Lavender Morning (Edilean 1)

“You miss him, don’t you?”

Quickly, Joce looked down at her papers. “Miss Edi?” she said to Tess, who stood in the open doorway. “Yes, I miss her very much. I just wish people could have seen her as I did.”

“Not her. Him.”

“Oh, you mean Ramsey. He’s in Boston. I heard it was because he lost a big case here. I think the name was Berner, something like that, so he needed to drum up some business. But no, I can’t say that I do miss him. We really didn’t spend that much time together. Maybe when he gets back…” Jocelyn shrugged.

“If you want to lie to yourself, go ahead, but you can’t lie to me. And stop leaving the door open in the hope he’ll show up,” she said as she shut it.

Joce put her head in her hands. Yes, she missed Luke. She missed him every single minute of every day. She did her best to pretend that she was working too hard to miss anyone, but she wasn’t.

She missed his laugh, the way he listened, the way he understood whatever she was trying to tell him. The first thing she did in the morning and the last at night was to look out the window. She wanted to see his truck, his tools. She wanted to see him.

“He is not the man for you,” she whispered. She was not going to be like her mother and run off with some man she’d end up waiting on hand and foot. She wanted a man like Ramsey who’d take care of her.

But reason didn’t make her miss Luke any less. Even all that Sara told her about Luke and his…his…She could hardly think the word, much less say it. WIFE. Luke was with his wife. Ingrid had been in Edilean for nearly six weeks now, and Jocelyn assumed they were a happy couple. They were probably having a second honeymoon.

But no matter her good intentions, every time Joce got into her car, her thoughts went to Luke and Ingrid. She tried to direct herself to think about her book, but her mind went d

own its own path.

Obviously, Luke and his wife had been separated because of her job. Through some discreet questioning, Joce found out that, as far as anyone knew, Luke hadn’t seen his wife in over a year until she showed up with Bell at that hideous party.

Whatever or however long it had been, it was none of Joce’s business. Luke Connor was just a man she’d known for a few days and had had a few conversations with. That’s all. He was back with his wife now and was probably sublimely happy. She doubted if he even remembered her.

A noise to her right made her look to the door. Someone had slipped a cream-colored envelope under it. Getting up, she picked up the envelope and saw her name on it. When she opened it, she saw it was an invitation to lunch from Dr. David Aldredge.

“David Aldredge,” she said out loud. Miss Edi’s first love.

He was probably the man she most wanted to meet in the world. He’d been pointed out to her at Viv’s party, but she hadn’t had a chance to speak to him. Since the party, she hadn’t had the courage to contact him. The truth was that she’d made an effort to stay away from the people of Edilean. They asked too many questions. They wanted to know what had happened between her and Ramsey, and they even asked about Joce and Luke. “All of you seemed like such good friends,” they’d say, then wait for Jocelyn to tell them every detail of her private life. She’d just smile and walk away.

But now David Aldredge wanted to meet with her. His e-mail address was on the note, and five minutes later she’d told him yes.

In Williamsburg the next day, when she got to Dr. Aldredge’s house, she was at first surprised to see that his home was rather small and very close to the one next to it. Maybe because she’d spent so much time in Edilean and Colonial Williamsburg, she’d expected something older, more historical.

She rang the doorbell, then tried to calm herself while she waited for him to answer. Would he be angry at her for throwing his grandson out of her house? Or was he more interested in the distant past? Would she have to hear some dreadful story about what Miss Edi did to him that made him jump into bed with another woman? He must be near ninety now, so would he be in a wheelchair with an oxygen tube in his nose?

When the door was opened by a handsome, gray-haired man, Jocelyn almost said she was there to see his father. “You’re Miss Edi’s David?” she blurted out, wonder in her voice.

He gave her a dazzling smile and said, “You have made my entire week. No, my whole year. I can hardly wait to tell Jim about you.”

Jocelyn laughed. “I’ve heard all about the grandfather jealousy, Dr. Aldredge, but I didn’t know it extended to the generation in between.”

“Oh, yes. It goes all the way down—and back. I can’t imagine what would happen if Luke had a child.” At that he gave her a glance up and down.

“Shall I take that look as a fertility check?” she shot at him.

David blinked a moment, then smiled. “Jim said you had a saucy sense of humor, but it’s better than he said. Won’t you come in? My wife has made herself scarce for the afternoon, so we have the privacy to talk. And, by the way, call me Dave, or as the town does, Dr. Dave.”

As soon as Joce stepped inside, she saw why he’d bought the house. The entire front of it was glass and it looked onto a small, storybook beautiful harbor. Sailboats and small motorboats and little docks led into the lovely James River.

“Wow!” was all she could say.

“We like it,” Dr. Dave said, obviously pleased that she thought it was pretty.

The downstairs of the house was mostly one open room, with living, breakfast, and kitchen all in one area. To the side was a dining room that had been turned into a TV-library. Across the front of the house was a glassed-in porch with wicker furniture, and it looked like the place that got the most use.

She knew her guess was correct when she saw there was a little table set for two on the long porch. The dishes matched the napkins and the place mats, so she knew someone had gone to a lot of trouble.