up, put her on his shoulders, and galloped across the grass until she laughed out loud. Puffing a bit, he reached the blanket, took out the little bag of birdseed, and handed it to her. “Let’s go wade in.”
He put her life jacket on again, and holding her hand, they walked to the water. Quacking and paddling, the ducks made a beeline for them, and within minutes, her sadness vanished, replaced by smiles. The sound of an ATV grew louder, and when he turned around, Jake had stopped and was climbing off the vehicle. Dressed in a sleeveless black shirt and a blue bathing suit, with his sunglasses over his eyes, Jake stole his breath away. A blinding smile spread across Jake’s face, and when he crouched to hug Stacey, who’d left the water and gone running toward him, Shea knew he was madly, stupidly, downright crazy in love.
Chapter Twenty
Before joining Stacey and Shea at the lake, Jake showered and set up his phone. All the missed messages and phone calls popped up, and he had to turn off the ringer until it was finished. The noise grated on his nerves. With Stacey’s onset of speech, her recovery was paramount in his mind, not Precision Financial.
He neither loved nor hated his job. But even the high salary didn’t make up for his ambivalence and, lately, dissatisfaction. Thanks to Erica, he’d made some spectacular investments in real estate and stock, which, even after the division of assets in the divorce, left him well-off and able to give Stacey whatever she needed. Money brought him security, but not what he so desperately wanted.
A family. Love.
Professionally, he had everything. Personally, the last couple of years he’d been sailing through life without any destination or port until here at the ranch, where he’d discovered contentment, and the discord inside him had melted away.
He picked up the now silent phone and began scrolling through the messages, none of which required his input, and again he blessed the gods for having a second in charge as strong as Maria. With a sinking heart, he did notice his completely booked calendar the week he returned, with required training and interviews, meetings with the various directors, and, of course, several terminations.
The beginning of a dull headache crept up the back of his neck and settled behind his eyes. A common occurrence at home, he hadn’t experienced a single minute of discomfort since coming to the ranch.
The phone rang, and when Maria’s name flashed on the screen, he pressed Accept.
“Jake?”
“Hi, what’s going on? I just got my new phone. More Sterling problems?”
“In a way.” Normally quiet and steady, Maria sounded harried.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sterling tried to kill himself yesterday.”
Jake staggered back several steps. “What? Kill himself? What the hell happened? Are you sure it wasn’t an accident?” He sank onto the sofa, his head spinning. He might not’ve liked the man, but he sure as hell didn’t want him dead.
“It wasn’t,” she whispered. It stunned Jake to hear her so shaken. “Elizabeth came home from dinner with friends and found him with an empty bottle of pills and vodka. She called 9-1-1, and they came and pumped his stomach, but he’s been nonresponsive.”
“Nonresponsive?” Horrified, he held his head. “You mean he’s in a coma?”
“He’s on life support.”
“Jesus. This is insane.”
“I know. The office has been in an uproar since we heard about it. No one’s been able to get anything done.”
“No shit. I can’t believe it.” Jake struggled to make sense of it all. “Did he leave a note?”
“Yeah.” Maria getting emotional shocked him almost as much as the news about Sterling. “Turns out Rebecca, the woman we terminated, was pregnant with his baby, and he was paying her off, but she wanted more. She wanted him to divorce Elizabeth, and if he didn’t, Rebecca threatened to tell her. The whole story’s been all over the evening news and today’s newspapers. I feel so bad for Elizabeth.”
Terrible as it might be, Jake couldn’t forget Sterling’s disgust when he announced his marriage and then Stacey’s birth. Maria had told him she’d overheard him complaining that gays shouldn’t have the same rights to marry as everyone else. But that didn’t lessen the sadness for his wife, children, and grandchildren.
“I do as well. She didn’t deserve this. Has anyone heard from Rebecca?” The meeting he’d held with the woman was one of the strangest he’d had with someone he’d terminated. He and Maria had both carefully perused the file and agreed that the documentation