“She shows up at your games sometimes right?” Tanner asked.
“Yeah. I think she was even at my practice today. I saw herSUV hightailing it out of the parking lot this afternoon.”
“Perfect. You get the cameras tomorrow by seducing Penny. AndI’ll come to your practice on Wednesday for surveillance. Maybe we can evencorner her right away and just get it over with. And don’t worry, I’ll wear adisguise so that no one is the wiser. Now let’s go eat that lobster before itturns.”
“It’s been sitting in the car for a while. Maybe we should skipthe spoiled seafood and just grab some drinks.”
“You can’t toss lobster! It’s a delicacy now. It’ll be fine. Comeon, we’ll go back to my place so we can reheat it and wet your whistle.”
I internally groaned. Tanner had an awesome place. But hishouseboy always made me feel wildly uncomfortable.
Chapter 23
Tuesday
The sound of bells made me cringe. I wasn’t sure if it was mypounding headache that was making me hallucinate them…or if there was actuallysomething ringing.
Ring.
I definitely wasn’t imagining it. It sounded like a shit tonof bells. Where the hell was I, at the symphony? I rolled over and reached out,my fingers colliding with the softest sheets I’d ever felt. Definitely not thesymphony. I blinked my eyes open to see a short little man looking at sheetmusic, holding a gold bell in each hand.
He lifted one of his arms. Ring.
I screamed.
He screamed and dropped the bells. “I’m sorry, Mr. Caldwell,”the man said in a British accent. “Master Tanner said you wanted to wake up toa chorus of bells. I didn’t have much time to practice.”
It took me a second to recognize the little man as Nigel,Tanner’s houseboy. I hadn’t recognized him because today he was dressed in someweird lederhosen. All the other times I had been here he’d always been outfittedin a strange Victorian era butler outfit. Tanner said it was his uniform. Iwondered why the sudden change since all the outfits made zero sense anyway.
During the awkward stretch of silence, Nigel looked down atmy lap.
I followed his gaze to see what he was staring at. What theactual fuck? “Why am I naked?!” I grabbed the sheets and pulled them to mychest like he hadn’t just seen my morning wood.
“Master Tanner said you liked to sleep that way. It appearsas though he was correct.” He raised his eyebrows and had a silly little grinon his face.
“So you stripped me?!”
He nodded. “Yes, Mr. Caldwell.”
“What is wrong with you? Get out!”
“But Master Tanner…”
“I don’t care what Tanner said. I don’t want to be stripped. Andthe last thing I need right now is to be played a chorus of bells.”
“It’s actually a very peaceful way to awake from one’s slumber.”
“Nigel. Out.”
He gave me a little bow and scurried out the bedroom door.
I rubbed my forehead. Fuck. How much had I had to drink lastnight? It felt like there was a freight train careening around in my head.
There was a knock on the door and Nigel poked his head backin. “Sorry to bother you, but breakfast is being served in 15 minutes and MasterTanner wanted to extend you an invitation.”
I just glared at him.
“Your clothes are also freshly pressed and hanging in thecloset.”
I looked over at the open closet doors. Even my socks were hungup. I was pretty sure he’d ironed them too.
“Would you like me to draw you a bath?”
“I think I can manage, Nigel.”
He nodded. “I’ll come check on you in a few minutes.”
“Please don’t.”
“Just in case there’s anything else you need. You never knowwhen something will come up. See you shortly.” He closed the door.
Why did it seem like Nigel just wanted to see me naked again?I’d grown up with a staff, but none of them were as weird as Nigel. Where hadTanner found this guy?
I pushed the sheets off of me and practically ran to thebathroom. I showered as fast as I could and somehow managed to have a towelwrapped around my waist before Nigel came into the guest bathroom.
“Ah, you’re finished.” He sounded disappointed. “Shall I helpyou into your little outfit?”
Had he seriously just called my expensive suit a littleoutfit when he was dressed in what had to be costume lederhosen? “No, I’m good.”
“It’s no trouble, Mr. Caldwell.”
“I swear to God.” I took a deep breath, which somehow made myheadache worse. “I just need a minute.”
He did a weird little bow and hurried out of the room.
I quickly changed before Nigel could get a dick pic or whateverthe hell he was after. I wandered out into the hall. Just like every time I’dbeen here before, there were white sheets covering most of the furniture and therewere even some cloths draped over what I assumed were paintings on the walls. Ifthe décor wasn’t all so modern, it would have seemed like I was walking aroundin a haunted house.
Tanner had been renovating the place for years. Which wascrazy because I’d completely renovated a whole house in less time. Although,this place may have had just as much square footage as my house. I walked byone of the many doors in the hall. Maybe this penthouse was even bigger than myplace, because I’d just taken yet another turn in the hallway and I stillhadn’t found the great room. Huh.
I looked over my shoulder to make sure that I was alone andreached out to grab one of the doorknobs so I could see just how much spaceTanner had here. All I saw was a blinding white light before Nigel came out ofnowhere and slammed the door closed.
He seemed completely out of breath like he’d just sprintedover to stop me. “Mr. Caldwell, you mustn’t go in there. Are you trying to getburned?”
What? “Burned?”
Nigel’s eyes bulged. “Snoopers get burned by fire. Lit uplike a spark. As the old saying goes.”
Nigel’s sayings were as strange as Tanner’s. I laughed. “Iwas just trying to get a read on the square footage of this place.”
“It depends on the day. Now if you please, sir, the diningroom is right this way.” He
