Lavender Morning (11 page)

you can go to church in the morning.”

“Thanks,” he said, then seemed not to know what else to say. “So I’ll see you in church then?”

“If you can pull yourself out of bed,” she said.

He started toward the front door, and she followed him. He opened it, then paused, and for a moment she

thought he was going to kiss her, but then he stepped onto the little porch.

“Thank you for everything,” she said. “I really enjoyed it.”

“Yeah,” he said as he went down the steps. “Me too.”

Jocelyn closed the door and leaned against it. What in the world was wrong with her? She’d had a very

romantic date with
the
man, the one Miss Edi said was to be the love of her life. But somehow, she’d ruined it.

She didn’t know how, but she had. Of course her lame jokes about marriage didn’t help. It’s a wonder he didn’t

run out the door. What was it he’d said on the phone? That the last time a woman talked to him about marriage

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they’d had to call an ambulance.

She looked at her watch. It was only nine-thirty. So much for her “date.” In spite of the early hour, she

yawned. Maybe the problem was that she was exhausted. Meeting new people, seeing the house, having a date

all in one day was too much for anyone.

She left the dirty dishes on the table, flipped the switch to turn out the awful kitchen lights, then started

toward the stairs to go to bed. It was when she passed the back door and heard it click that her heart leaped into

her throat. Someone was at the door! And he was trying to break in!

Jocelyn’s mind raced as she tried to remember where her cell phone was. Upstairs. Or was it downstairs?

She couldn’t remember. Had a landline been hooked up? In the busyness of the day, she’d never even looked

for a telephone.

Someone pulled on the door, and she plastered herself against the wall, her heart beating hard. Bending,

she moved under the window by the door so the intruder couldn’t see her as she crawled past. If she could get

to the front door before he did, she could get out.

As she got past the door, she saw a shadow, then the moonlight showed her a figure. He was big. He had

dark hair. He…

She stood up straight. It was Ramsey. He must have forgotten something. She grabbed the doorknob and

pulled it inward—and came face-to-face with Luke.

“What are you doing?”

He looked more surprised to see her than she did him. “Checking the doors,” he said. “I thought you might

forget to lock them, so I—”

“Sara leaves her door unlocked. I thought this was one of those towns where no one locks their doors.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” he said, then took a step back. “Look, I’m sorry. There weren’t any lights on, so I

thought you’d gone to bed.”

“Were you watching the house?”

“That’s what I do,” he said. “That’s my job, remember? Weren’t you told about me? Or are you still mad

about the mustard?”

She dropped her hostility. “No, I know that was an accident. Would you like to come in and have some

tea?”

“With you and Ramsey?”

“Like you don’t know that he left ten minutes ago,” she said.

He gave her a crooked smile, then stepped inside. The quilt and the candlesticks were still on the floor,

along with the chocolate pot and some strawberries. “So did you kick him out?”

“No, I did not kick him out. He had to go home to work.”

Bending over, he ran his finger inside the still warm pot, then put his chocolate-covered finger in his mouth.

“That makes sense. I guess that’s why he went to Tess after he left you.”

Joce stopped walking and turned to look at him. He had the pot in his hands and was running a strawberry

through it. “He did what?”

“Went to see his assistant, Tess. She lives next door. She runs his life.”

“I’ve already been told that. But he’s there now?”

“Sure,” Luke said, raising his eyes to hers. “Who told you about Tess? Not Rams, that’s for sure.”

“What does that mean?” She started for the kitchen again. “Come on,” she said over her shoulder, “and

bring that if you want.”

“Thanks,” he said as he followed her, the cord to the pot dragging across the floor. “I thought that maybe

tomorrow you and I could talk about what you want to do with the garden.”

“I don’t know anything about gardening.” She was opening cabinet doors, looking for a teapot or tea bags,

something.

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“This tea is too much trouble for you. Really, I didn’t mean to bother you. I’ll get something to eat on the

way home. They have a few fast-food places over in Williamsburg. Off the highway. It’s not too far away.

Couple of hours, that’s all.”

She couldn’t help laughing. “All right, sit down,” she said, and he did. She took the container of leftover

pasta out of the old refrigerator and stuck it in an ancient microwave.

“What makes you think that Rams didn’t tell me about his secretary?” She tried to seem as though she

didn’t care, and she used his nickname to sound closer to him.

“I take it you haven’t met Tess,” Luke said as he got up, went to the cabinets, then reached over her head

to get a plate. He took a knife and fork out of a drawer.

Jocelyn hadn’t looked in the cabinets, so she didn’t know where anything was. “No, I haven’t met her, but

I’ve heard about her.”

“From Sara? She tell you about the red dress?”

“What is it with this woman and a low-cut, red dress?” Joce asked as she opened the microwave.

“Sure you want to hear?”

“I’m all grown up. I think I can stand it. What happened with the secretary and a dress?”

Luke took the bowl of pasta from her, dumped it on the plate, and put it on the table. “Want some?”

“No, thank you. I ate earlier. With Ramsey, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. You were together such a short time that I nearly forgot about that date. It
was
a date, wasn’t

it?”

Joce didn’t bother to answer him but poured some wine into a glass and took a sip. “Sorry, but that’s the

last of it,” she said, but her tone let Luke know she wasn’t sorry at all. What was it about this man that put her in

the worst possible mood? Or was her mood caused by the fact that Ramsey had made her think they were on

the way to becoming an item, then he’d gone next door to another woman?

Luke got up, opened the refrigerator, and got out a beer.

“You certainly have made yourself at home in my house.”

“I’m here a lot, so you better get used to me.” He tasted the pasta. “This is pretty good. Did Rams make it?

He always was a good cook. He can even make worm pies. You should get him to tell you about them.”

“Before or after you tell me about the red dress?”

“Oh, that,” Luke said, his mouth full. “Tess doesn’t take well to being given orders. The way she sees it,

she does her job and that’s all that’s required of her. Anything else is her own business.”

“Don’t we all feel that way?” Joce asked. She sat down in a chair across from him.

“Not to the extent Tess does, but Rams always was a bit of what we call down here persnickety.”

“I see,” Jocelyn said with a cool smile. “He can cook and now he’s persnickety. What will you tell me

next? He used to be a female?”

“Not that I know of,” Luke said innocently. “Did he tell you he wanted to be? I hear there are some really

good clinics for that kind of thing nowadays. Not that
I
know anything about them, but I bet ol’ Rams knows a

lot.”

Joce couldn’t keep from laughing. “You’re horrible. Just tell me the story.”

Luke ate a few more bites, then said, “It was simple really. Rams told Tess he didn’t like what she was

wearing.”

“She didn’t take it off, did she?”

“Is that what the secretaries do in law offices in Florida? If so, I’m in the wrong state.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“No, she didn’t remove anything. It was just after she started working at MAW. That’s—”

“I know what it is. Go on.”

“You certainly have picked up on a lot around here. So, anyway, Tess had only been there about six

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“Y

3/16/2010 ou certainly have picked up on a lot around here. So, anywa

Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html y, Tess had only been there about six

weeks, but already she’d straightened out the whole office. She’d fired two secretaries and made the two she

kept actually work. It was a true revelation to my cousin Rams. A woman who did some work to earn what she

was paid.”

“Does he know you talk about him like this?”

“Did he tell you about
me
?”

“I am happy to say that we never spoke a single word about you all night.”

“Hour and a half.” Luke waved his fork around. “I mean, technically speaking, it wasn’t really a whole

night. It was just an hour and a half. Pretty short date, wasn’t it? Now if it had been me taking a woman out—”

“Yeah, I know. You would have made love on the blue corn chips. Get on with the story about Ramsey.”

“To make love on a bed of blue corn chips. Now, there’s something I haven’t tried. Do you know about

this from experience?”

“My experience is none of your business. What did Ramsey do?”

“He didn’t
do
anything. He’s more of a talker than a doer. Now me…Okay, stop looking at me like that.

Anyway, all the men in the office were pleased with Tess in every way. I mean, she’s smart and sassy, and did

whoever told you about her tell you that she’s drop-dead gorgeous?”

“No,” Jocelyn said but didn’t elaborate.

“She is. A real knockout. Sometimes when she walks across the lawn I have to shut off the mower and just

sit there and watch her. But, anyway, Rams wasn’t happy with what he had. As usual with him, he wanted
more.

Always more. He called her into his office for what he said was an ‘evaluation’ and told her that her work was

excellent, but he wasn’t too pleased with what she wore. He didn’t like her jeans and shirt and he hated the

cowboy boots. He told her that he wanted her to start wearing dresses to work. No more trousers.”

Jocelyn leaned back in the chair, her eyes wide. “What in the world did she do?”

“Wore a dress. Any more of that garlic bread left?”

Jocelyn got up and handed him the basket. “Sara said ‘low-cut’ and you said ‘red.’ So what was the dress

like?”

“I wasn’t in town that day so I didn’t get to see it, but…Hang on a minute.” He leaned back in his chair and

pulled his cell phone out of the little case on his hip. “I have to keep this with me at all times because I’m a

volunteer with the fire department.” He pushed a few buttons. “Ah, here it is. This is what my cousin Ken sent

me. He’s the
W
in MAW.”

Jocelyn took the phone and looked at the photo. It was of a woman in a red dress, except that there was

very little to the garment. It was shorter than the Steps’ shortest, and the sides were open to the waist, as was the

front. The woman’s face was turned away so she couldn’t see it, but her long, auburn hair fell in fat curls past her

shoulders. And her body was magnificent.

“I see,” Joce said as she handed the phone back to him.

“Yeah, that’s what everyone said that day. ‘I see.’ The worst thing is that Rams had some of those blue

bloods coming in from Williamsburg that day, and they saw Tess in her dress. But Ken said they took it pretty

well. When their mouths hung open, Tess told them that Ramsey didn’t like her usual attire, so he’d told her to

wear a dress and she did. After that, Rams was the butt of a lot of jokes.”

“And now I guess Tess wears whatever she wants to.”

“Tess does what she wants to do, and no one ever even makes a suggestion that she should do otherwise.”

“And that’s where Ramsey went after he left me.”

“He usually does,” Luke said. He held up the cord to the chocolate pot. “You wouldn’t mind plugging this

in, would you?”

She looked for an outlet, but when she couldn’t find one, he got an extension cord out of a drawer and

plugged it into the overhead light. The dangling cord was ugly, but it worked.

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“Join me?” he asked as he dipped a strawberry into the chocolate, but she shook her head no. She

wondered what Ramsey was doing next door.

“Thinking about ol’ Rams?” Luke asked. When she didn’t answer, he said, “So what’s the deal with you

and my cousin? Are you one of those women who’s set her cap for him and you plan to be Mrs. McDowell by

the end of the year?”

“No, I haven’t ‘set my cap’ for him. What an old-fashioned phrase. Have you finished those strawberries

yet? It’s late, and I’d like to go to bed. I’m going to church tomorrow.”

“Rams picking you up?”

Suddenly, Jocelyn didn’t like what was going on. She didn’t want to walk into church tomorrow and have

people looking at her as though they knew she’d had visits from two men in one night. More important, she

didn’t want to become embroiled in whatever was going on between these two cousins. It was obvious that

Luke’s only interest in her was Ramsey’s attention.

“You know, I think I’ve said more than enough about my personal life. I think that if you continue to work

here, you and I should get some things straight. From now on, I’ll check my own locks, so you don’t have to