I give that music five more seconds, max. One, two, three—”
Silence descended abruptly.
“Make that three seconds,” Jason said.
“Your brother does have a way about him,” Irene observed.
“A few years in the Marines will do that for you.”
“I know.” She opened the refrigerator and took out the washed and crisped romaine.
“My father was a Marine.”
Jason whistled. “So that’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“Why you seem to understand Luke better than most women I know.”
She glanced up, startled. “What makes you think I understand him?”
“Something about the way you two communicate, I guess. He gives orders. You ignore him. Seems to work well for both of you.” Jason shrugged off the issue.
“Need any help with dinner?”
“I think everything’s under control, thanks. How long are you staying?”
“I’m going back to Santa Elena tomorrow morning. Got a meeting with a supplier. I just came up here to see how Luke was doing and to make sure he’s still planning to come to the Old Man’s birthday party.”
She opened the oven door. “Who’s the Old Man?”
“That’s what we all call Dad.” He examined the pan she was removing from the oven with acute interest. “Hey, is that corn bread?”
“Yes. Like it?”
“Oh, yeah. But I’m strictly a bush league fan compared to Luke. He loves corn bread. Actually, he loves anything home cooked. I think he ate one too many MREs in the field.”
“That would be those instant meals that the military uses?”
“Right.” Jason sniffed appreciatively. “What with one thing and another, Luke hasn’t had a lot of home-cooked meals since he left to go off to college, and that was a long time ago. He was married fo while once but his ex didn’t like to cook. Mostly she specialized in takeout.”
“Luke has an ex?” she heard herself say in her best oh-so-casual sort of way. Just a reporter, doing her job. Getting background.
“Don’t worry, she’s way out of the picture. Been five or six years since they split up.
One of those whirlwind things. Lasted about five minutes.”
“I see.”
“Well, actually, it lasted a little longer than that. They had a couple of months together before Luke was deployed abroad. By the time he got back, it had finally dawned on his bride that there was more t uke than a good-looking uniform. She concluded that she did not want to be a Marine officer’s wife.”
“Luke never remarried?”
She knew instantly that she had stepped into forbidden territory. Jason’s cheerful, open, easygoing expression was suddenly veiled behind a protective barrier.
“He was engaged for a while six months ago, but—” Jason stopped very suddenly, as if he had said more than he’d intended. “There was a problem. Things didn’t work out.”
Irene felt the familiar tingle of curiosity stirring deep inside. Some mystery here, she decided. What wa t Luke had said about family secrets? One thing’s for sure, every family’s got em.
She sprinkled a little coarse salt on the three salmon fillets she had brought home from the Dunsley Market. She had selected the fish from the frozen foods section after recalling her mother’s advice o he subject of purchasing fish from the Dunsley Market. Never buy fresh. No telling [_how old it is. _]
“Where’s the big birthday bash to be held?” she asked, trying to reinvigorate the faltering conversation.
“Santa Elena.” Jason seemed relieved that she had changed topics. “That’s where the family business is.”
“What, exactly, is the business?”
Jason raised his brows. “Luke hasn’t told you much about himself, has he?”
“Not a lot, no.” She took the bottle of inexpensive white that she had purchased earlier out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. “We’ve been busy. Haven’t had a lot of time for casual conversation.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true, all right.” Jason studied the bottle of wine she was opening. “But I think it’s more likely he doesn’t want to talk about the family business these days because the Old Man and his partner are putting a lot of pressure on him to come into it. Ever heard of Elena Creek Vineyards?”
“Well, sure. Anyone who lives in and around wine country has heard of Elena Creek Vineyards. Very classy upscale wines. They win lots of awards.”
“We certainly like to think so,” Jason said.
She took another look at the label on the bottle of white. “I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”
“Don’t worry about the white. Luke and I sure won’t.”
“Your family owns Elena Creek Vineyards?”
“My dad and his partner, Gordon Foote, founded it about forty years ago. The Old Man was the business brains of the outfit. Gordon was the winemaker. They had a dream and they made it come true. Now they want to pass that dream down to the next generation.”
“How does the next generation feel about that?”
Jason smiled wryly. “My brother Hackett and I are on board. So is Katy, Gordon’s daughter. In fact, I don’t think you could keep the three of us out of the wine business. It’s in our blood.”
“But not in Luke’s?”
“That’s what he claims, but the general consensus in the family is that Luke doesn’t know what he wants. See, Luke has never really settled into anything for long. Take college, for instance.”
“He dropped out?”
“He was doing great. Got his B.A. and got accepted into grad school. We all thought he was on track to enter the academic world.”
“What did he study?”
“You’ll never believe it.” Jason chuckled. “Classical philosophy.”
She was momentarily dumbstruck. Then she started to laugh. “You’re kidding. It does sort of boggle the mind.”
“Don’t let that laid-back former-Marine routine fool you. Luke can shoot the academic bull with the best of them. As I was saying, it seemed like he was headed for the ivory-tower world, but the next thing we know, he tells us he’s enlisted. It was a real shocker. He was sent off to some sort of new strategy and warfare training program. He actually managed to finish up his Ph.D. in the Corps. But he got deployed. A lot.”