Chapter 24
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 stuff 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.