Chapter 17 #2
His brow furrows as though he senses my thoughts.
He kisses my cheek and then my mouth, his hands running up and down my arms in a soothing manner.
I lean into him, my body going slack. Tingles spread from my core as he deepens the kiss.
I wrap my arms around his neck, running my fingers through his short, soft hair.
Jaeger breaks the kiss first, but he doesn’t pull away, he holds me close.
His pulse pounds against my lips at his throat.
“We’d better go in or I’ll want to stay here for a while.
Our lunch will go bad.” He lifts my chin and pecks my lips.
“To be continued,” he says with a knowing look, and leads me into the house, his hand wrapped around mine.
The tri-tip salad is delicious. The guy seriously knows how to cook, while I’ve been keeping the frozen meal section of the grocery store in business. We finish our food with a glass of red wine, and he gives me the tour of the house.
I’ve already seen the great room, which includes the dining area, kitchen, and living room.
Down the hall, the master bedroom faces the lake, while on the other end of the house sits a second bedroom and a large office that holds a couch, a pinball machine, and another massive TV. In other words, a man-cave.
The man-cave is more in line with what I expected from the home of a twenty-four-year-old. Medals and a few trophies are piled haphazardly in a glass case, along with other odd guy curios, like signed baseballs—and a pair of boxers with a woman’s lipstick mark.
“Nice boxers.”
“Oh—yeahhh… That’s from a while ago.”
“Yours, I assume?”
He nods, a sheepish smile crossing his face.
“But someone else’s lipstick, I hope?”
Jaeger grabs my hand and pulls me to his chest. “One of the random celebs that came through town.”
I frown, imagining the female vacationers looking for hookups, and spotting Jaeger. No one could pass him up.
He kisses my mouth, my lips stiff and unyielding. “I’m not proud of some of the choices I’ve made in the past, but that’s all behind me now,” he says.
What choices? And what does that mean? This entire date feels serious, like he’s trying to tell me something.
“Come on. I’ll show you my woodshop.”
Jaeger pulls me out a back door, across stone pavers, and into a huge, open indoor space filled with machinery and some type of ductwork sprouting from a table in the center. There’s a comfortable-looking leather couch to the side, and a couple of doors at the back of the building.
He points to the doors. “One of those is a bathroom, the other a drying room with fans.”
In the corner of his shop stands an eight-foot carved winding trellis. “That’s really pretty.” It’s bigger than anything I imagined him working on, and far more beautiful.
“Wedding arbor I’m making for a client’s daughter.” He presses gently on the curve of my lower back and guides me forward. “I’ve done cabinetry and other extras, but my bread and butter is over here.”
Tiered slats built into the lower half of one of the walls are filled with dozens of square and rectangular flat wooden etchings in every size.
Next to them, a display shelf with a square black velvet drape hangs from the wall.
Jaeger pulls out one of the smaller etchings, about two feet by two feet, and places it on the shelf.
I stare for a long moment without saying anything, because my throat is tight and I’m not sure words will come out. I’ve seen art in museums and from local artisans—there’s a boatload of shops in town. But I’ve never seen anything like the carving in front of me.
At first glance, three deer graze in various poses, as if the artist pulled them from a photograph.
Upon closer inspection, the grain of the wood is worked into the design, though the only actual carving is of the deer and not their surroundings.
The etching isn’t cheesy or cheap. It’s beautiful.
Elegant. Nature carved on nature, and I can’t stop staring.
“Well? What do you think?”
“I—wow. It’s nothing like what I imagined. It’s real art.” That sounds lame, but it’s the truth, I’m sorry to admit.
He chuckles and replaces the piece in its slot. “You thought less?”
“I thought you carved wooden bears and sold them on the side of the road.”
He shakes his head. “Cali, so little faith?”
“Well, how was I supposed to know you did this?” I wave my arms wildly. “I don’t know anyone with this kind of talent.”
He picks me up and kisses my lips. “You think I’m talented?”
My toes are a good two feet off the ground. I’d be stupid to argue with him in such a vulnerable position. I twist my mouth. “You know you’re talented.”
He laughs again and whispers his lips across the sensitive skin at my neck. “I like to hear it coming from you.”
His mouth on my neck sends a shiver down my arms. I look into his eyes. “Your work’s beautiful, Jaeger.”
An hour later, after Jaeger shows me several of his designs, holding my hand and stealing kisses throughout, he drops me off at the cottage with one last hot kiss on the doorstep and the promise of something special tomorrow.
I walk into our outdated, oversized closet of a rental, my head spinning. So this is what the expression swept off your feet means. I am floating, and without Jaeger to keep me grounded, I feel like I could drift away. What happened to my substance?
I’m still hovering in the living room when Tyler walks in a few seconds later. He dumps his duffel loudly in the same place as last time—the center of the pathway. He stares out the front window. “What are you doing with Jaeg?”
I sink onto the couch. “We’re hanging out.”
His mouth parts and his eyes narrow. “What do you mean, hanging out?”
“Dating, seeing each other—you know that ritual men and women do?”
Tyler steps closer. Here it comes, the you-can’t-date-my-friend speech. “Cali, I get it that you’re going through a rough time. I know the feeling.”
He does? He doesn’t know I lost my job. He must be referring to the breakup, but what does Tyler know about breakups? He hasn’t had a girlfriend since high school.
“Which is why,” he adds, “I want you to stay away from Jaeger. He’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve to get fucked over on the rebound. He put up with enough shit from women in his past.”
I stare, dumbfounded. There it was again, that allusion to Jaeger’s past, which Jaeger said was behind him but that I’m getting the impression had left its mark.
“Are you warning Jaeger away from me? What happened to the Tyler Detector and keeping guys away from your innocent sister? And for the record, I am a nice girl.”
Tyler sits next to me on the couch, the weight of his large body making me bounce on my end of the cushion. “You are, but like I said, you’re”—he flaps his hand—“messed up. Unstable right now.”
I shake my head in exasperation. “Thanks, Tyler, ’cause I needed my brother to turn on me in my time of need.”
He nudges my shoulder. “I’m not turning on you. It’s just that I know Jaeg. I know what he’s been through. The Olympics were months away when he had his accident. Not years—months, Cali. Training was his life and he lost it all. And then he had to deal with… well—anyway, all of that messed him up.”
Tyler rubs his mouth and shakes his head. “I saw the way he watched you at his parents’ place. He’s a serious guy, and he likes you. If you’re not serious about him, don’t do this.”
The last thing I want is to hurt Jaeger, not that it seems possible.
The guy appears pretty self-sufficient, and he doesn’t lack for female attention, considering the attractive client I saw hanging all over him.
But I get what my brother is saying. I’m a little off-kilter right now, free-falling, as it were.
Okay, I have no idea where my life is going and I’m totally screwed up.
The problem with giving up Jaeger is that not being with him would hurt me.
I’m happy just hanging around him, not to mention, his kisses turn my limbs the consistency of pudding.
I felt terrible when I thought I’d lost him to Gen.
I don’t want to go through that again. “Why are you really in town, Tyler?”
He stands and rummages in his bag, his movements stiff and jerky. “I had a similar situation with a girl. Nothing I want to talk about.”
My big brother had his heart broken? That’s a first.
I lay my head on the back of the couch and wince. My stomach is tied in knots. “Well, you’re welcome to stay as long as you want.” I glance over, and Tyler’s staring at me.
“What’s wrong? You sick?” he asks.
I rock my head from side to side and gaze at the ceiling. “I’m a loser, Tyler. I haven’t told you or Mom yet, but I lost my job.” He raises a brow, and I wave off the questions. “Long story.”
He sits beside me again. “You’re not a loser. You’re almost as smart as me, which makes you one of the smartest people on the planet.”
Confidence runs in the family.
In comparison to Jaeger and what he accomplished after adversity, I am a loser. I have nothing to offer but baggage.
Before I left his place, Jaeger told me he bought his house and workshop with the money he earned. That beautiful place and the property is his. He’s wealthy—and I thought he was a side-of-the-road salesman. I figured with my college degree, I had the upper hand, but I don’t.
I can’t stay in Lake Tahoe forever. My mom would have a heart attack, and I’d never amount to anything working one of the myriad unskilled jobs available.
If I obtain my law degree, that would be something. I wouldn’t be a loser with no future. I’d have something to contribute to a relationship. Eric booted me when I had things going for me. How would a relationship with someone like Jaeger ever survive?
I am nothing without that law degree.