“Who?” Luke asked.
“Miss Edi’s ghost. You know who I mean. Have you seen her?”
“Maybe.”
“So what’s she look like?”
“Bad. Real bad. She’s so ugly I had to use a mirror to look at her,” Luke said.
“That good, huh?” Ramsey said. “I was hoping so. I was a little worried about…Nothing. I wasn’t worried at all.”
“Would you move that gas guzzler of yours and let me by?”
“I need your help,” Ramsey said. “Aunt Ellie said Sara’s with Jocelyn, so I want you to get Sara to keep Jocelyn busy for twenty minutes while I set up.”
“Set up?” Luke asked. “What are you talking about? Are you planning fireworks?”
“Maybe,” Ramsey said with a grin. “She knows I’m coming and I’m bringing dinner, but I don’t want her to see me lugging this stuff out of the car and hauling it into the house. Hey! I know. I’ll go talk to Jocelyn and you set up for me. You know how to chill champagne, don’t you?”
“Put it in the creek with the beer,” Luke said as he backed up his truck. What the hell was up with this whole town? he wondered. First his mother tells him to stay away from this woman, then Ramsey wants him to play butler.
When they got to the wide, graveled area in front of the house, they parked their vehicles by Jocelyn’s silver Mini Cooper and got out. Ramsey was in black trousers, white shirt, and blue tie. He pulled the tie off and tossed it onto the front seat of the car. “What a day! I planned to be here an hour ago, but old man Segal nearly drove me crazy. He and his son had another fight, so the old man changed his will again.”
Ramsey opened the back car door, pulled out a huge picnic basket, then looked up at the windows of the house. “You don’t think she’s watching, do you?”
“Why are you asking me? You obviously know more about her than I do.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Ramsey asked. “You have a falling-out with your latest girl?”
“Never has happened, never will. Can you tell me why you’re so interested in this woman?”
“I think she may be the one.”
“Not again,” Luke said with a groan.
“This girl spent most of her life with Miss Edi. She spent her weekends at the ballet. She can play the piano and dance a waltz. And she has a brain.”
“So that means she’s someone you can show off at the country club and at those benefits they give over in Williamsburg.”
“If by that you mean I’d like to meet someone with an education, who also happens to be beautiful, yes.”
Luke glanced up at the windows. “Sounds like I should get to know her.”
Ramsey snorted. “You’d probably scare her to death. Or she’d faint at the smell of you.”
“A lot of those girls like bad boys.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. Bad boy. Give me a break. Just go to Sara’s, knock on the door, and tell her to keep Jocelyn busy for about twenty minutes. I’ll ring the bell when I’m ready. Think you can do that?”
Luke started to tell him that Sara wasn’t home, and that Jocelyn was in her own house, but he didn’t. His mother had asked him to be nice to the new owner. She didn’t say anything about driving Ramsey crazy. In fact, annoying his cousin was Luke’s favorite game in the world.
“Sure,” Luke said, trying to look grumpy, but he was smiling on the inside.
Jocelyn looked at the little clock on the bedside table and saw she still had thirty minutes until Ramsey was to arrive. She was already so nervous she felt like a teenager going on her first date. After Sara left, she’d made a quick run-through of the house and seen that the rooms had not been altered. As she’d been told, what little furniture there was in the rooms was from Miss Edi’s house in Florida. There were no knickknacks, just empty cabinets and shelves. Three of the rooms contained a rug and four or five good pieces of antique furniture, but nothing else. The kitchen was still in the 1950s, a bit better than Sara’s, but not much. She liked the huge sink and the big pine table, but thought the stove would benefit by being turned on its back and having flowers planted in its belly.
After her cursory look through the house, she wrestled her suitcase up the stairs and began to get ready for her date.
She’d been delighted when she saw the bed with its clean linens and the bathroom that was filled with towels and beautiful soaps. She didn’t know who had prepared this welcome, but she certainly wanted to thank them.