Off Limits Page 17

  The amount of planning and work he must have put in to create this piece blows my mind. I’m speechless, which is rare for me.

  He shoves his hands in the pockets of his dark slacks. “Well? What do you think?”

  “It’s amazing. Your carving, that is.”

  “Your drawing is amazing.”

  This is more than Jaeger telling me he thinks I’m talented. He’s telling me he likes me, elevating the wooing campaign—the one I only recently realized exists—to new heights.

  A few things come together for me and I finally understand. Gen… sneaky, sneaky, wonderful best friend. “Does this have anything to do with your clandestine date with my best friend?”

  He smiles, exasperated, and shakes his head. “I wanted Gen to look at the early version. I hadn’t gotten your permission to use the sketch. I brought her by to check it out and tell me if she thought you’d be okay with it.”

  And now I feel like an ass. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions about you two. I owe both of you an apology.”

  He steps closer and links our fingers. “It’s fine, Cali. I just want you to feel like you can trust me.”

  The truth is, I do trust him. Jaeger is sincere and caring in a way I’ve rarely seen from guys. Crap, or from most women. He’s a good person.

  “There’s something else I wanted to mention. I don’t want to pressure you or anything, but I have a client who commissioned my work. She’s looking for something special. I’d like to show her your sketches. Gen let me borrow the few you’ve given her, but I can show this lady whichever ones you feel comfortable with.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I say hesitantly. I can’t see anyone wanting to buy a carving of one of my sketches. But then, that’s the point. To create designs people will want in their homes and businesses. “Let me at least convert the ones you have on napkins and on the backs of bills onto actual artists’ paper before you show her, though.”

  He laughs. “I don’t think she’ll care. She’s got a discerning eye.” He pulls me close until I bump into his hard chest. He wraps his arms around my back, his long limbs flanking my hips. “She knows something good when she sees it.”

  In my heels, I’m taller and my mouth aligns with his jaw. I rise on my toes and kiss his lips. “Thank you for making me feel special. And for the carving.”

  “Oh, that carving isn’t for you.” He grins.

  My head tilts back in mock incredulity. “What do you mean, it’s not for me?”

  “It’s going above my bed, but you can visit it whenever you want.” His hands shift and squeeze my ass at the same time his mouth takes mine.

  Thirty minutes later, we arrive for our reservation at Tao. I think I’ve met my match in the bedroom department. We didn’t actually go there, though Jaeger was ready and willing. After several deep kisses and much teasing about who would get the carving—I won, of course—I put the brakes on the heated make-out session. Not cool to walk into a fancy restaurant with smeared mascara and bed head. Not when we can continue what we started later.

  I’m looking forward to my new art. That puppy is going up right next to the orange and yellow needlepoint of a sunflower in the chalet—Gen’s and my new name for the heap we live in. Natural-modern meets horrifically outdated fusion.

  “Table for two,” Jaeger tells the maître d’.

  “Right this way, Mr. Lang. Good to see you this evening.” The host, wearing a dark suit, smiles warmly and grabs two leather menus, turning to lead us away.

  They know him here? Does Jaeger come often or something?

  Before I can ask, Jaeger raises his hand for me to follow the maître d’, who’s already halfway across the room.

  The maître d’ escorts us past elegant, white-cloth-covered tables. Mirrors behind a full-length bar make the room appear twice as wide and capture windows that look out onto the lake at the far end. Geometric wooden chandeliers dangle in the center of the high ceiling. Wood panels hang to the left… their style familiar.

  I glance suspiciously at Jaeger. He’s looking straight ahead, maneuvering around our table to pull out my chair. Our section is private, with the best view of the lake and mountains.

  Menu in hand, maître d’ gone, I glance at the murals again. They’re larger than the ones in Jaeger’s shop, but I recognize his stamp. “Jaeger, are those yours?”

  His gaze flickers to the wall, then back at the menu, as if his art on display in one of the best restaurants in town is no big deal. “Tao is a client.”

  Holy shit. My boyfriend is famous. Well, maybe not famous, but he’s an important artist to be on center display in a place like this.

  I grab his hand and link our fingers while I peruse the menu. I have no right to be, but I’m proud of what he’s accomplished. This summer has challenged me with heavy decisions and painfully low moments, but I don’t regret the time I’ve spent with Jaeger. It’s been some of the best of my life.

  He squeezes my fingers and smiles. “The scallops are excellent and so is the—”

  “Jaeger?” A high-pitched female voice violates our perfect bubble.

  The woman—about my age, maybe a little older—stands behind Jaeger in jeans and a T-shirt. I didn’t see her walk up. Then again, when I’m with Jaeger, I tune out a lot of superficial activities.

  The woman glances uncomfortably to the patrons on her right, who are staring.

  Jaeger’s brow furrows. He shifts in his seat and looks back. The side of his face pales, and he loosens his grip on my hand. “Kate?”

  “Can we talk?” she says. She smiles at him as if to disarm, but there’s a plaintive desperation beneath.

  Alarm bells go off in my head.

  No. Don’t ruin this. Whoever you are, leave. Don’t take away the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

  Jaeger faces me again, his gaze fixed on the table. He glances up, his expression haunted before his mouth turns up in a semblance of a smile. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

  I nod stiffly. He grips my hand one last time before letting go. He follows the woman to the entrance of the restaurant—where Jaeger’s sister is standing with the maître d’.

  Why is Kerstin here?

  I pound my water and wait for Jaeger to return. Twenty minutes pass before he walks down the aisle to our table, rubbing his brow. He looks up, his eyes serious. “I’m sorry.” He swallows, his gaze distracted. “I’ve got to take you home. There’s a family emergency.”

  “Is everything okay?” Obviously not, but what do I say without sounding like I’m prying, which is exactly what I’m doing? Who is this woman? And why is he ditching me for her?

  I stand and grab my purse.

  Jaeger walks me out of the restaurant before answering my question. He opens the passenger door and helps me into his truck, sagging against the frame of the cab as if he needs it to help him stand. “That was Kate. My ex-girlfriend. She showed up at my parents’ house and my sister was there. Kerstin knew where I was taking you tonight.”

  “Which ex-girlfriend?” Maybe there were a bunch and this one is some random, innocuous ex who happened to be at the same restaurant. Ex-girlfriend and innocuous don’t exactly go together, but it could happen. I’m in full denial mode.

  “Cali, you’re the only girlfriend I’ve had in five years. Kate’s my ex. The ex. The one who… Well, anyway, she’s the person I broke up with right after my accident.”

  “Jaeger, what did this girl do to you? You look really upset.”

  Of course his ex would show up after he’s moved on. That’s Murphy’s Law. But he moved on with me, and I’m pretty damn happy with him. I don’t want to consider exactly how happy, because it will probably break me if it ends.

  “She didn’t do anything—well, I take that back. She did a lot back then. And not always to me. It’s just that she doesn’t always lie.”

  He seems rattled, which isn’t like him at all. “Jaeger, what happened?”

  “Kate said—” He pushes off the cab and stra
ightens, though he looks about to topple. “She said she had a kid. That the girl’s mine. She wants us to be a family.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  My mind goes utterly blank, and then a riotous array of facts and questions, mixed in with a few expletives, clamor to get out.

  How could this happen? She can’t have him. I—I… like him. A lot. A real lot. Why did she wait until now to tell him? It doesn’t make sense. She dumped him, and he was in and out of physical rehabilitation for a year. He said he never saw her again… and he wouldn’t have known if she was pregnant.

  Fuck. Just—fuck.

  I don’t remember the drive to my place. It passes in a flash, and then Jaeger is walking me to the front door. “Don’t worry, Cali. Everything’s going to be okay. Let me find out what’s going on.” He breathes in shakily. “What really happened. Because I don’t trust her. There were rumors after we split that she was unfaithful. And, of course, there’s all the shit she pulled while we dated. I’ll find out the truth, then I’ll call, okay? It’s just… I’ve got to take care of this.” I nod, and he pecks me on the cheek and walks to the truck.

  This is not how I envisioned our night ending. How could something so right go so terribly wrong? Am I jinxed?

  Jaeger looks up from inside the truck, a pained expression on his face, before he turns the ignition and eases out of the driveway.

  I swallow the knot forming in my throat and open the door to the chalet. Gen’s banging around in the kitchen while Tyler sprawls on the couch.

  He sits up. “What happened? Why are you back so soon?”

  I slump on the blue recliner, staring straight ahead, attempting to process what I don’t want to believe. “Jaeger’s ex interrupted our date.” I wave my hand, a crazed sensation rising in my chest. “Just showed up in the middle of the restaurant. Told him she had a kid—and it was his.”

  Tyler’s eyes bug out. “What?”

  Gen walks into the living room, an oven mitt on her hand. She doesn’t cook, so the image is absurd. Just like the rest of this evening.

  I drop my face into my hands and squeeze my eyes closed. “Can we not talk about this?” After a second, I realize hanging my head allows gravity to pull the tears closer to the surface. I look up and swallow, blinking several times.

  Gen looks to Tyler, widening her eyes pointedly.

  His mouth is still open. He sees her expression and nods, then pulls out his phone and starts feverishly tapping out a text.

  “Leave him alone, Tyler,” I say. “He’s trying to figure out what’s going on. He doesn’t know either.”

  Tyler’s fingers continue flying over his iPhone.

  I stand and walk to the bathroom. “I’m going to bed.” I remove my makeup, then move to the bedroom, where I hang up the pretty blue blouse I wasted my money on. I lie on the mattress, but I can’t sleep. My chest hurts.

  The sounds of Gen and Tyler talking quietly in the living room filter beneath the door. That’s when the first tear rolls down my cheek.

  I won’t do it. I won’t cry over another guy this summer. It’s pathetic.

  More tears roll, landing on the collar of my homely flannel pajamas.

  Okay, I’ll cry tonight, but that’s it. No more after tonight, unless… please don’t let there be an unless. Please let this be a big, horrible mistake.

  Jaeger hasn’t called me for two days after our interrupted date. Two effing days!

  I’m dying. I’ve gone from staring at my phone, to spending hours sketching beneath the trees, to walking aimlessly around the neighborhood until I wind up at the lake. On the plus side, my arms are getting ripped from all the rocks I’m cathartically hurling into the water.

  Every time I pick up the phone to call him, I remember he said he’d call when he had things figured out. He’s never hesitated to get in touch with me in the past. I can only assume he’s still dealing with his ex. Or getting back together with her. But, no, this is the girl who crapped all over him—even Tyler said so.

  Logically, I don’t think Jaeger is getting back together with Kate, but not hearing from him… It’s difficult not to think the worst. A part of me hangs on to the hope that this will all turn out to be some ginormous mistake.

  In the meantime, I’ve scoured online job listings for South Lake Tahoe, and have sent out résumés and online applications. Job-hunting is helping keep me distracted.

  My art classes don’t start for a few more days. If I work at least thirty hours as a waitress or a dealer at another casino, I can swing living expenses plus costs for community college. The student fees aren’t astronomical like they are at Harvard and other programs. With new classes, a new job—basically a new life—I might survive getting my heart crushed.

  Maybe.

  Okay, I’m not sure. Jaeger snuck up on me and now I have all these feelings I’ve never experienced before. It’s going to break my heart if he ends our relationship. Oddly, running off to a law program far, far away would be easier than sticking around to watch the guy I’ve fallen in love with torn from my arms.

  In love? Okay, that’s enough introspection for one morning.

  I walk inside the chalet from the patio where I’ve been sketching for the last hour. The patio has become my office and art sanctuary. “Where’s Gen?” I ask my brother, who’s sitting at the kitchen table, typing on his computer.

  “Said she was going out.”

  “Did she say where?” Our talk helped heal some of the distance between us, but we haven’t had time to catch up on everything. These past few weeks, I figured Gen was hanging out with Nessa, but now I wonder.

  Tyler pauses and takes a gulp from his coffee mug, the words World’s Best Cat Mom scrawled across the front. Either Tyler is less choosy about his mugs than Gen and me, or he’s being ironic.

  “Nope. Hey, what do you think of that Nessa girl? She available?”

  Okay, that came out of left field.

  I walk into the kitchen and pull out ingredients for a sandwich. I have an interview this afternoon with the casino across from Blue. It’s a smaller establishment, and at this place, I’m being interviewed by the head of Gaming. I have anxiety over this, considering the last head of Gaming fired me, but this casino doesn’t seem to put on the same airs that the management at Blue did. Maybe talking to an upper manager at their casino is a good sign.

  “I don’t know if Nessa’s available. What happened to Gen setting you up with a Blue waitress?”

  Tyler’s face contorts. “Shit, Cali. That girl was crazy. She got hammered and crawled on my lap. In the restaurant. I felt like a virgin preserving my virtue.”

  “You have virtue?”

  “I guess I do,” he says proudly.

  I chuckle, inadvertently inhaling a piece of bread I had popped in my mouth. I hack until it comes back up.

  “Easy there, girl. Don’t kill yourself. It wasn’t that funny.”

  “I wish I could have been there.”

  “No, you don’t. She was a damned piranha.”

  “A man-eater? Are you serious?”

  “She tried to unbutton my pants!” Astonishment fills his voice.

  “You’re such a hot babe, Tyler. How do you manage?”

  “Don’t mock, Calzone. You can’t see it because you’re my sister, but I am a commodity.”

  Complaining about that horrific nickname results in increased usage, so I bite my lip. “If that’s the case, why did you need to be set up?”

  He shrugs. “Gen offered, and I thought I’d give it a try.” He wags his head slowly. “Never again, Cali. Never. Again.”

  I laugh and walk into the bedroom to change and get ready for my first casino interview. Having Tyler around keeps my spirits up. No matter what, I’m lucky to have my friends and family. I just wish Jaeger would call.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Paul something-or-other, the head of Gaming at the casino across from Blue, looks at his notes, his mouth pinched. “Ah, yes, Cali.” He drums his fing
ers on the desk and stops when he realizes he’s doing it. “My assistant just reached your previous employer. I apologize for having you come down, but it seems—well, it seems we can’t offer you a position.”

  What? A fly could land on my tongue and I wouldn’t be able to close my mouth. With my experience at Blue, I’m a shoo-in for the dealer position at this smaller casino.

  An uncomfortably long pause ensues, while I attempt to process his words. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand,” I say. The interview has barely started. I haven’t even had a chance to screw up his questions. What’s going on?

  Paul nods, his hands clasped together. The tic near his eye does not bode well. He doesn’t come from the same cold stock as the gaming manager at Blue. This guy can’t hide his discomfort.

  “Because you came all this way, I’ll tell you that Human Resources confirmed your employment at Blue, then transferred the call to a manager. The manager didn’t go into specifics, but said he would not hire you again. I apologize for the inconvenience, but that’s reason enough for us to eliminate you from consideration.”

  “But—but—”

  I was told before I left Blue that the dissolution of my position wouldn’t reflect poorly on me, considering it was an issue of fit, as long as I wrote a letter of resignation. Which I did.

  Paul stands and extends his hand. “I wish you the best, Ms. Morgan.”

  My legs lift me, slowly and hesitantly as if they, too, can’t believe this. I shake my interviewer’s hand and smooth my navy skirt with trembling fingers. Face burning, I pass the receptionist at the end of the hall and press the elevator button to the bottom floor.

  How will I find work if Blue doesn’t give me a decent reference? My other experience, working at a florist shop and as a tutor, won’t help me find a casino job that pays well. I got the position at Blue through a friend of my mom’s. I need the Blue reference as a stepping stone.

  The next day, two more casinos call and cancel interviews. The last place asked a couple of questions and told me they’d call after my references had been checked. I haven’t heard back.