Read Online The Golden Chance by Jayne Ann Krentz - Free Book Online Page B

time.”
    Reed wandered over to the window and gazed out toward the sea. Through the trees he could see the Pacific. It was steel blue today under a sun still high in the early evening sky. “You know something I don't know, Tec?”
    Tec cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back in a parade-rest stance. “I heard about Nick, sir. That's all. Saw Harry in town today. He told me about it, sir.”
    Reed went still. “What the devil are you talking about, Tec?” he asked very softly.
    Sherman coughed slightly. “Sorry, sir. Assumed you knew. Harry said he talked to Nick on the phone the other day. Nick told him he was comin' home on the Fourth. Bringin' a friend with him. A lady friend, sir. Needed a place for her to stay. Harry's lettin' 'er have the Gilmarten place down the road.”
    Reed's martini sloshed perilously close to the rim of the glass. “Nick's coming home?” He turned his head to pin Tec Sherman with a piercing gaze. “He told Harry he was coming here to Port Clax?”
    “Yes, sir. Like I said, thought you knew.”
    “No, I did not know.” He wondered if Hilary did. It would be just like her to keep the information a secret until the last minute. Hilary liked games of one-upsmanship, and she was very good at them. “Nick hasn't seen fit to notify his family yet.”
    Sherman turned a dull red. “I'm sure he will real soon, sir. Probably wanted to line up the Gilmarten place for his, uh, lady friend first before he made his plans.”
    “This lady friend. Is she by any chance named Fox?” Hilary, Darren and Eleanor had been nagging him about Philadelphia Fox for weeks. So far he'd been ignoring them.
    “I believe so, sir.”
    “Philadelphia Fox?”
    “I believe that's what Harry said, sir.”
    “Goddamn it, what is Nick up to now?” Reed asked under his breath.
    “Sir?”
    “Never mind, Tec. I was just wondering what the devil is going on.”
    “Beggin' your pardon, sir, but sounds to me like Nick got word the families had gotten themselves in a bind and he decided to do somethin' about it. It's just what you'd expect of him, sir.”
    “You have a lot of faith in my son, Tec.”
    “Known him a long time, sir, under some interestin' conditions. He's a Lightfoot. When the chips are down no Lightfoot is gonna stand by and let the families get into trouble.”
    Nick was coming home . Something that had been frozen for a long time began to thaw inside Reed. The sensation was almost painful. He looked out toward the distant horizon, and for the first time in nearly three years he permitted himself to think seriously about the future.
    Until three years ago a sense of the future had been the guiding force in Reed Lightfoot's life. The need to create something substantial that could be handed down through the generations had kept him going during the lean years when Castleton & Lightfoot had struggled to survive and gain a foothold in the competitive world of high-tech electronics. It had sustained him even in the dark time seven years ago, after his first wife's death.
    But Reed's passion for the future had begun to wither and die in him the day Nick had walked out. It had vanished altogether when Hilary had lost the baby.
    But now, with a few simple words, he could feel the embers rekindling within him.
    Nick was coming home.
    He warned himself not to put too much stock in the event. Nothing had really changed. The past could not be altered. Everything that had occurred three years ago still stood locked in time. They all had to live with it.
    But no matter how hard he tried to maintain a realistic view of his son's return, Reed could not prevent an overwhelming sense of relief from surging through his veins. Nick was coming home .
    It looked as though he owed that fact to that brassy blond troublemaker who'd landed like a bomb in the Castletons' laps last year. Reed wondered if the Fox woman was going to prove equally explosive.
    No need to worry, he told himself with gathering