Luke gave a little snort. “I can tell you all I know about Tess in one word: nothing.”
“But Sara said you visited her yesterday.”
“I ‘visited’ you too, but that doesn’t mean I know you. I keep beer in her fridge and I stop in when I want to talk to her about something.”
“About gardens?”
“She knows less about gardens than you do. Usually, I talk to her about Ramsey.”
“Right,” Joce said. “Ramsey.”
He gave her a sharp look. “You need to know that whatever you do with my cousin in the future, you’ll have to share him with Tess.”
“At the o
ffice,” Joce said.
“No, everywhere. Rams…” Luke lifted his hand in dismissal. “I’m not going to talk about Ramsey and Tess. Ask them. Did you come out here to get the local gossip from me?”
“I wanted to see what you were doing in my garden.”
Luke held his arms out. “What you see is right here.”
“So why an herb garden?”
“Why not?”
Jocelyn groaned. “Did your lack of conversational skills come about because you were a loner as a child, or did your inability to answer a question make people stay away from you?”
“Some of both, I guess. What did Sara say about me?”
“What makes you think I asked her about you?”
He lifted an eyebrow at her.
“So maybe I did. She said you were much, much older than she is, that you played high school sports, and that she knows nothing much about you.”
“I genuinely love that girl,” Luke said.
“So she lied?”
“Evaded. So what plants do you want to put in this thing?”
“Herbs,” Jocelyn said quickly.
“I asked for that one. What kind of herbs?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “For pizza and spaghetti, I guess.”
“They’re the same ones. What else?”
“For…” Her head came up. “I know. I want lavender.”
“What kind of lavender?”
“Would it make sense to say that I want the kind of lavender you can eat?”
“Perfect sense,” Luke said, looking as though he was pleased with her. “Intermedia is usually considered the best for eating. It’s better known as Provence lavender.”