’t going to betray Brody’s trust in me. You know we’ve never been close, but I feel like in some odd way