Lavender Morning (Edilean 1)

“And that would be how many women?”

He smiled at her. “I’d like to say dozens, but it’s only been one other woman.”

“So why didn’t he marry her?”

“That’s not my business to tell,” he said.

“That’s just what Ramsey said about you.”

“And what did you ask him about me?”

She opened her mouth to tell him, but closed it. If Luke didn’t know that Ramsey paid his salary, she wasn’t going to tell him. “Nothing.”

“Good,” Luke said as he looked her up and down. “Go take a shower and change those fancy clothes. I think you’re going to be baking cupcakes for a few days.”

She watched him drive away, then closed the door, and for a moment she leaned against it and thought about the last few days. So much had happened that it was a blur to her. In the next minute she was running up the stairs to her bathroom. When she glanced in the mirror, she saw that most of her eye makeup was under her eyes, and she realized she’d looked like that for most of the time she’d been with Luke. Smiling, she got in the shower and thought about what she’d said to his mother. Had it been Ramsey’s mother, she would have been ladylike, but she could joke with Luke’s mother.

She showered, then put on jeans and a T-shirt. By the time she was dressed, a car was pulling into her drive. She looked out the window and saw a man get out. Even from above she could see that he was an older version of Luke: handsome, gray haired, tall, and he looked like a man who was ready to do business. She ran down the stairs so fast she opened the door before he could knock.

“So you’ve come to organize me,” she said, her face serious.

He didn’t crack a smile. “Get out of line and I start shouting.”

“And if I behave?”

“I’ll make Luke put in that herb garden he conned you into for free.”

With that, she gave him an elaborate bow. “Your wish is my command, oh master.”

His eyes widened. “I’ve waited all my life to hear a woman say those words. Will you marry me?”

“I’ll put you on my list,” she said, smiling as she headed toward the kitchen. “Come and see my stove. It’s so old I’m going to sell it on eBay for a million dollars.”

“It’s not too old, as I sold it to Miss Edi’s brother about forty years ago.”

Jocelyn stopped walking. “You sell appliances?”

“I did until about three years ago. I can get some killer discounts on most anything you want.”

“Do you want sex or money?” she asked solemnly.

“Let me check with my wife on that.” He was smiling as he followed her into the kitchen.

10

IT TOOK LUKE two hours to get everything under way with his parents. His mother took over the telephone lines, calling people in two counties to tell them about the party that Saturday. She made it sound as though Jocelyn had just arrived from Brussels and was an internationally renowned pastry chef.

Luke went to his father and said only half a dozen words before the man was out the door, ready to take over the organizing of anything, anytime, anywhere. He really was lost without a job to occupy fifty hours of his week. All Luke had to say was that Jocelyn’s old stove was broken, and Jim Connor had his cell phone out. Luke wondered if Joce would get a Wolf or a Viking range within the next twenty-four hours.

As Luke left the house, he reminded his mother that she should call Rams’s sister, Viv, and tell her about the party, being as it was going to be at her house. Since Viv hadn’t even called Jocelyn yet, it was going to be a surprise to be told that on Saturday she was hosting a party for heaven only knew how many guests.

Luke went to his house, put on a freshly ironed shirt and khaki trousers, then got his BMW out of the garage. He was going to go see his grandfather David, and he knew that he’d get more information out of the man if he was dressed in something other than jeans and a dirty T-shirt.

Granpa Dave loved to tell Luke that he couldn’t understand why, with all his education, he didn’t dress in something clean. “If you have to be a gardener, at least look like a landscaper,” he’d said a hundred times.

Nana Mary Alice would tell her husband to stop it, but it didn’t matter. Granpa Dave was old school, and he believed in always looking one’s best.

Luke always got along perfectly with his other grandfather, his father’s father, a man who other people liked to stay away from. His never-ending bad temper put people off, but not Luke. He’d always been happiest with his grandfather as they fished together, watched sports on TV, or just rode together in a truck. It was Grandpa Joe who got him out of punishments when Luke got into trouble in high school. Luke had always been high-spirited and hated it when he was told what to do and how to do it. His teachers wanted him to obey without so much as a question, but Luke always had his own ideas about how things should be done.