“It’s your niece, answer it.”
He rolled his eyes but did what she asked, answering the phone on speaker. “Hello?”
“Zio! Why haven’t you been answering my texts?”
“Jenny, honey, I’ve been a bit busy.”
“You should have called me on your drive. Did she answer the door?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, my gosh! Is she okay? Can I talk to her?”
“She can hear you. I have you on speaker.”
“Hey, Jenny,” Isabel said with a smile on her face before mouthing, “I told you so.”
“Listen, forgive him. I know he’s just as dumb as my dad sometimes, but please, he can’t live without you.”
Isabel started laughing. “Jenny, slow down for a minute. How did you even know I was gone?”
“I might have overheard dad on the phone with his friend Jason... and then when him and Bella went to bed I might have hacked into his laptop.”
“You did what?” Micah interrupted.
“Oh, please, like you wouldn’t have done the same thing when you were my age.”
He just shrugged and looked back at Isabel.
“Jenny, you shouldn’t be hacking computers... even though that is a pretty impressive skill for a teenager.”
“Listen, don’t tell Dad, but I needed to know what was going on. Zio is seriously an idiot, but you already know that. Did you know that when he told me he was bringing a girl here, I thought he was in some new relationship? He didn’t even tell me the truth then. Seriously, men.”
Isabel looked in his direction. “You’re bringing a girl to New York?”
“You, I wanted to bring you. Jenny has been doing better, and I wanted to see her. I just didn’t want to travel alone. Now with Sofia in the picture, I thought we all could go.”
“Well, now you have no choice but to come. Can you believe the news about Sofia? She really is their sister. How cool is that? I get a new mom and a new aunt all in one year. Oh, my gosh! When you marry Zio Micah, then I’ll have two new aunts!”
“Jenny, calm down. Seriously, you are making my head spin,” Micah interrupted Jenny’s excitement.
“Fine, whatever. She just needs to forgive you because you know you’ll just die without her. Do you even know how to tie your shoes?” she said as the sound of a teenage laugh came across the line.
“Keep it up and I’m telling your dad you hacked his laptop.”
Silence permeated the line immediately. “Fine.”
“Where is your dad anyway, and why are you calling me on his phone?”
“I lost my cell phone and he won’t buy me another one until I earn it back,” she said, utterly defeated.
“Probably because you’ve lost three phones this year.”
“I have not! This was only the second one. The other was right before New Years.”
“Let me talk to your dad.”
“No can do, him and Bella are in the bedroom and the door is locked. Gross.”