River Road(14)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

Lucy smiled. “Luckily, I can afford dinner. How long do you think it will take to remove the tilework?”

“Not long—maybe a couple of hours, start to finish. I’ll want to go slow so I don’t do any damage to the original fireplace surround.”

“A couple of hours.” Lucy glanced at her watch. “Why don’t we have dinner and then tackle those tiles?”

“Good idea.”

Mason looked remarkably cheerful, she thought. No, not cheerful, more like filled with keen anticipation. She could see it in his eyes.

It was just dinner. So why was she feeling a little rattled?

“How does pan-seared salmon sound?” she asked.

“Very good,” he said. “Terrific.”

“Follow me.”

She walked through the wide opening that divided the living room and the front hall and crossed into the old-fashioned kitchen. Mason followed hard on her heels.

“Can I do something?” he asked.

“You can set the table. Dishes are in that glass-fronted cabinet. Silverware is in the drawer next to the refrigerator.”

He went to work, looking extremely satisfied with himself.

“Nolan Kelly came to see me right after you left the store this afternoon,” he said.

“Did he?” She opened the refrigerator and took out the salmon that she had marinated in olive oil, lime juice and soy sauce. “I saw him sitting at a table in front of the café.”

“Figured you did,” Mason said. “He was with Jillian Colfax.”

“Yes, I saw her, too.”

Mason tore off a chunk of the bread and took a bite. “Thought so. Your aunt told you that Jillian married Quinn Colfax?”

“Sara mentioned it. No surprise there.”

“No,” Mason agreed. “She always had her eye on the prize. And the big prize in Summer River was the son of Warner Colfax.”

“How long have they been married?”

“Deke said they married a year or two after they both graduated from college.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t had kids.”

Mason folded a paper napkin with origami-style precision. “I don’t think things are turning out the way Jillian hoped they would.”

Lucy set the strainer filled with washed baby bok choy on the counter next to the stove. “Meaning?”

“Deke says everyone thought that when Warner Colfax took it into his head to fire up his very own winery here in the valley he would turn the job of running Colfax Inc. over to his son.”

“That didn’t happen?”

“Nope. Word is the old man brought in an outsider as CEO.”

“That had to hurt.”

“Probably.” Mason adjusted the handles of the knife and spoon so that they were perfectly aligned at the bottom edge of the folded napkin. “Quinn got stuck with a marketing job at the winery.”

“Jillian can’t be thrilled with that. Maybe it explains why they haven’t had children.”

“Maybe.” Mason placed the fork into position with great care. “You do know that Colfax bought out his partner’s share of what was then Colfax and Brinker, right?”

“Yes. Aunt Sara mentioned it. She said that Brinker was so devastated by the death of his son that he lost all interest in Colfax and Brinker. He sold his half to Colfax and a few months later died of a heart attack.”

“The first thing Warner Colfax did after buying out his partner was change the name of the company to Colfax Inc., which should tell you something.”

She smiled. “He wanted the world to know the company was his and his alone.”

“It’s natural. First thing Deke did when he bought the old hardware store was change the name. Aaron and I call our consulting firm Fletcher Consulting.”

“I get that. What surprises me is that Warner Colfax overlooked his own son when it came to selecting a CEO.”

“I’m guessing Quinn didn’t prove to be management material.”

“Think Jillian will leave him?”

“Beats me.” Mason positioned a glass. “But I’ve got a hunch that if she does, she’ll wait until after the merger is settled one way or the other. Too much money involved. Deke says the company is structured so that spouses, like Jillian, own a noncontrolling block of shares, but if there’s a divorce, the spouse loses those shares. According to Deke, that’s what happened to Warner Colfax’s first wife, Quinn’s mother. Warner dumped her for a woman who is less than half his age. The former Mrs. Colfax probably got a nice settlement, but she had to forfeit her shares in the corporation.” Mason paused for emphasis. “The idea is that all shares remain within the Colfax family.”

Lucy looked through the kitchen window, watching the evening light fade from the old orchard. “But now the rules have been broken because I inherited Mary Colfax’s shares.”

“Yes.”

Mason went quiet. She turned around and found him watching her with an intent expression.

“What?” she asked.

“I meant what I said earlier today, Lucy. You don’t want to get into the middle of the Colfax family feud.”

“Thank you for your advice,” she said very formally.

“But you’re not going to take it. You want to explain why not?”

“Not yet. I’m still thinking about it.”

“Then let’s try another subject. What are you going to do about Nolan Kelly? He’s after the listing on this place, and he’s not going to stop coming at you.”

“I know.”

“He was planning to drive out here to see you this afternoon.”

She went back to the frying pan. “Was he?”

“I told him you were busy shopping. Then he said he would drop by tonight. I told him you had other plans.”

She stilled in the act of picking up the bottle of olive oil. “You did?”

“Yeah. Figured I’d head him off at the pass for you.”

She turned deliberately toward him, one hand braced on the old tile counter. “Excuse me?”

“You know he’s just going to pressure you into listing the house with him.”

“So you took the liberty of informing him that I was busy all afternoon and evening?”

“Sure. Why not? You said yourself you didn’t want to talk to him about the property yet.”

“You took it upon yourself to inform him that I was unavailable.”

Mason’s brows scrunched together in a wary expression. “You look mad.”