THREE
Denver, Colorado
Luke was lost well before his date ever mentioned Q-forms. He’d met Jennifer at a barbeque and had liked her blond hair, her expressive brown eyes, and her earnest way of speaking. This was only his second date with her, and while talk of Q-forms and office politics was a little on the boring side—okay, a lot on the boring side—he was making his best effort to listen attentively and commit to memory some of the names she was tossing out.
But the vibrating of his cell phone was making it very hard to pay attention.
He’d surreptitiously glanced at it moments before he’d asked how work was going for her, and saw that it was his Aunt Patti. Patti never called unless something was wrong.
Ignore, ignore, ignore.
“I mean, I don’t get the big deal, you know? We’re all grown-ups. We ought to be able to work these things out, right?”
“Right.” It could be his dad. It could be his brother, Leo. It could be anything. Or maybe nothing at all. Ignore, ignore.
“But Mallory, she’s…” Jennifer paused, and pushed a thick lock of blond hair over her shoulder. “I don’t like to talk bad about anyone, but Mallory is kind of arrogant, you know? She thinks her way is the only way. She drives me crazy.”
“Ah,” Luke said. Remember Mallory. He had a feeling her name would come up more than once if he continued to see Jennifer.
His cell phone vibrated again. Ignore.
“I mean she’s really smart, and she has great ideas, but sometimes, I just want to say, ‘Look, Mallory, you’re not the only with great ideas and sometimes, you might want to listen to other opinions.’”
It had to be an emergency. Patti would just leave a message if it wasn’t an emergency.
“Does that ever happen to you?” Jennifer asked.
The question startled Luke. “What?”
A look came over Jennifer’s face that Luke read as annoyance. “Is that your cell phone buzzing?” she asked coolly.
“It is,” he said truthfully. “Jen, could you give me one minute? I don’t think I can ignore this call.”
“Since when am I Jen?” she said, and sank back. “Sure,” she said, flicking her hand at his phone. “Do what you need to do.” She picked up her house specialty drink. The Nightingale, the waitress had called it. It was about two feet tall and blue.
Luke phoned his aunt. Patti answered on the first ring. “Patti?”
“Hi, Luke, thank God. I’m worried sick about Bob and Leo,” she said in that pragmatic way she had of speaking, skipping over any standard greeting. It reminded Luke of his late mother, Patti’s sister. “I drove out to the ranch today and it’s closed up tight as a drum. They haven’t been there in days, Luke, and I can’t get hold of Bob.”
Luke closed his eyes and resisted the urge to drop his forehead to the table. Not now, not when I have three new builds lined up. They were big jobs. Construction jobs for custom homes in a tony part of Denver.
“Where are you? It sounds like a party. Am I interrupting?”
“No, you’re not interrupting,” he said, and noticed the slight narrowing of Jennifer’s eyes. “I’ll call him and let you know what’s going on.”
“Please do. I don’t do anything but worry about those two.”
So did Luke. He clicked off and smiled at Jennifer. She arched her brows in question. “I’ve got to call my dad,” he said apologetically. “My aunt can’t get hold of him.”
“So Patti is your aunt?” she asked, watching him closely.
“Yep. Listen, I’m just going to step out and make this call. It will be quick, I promise. Why don’t you order us an appetizer?”
She shrugged and picked up the menu. “I don’t even know what you like.”
“Anything,” he assured her, and made a quick retreat out onto the street.
His father did not pick up the call. Luke didn’t read too much into that—Dad couldn’t hear his cell phone half the time. But then again, there had been times in the past that Dad hadn’t answered the phone because he was avoiding Luke.
Luke called his brother.
“Romeo speaking,” Leo answered cheerfully after one ring.
Luke couldn’t help but smile. “What’s up, Romeo? Everything okay?”
“No, everything is not okay. I just found out that the Broncos traded the only cornerback we have that’s worth a damn. We are seriously going to have to put the pass defense on every milk carton in America and hope to Jesus we find it before training camp. What’s up with you?”
“Not much. So what else is going on, Leo?”
“Are you trying to get in my business? I’ve been beating off the hot babes as usual. I could use a new bat.”
“I didn’t know there were so many hot babes in Pine River.”
“You’d be surprised, bro, you’d be so surprised.”
“Leo—what’s up with Dad?”
“Dad? Nothing,” Leo said. “Hey, I think we might have a chance at getting that free agent defensive back out of Miami. Holgenstizer, or something like it.”
Stalling. No one knew Leo like Luke, and Luke knew when his little brother was stalling. “Nothing, huh? So why did Aunt Patti call? Why does she say you guys haven’t been out at the ranch in days?”
“Shit,” Leo muttered. “Look, everything is going to be fine,” he said, the cheerfulness gone out of his voice. “We’ve got it all under control.”
Now Luke worried. “Got what under control?”
“We found a place in town that works just fine. Little house, and I can roll right out onto the park—”
“A place in town?” Luke exclaimed, and his heart caught. “What the hell, Leo? Why aren’t you at the ranch? Where’s Dad?”
“Look Luke, I’ll be straight. It’s not the end of the world, but Dad did something kind of stupid. Well, not kind of. Definitely.”
No, no, no. The thirty years of Luke’s life went skipping by him. All the times his life had been derailed because of his family, all the plans shot to hell because of them. He closed his eyes, sinking his fingers into the corners, rubbing hard. “Do I need to come home?”
Leo didn’t say anything for a moment, then said quietly, “Yeah, I think you should.”