“So put in a new one for me,” she said, brushing her long hair out of her eyes.
“And what? Write it off on expenses? Maybe if you were my mistress…” He looked at her over his drink. He’d never before seen her in her nightclothes and she was better looking than usual—if that was possible. Her almond eyes were heavily darkened and her lips reddened.
“You keep looking at me like that and I’ll throw you out. In fact, why don’t you go home right now?”
Ramsey sat back down in the chair and looked away from her. “I know her.”
“What?”
“I know her. Jocelyn. I never told anybody this, but Granddad used to let me read the letters he and Miss Edi exchanged.”
“Wasn’t there one of those Southern feuds or secrets or some such rubbish involved with your mother and the rest of them?”
“My mother came from Oregon,” Ramsey said. “And, no, there was no feud concerning my parents’ generation. Whatever happened involved my grandparents. As always with you, you have things in this town mixed up.”
“I’m charging you an extra hour for that remark. So what’s the problem? And remember, the clock is ticking. You read some old letters, then what?”
“Miss Edi was a consummate letter writer. I think she corresponded with people all over the world, and my grandfather was one of them. He visited her several times, and I think my grandmother was a bit jealous. She said he used any excuse he could come up with to fly down to Florida and spend a few days with Miss Edi.”
“And?” Tess said quickly. “Could you please hurry up with this story? I told you, I have a date.”
“It’s ten o’clock at night, everything is closed, and, besides, you’re in your nightgown. For what reason could you be meeting—” He paused, his eyes wide. “Oh.”
“You know, I think you should sit down with your sister and let her tell you how babies are made. Or at least how people practice to make them.”
“I’m trying to tell you something that’s important to me, something I’ve never told anyone else, and you’re making fun of me.”
“Did I ask you to come over here at night and tell me all about your bad date with little Miss Prim and Proper?”
“Did you meet her?”
“No, but I saw her, and Luke told me about her.”
“Is he who you’re waiting for?”
“I’m waiting for the local high school football team.”
“You know, Tess, you could use a little of Jocelyn’s ladylike manners.”
“If I had them, I wouldn’t have let you in here tonight to bellyache about your new girlfriend.”
“That’s the problem! She isn’t my girlfriend, and if I don’t do something better than what I did tonight, she never will be.”
Tess refilled her glass, then sat back down across from him. “I take it that I can’t get rid of you until you cry enough in your beer to get it all out.”
“Beer? That’s a good idea. You have any?”
“Luke keeps a six-pack in my refrigerator.”
Ramsey raised his hands as though in frustration, then got up and went to the kitchen. When he didn’t come back to the living room, she went to him.
“What are you doing in my refrigerator? There’s nothing in there for you to eat.”
“You have eggs.”
“Only because Sara gave them to me. They have blue shells,” she added in wonder.
“Ameraucanas.”