Family Man

for you to show up for dinner. The staff will jump through hoops trying to please you. That won't give you a good indication of the service or the quality of the food.”
    Luke took a swallow of his wine, unconcerned. “I'll be able to tell a lot by watching the customers.”
    Dinner at the restaurant was an excuse. Katy was certain of it. Luke wanted to spend the night with her, so he was using his clout as her boss to arrange it. She was still annoyed enough with him to be perverse. “I'm not sure I can get away.”
    Matt spoke up from the doorway. “Don't worry about me, Katy. I can take care of myself. And I'll have Zeke here.”
    “I'll think about it,” Katy temporized as she dumped the fresh basil into the food processor.
    “You do that,” Luke said. “And pack your bag while you do your thinking.”

    At ten o'clock Luke reluctantly took himself off. Zeke padded through the doorway after him. Katy stood watching from the window as dog and man vanished into the night. Matt came to stand beside her.
    “He's making this a regular habit, isn't he?” Matt observed.
    “You mean eating my food and stuffing his dog full of my best pesto sauce? Yes, he certainly is.”
    “I think he likes you,” Matt said. “How come you were so mad at him this afternoon? He said he was only trying to help.”
    “You know as well as I do that when a Gilchrist offers you a rose you've got to check for thorns.”
    Matt considered that briefly. “Sometimes I think you're too hard on him. Luke's okay.”
    Katy glanced at her brother. “You really think so?”
    Matt nodded. “He's not like the others. Did you know the guy has a black belt?”
    “What other color belt would a Gilchrist own?”
    Matt rolled his eyes. “Geez, Katy. I'm talking about the kind of black belt they give out in the martial arts.”
    “Oh.”
    “Yeah, Luke's all right. I like him.”
    “So do I,” Katy admitted softly. It was a lot worse than that, Katy thought. She knew full well she was in love with him.
    She could not bear to look ahead to what was going to happen when the six months were over. She had to keep her wits about her. Concentrate on the present.
    But Katy knew deep in her heart that if she had intended to remain sensible and pragmatic, she should never have started sleeping with Luke.
    Matt shot her a quick, searching look. “What did he do this afternoon that was so bad?”
    “It's hard to explain.” Katy's jaw tightened. Luke's behavior had been extreme, even for a Gilchrist. “He was just so incredibly negative about everything.”
    “Because he didn't think any of the locations were suitable?”
    “It was more than just that. He had no positive comments at all. No helpful ideas. He just kept making everything sound impossible and hopeless. It was as if he thought the whole idea of opening Pesto Presto was a stupid waste of time. As if it didn't stand a prayer of being successful. It was as if he was trying to discourage me for some reason.”
    Matt grinned. “Hey, if he thought that, he doesn't know you all that well, does he? You always find a way to make things work.”

    Roger Danvers and the final report he had prepared were both waiting for Luke the next morning when he and Katy arrived at the Seattle offices of Gilchrist, Inc. He glanced at Katy.
    “I want to talk to Danvers. Why don't you go see Eden? Make sure we're not having any more computer problems in Payroll and Accounting.”
    Katy gave him a chilling look. “There's no need to be sarcastic.” She went on down the hall, greeting several members of the staff along the way. Luke noticed that one of the people who stepped out of his office to speak to her was Fraser Stanfield.
    Luke watched the two of them disappear around the corner together. Then he walked into his own office and sat down.
    “Okay, Danvers. What have you got?”
    “No proof.” Danvers tapped a foot restlessly and tugged at his earlobe. “But a definite pattern. The guy's clever. I'm not going to be able to nail him with hard evidence, though.”
    “So there's no point in going to the authorities?” Luke switched on the computer and summoned up the coded file he and Danvers had been using.
    Danvers shrugged and waggled his toes. “It's the usual story. You know how it is with this white-collar crime stuff.”
    “Yeah, I know. Most of the time you count yourself lucky if you can figure out who's probably screwing you, and then you just fire the son of a bitch. Not much else you