Family Man

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 virtually 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