Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,95

any other investor – be willing to buy only half of a house?

It didn't help that the secret owner – again, meaning me – appeared nowhere on the deed or in any other legal document related to the property.

And it especially didn't help that buyer – meaning Brody – totally hated me at the time of the transaction.

This was beyond obvious by the way Brody had responded to Jason's letter. He'd returned it with only a handwritten note, scrawled across the bottom of the letter's first page.

The note said, and I quote, "Not my problem."

When Cami finished reading the letter, she flipped back to the beginning and gave it a long, perplexed look. Finally, she looked up. "Not my problem? What does that mean?"

"It means he's a jerk, that's what."

"Yeah, but that was months ago, before you two were together." With a hopeful smile, she added, "I'm sure he would've responded differently now."

It was such a nice thought. But I couldn't quite agree. And that wasn't even the point. I told Cami, "This isn't about the house."

She gave me a dubious look. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," I said. "Look, yes, I would still love to buy it. In fact, I told Brody so on the phone." Under my breath, I added, "Except I wasn't so nice about it, I guess."

Cami asked, "So what is it about?"

"It's about him lying to me." I blinked away sudden tears. "Look, I get that he didn't want to share ownership, especially when I had nothing to offer. But what I don't get is why he never told me the truth, not even after we got so close."

Cami paused as if thinking. "Well…Maybe he was embarrassed." She gave the letter another quick glance. "I mean, he does come across as a cold S.O.B."

"Yeah, but he still could've told me. Given our history, I would've understood."

"But maybe he didn't know that."

"Well, he should've," I said. "And even if he didn't, why make a point to keep lying to me?"

"Well…" Cami bit her lip. "Maybe he didn't want to lose you."

I made a sound of frustration. "Why are you sticking up for him?"

"I don’t mean to," she said. "I'm just saying, maybe he never got up the nerve to tell you the truth."

At this, I had to laugh. It wasn't a happy sound. "Trust me," I said. "If there's one thing Brody has it's nerve. And plenty of it."

"Yeah, but he's also crazy about you."

"Oh, please," I said. "He can't be."

"Sure he can." Her tone grew wistful. "And love makes you do funny things."

"Love?" With a choked sob, I said, "He doesn't love me. Cripes, he probably doesn't even like me."

"Oh come on," she said. "That's not true. If it were, I wouldn't be sitting here right now."

I saw what she meant. And if things were just a little bit different, I might've seen it that way, too. But obviously, Cami still wasn't getting it.

Desperately, I tried to explain. "Do you have any idea how many times he lied to me? And that's not all either."

She gave me a wary look. "There's more?"

"Oh yeah," I said. "Get this. Jason is banned from the house."

Cami shook her head. "Banned? What do you mean?"

"I mean," I said, "if he comes anywhere near it, or even talks about it, it'll cost him, bigtime." I pointed to the scattered paperwork. "Do you know, he took a huge risk in showing me those?"

Cami glanced down at the documents. "Sorry, I'm not following."

"It was part of the deal," I said. "Apparently, he signed some sort of non-disclosure agreement, where he can't talk about the place, not even to me."

Cami frowned. "Is that even legal?"

"I don't know," I said. "But it's legal enough to make Jason act all funny about it. Do you know, I practically had to wrestle those documents away from him last night?"

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," I said. "I had to beg over and over for the chance to go through them on my own. And he only agreed to that after I assured him that Brody was on the other side of the country."

I gave the paperwork another glance. "Jason's picking them up later on tonight. And get this. I had to swear up and down that I wouldn't make a copy of anything either."

Cami's brow wrinkled. "Well, that's weird."

"I know," I said. "But it's not Jason's fault. You should see him. He's terrified. He was even afraid to stop by, or call me or anything. In fact, he only