“Is he okay?” Jaeger asked, his heart lurching. His thoughts immediately went to a tiny white coffin with pink painted roses.
“He has an ear infection and it’s nothing serious,” Piper replied. “Ceri says he’ll be fine in a day or so.”
“I find it incredible that your source for all things baby is a twenty-year-old with a nose ring,” Jaeger said, smiling as he sat on the edge of his bed.
“My parents are dead and I’m a single mom. My friends, the ones who didn’t ease away after I became pregnant, have even less experience with babies than I do. I don’t have time to attend mommy groups, so Ceri, Rainn, the internet and a massive book on the subject are what I use.”
She shouldn’t be dealing with this alone, Jaeger thought.
“Anyway, you called me. How can I help you?”
Jaeger did some fast thinking to come up with an excuse. “I was wondering if you have any documentation on the sapphires?”
“Provenance. I should have thought of that. Well, there are boxes of stuff my mom inherited from her mom in the attic. I’ll go up there and get them down. She was a hoarder, so if she had anything on the sapphires, then it’ll be in there. Actually, I might need Rainn’s help to get the boxes down, so depending on his schedule, I’ll let you know when I’ve been through them.”
“Don’t bother the kid. I’ll help you.”
Piper’s silence indicated her surprise. “It’s pretty chaotic and dirty up there.”
“And the jungles and villages I wander into are perfectly pristine? I’m capable of digging through a dirty attic, Piper,” Jaeger said, gripping the bridge of his nose, irritated. Yeah, he lived in a fancy apartment and wore designer threads, but God, he wasn’t a wuss.
Not that he really wanted to dig in a dirty attic, but he did want to see her again. As soon as possible...
He’d obviously picked up a brain-eating bug on his last trip abroad. It was the only explanation for the absurd way he was acting.
“Oh, okay. Thanks,” Piper said, and Jaeger heard Ty’s wail in the background. “Sorry, I really have to go.”
“Sure. Try to sleep this morning.”
Piper’s laugh was strained. “It’s better if I don’t sleep. I’ll push through and sleep tonight. The trick is finding ways to keep myself awake.”
He could think of more than a few ways to keep her from falling asleep. All of them involved being naked.
Jaeger banged his hand against his forehead, hoping to smack the sexy images of Piper out of his mind. Why was he going there? He couldn’t have a relationship with her; he didn’t have relationships. And even if he did, a relationship—an anything—with a single mom was absolutely out of the question.
Yet he still wanted to see her again.
“Jaeger, are you there?”
Physically holding his phone? Sure. Mentally, he had his doubts.
“Yes. Well, I hope your little guy feels better soon.”
Piper thanked him and disconnected the call. Jaeger, sitting on his massive bed in his stupidly expensive apartment, looked at his top-of-the-line phone. Nobody should have to rely on a book and two kids to help her with her baby. It was in complete contrast to what was happening at the Ballantyne family home. Linc was a single dad raising four-year-old Shaw with Linc’s mother’s help. Their sister, Sage, still lived at home, and she helped out with Shaw, too. Beck pitched in when they needed him to. It took a village of Ballantynes to raise Shaw.
Because being with Shaw, being with babies, made Jaeger break out in hives, or unshed tears, he was the village idiot. Linc understood how hard it was for him to be around Shaw... At least, Jaeger hoped he understood. It wasn’t like they’d had a heart-to-heart on the subject.
His siblings knew about Jess and Andrea but since Jess’s funeral, he never discussed her, or Andrea, with anyone. Ever.
Piper, despite her book and babysitters, was raising Ty on her own. That was incredibly brave. His bachelor uncle often said that raising three Ballantyne boys, and Sage, was one long, epic party. There was screaming, vomiting, drinking straight from the bottle and the odd brush with blood.
No wonder Connor absconded to his gentlemen’s club every Wednesday and Saturday night, leaving them with Jo, Linc’s mom and their nanny-cum-housekeeper.