Family Man

office box and started asking questions. It wasn't that hard to find him.” Not with the distinctive description she had been able to provide thanks to her knowledge of the Gilchrist clan. The attendant at the town's single gas station had been very helpful. “ Tall? Black hair? Looks sorta like one of them Wild West gunslingers? Sure, I know him. He works out at the gym sometimes. Does some kind of weird martial arts stuff, you know? He drives a honey of a black Jag .”
    Justine nodded. “You are ever resourceful, my dear. May I ask why, once you were actually face to face with him, you failed to make him my offer?”
    “Damn it, Justine, I just couldn't do it.” Katy closed one hand into a small fist. “He doesn't deserve to have everything you've worked and fought for turned over to him just like that. He shouldn't come back because you're offering him Gilchrist, Inc. on a silver platter. He should come back because it's his duty to the family.”
    “You told him that?”
    “Yes, I did.” Katy raised her chin. “In no uncertain terms.”
    Justine sighed. “Well, I suppose I can understand why he didn't precisely jump at the offer.”
    Katy wrinkled her nose. “He's no fool. He must have known that if he came back, he could probably do so on his own terms. I just didn't feel like groveling. And I didn't want him to think you were willing to beg, plead, and bribe him to come back. I guess I messed up, Justine. I'm sorry.”
    “Don't be too hard on yourself. It is very likely that even if you had told him he was back in my will and that I was quite prepared to—er—grovel, he would still have turned you down.”
    “I know.” Katy straightened her spine. “Justine, we have to talk about the future. We've tried everything we can to get Luke to assume his responsibilities. It's obvious he's not going to do so. Therefore, we must discuss alternatives. Fraser is getting anxious.”
    “If this is your unsubtle way of telling me we must talk about selling off Gilchrist Gourmet, as Stanfield suggests, you may as well save your breath, Katy.” There was a familiar thread of steel in Justine's voice, one that had not been there in a while.
    Katy swung around. “The company is facing disaster. You know that as well as I do. Only a Gilchrist has the clout to run things the way you've always run them. You've admitted yourself that you don't have the strength or the desire to continue at the helm.”
    “I'm tired, Katy.”
    “I know.” Katy looked into Justine's once-fierce eyes and felt a rush of sympathy.
    “I've left it too late, haven't I? I should have made arrangements for my successor years ago, but I kept putting it off. A part of me always hoped that Thornton would return.”
    “I understand, Justine.”
    “After he was killed I convinced myself that Luke would want to join his family. We're all he has left now. You'd think he'd want to be here with us. I deluded myself into believing it would all come right in the end. But it hasn't, has it?”
    Katy stifled a small groan. The note of melodrama in Justine's voice was a familiar one. Gilchrists were good at melodrama. But in this case, Katy had to admit it was warranted. She knew better than anyone that Justine had long harbored the secret hope that Thornton and his family would rejoin the Seattle Gilchrists.
    “It looks bad, Justine, but there are moves we can make that will enable us to salvage at least the net worth of the assets before we lose everything the way my father did when Quinnell Restaurants went under.”
    “I wish you were a Gilchrist,” Justine muttered. “I could turn the company over to you.”
    Katy blinked in surprise. “Thank you, Justine. That's very flattering. But even if I were a member of the family, I couldn't take over Gilchrist, Inc. We both know I don't have the kind of mind-set it takes to run a corporation that size. I don't like that kind of management. I wouldn't be any good at it even if I wanted to do it, which I don't.”
    “Yes, you would. I think you could do just about anything you decided to do, Katy. But I understand how you feel. You have your own dreams to pursue, and you have every right to do so.”
    “I want a business of my own,” Katy said softly. “Something that's all mine. Something I can run myself. I want to shape its destiny and watch it grow.” And I don't want to have to answer to Gilchrists for the rest of my life, which I most certainly would if I took over Gilchrist, Inc .,