“How could I forget, since I sign his checks?”
“Do you?” Joce asked with interest. “I hate to pay bills. Could we continue this way?”
“Jocelyn, I’ll continue with you any way you want. After church today all anyone could talk about was how pretty you looked in that pink dress. They liked the hat too.”
Luke was staring at her as though he wanted to hear every word that was said. She turned her back to him.
“Can you come into the office tomorrow?” Ramsey asked. “We can talk about the terms of the house.”
“You mean you’re planning to talk to me about business?”
“I most certainly am,” he said, and she could hear his smile. “You wouldn’t like to have lunch afterward, would you?”
“Are you asking me out?”
“Unless you want to go to my house and eat pasta again. By the way, I need to get Viv’s chocolate pot.”
“Did she have the baby?”
Ramsey hardly paused before he laughed. “No, she didn’t have the baby and she isn’t trying to make a new one. She wants it for some party for one of the kids she already has. Wanta go with me?”
“Sure. When is it?”
“Tuesday afternoon. One-ish. Can I pick you up? Or do you think that arriving at a party with me will make it look too much like we’re a couple?”
“Maybe we should take Luke so it’s not too obvious about us.”
“He hates kids and kids’ parties. Better not take him. So how about coming to the office at eleven, then we’ll go to lunch? Sound good?”
“Sounds delicious. I’ll see you then.”
She closed the phone and handed it back to Luke.
“Another date?”
“Business, then lunch, and on Tuesday, a party at his sister’s house.”
“What party?” Luke asked quickly.
“Ramsey said it was for one of his sister’s children. A birthday party?”
“None of the kids has a birthday now. It’s…” He trailed off, frowning for a moment, then he looked at her. “I think I better make an appointment if I want you to go to the nursery with me to pick out the herbs. How about tomorrow afternoon? If you can tear yourself away from Rams after lunch, that is.”
“Why do you want me to go with you to buy herbs? I don’t know one from the other.”
“Okay, then, I’ll plant some hemlock and henbane.”
She thought Ramsey was kidding when he said Luke “hated” kids, but his remark made her unsure. “Nothing poisonous.”
“Let’s see, you told me you don’t have any preference on the herbs, but so far you’ve told me you want lavender and nothing poisonous. What about mint?”
“I like mint,” she said cautiously. He was up to something, but she didn’t know what.
“Okay, you want the entire garden done in mint and nothing else.”
“Not the whole thing, just some mint.”
“For your information, mint is one of the most invasive plants known, so if you put mint in the herb garden, that’s all you’ll have. So do you want mint or not? Wait! Let me get a pad and paper, because this list of things that you do and do not want is getting too long for me to remember.”