His Ex's Well-Kept Secret(26)

Piper's heart flipped over with excitement. Surely that was all the proof and provenance she needed?

"Come and get the book and the stones. I'm here all the time. If I'm not, I'm dead."

"I don't want your stones, Cousin Maeve. Just the diary."

"Don't argue with me, my girl. The stones belong together, and what would I do with them anyway?"

"Jaeger Ballantyne would buy them from you," Piper told her.

"Come and see me. Bring vodka, preferably Russian. I'll send you my  address. Don't wait too long. I'm going to die soon," Maeve snapped out  the commands before disconnecting the call.                       
       
           



       

Piper stared at her phone before letting out a squeal of excitement. If  she and Jaeger could shoot up to the Hamptons tomorrow, they would have  what they needed and could finalize the sale. She'd tell Jaeger about Ty  and sell Ballantyne and Company the stones. Maybe, if she was very  lucky, they could start a new chapter with no secrets between them.

Jaeger's phone went straight to voice mail and Piper nearly howled with  frustration. "Jaeger, can you call me? As soon as possible? I think I've  found the provenance we need. It's in the Hamptons with an old  relative. She's batty, but she has a diary, and I think she has more  Kashmir Blues. We need to get there, like, tomorrow! Seriously, I need  you to call me! Now! Please?"

Piper tossed the phone onto the cushions of her couch. So excited she  was unable to sit down, she walked the carpet in front of her blank TV,  holding her wine and willing Jaeger to call her back. God, she was  bursting with excitement, and there was no one else she could tell about  this... There was no one else she wanted to tell.

* * *

Piper pushed her fist into her sternum. No matter what, Jaeger would  always be the person she wanted to talk to first. Whether it was about  Ty, or a piece of art that excited her, or a memory that made her cry or  laugh, Jaeger was the only person she wanted to tell.

He was the one she wanted to go to bed with. His was the voice she  wanted to listen to for the rest of her life. She wanted to watch him  interact with Ty, wanted to make another child with him. She wanted to  grow old with him, laugh with him, love him.

God, she loved him.

Loved. Him.

Her cell phone buzzed and Piper, seeing the light indicating a message,  felt her heart go into overdrive. Jaeger! Yay. Her clumsy fingers pulled  up the message, and her heart plummeted when she saw it was from Ceri,  telling Piper to tune in to a local TV channel. The ten exclamation  points indicated that tuning in was vitally important, so Piper pointed  the remote at the TV and found the right station.

It was a typical scene from any entertainment show-velvet ropes holding  the peasants away from the popular folks, the bright and beautiful of  New York working the red carpet. Piper looked at the headline and  realized it was the entrance to Moreau's Ball, the most glamorous social  event on the city's calendar.

"As I promised earlier," the slick presenter stated, "I'm about to chat  with Jaeger Ballantyne. He's just leaving the limousine with the rest of  the Ballantyne clan. Dear Lord, they are a good-looking bunch! Jaeger,  over here!"

Piper watched, fascinated, as Jaeger fastened the button of his designer  tuxedo and ran a hand down his solid black tie. Sage stood just behind  him, wearing a gold gown and to-die-for shoes, dwarfed by her bigger,  brawnier brothers. The siblings started to make their way up the carpet,  and paparazzi cameras flashed.

Jaeger stepped up to the presenter, who stroked Jaeger's biceps. Piper glared at the screen. "How nice to see you, Jaeger."

"Annette, how are you doing?" Jaeger replied.

"Why, just wonderful. Thank you for asking." Annette's voice slid into a drawl, and Piper rolled her eyes.

After a lot of sickening simpering and inane questions, Annette went in  for the kill. "This is the premier event on the social calendar. I  would've expected you to have a date on your arm. So why are you here  alone?"

Jaeger sighed and shrugged. "It's a special event and, as per usual,  there's no one special in my life. So I thought I'd do this solo."

There's no one special in his life...

Wait! Stop! Think! You're an adult and you know how dangerous the press  can be. You're intelligent enough to know that what is said isn't always  what is meant. Jaeger might not be in love with you, but he's been  fairly damn wonderful.

Before you hang, draw and quarter him, give him the benefit of the doubt. That's what adults do.

But why those words?

Of all the billions of words he could've thrown together, why did he choose the one phrase that had the ability to unravel her?

Piper stared at Jaeger's image on the screen, watched him give Annette  an air kiss and kept her eyes on him as he walked down the red carpet  and disappeared into the venue. Piper licked her lips as her heart  shriveled up and died. The annoying presenter was talking, but Piper  couldn't hear anything but Jaeger's words on a continuous loop.                       
       
           



       

There's no one special in his life...

Piper knew she was on a downward spiral, losing her grip on rationality,  but she couldn't help it. Destructive emotions flooded her system as  her inner insecure girl started to panic.

She was nothing to him. What she'd thought they had was nothing.  Sleeping with her was okay but taking her out in public, being seen with  her, was another kettle of stinky fish. Piper felt herself rolling back  in time, asking her father to take her to the park and him refusing.

Asking if she could take his name and him refusing.

Asking him to take her out to dinner, to his home, to the circus, to a father-daughter dance, to attend her graduation...

Mick always said no.

She was someone Mick only barely acknowledged in this house, in this  space. Outside these four walls she hadn't existed, not for Mick, and  apparently not for Jaeger, either.

Piper felt the tip of a red-hot knife punching holes in her heart. She  felt the burn and the piercing pain, and the remote fell to the floor.  She watched as tears splashed onto the black plastic, and she heard a  buzzing in her ears. She placed her shaking hands under her armpits and  cursed her father and cursed Jaeger, cursed these two men she'd loved  but couldn't, wouldn't, love her in return.

* * *

"Hey, it's me. I've tried to call a couple of times, but your phone  keeps going to voice mail. Very excited about the provenance. I won't be  able to talk for a while, but text me, okay?"

Jaeger closed his phone and frowned. Piper had sounded excited and she'd asked him to call right away, so why was her phone off?

God, he hoped that everything was okay, that nothing had happened to her  or Ty. Jaeger pulled out his seat at the round table and sent his  siblings a distracted smile as he sat down.

Sage, sitting opposite him, leaned forward to speak across the table. "What's wrong?"

Jaeger picked up his tumbler of whiskey and shrugged. "Piper found the provenance for the stones."

Linc sat up straighter, immediately eager to hear more. "Seriously? Where?"

"A relative has a diary, and Piper thinks there might be more Blues."  Jaeger pitched his voice low and kept his sentences brief, not wanting  to give anything away.

"More?" Beckett's demanded. "How many?"

"Three. Piper wants us to go up to the Hamptons tomorrow to take a look."

Linc pointed a finger at him. "You'd better let us know as soon as you do."

Jaeger nodded, still uneasy that he couldn't reach Piper. He looked  around the richly decorated ballroom and saw the reporter from earlier,  Annette, looking at him from a neighboring table.

He'd lied to her earlier. There was someone special in his life. He  didn't want there to be, would feel a great deal more comfortable if  Piper wasn't so important, but she was. The uncomfortable feeling in his  chest when he couldn't reach her just proved it.

He could deny his feelings until the freakin' cows came home, but what  was the point? It didn't change the fact that he had feelings for a  woman for the first time since Andy, and they were growing bigger and  bolder.

He'd known her only a week, for God's sake.

Yet he knew Piper was the source of his recent happiness. When he  allowed himself to dream, he saw himself in her house, a baby monitor on  the table next to them, listening to Ty's occasional snuffle, cocking  their heads to hear if it turned into a whimper or a cry. He wanted to  stretch out on her couch and watch the game, a beer in his hand, her  head on his thigh as she read one of her weighty art books. He wanted to  listen to her explain cubism and Picasso, take her to Europe and watch  her face as she explored the great art on that continent.