Lavender Morning Read online

  “Sorry, I, uh…” Jocelyn wasn’t sure what to say, but she was certainly embarrassed by her outburst. “It’s just that we could have used your help, that’s all.”

  “From what I hear, the three of you are doing great. So, Dad, which ones did you decorate?”

  “Humph!” Jim said. “I’m management. So where have you been? With my father-in-law in his fancy house in his fancy subdivision playing on his fancy golf course?”

  Luke looked at Jocelyn. “Don’t you just love families?”

  “Yours, yes, mine, no,” she said quickly, which made Jim chuckle.

  “Could you get that dirty box away from the cupcakes?” Tess asked.

  “It’s not dirty,” Luke said. “In fact…” He picked up a pretty nasturtium blossom and ate it. “These flowers are not only clean, they’re edible.”

  When Jocelyn looked at him, her eyes widened. “Flowers,” she whispered. “Like fried zucchini blossoms.”

  “Exactly,” Luke said, smiling at her.

  “Is that some Yankee thing? Fried flowers?” Jim asked. “And we Southerners are accused of frying too much.”

  “No frying,” Luke said. “We’re just going to stick them on top of adult cupcakes and cookies.” He was looking hard at Jocelyn, as though silently transmitting something to her.

  “You didn’t!”

  “I did. In the truck.”

  “Are we to guess what you two did in the truck?” Tess asked, but Jocelyn was already running out the door, Luke close behind her.

  The four of them gathered around the back of Luke’s truck as he untied a tarp. Under it were two bushel baskets, and in them were clear plastic bags full of some dried purple twigs.

  For a moment Jocelyn was speechless, then she said, “I’ll need a—”

  Luke threw the tarp back farther and exposed a white marble mortar that was about fourteen inches across, with a big pestle inside.

  Joce let out a squeal and spontaneously threw her arms around Luke’s neck. “You did it! You’re wonderful! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  Tess and Jim stood back, watching the two of them. “Better start making out your guest list for the wedding,” Tess whispered, but Jim made no reply. In fact, he was frowning deeply.

  “All right,” Jim said, “you two wanta tell me what this is? It looks like something Merlin would use. You gonna turn that stuff into gold?”

  Suddenly, Joce felt embarrassed and abruptly let go of Luke, and stepped away. “He found lavender, and that’s a mortar and pestle for grinding it. I can make my lavender cookies. They’re perfect for ladies’ tea parties.”

  “Sounds great!” Tess said with enthusiasm. “When do we—” She broke off at a look from Jim. “It does sound great, but I think I better go see what trouble Rams is having. If he can’t find that tape he’ll lose his case. I should see what I can do to help him.”

  “And I’m worn out,” Jim said. “I’m too old for all this. I’ll be here early tomorrow to help get everything to Viv’s house, so don’t sleep late.” He gave a warning look to his son.

  Jim pulled his car keys out of his pocket, went to his car, and drove away, and Tess went to her own apartment.

  When they were alone, Luke asked, “Was it something we said? Maybe I should have showered.”

  “I gave up trying to understand this town after the first hour I was here. Come inside and tell me everything. And, by the way, you’re putting in the herb garden for free. Or maybe your father is paying for it.”

  “That skinflint! Never. So what did he tell you to make my gardening free?”

  “I behaved myself. Your father absolutely loves the word yes.”

  “You didn’t say that to him, did you?” Luke asked, his voice a groan. “When I was six months old, Mom and I made a pact that we’d never, never say that word to him, and we’ve kept our pledge. Please tell me you haven’t ruined it.”

  “Six months old,” she said, smiling as she went into the kitchen. Every surface was covered with the most beautiful cupcakes imaginable. There were flowers and insects and animals. About a dozen of them had drawings of high heels and dresses on them.

  “Let me guess,” Luke said. “Sara did these.”

  “Right on. She wanted me to make some cakes shaped like high heels, but it would take too much time.”

  “What about these? Did you do them?” He held up a cupcake with a puppy’s face in brown and white.

  “Tess did.”

  “Tess?” Luke asked. “Tess who works for Ramsey? Tess who disdains anything cute or sentimental?”

  “The very one. I think your dad wants to open a business with her.”

  Luke sat down on a chair and stared at Jocelyn. “My father and Tess? But the two of them are bosses. They like to tell everyone what to do and how to do it. My father never gets along with anyone he isn’t in charge of. And Tess isn’t much better. She runs Rams’s office like she’s the captain of the ship.”

  Joce shrugged. “I have no idea how they work together, but they do. You should see them together. They’re like a machine. If Tess runs out of blue icing, she doesn’t say a word, but the next time she reaches for the blue, your dad has filled a tube for her.”

  “My dad? He made icing?”

  “And filled the big pastry tubes. After the first day, he and Tess spent about two hours on the Internet and ordered a huge amount of tubes and bags and…well, everything.”

  “I wish I’d been here to see it.”

  “So where were you?” Joce asked as she poured batter into paper liners.

  “Better let me do that,” Luke said. “I don’t want my dad to show me up.” As he washed his hands he looked at the cakes on the counters. They really were beautiful and quite professional-looking.

  “I’m waiting,” Joce said.

  “Sorry. I keep looking at everything.”

  “No, I mean I’m waiting for you to tell me where you’ve been.”

  “Well, Mom…,” he said, trying to make it sound as though Joce was his mother. But she didn’t smile. “Show me how to do this.”

  Joce showed him how to use the bowl and a spatula to fill the liners, then how to put the pan into the oven and set the timer. “We have to get all these into the boxes your father ordered and you can talk while we work.”

  “Why do you think Miss Edi never told you about Edilean?”

  “I don’t know,” Joce said, and she could hear the hurt in her own voice. “She told me so much about the rest of her life. I could write a book about her years with Dr. Brenner, but she left out everything about the town where she grew up.”

  “She said nothing about her childhood?”

  “She told me she grew up in a little town in the South but that was all. She said her life didn’t begin until she met David. And until I came here, I thought David was killed in World War II, but Sara said he jilted her. Miss Edi returned from the war with her legs a mass of scars and the man she loved had married some floozy he’d impregnated.”

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” Luke said as he filled a bakery box with a dozen cupcakes.

  “What does that mean? You sound as though I’ve said something horrible. I’m just repeating what I was told.”

  “Good ol’ Edilean gossip. Where do I put this?” He held up a box filled with cupcakes.

  “I thought we’d stack them in the hallway. I need a place to put the big mortar so I can start grinding.”

  “You know that there are machines that can do that,” Luke said.

  “Sure, but who wants one? Not me.”

  She could see that Luke liked that answer as he took the box into the hallway and returned with the big mortar and pestle, then got the baskets of lavender.

  “I think you have something to tell me, but you’re hesitating,” Joce said, “so out with it.”

  “If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?”

  “Writing biographies,” she said instantly.

  Luke looked