Lavender Morning (Edilean 1)

“Doing what?” Joce asked.

“I haven’t figured that out yet, but if I come up with something, I’ll let you know.”

“What about Luke? Maybe you two could—”

“We’d kill each other in the first week. He likes to work alone.”

“But he can’t make much money at gardening. I’m no Realtor, but that house of his looked as though it cost a dollar or two.”

“He just needs time to lick his wounds,” Jim said as he got out of the truck. “He’ll be fine. He likes you a lot, I know that. I haven’t seen him less miserable in a long time.”

Jocelyn sat in the truck and watched Jim as he went into her house. Miserable? What was Luke unhappy about? He’d never seemed “miserable” to her.

In the next minute the red-haired woman who’d been at her door the day before came out, opened the trunk of her car, and pulled out a huge mixer. Joce jumped out of Luke’s pickup. “Let me help you with that.” She slipped her arm under the top of it, then took the other box the woman handed her.

“I met you at church, but I’m sure you don’t remember me. I’m Mavis—”

“Ken’s mother.”

“That’s right,” she said, pleased. “Where have you and Jim been?”

“Buying things. They should be here tomorrow.”

“Ha! If I know Jim Connor, they’ll be here any minute. There’s a man in there disconnecting the gas lines already. Are you really going to open a cupcake store in Edilean and sell all over the U.S. by mail order?”

Jocelyn took a moment to digest that. “No. I can’t think of anything I’d less like to do than bake cupcakes for the rest of my life. Actually, I’m thinking of writing a history of Edilean. I’ve heard so many delicious secrets that I thought I’d share them with the world.”

Mavis gave Jocelyn a weak smile, then hurriedly started for the house. “If I were you, I wouldn’t tell anyone that or you might find arsenic in your own cupcake,” she said over her shoulder.

Joce followed her into the house. Interesting, she thought. She’d certainly hit a nerve with that remark.

Mavis was right, and the appliances showed up about two hours later. Jim was frowning and asking what the hell took them so long to do one simple job.

“Did they celebrate when he retired?” Joce whispered to Tess.

“Actually, they cried. He got the best out of them.”

“Like you do with your lawyers.”

Tess shrugged as she twirled a lazy Susan around. “You mind if I help on this? Sometimes I get sick of paperwork. It might be interesting to do something different.”

“I don’t know how big this thing is getting to be, but it’s my guess that I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

Later, she thought that truer words had never been spoken. At first, some of the women from church stopped by to see what was going on, and now and then one of them tried to decorate a cupcake, but between Tess and Jim giving orders, they soon left. “See what I have to put up with,” Jocelyn heard Luke’s mother say to one woman as they both left.

In the end, it was just Tess, Jim, and Jocelyn in the kitchen. Jocelyn baked and put the cakes in the freezer, then Tess decorated them. Jim made sure the women had everything they needed and he kept the bowls and bags clean. Tess soon learned that she didn’t like parchment paper bags, so Jim got on the Internet and found huge canvas bags for her. They also ordered so many tubes, holders, paste colors, and rose nails that they arrived in a three-foot-square box. In the bottom was a DVD showing how to use the equipment. Tess used her portable player and caught on as though she’d done it all her life, and soon there were icing roses everywhere.

Late on the second day, Ramsey showed up with a briefcase full of papers and a list of questions for Tess. Most of them started with “Where is…?”

Tess was piping butterfly wings on parchment paper. When they were dry, she’d peel them off, stick them together, and put them on top of the cupcakes. “I don’t know,” she said to Ramsey. “Ask one of the girls to look for whatever you can’t find. Or have they finished their learn-to-read courses yet?”

“Tess, this is not funny. I’m due in court at nine tomorrow morning and I don’t know what happened to the deposition.”

“Did anyone type it?” Tess asked without looking up.

“Of course it was typed. When it was transcribed it was…” He trailed off. “Please tell me it’s not still on tape.”

“I didn’t tell the girls to do it, so unless you did, my guess is that it is still on tape. And it’s probably still in the recorder. I hope you checked the batteries. Did you make sure that the little wheels inside were going ’round and ’round?”