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"Hohed as she tossed her keys and purse on the small table beside her front door She padded to her bedrooht burst directly into her line of vision froht, too cheery
She was not in a good onauts While they had been perfectly solicitous of her, they had failed to find any clue as to her brother&039;s whereabouts Neither had she Every day she&039;d called his cell phone Every day she&039;d called his apart dohat flight he&039;d taken out of Brazil
She finally caught the red-eye and here she was, though she didn&039;t knohat she was going to do File aanother sigh, she picked up the cordless phone perched on the edge of her desk Three new voice mails, all of them fro, two Three, four, five No answer
She called his cell No answer there, either
She hung up and punched in her mother&039;s number
"Hello," her mom answered
"Hey, Mom"
"Grace Elizabeth Carlyle My caller ID says you&039;re calling from home" Accusation layered her voice
Grace pictured her sitting at the kitchen counter, one hand on her hip while she glared at the red checkered curtains hanging over the
"I flew hoht"
"I didn&039;t realize Brazil had yet to e about?"
"Phones, Grace I didn&039;t realize there were no phones in Brazil"
She rolled her eyes "The rumor that you heard, the one that says there are pay phones on every tree in the jungle Well, it&039;s false"
Ignoring her, her hter Not one You kno your aunt worries"
"Is that Gracie?" a second feround Her "worried" aunt Sophie was probably standing over herfroether for the last five years They were polar opposites, but e sort of way Herother people&039;s problems Sophie was a free spirit who caused problems
"Yes, it&039;s Grace," herto tell us she&039;s alive and well and not dead in the jungle like you feared"
"Like I feared?" Sophie laughed "Ha!"
"How are you feeling, Moht loss Fatigue They didn&039;t know exactly what the cause was
"Fine Just fine"
"Letstatic, then, "Did you get lucky?"
"I don&039;t want to hear this," her round
Automatically Grace opened her mouth to say yes, she&039;d iven hiive a es, or whatever Darius had been, did not count in Sophie&039;s estimation
Over the past week, she&039;d mulled over her experience in Atlantis She always came back to the same conclusion None of it had been real Couldn&039;t possibly have been real
"No," she said, careful to keep the disappointment from her voice "I didn&039;t"
"Did you wear the outfit I bought for you?"
The leopard-print spandex skirt with ht shirt? "I didn&039;t have a chance"
"Men go crazy for that sort of thing, Gracie honey They&039;re like fish You have to hook them with the proper bait, then reel them in"
Her mom reclaiive hter lessons on seduction" Then to Grace she said, "How&039;s Alex doing? Is he eating enough? He never eats enough when he goes on these expeditions of his"
With each word, dread uncurled inside of Grace "So you haven&039;t talked to hi her fear and uncertainty were masked "He hasn&039;t called you?"
"Well, no," her mother said "Is he back? He&039;s back, isn&039;t he, and just didn&039;t call?"
"No, I just-" Just what? Don&039;t know if he&039;s eating enough because no one&039;s heard fro on, Grace?" Worry tinged her mom&039;s tone "You took tins trip specifically to see your brother Why don&039;t you kno he is?"
"Does this have anything to do with the h that Grace knew she was still standing over her mom&039;s shoulder
"What man?" she deo," her mom said "Asked if we&039;d heard fro on? You&039;re worrying me"
To tell the truth, or not tell the truth She loved her mom and hated to cause her any worry Yet, as Alex&039;sThe worry h She&039;d tell her, Grace decided then, but not now, and not over the phone She&039;d wait a few days and see if she learned anything new No reason to cause her mom anxiety until absolutely necessary
"You kno Alex likes those doughnuts," she said, evading And not lying "I can say with one hundred percent surety that he&039;s not eating right" He never did
"So he&039;s okay?" herrong, wouldn&039;t I?" Again, evading and not lying, since she&039;d posed the words as a question
"You&039;ve always told the truth," her ue "I swear, your brother is a walking advertisement for heart disease Maybe I&039;ll send him some soy muffins I can FedEx them Does FedEx deliver to Brazil?"
"Not in the heart of the jungle"
"I&039;ll send him a Cindy Crawford workout DVD ," Sophie called
"I doubt his tent has an electrical outlet"
"He has to go to his hotel room sometime," her mom said
Grace rubbed her teo"
"What! Why? You haven&039;t told ? Did you visit with the natives? I hear they walk around " She paused and uttered a scandalized gasp, "Naked"
"Unfortunately I didn&039;t see them Which is too bad, since I&039;d pro of Sophie, she&039;s wondering if you brought her a souvenir"
"I was not," her aunt said