While Ramsey was having his picnic with the new owner, Luke had returned and visited Tess. “He’s never any good when he’s nervous,” Luke said as he put his long legs on her coffee table and drank beer from the bottle. Luke had never given her oh-so-practical gifts as Ramsey did. In fact, Luke had never given her anything. Tess had a feeling that when and if Luke Connor gave a woman so much as a daisy it would mean a lot.
After Luke left, she wondered if he’d been warning her that Ramsey’s date probably wouldn’t go well—and if it didn’t, they both knew he’d show up at Tess’s apartment afterward. Disappointment coupled with the proximity of Tess would be more than Ramsey could withstand.
So Tess had, in her own way, prepared for Ramsey’s arrival. She put on the white peignoir set that had cost her a week’s salary and some makeup.
She still didn’t know what had made her do that. Was it because before Jocelyn’s arrival, she was all anyone in town
could talk about? Tess had pretended she didn’t know how Ramsay arranged the dinner, but the truth was that three women had told her in detail what Ramsey was doing. “His mother borrowed my quilt,” she heard. “Viv borrowed my best candlesticks. You know, the ones my mother left me.”
By the time Saturday came, she knew in detail what Ramsey was planning for that night. All for some woman he’d never met.
That afternoon Tess had been in the back garden, looking at it with regret because it was no longer going to belong to just her and Sara and Luke. The three of them were a good group, meaning that no one stepped on another’s toes. They knew how to give each other privacy. But now that was all over because the new owner was going to take over the garden as well as the house, and everything would change.
When Tess turned back to the house, she saw “her” for the first time. She was walking across the grass to Sara’s apartment and she had Sara’s sewing basket in her hand. That Sara trusted the woman with her precious sewing basket was another strike against her. Sara certainly never trusted Tess with the thing! But then, to be fair, it was quite possible, even likely, that there would be an emergency at MAW—something catastrophic, such as Ken not being able to find his notes for court or the copier jamming—and Tess would have to go running. Sara’s sewing basket might get left in the rain.
Minutes later, Luke left the workshop and was obviously in such a bad mood that he didn’t even see Tess standing just a few feet away. She watched him get in his truck, then instead of going out the back as he usually did, he turned left and went to the front of the house.
Tess stood still and watched as Jocelyn walked across the lawn. She had on a white dress that a nun could have worn with impunity, and there wasn’t a crease in it. Does she ever sit down? Tess wondered.
Tess couldn’t help herself as she scurried around the house toward the front to see what was going on. Luke and Ramsey were in the driveway, and as usual, they were having a confrontation. When Tess first arrived in Edilean, she’d disliked the way the two of them seemed to spend their lives trying to outdo the other, but she was used to it now. She couldn’t hear them, but she didn’t need to. She knew that one was telling the other what to do and the other one was saying no.
When Luke went to Sara’s apartment and knocked on the door, Tess was surprised. He must know that Sara wasn’t there.
Tess stood under the trees and watched as Luke talked to the new owner, then practically pushed his way into the apartment. If he’d tried that with Tess, she would have pushed him back out. Interesting, she thought.
Minutes later, Ramsey rang the little bell that hung on the side of the house. Its function had long ago been replaced by a doorbell, but the family seemed to like anything that was old-fashioned, so they used the bell whenever possible.
When there was no response, Ramsey went into the big house, and Tess stepped farther back into the trees. She heard the back door to the house and figured Ramsey had gone to Sara’s apartment to get Jocelyn. Tess didn’t have to wait long. When Luke came storming out of the apartment, he looked to be genuinely furious. Everyone knew Luke had a short fuse, but she’d never seen him angry with Ramsey. True, they played at their little games and loved to pretend to be mad, but they weren’t. But Luke was truly angry as he got in his truck and sped away.
Ramsey left Sara’s apartment with his arm around Jocelyn’s shoulders, and her pristine white dress was stained with what looked to be mustard. Tess wondered if Luke had done that. Good for him! she thought.
When Ramsey and Jocelyn were inside the house, Tess went to her own apartment. About thirty minutes later, Luke showed up at her door for the second time that day. His handsome face was still angry. “He still in there?” he asked, as usual, not bothering to say who “he” was.
“Far as I know,” Tess said as she motioned to the couch and he sat down while she got him a beer. “If you like her so much, why didn’t you ask her out?”
“I’ve been told that she belongs to Ramsey.”
“Why would anyone say that?” When Luke just sat there in sullen silence, she put up her hand. “So don’t tell me. I don’t want to know anyway. It’s my guess that that old woman everyone talks about—Edi—is behind—”
“Miss Edi,” Luke said. “Show some respect for your elders.”
After that, she hadn’t talked much, but Luke had.
At first he talked about the garden, saying he wanted to put in an herb bed because that was in keeping with the house. “But I don’t know if she’ll like it or not.”
As Luke talked, telling her everything about Jocelyn, from the way she dressed to her hair color, Tess had to grit her teeth. Was this yet another one of those competitions with his cousin, or was it more?
Tess put a bowl of blue corn chips in front of him.
Luke left after about a half hour, and Tess’s instinct told her that Ramsey would stop by her apartment after he left Jocelyn—whatever time that was.
Now, Tess creamed the makeup off her face and checked her skin in the 4X mirror. Satisfied that she saw nothing worse than yesterday, she moisturized, then went to bed. What an idiot Ramsey was! How could she have men over at night without the town knowing? Or at least men other than the two who had been in her apartment. But then, they were part of “the family,” as it was known in town. Sometimes Tess felt like she worked for the Mafia.
Good! Tess thought. Let them concentrate on someone other than her. Let them put their attention on this Jocelyn and not see what Tess was doing.
As she fell asleep, she wondered if this Jocelyn woman knew that her date had gone to Tess’s apartment afterward. Did she know that Luke had been there that afternoon?
She punched at the pillow in anger. Jocelyn inherited the house while Tess got…What? She still hadn’t figured that out yet.