“I like you better than Ramsey too,” he said softly.
“Let’s ask him to be our ring bearer.”
Luke laughed. “That’s a deal. But only if he wears a powder blue velvet jacket.”
Jocelyn’s heart was pounding in her throat so hard that she could hardly breathe. She wasn’t sure, but she may have just been proposed to. Or proposed to him. Whatever it was, she didn’t think she’d ever felt happier.
When they arrived at Dr. Dave’s house, every light seemed to be on, but the brightest thing was his face. He looked as though he’d found the Secret to Life.
“I really wish you two would tell me what’s going on.”
“I thought we’d have some tea first,” Dr. Dave said.
“You have got to be kidding,” Luke and Joce said in unison, then broke into laughter.
“I’d be embarrassed to know where you two have been all afternoon.”
“In a hair salon,” Joce said.
“Taking a nap,” Luke said.
Dr. Dave looked from one to the other. “Well, something has happened.” He put up his hand. “Don’t tell me. My old brain can’t take any more information.”
He turned to Jocelyn. “My grandson and I know most of what we’re about to tell you, but some of it we can’t do until you know what we do. If you don’t want to wait until after tea, then I suggest that we have tea while my grandson reads us the last part of Miss Edi’s story. Are you ready, Jocelyn?”
“Is the tea hot?”
“Steaming.”
“Then I’m ready.”
24
ENGLAND
1944
I AM FEELING A bit peckish,” Hamish said at breakfast, and both Edi and David had to hide smiles. “Peck
ish” was English slang for hungry, and if there was anything the man could do, it was eat. At first he’d made some comments on David being a traitor because it was Italian food and Italy was on the German side.
“If you don’t want to eat it…,” David said as he started to take the plate away, but Hamish reached for it.
“I guess it won’t hurt the world to eat one plate of spaghetti.”
“That’s—” David began, but stopped. Why bother to tell the man the difference between pizza and spaghetti and pasta in general? He was glad when the old man disappeared into his room right after breakfast.
That morning Edi had found a broken-down old greenhouse at the back of the barn. It had been nearly covered with dead vines, and when she’d hacked through them, she’d found the glass house, and inside were tomatoes that had reseeded themselves. The vines had kept the soil warm through the winter, and their lack of leaves in the spring had let the sunlight in.
“I could kiss you for these,” David said, picking up one of the precious globes from the little basket Edi held out to him. “In fact, I could kiss you for anything at all.”
She backed away so the table was between them, but she was smiling. “Don’t you know that I’m the Untouchable One?”
“I heard that,” David said in a husky voice as he moved toward her, but this time Edi didn’t move away.
But David’s stiff leg caught on the corner of a chair and he went into a spin that almost made him fall. He caught himself on the edge of the table, then sat down heavily. “I hope Austin rots in hell,” he muttered as he rubbed at his sore leg. “How can a man do any courting with this thing on?”
When Edi said nothing, he turned to look at her, and she had a strange look in her eye.