Lavender Morning (Edilean 1)

“Where are they?”

“In a safe-deposit box that my wife doesn’t know I have.”

“When can we get them?”

David looked at his grandson. “Meet me here tomorrow at ten A.M. and we’ll drive to Richmond.”

“You have to keep the safe-deposit box all the way in Richmond?”

“Be grateful I didn’t open it in Nevada. Meet me here, and we’ll drive there together.”

“I look forward to it,” Luke said.

“We won’t go fishing, but maybe we can ride in a vehicle together,” David said, and Luke knew he was making an allusion to Granpa Joe. It had never occurred to Luke that Granpa Dave could be jealous.

“So maybe you can give me some advice on how to get a feisty girl to think of me as something besides her best buddy,” Luke said.

Just then two pretty girls walked by and when they saw Luke they started to giggle and batt their lashes at him.

“Now why do I think you’ll have no problem with that on your own? Come on, I’ll walk you to your truck.”

“I brought the car.”

“If I’d known you wanted information from me that much I would have made you pay the check. So, tell me, what’s your father up to these days?”

Luke gave a low laugh. “He’s solving a cupcake crisis.”

When Luke started to say more, David put up his hand. “Save it for tomorrow and tell me on the drive. I may not sleep tonight from eager anticipation.”

“And you can tell me about your broken engagement from Miss Edi.”

They were in the parking lot now, and suddenly Luke looked at his grandfather with love. He knew from experience how quickly people could leave this life.

“Don’t look at me like that. Go!” David ordered. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Luke said as he got into his car, but he put his hand on his grandfather’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

11

IF I NEVER see another cupcake in my life, it will be too soon,” Sara muttered as she turned the little cake around in her hand and tried to make an icing rose on top of it.

“I would have thought you’d like this job,” Tess said. She was making a big daisy on her cupcake.

“You just like it because it’s better than working with lawyers,” Sara said. “I don’t like the mess. I don’t like the smell, and I don’t even like the sugar.”

“You don’t have to stay,” Jocelyn said. She was at the huge, beautiful range that Jim, Luke’s father, had put in for her four days ago. Already, it had been put through enough that it was a veteran.

“Go!” Jim said to Sara as he came in from the hallway, his arms full of grocery bags. “Go sew your fancy clothes for ladies who eat too much.”

Sara handed her cupcake to Tess and practically ran out of the room.

Jim surveyed the many cupcakes on the table and countertops as though he were a government inspector.

“Do we pass?” Joce asked.

“They look good to me, but I think Luke should yea or nay them. He knows more about flowers than I do.”

Tess put down her big pastry tube and shook her arms. Few people knew how much muscle it took to squeeze the thick, heavy icing out of the big bags through tiny tubes to make the designs. “I’m going to write a murder mystery and the killer is a woman who is a professional cake decorator. No one suspects her because the murder took great strength to commit. Who would think that a lady who decorates cakes has the strength of ten men in her forearms?”