“He knows everyone and they know him. It’s the way he gets business. So how late did Luke stay at your house last night?”
“I don’t know. I went to bed,” Joce said, watching Sara to see what she’d say, but she was silent. “Tell me, has this town already mated me to one of the men?”
“I think Rams has pretty much laid claim to you.”
“How interesting,” Joce said coldly.
“You don’t like the idea?”
“I’m curious if the twenty-first century has reached this town. Whatever happened to passion? To courtship? To men who make an effort to win you? Gifts? Banners? Dangerous driving just to get your attention?”
“I don’t know what you’ve been reading but I want to borrow it.”
“It’s nothing,” Jocelyn said, not wanting to tell what Luke had read to her. “So who’s Luke seeing?”
“No one,” Sara said tersely. “He lives alone and dates no one.”
Jocelyn waited for Sara to say more, but she didn’t. “That’s it? Why is it that every time I mention Luke everyone clams up? Is he an escaped prisoner hiding from the law?”
“Sort of,” Sara said as she looked down at her hands.
“You have something to tell me, don’t you?”
“Nothing important, just…” Sara trailed off.
“You’ve met a man.”
“Yes!” Sara said. “Joanne Langley introduced us.”
“And she is?”
“The local Realtor. Sometime it’s hard to remember that you haven’t always lived here.”
“That may be the greatest compliment I’ve ever received,” Jocelyn said drily. “So tell me about him.”
“He’s tall, blond, and rich. Of course the rich doesn’t matter, but—”
“You’re not throwing him out because of it. So tell me everything.”
“Greg Anders—that’s his name—recently bought an old house just on the outskirts of town. Actually, the oldest part of the house was the overseer’s cottage for Edilean Manor.”
“That’s not a good image—and don’t you dare call me a Yankee!”
“Okay,” Sara said, smiling.
“So what’s he like?”
“So far, we’ve only been on one date, but he was charming and intelligent, and…and I felt a kind of loneliness coming from him that made me want to…”
“Adopt him?”
“Actually, to marry him, and have three kids. Yesterday I bought a copy of Modern Bride.”
“My goodness! That bad that fast?”
“Yeah, I think so. You know what? I think it was fate.”
“How so?”