Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [79]
Jake raised a brow and looked pointedly at Kyle. “He can’t be acting an sillier than you did when Kimara was pregnant with your first.”
Kyle chuckled. “I did act kind of crazy, didn’t I?”
“Crazy isn’t the word for it, Kyle. You acted downright foolish,” Jake replied, laughing.
Kyle couldn’t help but laugh himself upon remembering that time. “Hey, I’ve gotten better.”
“After six kids, I should hope so.”
“Let me get this straight, Jacob,” Diamond said, looking up from packing. “You want us to go to visit Sterling and Colby before we go home?” At his nod she asked, “Why? We just saw them at Whispering Pines when they came to the party last weekend.”
“I know, but I need to talk with Sterling about something. You don’t mind, do you?”
Diamond shook her head. “Of course not. I just assumed you would want to get back to the ranch to check on things.”
“Percy is a good foreman. He can handle things without me for a few more days.”
Diamond nodded as she closed the lid to their luggage. “Should I call Colby to let her know we’re coming?”
“There’s no need. Kyle left for the mountains and said he would mention to Sterling that we might be coming. Tomorrow is Kamry’s birthday, and Sterling is giving a birthday party for his fourth godchild at his home.”
Diamond nodded. Kamry was one of Kyle and Kimara’s kids. “It’s been a year already?” Diamond said, remembering how she had held the newborn baby in her arms. She and Jake had been secretly married for only six months then. She couldn’t help but recall their secret, intimate meetings and how Kyle and Sterling had gone to great lengths to keep the media in the dark as to her whereabouts. A lot of times when the media assumed she was visiting Kyle and Kimara or was with Sterling at his home in the mountains, she had been somewhere in Jacob’s arms. She couldn’t help but grin, remembering the fun she’d had sneaking around to sleep with her own husband.
“What are you grinning about?” Jake asked, coming across the room to her.
When he stood by her side, she looked up at him, smiling. “Oh, I was thinking about our earlier days when we were closely guarding our secret. We could probably make a pretty good pair of undercover cops.” Her smile widened. “You get it, Jacob?”
Jake chuckled. “Yeah, I get it. Under cover.” He understood where she was coming from. Most of their time had been spent under bedcovers.
The grin on Diamond’s face flickered again. “We’d make a dynamite team. I wish that—”
Jake’s lips came down to swallow her words and as usual Diamond became putty in his arms.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door. “Bellman to take your luggage down.”
Jake refused to release Diamond just yet. “Do you know the one thing I don’t like about this place?” he asked her, placing short kisses on her lips.
“What?” she asked in a ragged whisper.
“The untimely interruptions.”
Chapter 20
J ake and Kyle sat on opposite ends of the sofa as Sterling Hamilton paced back and forth across his immaculate office.
“Do you have to pace while you think?” Kyle asked him. “I’m getting a disjointed neck just watching you wear down the carpeting.”
Sterling stopped and smiled. “Oh. Sorry.” He eased into a nearby chair. After a few moments of silence, he said, “I’ve been wracking my brains but I can’t recall Diamond ever mentioning Samuel being threatened by anyone. And as for me, I know for a fact that I never received any threats.”
He frowned. “However, come to think of it, I do remember two incidents of Samuel’s car catching fire during a race. The officials ruled it as mechanical failure, although they could never find the cause.” Sterling shook his head. “Samuel was pretty hot about it.”
Jake stood. “But you don’t know for certain that his car was tampered with.”
“No,” Sterling agreed. “Samuel never mentioned that he thought his car had been tampered with, so he must not have been threatened.”
“Would he have mentioned it if he had?”
Sterling grunted. “Who, Samuel Tate?