“Of course, Justine.” Katy mentally crossed her fingers behind her back.
“I know that initially you weren’t in favor of my efforts to persuade Luke to join the family. Do you still feel I made a mistake?”
Katy was startled by the hint of uncertainty she sensed in Justine. “No,” she admitted cautiously. “I don’t think it was a mistake. I think Luke knows what he’s doing and that he’s quite capable of saving Gilchrist, Inc.”
“If he wants to save it,” Justine said grimly. “I’m beginning to wonder if he does.”
Katy was surprised “What do you mean?”
“I mean I am not at all certain he came back to help us. After that ridiculous report I got yesterday I have to wonder if perhaps Hayden and Maureen were right when they claimed he had returned to destroy the company.”
“Justine, I’m sure that’s not the case. If Luke was a bit vague in his report, it was only because he’s still gathering information. He’s a great believer in having all the pertinent information he can get before he acts. He seems to organize everything with a computer.”
“I don’t know, Katy. I just don’t know.” Justine leaned her head back in her chair and watched the fog roll in off the sea. “All my life I’ve been so sure of myself. I’ve always tried to do what was best for the company and for the family. But lately I’ve begun to realize I made a lot of mistakes along the way.”
“Everyone does, Justine,” Katy said quietly.
“It is entirely possible that Luke came here to destroy Gilchrist, Inc. I convinced myself that once he was here he would want to become a part of the company and a part of the family. But I may have been wrong.”
Katy chose her words carefully. “I don’t know if he will want to become a permanent part of the company, but I don’t believe he will deliberately destroy it, either.”
“Why shouldn’t he want to destroy it?” Justine’s mouth curved sadly. “Why should he develop any affection for me? No one else in the family ever has.”
Katy stared at her. “Justine, how can you say that?”
“It’s true, Katy. You know it. Oh, they all tolerate me because I’ve held the purse strings all these years. They come to dinner when I demand it. They show up on my birthday and dutifully bring me gifts. But the truth is none of them really cares for me, and I’ve often felt that Maureen may actually hate me.”
“She doesn’t hate you,” Katy said calmly. “She’s afraid of you.”
Justine scowled. “Afraid of me? How idiotic of her. Maureen always did lack backbone. What does she think I’ll do to her?”
Katy sipped her tea. “I don’t think she’s afraid of what you’ll do to her, but of what you’ll do to her family.”
“That’s utter rubbish.”
“No, it isn’t,” Katy said firmly. “You made a lasting impression on her thirty-seven years ago when you condemned Luke’s mother out of hand and banished your son. Maureen has spent the past thirty-seven years trying to make certain you don’t do the same thing to Hayden and your other grandchildren because of her. It’s been a heavy responsibility for her to carry all these years.”
Justine paled. “My God. Are you serious?”
“Yes. And if you ask me, she’s had good cause to be concerned. You have not always been the most diplomatic or understanding sort of mother-in-law.”
“Because I never approved of Hayden’s obsession with glass?” Justine scoffed furiously. “What was I supposed to do when I realized he preferred to waste himself on his art rather than assume his responsibilities?”
“Accept his decision,” Katy suggested mildly. “It’s his life. He has a right to do what he wants with it. You did what you wanted with yours.”
“What makes you think that?” Justine demanded, her eyes fierce. “I’ll tell you something, Katy. Something I’ve never told another soul. I never wanted the responsibility of running Gilchrist, Inc. But when my husband died I was twenty-four years old and alone, except for two young sons to support. The only thing my husband left us was one shabby little waterfront restaurant that was losing more money each month it stayed open.”
“Justine, please. You don’t have to explain this to me. I know the story.” Katy put down her cup and saucer and went over to kneel beside Justine’s chair. She put her arms around the older woman’s rigid shoulders.
“I worked night and day to make that damned restaurant pay,” Justine whispered. “I had to take care of my boys. I had to find a way to make certain they never went hungry. I would never have survived that first year if your grandfather and grandmother hadn’t taken pity on me.”
“I know, Justine. They wanted to help you. You deserved their help. You were a hardworking young mother trying to make your own way in the world. Granddad respected that. He always respected hard work.”
Justine’s eyes were on the gray horizon. “They gave me advice. Sent customers to me. Told my suppliers to keep making deliveries even when I couldn’t pay the bills. Then they paid those suppliers to make certain I got what I needed. Everything Gilchrist, Inc. is today I owe to your grandparents, Katy. They kept me in business that first year until I could turn a small profit.”
Katy smiled to herself. It was typical of a Gilchrist to overdramatize everything, including gratitude. “I think that’s going a bit too far, Justine. Gilchrist, Inc. is what it is today because you worked darn hard to make it that way. My grandparents may have helped keep you afloat that first year, but you did all the rest.”
“I owed them more than I could ever repay,” Justine said as if she had not heard Katy. “I tried. God knows I tried. But it all fell apart when Thornton ran off with his secretary.”
Katy stilled. “Are you telling me that you engineered the romance between my mother and your son as a way of repaying my family?”
“It was the least I could do,” Justine said wistfully. “It would have been a good move for all concerned. It would have meant the merging of the two restaurant chains. It would have created an empire that would have doubled the wealth of both families. It would have united the Quinnells and the Gilchrists. It seemed fitting.”
“Good grief,” Katy whispered. Gilchrists never did anything by half measures, she reflected.
“I don’t know where it’s all going to end,” Justine said. “Things have not worked out as I had planned them. And now that Luke is here they may not work out at all.”
“The thing about Luke,” Katy said gently, “is that he does things in his own way. We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.”
“I don’t like this feeling of being out of control of the situation,” Justine muttered.
“If you wanted someone you could control in charge of Gilchrist, Inc., you should never have picked Luke for the job,” Katy said. “Trying to control him is like trying to ride the tiger.”
“In other words, it’s a dangerous ride, but if we try to get off now, we’ll all get eaten?”
“I’m afraid so,” Katy admitted.
That evening Luke and Zeke arrived at Katy’s cottage promptly at six-thirty. Luke glanced down at the dog as he raised his hand to knock. “You’d better behave yourself if you want this cushy setup to continue. No more swiping leftover pesto off the kitchen counter.”
Zeke, bowl clamped between his jaws, looked up at Luke with as much feigned innocence as it was possible for such a large predator to manage.
Luke decided it was useless to lecture a dog. The night before, when Luke had first had dinner at Katy’s, Zeke had developed a taste for pesto. Matt had slipped him some off his plate, and Zeke was in dog heaven. He had become a pesto junkie. When no one was looking he had sneaked into the kitchen after dinner and dragged the container of leftover pesto off the counter. By the time everyone realized what had happened he had downed the lot.
Once Zeke decided he wanted something it was v
irtually impossible to stop him.
He and Zeke had a few things in common, Luke reflected as he rapped on the cottage door.
The door swung inward with an ominous creaking sound reminiscent of an old grade-B horror film. Matt lurched into the opening, one shoulder hunched above the other, his eyes listing off to the right.
“Welcome, master,” Matt cackled. “Welcome to the House of Green Slime. Dinner is almost ready. Only the fattest green things are being slaughtered for your gustatory pleasure. Even now they are being prepared. Listen to their screams. A cheerful sound, is it not?”
A whirring sound came from the kitchen. Luke smiled faintly. “I take it we’re going to be the victims of another pesto experiment tonight?”
“Yes, master. Katy says only the best for you and your pet demon.” Matt grinned as he patted Zeke on the head.
Zeke tolerated the greeting for a moment, and then he trotted through the doorway and headed straight for the kitchen.
“Heck, it makes a change from baked potatoes,” Luke said. He walked into the cottage. “I figure the worst that can happen is we’ll all turn green.”
For some reason Matt found that uproarious.
Luke followed Zeke into the kitchen and found his dog sitting beside his bowl in the middle of the floor. Zeke’s eyes tracked Katy relentlessly as she carried a pile of green leaves from the sink to the food processor.
Katy, dressed in jeans and a salmon-colored sweater and wearing a checkered apron, flashed Luke a smile of welcome. “Hi. You’re right on time.”
“Zeke insisted. He didn’t want us to be late.”
Katy made a face at Zeke. “If you think I’m going to fix an extra batch of this for you, think again, Zeke.”
Zeke drooled.
“Better give him some,” Luke advised as he opened a cupboard door and took down two wineglasses. “Otherwise he’ll probably help himself the way he did last night.”
“I’ve got news for him. He’s not going to get a second chance to pull a stunt like that last one. Tonight all the leftovers are going straight into the refrigerator.” Katy dumped leaves into the food processor.
“I don’t know if you’re going to be able to save your pesto,” Luke said as he poured two glasses of wine. “Zeke has had a taste of it now, and he’s hooked.”
Zeke whined hungrily.
“Are you trying to tell me it’s like his having gotten a taste of blood?” Katy glared at the dog. “You should have fed him before you brought him over here.”
“I did. But Zeke always has room for pesto.”
“Well, he’s not getting any of this.” Katy switched on the food processor, effectively drowning out any response.
Luke smiled with satisfaction as he leaned back against the counter. Katy looked good in an apron, he decided. This was only the second dinner invitation he had managed to coax out of her, but he fully intended to make such invitations routine.
She was a hell of a good cook.
In addition, Luke had discovered last night that he liked being here with Katy and her brother. It had made him realize just how lonely his life had been for the past three years.
Although he had never considered himself a home-and-hearth sort of man, he found he enjoyed the cozy warmth of Katy’s kitchen. He liked leaning against the counter and drinking wine while he watched Katy bustle around the small room. He liked joking with Matt. He even liked eating Katy’s experimental pesto and pasta combinations.
The only thing Luke did not like was having to go back to his own cottage at ten. But the weekend was coming, he reminded himself optimistically. Matt would be staying out until midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Luke had big plans for Friday and Saturday.
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” Katy said as she switched off the machine.
“I’m listening.”
“I had a long talk with Justine this morning. She was annoyed.”
“So what else is new?”
Katy threw him a quelling glance. “The thing is, she was not happy with that report you gave her on the condition of Gilchrist, Inc. She felt she didn’t get any real information.”
Luke raised his brows. “She didn’t. You wouldn’t let me give her any of the good stuff, remember?”
Katy’s mouth tightened primly. “I asked you not to tell her about Darren or about your suspicion that someone is embezzling from the company.”
“Right. The good stuff.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Not much. Just said I was working on gathering information.”
Katy spooned Parmesan cheese into the bowl of the food processor. “Couldn’t you have been a little more diplomatic? More tactful?”
“Why?”
“Luke, she’s your grandmother. And for better or worse, she does own the company.”
“In case you haven’t realized it yet, Katy, I don’t feel any overwhelming urge to be diplomatic or tactful when dealing with Justine. She sure as hell doesn’t go out of her way to exercise either of those qualities. Why should she expect me to do it?”
Katy scowled at him. “You and I both know you could have come up with something that sounded as though you were making real progress in saving Gilchrist, Inc.”
“Maybe. But I didn’t feel like it.”
“For heaven’s sake, Luke, she’s starting to wonder if you’re here to destroy the company instead of to save it. I think she’s getting nervous about your intentions.”
“It’ll give her something to think about,” Luke observed.
Katy gave a soft, thoroughly frustrated exclamation. Spoon in hand, she marched over to stand directly in front of him. “Luke Gilchrist, I have had enough of this. I want you to behave yourself, do you understand? The next time you report to Justine you will be tactful and diplomatic. Is that clear?”
Luke smiled at the picture she made. The admonishing fire in her eyes was a clear challenge. If they had been alone, he would have stripped off her checkered apron and her jeans and made love to her on the kitchen table.
“I hear you, angel,” Luke said softly. “What would you like me to tell Justine? That my hacker friend has traced the restaurant embezzlement problems to a computer located in the Gilchrist corporate offices?”
Katy stared at him. “Oh, no. Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“This is terrible,” she said, sounding dazed. “I was hoping—”
“What? That there was no embezzlement going on? That the problems in the two restaurants were simple bookkeeping errors?”
“Frankly, yes,” she admitted.
“The Pollyanna approach to business has never been a very successful one,” Luke chided.
She bit her lip. “You still don’t know who’s doing the embezzling.”
“No, but it won’t take long to find out now.”
“Luke,” she said urgently, “if you do discover that it’s someone in the family, I want you to talk to me first.”
“Forget it,” Luke said. “I’ll handle the problem.”
“Given your lack of tactfulness, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Katy said grimly.
“Sorry, that’s the way it’s going to be.”
“Luke, listen to me. This is very important.”
Matt appeared in the kitchen doorway. His gaze went to his sister’s irate face and then settled on Luke. “What’s going on in here? Are you two arguing or something?”
“No,” Luke said calmly. “Your sister was just giving me a lecture on how to run Gilchrist, Inc. I told her I was going to do things my way. She was trying to get me to do things her way.”
Matt visibly relaxed. “She can be kind of persistent.”
“I’ve noticed,” Luke said.
“You get used to it,” Matt explained.
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Luke took another sip of his wine and smiled. “I know. Don’t worry, I can handle her.”
Katy drew herself up. “That’s enough out of both of you. If either of you wants to eat dinner tonight, you will both refrain from discussing me in the third person. I’ll give the whole batch of pesto to Zeke if I hear one more word.”
Zeke’s tail thumped eagerly on the kitchen floor.
“Hey, I can take a hint,” Luke said.
“Me, too,” Matt agreed quickly.
Katy studied both of them with narrowed eyes and then nodded once, apparently satisfied. “That’s better. You can both make yourselves useful. Set the table.”
Luke quickly opened the nearest drawer and grabbed a handful of knives and forks.
“I’ll get the plates,” Matt said, lunging toward the cupboard.
“That’s better,” Katy said with satisfaction. “I like to see men active in the kitchen. They always look at home there.”
Zeke sat in the middle of the floor and licked his chops.
An hour later Luke finished his second helping of Japanese-style soba noodles and pesto sauce. He leaned back in his chair and grinned at Matt. “The sacrifice of all the little screaming green things was worth it.”
Matt laughed. “Yeah, not bad.”
Katy glanced suspiciously from one to the other. “What is this about a sacrifice?”
“Nothing,” Matt assured her.
Katy smiled hopefully. “You really liked it?”
“It was great,” Luke said. “What did you use in the pesto sauce this time?”
Katy glowed. She warmed to her topic immediately. “Fresh parsley and tarragon leaves. And the usual Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and olive oil, of course. You don’t think there was too much tarragon in it?”
“Definitely not,” Luke said. “Another winner.”
“Good.” Katy got to her feet and started to clear the table. “I think I’ve finally got this particular recipe down just the way I want it. I’ll add it to my file of Pesto Presto recipes.”
“Is that all you think about these days? Luke asked softly. “Pesto Presto?”