Last Name - Dr. Rebecca Sharp Page 0,11
my ex—which made for a few years of convenient double-dates but ultimately imploded into somewhat of a disaster. Thankfully, once all the debts were gone, Arden Corporation had taken off—and taken me with it across the country, putting necessary distance between us.
Until now.
I’d heard the comments from Lars and Suzanne. I knew Lynn wanted an opportunity to mend old wounds and see if we couldn’t find our way back to each other again.
It would be easier to mend the Grand Canyon. In fact, I’d be the first in line to try and push the rock-walled crevasse closed.
No. I winced. I was done with Lynn and our relationship the day I found out she’d been having an affair with my father.
One of those pesky secrets…
Thankfully, it was one I’d been able to keep from my mother and brother. The loss and the debt had been bad enough, they didn’t need to deal with that betrayal, too.
“I’m handling it,” I replied tightly, the task lingering in the back of my mind for days, taking a backseat to the more pressing problem of finding my wife.
His arms folded and he glared at me.
“Have I ever let you down, Lars?” I demanded, glaring right back.
He drew a deep breath before dragging his hands to his hips and shaking his head. “No.”
“Good.” I tipped my chin. “Now, I’ve got to let about a dozen people go from their jobs in ten minutes, so if that’s all…”
And I needed those ten minutes to finish sending over everything I knew about Carrie to this new PI—the third one I was about to hire in just as many days.
“A dozen?”
I nodded. This was one of my least favorite parts of the job, but as the CEO of the company, I felt it was my duty to be the one to tell them. It might be bad news, but I was going to give these people the respect of hearing it from the man who’d made the decision; I wasn’t going to cower behind the many layers of staff I could ask to do the task.
“Not good or not needed?”
I shut my laptop. Clearly, I wasn’t going to finish what I needed with the PI before I had to handle this situation.
“Some not good. The manager put a lot of her friends on payroll to just sit around. But mostly not needed,” I answered. “Redundancy in finance and HR. Plus a few random positions added within the last few years. A recreation specialist. Two housekeeping—”
“A recreation specialist?” he broke in. “What the hell is that?”
I pulled out my folder with the names and personnel reports I’d looked over two weeks ago. “Some sort of specialty concierge. Helps guests plan outdoor excursions and tours and stuff like that.”
There was a beat of silence, and I looked up to find Lars grinning. “You sure you want to fire that one?” he teased. “I feel like you might need his help.”
“I will handle everything for the families. Don’t worry,” I grumbled. “And I don’t think it’s a ‘he’ who holds the position.”
But the stack was pretty big, and I couldn’t remember.
There were over a hundred personnel files I’d reviewed in the last two weeks. I had a team to do it. Hell, I had my Decision Analysis Team provide me a list of who they thought should go. But at the end of the day, I knew I was taking away these peoples’ livelihood, and it was my duty to make sure I didn’t have to cut any more than necessary.
“Alright.” He sighed. “Well, I’ll probably call you tonight, unless you want to come over for dinner. Our place is pretty nice.”
Lars and Suzanne had rented a large house along the Nevada lakefront near Zephyr Cove to accommodate themselves and family and close friends. It was a gorgeous mansion set on the lake and perfect for the pre-wedding family vacation they sought to have. Normally, I would take up the invitation to have dinner with my brother and future sister-in-law.
But normally, I wasn’t searching for a woman I didn’t know. Normally, I wasn’t searching for my wife.
“I’m good. Thanks,” I told him. “Still getting settled.”
Meanwhile, I was renting a cabin on the California side of the lake just before Emerald Bay—one of the most beautiful places on the lake, or so I’d heard. It was about twenty minutes from South Lake Tahoe where the state line—and my new hotel was.
The cabin had been listed for sale, so I contacted the owners and