Just before she went to sleep she thought, cupcakes! Did you ever hear anything so lame in your life? Maybe she and Ramsey deserved each other.
6
TEN MINUTES AFTER she arrived at church, Jocelyn wanted to throw her clothes in her little car and leave town. Everyone was so very nice to her, but she could hear the unspoken questions as loud as though they were shouting them.
The big one seemed to be What are you going to do? They meant do to their precious house. It was as though they feared a wrecking crew would show up on Monday morning.
The little church was packed, with every seat filled. When she heard the pastor make a comment about the Lord using whatever He could to get people into church, Jocelyn tried to will her face not to blush, but she couldn’t control it. She well knew that so many people had shown up today just to see her.
She took a seat in the middle, on the left side of the aisle, and when Sara sat down by her, she nearly hugged her. “Don’t worry, it will only get worse,” Sara said when the sixth couple walked down the aisle and stared at Jocelyn.
“Don’t make me laugh.” Joce tried to see if she recognized anyone. The woman from the grocery waved to Sara.
“Your mother, right?”
“Very good. I told her that if she sat down by you and asked you what you thought of organic produce I’d buy some insecticide and spray something with it.”
“Your cruelty amazes me.” When Jocelyn saw another woman she recognized, she leaned closer to Sara. “I saw her on the porch with the broom.”
“She’s Luke’s mother, and she fixed your bedroom for you.”
“I thought Ramsey did it,” Joce said. “I even thanked him for it.”
“He didn’t take credit, did he?” Sara asked sharply.
“No, he was honest. He said he thought the ladies from church did it. I’ll have to thank her.”
“And Luke. He carried the bed and mattresses upstairs, and he helped arrange everything.”
Jocelyn wasn’t sure how she felt knowing that Luke had been the one to prepare her bed for her. “I can’t tell if Luke likes me or hates me—or if he’s just using me to play some game with Ramsey.”
“Probably all of them,” Sara said as she nodded toward people filing into the church. “I know he’s worried that you’ll not care about the house. Your house means a lot to the town. People kind of think of it as their own, and they’re worried what you’ll do with it.”
“Sell it for bricks, you mean.”
“You do know that you can’t really do that, don’t you? Even if you sell it, you have to offer it first to the National Register of Historic Places.”
Jocelyn wanted to make a sarcastic remark to that, but she didn’t. None of these people knew her, but she reassured herself that Miss Edi had known her well, and that’s why she’d left the house to Jocelyn. She decided to change the subject. “Is Tess here?”
“Tess in church?” Sara gave a little laugh. “The roof would probably fly off the building.”
“I don’t know if I want to meet her or not.”
“She can be…acerbic, I think that might be the word.”
“A pure bitch?” Jocelyn said, then lowered her voice. “I think I may have just talked my way out of heaven.”
“You were talking about hunting dogs, weren’t you?” Sara asked, her eyes wide in innocence, making Joce smile. The music was starting and she picked up her hymnal.
Ramsey slid into the pew beside Jocelyn. “Sorry I was almost late. What page?”
Jocelyn showed him and expected him to get his own hymnal, but he took one side of hers and shared. His voice was nice and from the way he sang, he knew the words well.
“Get your work done?” she whispered when they sat back down.
“Most of it.”
“Tess help you?” she asked, as though it were an unimportant question.