Kate’s mouth drops open.She shuts it and glares at me.
I follow Jaeger into his bedroom.He pulls clothes out of drawers and a walk-in closet and stuffs them in a canvas duffel he’s yanked out from under the bed.He rummages noisily in the bathroom before returning with a leather toiletry bag he tosses in the duffel as well.
Throwing the whole thing over his shoulder, he places his hand on my lower back.“Let’s go.”
Jaeger stops at the front door and turns toward Kate, who’s holding a mug in her hand this time as she watches us leave.“You pull anything like that again, Kate, and I’ll file charges, kid or no kid.”
He guides me to my car.“I’ll follow you to your place,” he says.
I have questions, but I get the feeling now isn’t the time to bring them up.From the rearview mirror, I notice Jaeger parked and talking on his cell phone as I pull away.
Tyler’s still out when I get home.I plop on the couch, and Jaeger walks in a few minutes later.He drops his duffel by the front door and scrubs his face?—
The front door swings open and bangs him in the back.
Tyler peeks around the corner.“Sorry, man.Didn’t see you there.”
Jaeger sinks into the recliner, elbows on his knees, head lowered.
Tyler looks at me.“What’s up?”
He knows about Kate’s kid extortion.I fill him in on Jaeger’s failed attempt to track down Kate’s sister and what I walked in on at the woodshop.
I’ve calmed since seeing the half-naked woman between his legs.If Jaeger were any other boyfriend, I might be suspicious.But he’s totally befuddled.
Tyler flips one of the dining chairs around and sits on it backward.“Older gal, huh?”
Jaeger looks up.“I had no idea,” he says stone-faced.
I shake my head in disbelief.“What do you mean?That woman was all over you at the Blue bar.”
“But”—he looks around as if mentally searching—“she’s my client.I thought she was being friendly.”
“Dude,” Tyler says, “you’re kidding, right?She took her top off in your house.”
Jaeger frowns.“I figured it out by then, man.She walkedinwithout her top on.Kinda obvious at that point.Still stunned me, though.She managed to back me into the damn couch,” he grumbles.
Tyler and I look at each other, and Tyler snickers.If the situation weren’t so infuriating, it would be funny.
Jaeger glares at Tyler.“Not funny, man.I was attacked unawares.”
“Older women,” Tyler says.“Predators, every one of them.”
“Tyler!”I exclaim.“What do you know about older women?”
He holds up his hands innocently.“What?I’m in my prime.Older women flock to virile men like me.”
I did not just hear that.“I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.”
He shrugs.“You asked.”
Jaeger groans, leans his head back, and stares at the ceiling.
I walk over and sit on his lap.“It’s okay, sweetie.You’ll just have to get used to the older ladies not looking at you as a nice young man anymore.They want to get into your pants now.”
He glares at me, and I smile.
“She seemed like such a nice client,” he goes on, as if he hasn’t heard anything Tyler or I have said.“She was friendly, but, well, you know.”He shrugs.
