Lavender Morning Read online

  “What I sleep in,” Tess said, glancing down at her white silk nightgown with the matching lace-trimmed robe.

  “Well, put some clothes on.”

  “If I’m turning you on and it’s too much for you, then I suggest you never again barge into my place in the middle of the night.”

  “Am I going to be billed extra for getting turned on?” Ramsey asked sullenly.

  “No, but that’s a thought.”

  “You have anything to drink?”

  “Lots,” she said, “but you’re not getting any. You have to drive home, remember? Besides, I’m expecting company later.”

  “Who?” he shot at her.

  “One of your cousins.”

  “So help me, if it’s Luke, I’ll—”

  “What?” she asked. “Forbid me to see him? Luke is better looking than you and he isn’t developing a spare tire around his middle from sitting at a desk all day. And I’m beginning to think he’s smarter than you are.”

  Ramsey just stared at the floor. “So marry him. I wish you would.” He paused. “I like this woman.”

  “Which one?” Tess asked as she sat down across from him. She had a whiskey in her hand, and she sipped it while she looked at him.

  “You know which one,” he said. “Jocelyn. Miss Edi’s protégée.”

  “Ah, that one. Is it her or her house you like? It would certainly look good to the men in Colonial Williamsburg if you lived in a house that looked like a Founding Father built it. They might even give you more of their legal work. It would mean more money for you.”

  “You can be really funny sometimes. Ha ha. I’m laughing my head off.” He got up and went to the cabinet on the far wall. “Don’t say anything, I’m just having some tonic water. You have any ice?”

  “You know where the kitchen is.”

  “You certainly know how to make a man feel welcome.”

  “If he’s invited, I do,” she called after him as he disappeared into her kitchen.

  Moments later, he reappeared with a bowl full of ice. “I hate your kitchen,” he said. “It’s worse than Sara’s. Worse than Joce’s.”

  “So put in a new one for me,” she said, brushing her long hair out of her eyes.

  “And what? Write it off on expenses? Maybe if you were my mistress…” He looked at her over his drink. He’d never before seen her in her nightclothes and she was better looking than usual—if that was possible. Her almond eyes were heavily darkened and her lips reddened.

  “You keep looking at me like that and I’ll throw you out. In fact, why don’t you go home right now?”

  Ramsey sat back down in the chair and looked away from her. “I know her.”

  “What?”

  “I know her. Jocelyn. I never told anybody this, but Granddad used to let me read the letters he and Miss Edi exchanged.”

  “Wasn’t there one of those Southern feuds or secrets or some such rubbish involved with your mother and the rest of them?”

  “My mother came from Oregon,” Ramsey said. “And, no, there was no feud concerning my parents’ generation. Whatever happened involved my grandparents. As always with you, you have things in this town mixed up.”

  “I’m charging you an extra hour for that remark. So what’s the problem? And remember, the clock is ticking. You read some old letters, then what?”

  “Miss Edi was a consummate letter writer. I think she corresponded with people all over the world, and my grandfather was one of them. He visited her several times, and I think my grandmother was a bit jealous. She said he used any excuse he could come up with to fly down to Florida and spend a few days with Miss Edi.”

  “And?” Tess said quickly. “Could you please hurry up with this story? I told you, I have a date.”

  “It’s ten o’clock at night, everything is closed, and, besides, you’re in your nightgown. For what reason could you be meeting—” He paused, his eyes wide. “Oh.”

  “You know, I think you should sit down with your sister and let her tell you how babies are made. Or at least how people practice to make them.”

  “I’m trying to tell you something that’s important to me, something I’ve never told anyone else, and you’re making fun of me.”

  “Did I ask you to come over here at night and tell me all about your bad date with little Miss Prim and Proper?”

  “Did you meet her?”

  “No, but I saw her, and Luke told me about her.”

  “Is he who you’re waiting for?”

  “I’m waiting for the local high school football team.”

  “You know, Tess, you could use a little of Jocelyn’s ladylike manners.”

  “If I had them, I wouldn’t have let you in here tonight to bellyache about your new girlfriend.”

  “That’s the problem! She isn’t my girlfriend, and if I don’t do something better than what I did tonight, she never will be.”

  Tess refilled her glass, then sat back down across from him. “I take it that I can’t get rid of you until you cry enough in your beer to get it all out.”

  “Beer? That’s a good idea. You have any?”

  “Luke keeps a six-pack in my refrigerator.”

  Ramsey raised his hands as though in frustration, then got up and went to the kitchen. When he didn’t come back to the living room, she went to him.

  “What are you doing in my refrigerator? There’s nothing in there for you to eat.”

  “You have eggs.”

  “Only because Sara gave them to me. They have blue shells,” she added in wonder.

  “Ameraucanas.”

  “What?”

  “Ameraucanas are the breed of chickens Sara’s family raises, and they lay blue and green eggs,” Ramsey said patiently as he took the bowl of eggs from the refrigerator and a container of butter. It was labeled SHAW FARMS, as was the loaf of bread. “I’m starving. Want some toast and scrambled eggs?”

  “I thought you could only cook that pasta dish of yours.”

  “I don’t think scrambled eggs count as cooking.”

  “If I could scramble an egg I’d go on TV as a cook.”

  Ramsey glanced at her as he pulled a skillet from a cabinet. Last Christmas he’d bought her a complete set of pots and pans. A month later, when she still hadn’t opened them, he took them out, washed them, and put them away. Whereas the other men in the office gave Tess gifts of considerable value in gratitude for all she did for them, Ramsey gave her things he knew she needed. But then, he was the only one who’d seen the inside of her apartment and knew what she didn’t have. For the most part, his gifts had stayed to the kitchen, as he gave her knives, dishes, glassware, and small appliances. Luke said it gave Ramsey a reason to go to Tess’s apartment and unpack everything, but that wasn’t true. He wanted her to be comfortable, and also, he wanted her to stay in tiny Edilean. Since she’d arrived, his life had run much smoother—and best was that she was a friend he could talk to. A real friend, not a blood relative. One thing about Tess was that whatever she heard, it stayed with her. He could tell her the most intimate things about his life and he knew she’d never tell anyone.

  “So?” he asked. “You want some eggs or not?”

  “Will it get rid of you faster if I eat something?”

  “Yeah,” he said, giving her a one-sided grin. “What’s your date going to think when he arrives and I’m here?”

  “That you want some work done,” she said as she took a seat at the little table against the wall.

  “Okay, so don’t tell me,” he said as he broke eggs into a bowl, mixed them with a fork, then dropped them into the hot skillet.

  “One thing about you is that your ego is always intact. No matter what I say, you still think that I want to be with you.”

  “Tess, whether you like it or not, you and I are friends.” He paused as he searched through a drawer for a spatula. “You need some pot holders and some new dishtowels. I’ll pick some up for you at Williams-Sonoma.”

  Tess shook he