A priss and a prude, he thought. That’s who Miss Edi had left the house to. A woman heading toward spinsterhood who would probably dedicate her entire life to the house. No doubt she’d work hard to find furniture of exactly the right time period and within a few months she’d make Edilean Manor into a museum.
He’d made up his mind about her within minutes of first seeing her, and if it hadn’t been for his mother, he would have told her he quit. Let Ramsey have her, he thought. Let him ooze charm all over her and have her fall for him. Of course he’d probably do what he always did and find some little thing wrong with her, then dump her. But maybe it would backfire and she’d be so heartbroken she’d put the house up for sale.
Yeah, he thought, smiling to himself. Maybe she’d sell the place.
But his mother’s voice was in his head, so he stayed where he was in the old stables and watched Sara and the new owner.
He knew something was up when his mother appeared at his door at six this morning with a covered plate of blueberry pancakes. Luke smiled. “So what’s Dad done this time that you’re bringing me his breakfast?” Luke’s father had retired a year ago, and since then he’d nearly driven his wife insane with his puttering around the house.
“Nothing. I talked him into going to a tractor show.”
“Without you?”
“In case he asks, I have the worst headache you’ve ever seen. That’s enough about me. Miss Edi’s girl comes today and I want you to promise that you’ll be nice to her.” While she talked, she was heating up the pancakes for her son and cleaning his kitchen as she moved about his house.
Luke groaned. “What is it you want me to do this time? Take her out to dinner? Show her the sights? It’s too early for the water parks, so do I have to take her to some fife and drum concert?”
“I want you to leave her alone. She belongs to Ramsey.”
Luke’s eyes widened.
“No, you don’t,” Helen said as she put the pancakes in front of him. “You’re not going to take this as a challenge. She’s already talked to Rams and she likes him.”
“Didn’t waste any time, did he? But then I hear there was a bikini shot of her that he liked before he ever talked to her.”
“Men are like that,” Helen said in dismissal.
“Are we?” Luke’s mouth was full.
“Do you understand me? Be nice and stay away from her. Keep to the gardening.”
“What if I like her?” He told himself he was a grown man and it didn’t matter that his own mother was taking the side of his cousin, but he couldn’t help feeling betrayed.
“You won’t. She was trained by Miss Edi, which means she likes men in tuxedos, not in…” She glared at his tattered jeans and dirty T-shirt. “Do we have everything clear between us?”
“Sure,” Luke said. The last thing he wanted was female trouble. “Let Ramsey have her. Let them move into Edilean Manor and raise a dozen kids. What do I care?”
But now, Luke kept watching Sara and the woman…What was her name? Jocelyn. An old-fashioned name that suited her. As he watched the two of them, he was beginning to change his opinion of her. She laughed easily and often. And w
hatever she was saying was interesting to Sara. In fact, Sara was doing most of the talking, which was unusual. Usually, Sara was the listener.
Twice, Luke saw her…Jocelyn, look at the house with a mixture of love and disbelief, as though she were shocked that it could be hers. But that couldn’t be, could it? Surely Miss Edi had told her she was leaving the place to her.
When the lawn mower blade was so sharp he could have sliced salami with it, he still stayed in the stables and watched them. He opened a bottle of water and drank it while leaning against the wall and looking out the little window. If he left, they’d see him, and he didn’t want that. Sara knew he was there, but she hadn’t called to him to come meet the new owner. That meant they were having some serious girl talk.
Suddenly, Sara jumped up, grabbed the dress she was working on, and ran into her house. That she left her precious sewing box in the care of this stranger told Luke a lot. Sara liked her.
The woman sat there for a while, then she picked up the dishes they’d used and the sewing box, and took them back to her own part of the house. As far as Luke knew, she hadn’t so much as walked through the house. He knew that upstairs was a bed that had been made up for her with clean sheets and new pillows. His mother had done that yesterday. After she left, Luke went up there and looked at the pretty little soaps his mother had put out for her, and the new, freshly washed towels. If royalty had visited Edilean, there couldn’t have been more of a fuss made.
Luke didn’t know why it all made him feel angry, but it did. What did they know about this woman? Except what she looked like in a bikini, that is.
When she was inside the house, Luke left the stables and cleared away his tools. His truck was parked in back and he tossed shovels and loppers in with a bang. If she came out and had something to say about…about anything, he’d tell her he was quitting.
He got in the truck, started it, and drove to the road that went out the back of the property, the servants’ exit. But on impulse, he turned toward the front of the house.
Just as he got to the gate, Ramsey pulled in in his black Mercedes sedan and blocked the exit. Luke just wanted to leave, but he could see that Rams wasn’t about to let him pass. When his cousin put his window down, Luke stuck his head out the truck window.
“Have you seen her yet?”