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.
“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.”