Jocelyn paused as she tried to control her emotions. “But the kids didn’t care about any of that. All they thought about was that her legs ‘looked funny.’ She used to wear thick black hose even in the summer, but you could still see the scars. And as she got older, she walked with two canes.”
Luke paused in his digging to look hard at her.
“What’s that look for?”
“You went to that little college and took a job as a teaching assistant to be near her, didn’t you?”
“No, I liked the school and I liked my job. I did it—” She broke off when he kept looking at her. “Yes, I did, but I didn’t tell her that.”
“And I guess she didn’t know. Too dumb to figure it out, huh?”
Jocelyn gave a little laugh. “She probably knew, but we didn’t talk about it. I guess when you’re Miss Edi’s age you know that there’s time after…After the people you love are gone, you have time to do things, like go to school and even to get a proper job.” She looked at the house in the distance and thought about Miss Edi’s ancestors living there. She could almost see Miss Edi as a child, running out the back door.
“So you got what you wanted from her, didn’t you? She left you this house and lots of money.”
“I did not stay with her because I wanted anything from her!” Jocelyn said as she came to her feet. “I stayed because I loved her. Maybe you don’t understand that but I—” She glared at him. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”
“Got you away from the tears.”
It took Jocelyn a few moments to calm herself, but then she saw what he’d done. “Sneaky.”
“My middle name.”
She sat back down and for a while watched him work. He seemed to have removed all the grass off a big rectangle of an area, piled it into a heap, and was now digging into the bare dirt. “Whatever are you doing?”
“This is called ‘double digging’ but, overall, I’m putting in an herb garden. I asked you about it, but you didn’t say anything, so I went ahead with it. If you don’t speak up, you don’t get a say in its design.”
“You didn’t say a word to me about an herb garden. Last night you talked to me about Ramsey and…And, let’s see, about Ramsey, but I never heard the word herb from you. For all I know, you don’t even know the word.”
“Are you telling me that you spent the whole day with Sara and Tess and not once did they give you my message?”
“Message?” Joce asked. “They said you’d told them you wanted to put in an herb garden. I didn’t get the idea it was a message sent to me.”
“Who else would I be asking? You own the place.”
“Do I?” Joce asked. “You dig up my backyard and I don’t even get a say in what you’re digging, so who owns this place?”
“All right,” Luke said as he jammed the shovel in the earth, then leaned on it. “Do you like the idea of a reproduction eighteenth-century herb garden like I planned or not? Maybe you’d like something Victorian? Or maybe you’d like something with a chrome and glass fountain in the middle. That would go well with the house. Just let me know and I’ll be sure to put it in. I’m just the gardener and I do what the mistress of the house tells me to.”
Jocelyn opened her mouth to make a scathing reply but couldn’t think of one. “Tell your mom thanks for all she did in my bedroom.”
“I will,” Luke said and again had to turn away to hide his smile.
“And thank you for putting the bed in.”
“You’re welcome,” he said.
For a moment they were silent, with Jocelyn watching him. His muscles played under his T-shirt, and his jeans clung to his strong thighs. He had the body of a man used to working outdoors, and it showed.
She made herself take her eyes off of him. “You know what Sara and Tess and I did this afternoon?”
“From the sound of the laughter of you girls, I think you smoked some weed and ate chocolate.”
“Think Sara’s mom sells grass at her grocery store?”
“If she does, you can bet it’s organic.”
Joce smiled. “After we’d eaten until we could hardly walk, we packed all that food up and took it to a couple of churches in…I don’t know where we were, but Tess drove us there at about sixty miles an hour and we loaded tables with food. It was quite nice. Tell me about Tess.”