by Robyn Grady
“He never knew.”
Jack’s ears and brow were burning. What a crock. There wasn’t a single memory that so much as hinted that any of it was true. David Baldwin needed his head examined if he thought for one moment he would swallow this. Jack ought to walk away from the whole deal right now.
“For decades my mother followed your family’s lives,” Dave went on. “She particularly followed your accomplishments, Jack.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I want to make up for all those lost years. I thought you might want the same.”
Jack wanted to tell him to get a grip on reality. But the emotion shining in Dave’s eyes stopped him. It was affection. Compassion.
Brotherly love?
Jack collapsed back into the chair. After he drained that beer, he squeezed the empty in his hand and groaned out, “I’ll need another drink.”
Dave pushed to his feet, headed for the bar. “I’ll make it Scotch.”
Thirteen
Becca was gutted when Angelica Lassiter’s press conference didn’t take place. It didn’t take her much to guess who had swooped in and got to J.D.’s haunted daughter before she could make any kind of announcement.
Catching up with a friend about the upcoming wedding, Felicity was in town again. When Fee arrived on her doorstep that evening, Becca was pretty much over the whole Lassiter mess. Over pretty much everything. For the first time in her life, she wanted to crawl in a hole and not bother coming back out.
As she opened the door, Fee simply stood there, looking disappointed and confused. Becca had kept her emotions under tight rein these past hours. Now despair rose in her throat, choking off air. Becca felt so miserable, she could only shrug and murmur, “Guess you heard.”
The world must know by now...Jack Reed and Becca “Brainless” Stevens had blown off L.A. to get it on. And not in some motel room. Out in the great outdoors.
Shoot me now.
“I won’t waste time asking if it’s true,” Fee said.
“I haven’t seen the photos.” Becca never wanted to see them. Never mind anyone else’s opinions—what would her parents say?
In her favorite Raiders jersey and thick comfort socks, Becca led her friend through to the kitchen where Fee presented a bottle of red wine.
“Thought you might need a drink,” she said. “I know I do.”
“That’ll go perfectly with the cheesecake.”
Becca had already eaten half of it—the remaining half sat on the counter, next to a used plate.
Fee looked stupefied. “Tell me you didn’t eat all that in one afternoon.”
“It was a piece of cake.” Becca gave her friend a withering grin. “That was a joke.”
“Sorry,” Fee said, “but you don’t look like you’ve been yucking it up.”
“Getting high on sugar is better than slitting my wrists.”
“Don’t talk like that. Nothing’s ever that bad. Even this.”
Becca thought of all the kids at risk of self-harm and suicide and flinched, ashamed. Of course, Fee was right. Nothing was worth taking your own life. That didn’t mean that she didn’t feel like hell.
Fee found two goblets while Becca cracked open the Merlot. She poured two generous servings and proposed a toast.
“To the world’s weakest woman,” Becca said and downed a mouthful.
Fee refrained. “Maybe alcohol isn’t a good idea right now.”
“Liquor has never been my problem.” At the moment, nagging self-pity was.
“You are anything but weak.”
“Except where Jack is concerned.”
“Honey, forgive me for saying, but you’re not alone there.”
Good friends were always honest, and Fee was right on the money. She wasn’t Jack’s first conquest and she wouldn’t be his last. One more notch on the bedpost.
“I knew Jack’s reputation with women. He’s a lady-killer. He wouldn’t deny it. That’s what my brain says. Then my heart got mixed up somewhere along the way and, suddenly, somehow, he looked like Prince Charming. It’s crazy, but there’s something about his voice—about his everything—that drags me in. I thought I could control it.”
Fee narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t fallen in love with him, have you?”
“Is falling in lust any better?” Becca set down her glass and covered her flushed face with her hands. “What am I going to do?”
Taking a hold of an arm, Fee hauled Becca over to the breakfast nook and sat her down.
“First you need to know that you have a lot of friends at Lassiter Media,” she said, sitting down, too. “People who won’t throw you under a bus, no matter what. But, yeah, this doesn’t look good. I can’t see Evan McCain being so understanding.”
“Evan and I spoke. He wasn’t pleased, to say the least. He knows I had all the right intentions. It was my execution that was off.”
Whenever Becca thought about facing her coworkers’ disappointed faces—their curious glances—she shuddered.
“I’d already arranged to have the rest of the week off.” And she hadn’t had a vacation break since starting at the foundation, so there were days up her sleeve. “Evan suggested I go back into the office Monday. I guess he’ll have figured out what to do with me by then.”
“And Jack Reed?” Fee asked.
Just the sound of his name sent her blood pounding. “I would be happy if I never had to see that sexy, bloodsucking smile ever again.”
Fee arched a brow. “So, you’re not in love with the man? You kind of skated around that question earlier.”
Becca crossed to the counter and forked cheesecake into her mouth. It didn’t hit the spot. Didn’t ease the pain.
“I wish I’d never laid eyes on him,” she said, avoiding the question again. “I wish I could go back and erase everything that’s happened this past week.”
“So, when he calls—and he will call—you’re unavailable? It’s just I know what you’re going through. Being a slave to your own emotions, wishing you could feel differently but not being able to get past the longing. It’s all consuming. An irritating, breathtaking reality that just won’t go away.”
Understanding, Becca smiled softly. “You went through that with Chance.”
“Oh, yeah. In the end, my surrender set me free.”
“You’re saying that I should, what? Follow my heart where Jack is concerned?” Becca shivered even as added warmth swirled through her veins at the thought of being with him again. “He’s nothing like Chance Lassiter.”
“But you’re not attracted to Chance. For all his apparent faults, you’re attracted to Jack.” Fee joined her friend by the counter. “Have you asked yourself why you’re so angry right now?”
“I know why. I allowed this to happen.”
“You mean you couldn’t stop it from happening.”
Fee didn’t get it. There was such a thing as responsibility. “I know you must be feeling like all the world is filled with roses and love songs right now. I am so, so happy for you and Chance. But there is no way this side of forever that Jack and I will ever end up a happy couple. We have less than nothing in common. I despise what he stands for. His antics with Angelica have done so much damage to the foundation, and he couldn’t care less.”
Fee took a few seconds and then cocked her head. “As hard as it is, I think you ought to force yourself to look at those pictures of you and Jack in that lake.”
The thought of thousands ogling those ultraprivate moments made Becca want to puke. Or was that the cheesecake?
“They must be plastered all over the internet by now.”
“To my mind,” Fee went on, “they show two people who look as if they belong with one another. Call me Cupid, but I don’t think you and J
ack are done just yet.”
* * *
There were two reasons Jack tucked in his tail and went home to Cheyenne.
First, he needed time and space to absorb what he’d learned from David Baldwin. Dave believed that he and Jack were half brothers...that they shared a biological father. Dave had finished by saying that, if Jack agreed, he wanted to provide DNA material for testing.
Jack’s first thought had been that it was some kind of scam meant to glean or extort money. His second thought was to wonder how his life might change if Dave’s theory were true. He had no aunts or uncles. Since his parents had passed away, no extended family at all.
Although he’d never dwelled on it, Jack had always felt a sense of aloneness most during holidays. Everyone had somewhere to go Christmas day. He worked his private life so that he wasn’t short on invitations. But even at his age, Christmas without family felt kind of hollow. A nonevent.
Waiting for the DNA results was harder than Jack had imagined. Anticipation was made worse by the second reason he’d left L.A. Jack hated how he and Becca had parted company. He had hurt her, embarrassed her, and he cared too damn much to ever want to risk doing that again. That meant staying the hell away.
And so he’d gone to bunk down in the place he’d once called home.
The single-story ranch-style house was modest compared to some of the neighboring places. Certainly a far cry from the luxury of either of his L.A. abodes. But when he set his bags down inside his childhood bedroom and looked around at the high school pennants on the wall and his first CD player, Jack felt a sense of peace...grounded in a way he could never be in California.
He simply chilled for the first couple of days. The freezer was stocked and the fridge had enough beer to last. By the third day, he got itchy feet. He revved up the ten-year-old pickup his dad had left in the garage. Slapping a Stetson atop his head, Jack drove north, headed for the Big Blue.
Thirty miles on, the famous ranch came into view. Originally two hundred acres, the Big Blue now encompassed 30,000 acres, breeding Wyoming’s most sought after Hereford cattle. J.D.’s nephew Chance resided in the original ranch house. The main house where Chance’s mother lived was an 11,000-square-foot two-story structure made of hand-cut logs and wood shingles, built when Ellie and J.D. had adopted the boys. Many times Jack and J.D. had taken brandy out on the flagstone deck, off from the great room, to discuss sport and finance. That seemed so long ago now.
Jack sat outside the gates with the truck idling for a full five minutes. He’d come to fill a curiosity and see the Big Blue again, but he had no intention of paying a call. He wouldn’t be welcome, not like in the old days when he had been viewed a friend of the family rather than foe— Angelica being the current exception, of course.
Maybe he’d go visit Logan downtown. The ambitious attorney and he might not be buddies, as such, but at least Logan understood Jack’s current situation with regard to Lassiter Media like no one else could.
Jack was ready to perform a U-turn when another, newer truck pulled into the wide driveway. When Jack recognized the driver, he wound down his window, as did she.
“How you doing, Marlene?”
“I’m real good, Jack. You coming inside?”
Marlene had turned sixty this year. She wore her brown hair in a short, no-nonsense style. Her hazel eyes were round and kind. After her husband had died twenty-four years ago, she’d moved in here from the original house to take care of J.D.’s children. Rumor said that she also cared for J.D. in a wifely fashion. More power to ’em.
“I was on my way into town,” he let her know.
“Gonna grab a steak from the Grill?”
And risk seeing Dylan if he was in town? Not likely.
“I was going to stop by Logan Whittaker’s office.”
“Give him my regards.” Marlene propped an elbow on the window ledge. “I sure don’t like the position J.D.’s will has put you boys in.”
Jack appreciated her concern but this was neither the time nor place to get into it. “It’ll all work out,” he assured her.
She leaned in closer and lowered her voice as if someone might overhear. “I know what this is about. At least, living with J.D. and his concerns, I’m pretty sure I know.”
Jack took a moment and then smiled. He wondered if Marlene had worked it out, or whether J.D. had mentioned something before that final fatal night when he collapsed at Angelica and Evan’s wedding rehearsal dinner. Either way, at this point in time, Jack was under obligation to keep quiet. If things unraveled the way he believed they would, the true nature of the part he had played in this tug-of-war would be revealed soon enough.
What would Becca say?
“J.D. was a good daddy,” Marlene said. “He loved his princess more than anyone. More than anything. I’m glad she has a good friend to look after her now that he’s gone.”
That touched Jack in a way he hadn’t anticipated. He was used to being viewed in a far less positive light. His mother had always said a kind word went a long way.
Sitting back, Marlene put her truck into gear. “Take care, Jack. Be sure and come back when this is all over.”
For Jack, that couldn’t be soon enough.
* * *
David Baldwin contacted Jack at the end of that week. The results were in and they confirmed his suspicion. When Jack heard, he flew back to L.A. and went directly to his brother’s house.
He met the kids—Jack’s very own nieces and nephews—and then enjoyed a big family meal of mashed potatoes and meat loaf in a room full of conversation and laughter and so much...well, love. By the end of the evening, he’d accepted that these people were indeed family. He planned to get to know them all a whole lot better.
Saying good-night on the front porch, Jack wanted his brother to know one important thing.
“I’m not upset with your mother for keeping her secret all those years. I get she was only trying to protect the people she cared about most.”
“I’m sorry I never met your father.” Dave eased into that familiar lopsided smile. “Our father. I wish we’d had the chance to know one another.”
Those thoughtful eyes, his warm laugh... “Dad was a lot like you, you know.”
Dave’s eyebrow’s lifted. “Really?”
Jack brought his brother close for a man hug. In some ways, this news was like receiving a gift from beyond the grave. The opposite of Angelica’s situation.
When her father had died, she’d received what might equate to a kick in the pants. But the show wasn’t over yet. Jack still hoped it would all work out for her, even if that meant it wouldn’t work out for him. He’d like to believe that discovering that he had a brother—family—had changed his view on how he conducted business. In one important way, it had: he wouldn’t be taking over and ransacking Dave’s company. Other plans were in store there. Family was family.
He would not, however, reconsider his move on Lassiter Media. Evan McCain had cemented his stand and Jack Reed was standing by his. He had no choice.
Jumping in his car, Jack switched on his phone. Angelica had left a message asking him to call her as soon as possible. She answered on the first ring.
“How was Cheyenne?” she asked.
“Quiet.”
He had let her know before leaving where he’d be. He could have been back in L.A. if she’d needed him here within a couple of hours.
“How’s things with you?”
He heard her draw down a breath. “I had planned to speak to you in person about this...you’ve done so much to try to help. But there’s really no need for you to waste time coming over.”
He braced himself. “I’m listening.”
“I’ve decided I’m going to step back.”
Jack’s chin went up. “Go on.”
“I
can’t do it. I won’t do it. My family means more to me than raging or crying over something I thought should be mine.”
“Angelica—”
“No, Jack. Not this time. Let me finish. Dad was the smartest man I’ve ever known. I loved him. I respected him. It’s time for me to make peace with his final wishes, with my family but, most of all, with myself. It’s over. I’m backing away from the fight.”
He waited before replying, “In the end, that’s your decision.”
“I’m glad you understand. And there’s one more thing.”
“Anything I can do to help.”
“I want you to know that if you ever try to take over Lassiter Media anytime in the future, I’ll do everything in my power to make certain that you fail. So will my brothers.”
Jack rapped his fingertips on the steering wheel. “And Evan?”
“As long as Evan is the CEO of Lassiter Media, I will support him in that capacity.”
A smile eased across Jack’s face even as he kept his tone solemn. “Is there any way I can convince you to reconsider?”
“Nothing in this world you or anyone else can say will change my mind.”
As soon as she disconnected, he put through a call to Logan. The attorney sounded apprehensive.
“I’m hoping this is good news,” Logan said.
“The best.”
Logan’s voice dropped. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I just got off the phone from Angelica. She’s made up her mind. She’s throwing in the towel. Tossing it away for good.”
“There’s no way to talk her around?”
“None.”
“You’re certain?”
“To quote Angelica, it’s over.” Smiling, Jack shut his eyes and dropped his head back on the rest. And thank God for that.
* * *
As soon as Jack Reed appeared, his impressive physique filling the doorway of her office, Becca shot to her feet.
Today she had returned to work. It had been difficult facing her co-workers. Even harder would be her scheduled appointment to meet with Evan later in the day. She was prepared for the worst. If she were in his position, regardless of any good intentions, she would throw herself out the door.