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Chapter One
His son was making a spectacle of himself. Robert "King" Spencer had just hung up on the Trinity Harbor mayor, who was outraged not only by what was going on over at Bobby's this morning, but by just about everything Bobby had done lately. He had a list, and King had been forced to listen to every fool thing on it.
"Fine people ought to be getting ready for church at this hour on a Sunday morning," Harvey Needham had groused in conclusion. "Instead, they're over at your son's gawking like a bunch of tourists at an amusement park. This has to stop, King. The man's out of control. And I'd like to know what you intend to do about it."
"Not a blasted thing," King had told him, and slammed down the phone.
He sighed heavily. It wasn't as if this was the first time one of his children had stirred things up in Trinity Harbor. His daughter, Daisy, had almost given him a coronary when she'd insisted on letting that stray boy and his uncle into her life last year. The gossipmongers had had a field day, almost costing Daisy her teaching job in the process. Now, thank the Lord, she and Walker Ames were respectably married and Tommy was on good behavior, which meant it was time for King to turn his attention to his younger son and namesake.
Unfortunately, Bobby was proving to be as difficult to control as Daisy had been. King had almost laughed when Harvey had asked him to step in. As if Bobby would pay an iota of attention to anything his daddy had to say! He seemed to have the idea that he was too old to take advice from his father. So far, that hadn't stopped King from offering it, but he was beginning to think he was wasting his breath.
What his son--both of his sons, for that matter--needed was a good woman in his life. King had been searching high and low for someone who fit his criteria, someone with a little spunk and a lot of class. So far the search had been in vain, but he hadn't given up. Of course, once he succeeded in finding a likely candidate, there was no guarantee Bobby would cooperate. More likely the opposite.
The sad truth was that Bobby was stubborn as a mule. King had no idea where he got the trait, but it was a blasted nuisance. Any other man would get at least a token amount of respect from his namesake, but not King. When he tried to advise his son, Bobby merely regarded him with tolerant amusement, then went right out and did what he darn well pleased.
The rebellion had started 10 years ago, when Bobby went away to college. King had expected him to take business management or maybe even animal husbandry, something that would serve him well when he took over their Black Angus cattle operation at Cedar Hill, the farm the family had owned for generations.
Instead, the doggone fool had gotten his heart broken by his childhood sweetheart, and in an act of pure spite toward his daddy had signed up for cooking classes. As if that weren't bad enough, he'd topped it by dropping out his sophomore year and heading to France to take some fancy course in preparing gourmet food. When King had put his foot down and refused to pay for the trip, Bobby had gone out and earned the money himself. He'd worked at a fast-food joint over in Richmond for six months, putting every cent toward an airline ticket. King had never been so humiliated in his life...at least not until Bobby had come home with a diamond stud in one ear.
What kind of real man wanted to learn to cook? That was the question that stuck in King's craw. Wasn't that why they paid a housekeeper, so they'd never have to set foot in the kitchen except to raid the refrigerator? And if a man had to cook, what was wrong with a damned fine steak prepared on a grill or taking a wooden mallet to a pile of steamed crabs? That was the only kind of food preparation King wanted any part of.
Now Bobby owned the yacht center in town, spent his nights cooking in the club's restaurant and devoted his daytime hours to trying to drive his daddy into an early grave by upsetting all the town fathers with his big ideas about developing the waterfront. If he had a specific plan in mind, Bobby hadn't shared it with his father, but it must be a doozy if old Harvey was in such an uproar that he was trying to drag King into the middle of the fray.
Harvey didn't like turning to King for anything. The fool liked to believe he was his own man, but when push came to shove, who did he ask for help? That's right, King Spencer, the man whose family had settled Trinity Harbor way back when. Even Harvey was forced to admit that the Spencer name still counted for something in this part of Virginia.
Not that King didn't relish a good fight from time to time. Nothing made him happier. He just hated having to publicly side with outsiders against a member of his own family.
He had two choices. He could head on over to Bobby's and add his two cents to the commotion outside, or he could bide his time and say his piece over Sunday dinner. For once in his life, King opted for discretion.
Besides, he didn't really want a lot of witnesses around when Bobby told him to mind his own damned business.
Excerpted from Ask Anyone by Sherryl Woods. Copyright © 2002 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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