“I don’t think I want to spend my life making cupcakes, but for now, I can’t think of anything else I can do. Sara said there weren’t any good jobs in Edilean.”
“None that I know of. People either work elsewhere or they open their own businesses. Maybe you and Sara could do something together.”
“Open a dress shop where I serve the customers cupcakes? I don’t think so. Besides, if I started doing this baking full-time and started making money at it—”
“You’d have the health inspector down your neck,” Ramsey said.
“Right. Sometimes I almost forget that you’re a lawyer.”
“Is there a compliment in that?”
Jocelyn was looking at the stream and thinking hard. “Okay, so I’ll have one chance to show the world, meaning Edilean and the surrounding area, what I can do. If I do a good enough job, maybe I can earn enough money to feed myself until…until…”
“This is making me feel bad,” Ramsey said. “I’m the one who steamrollered you into quitting your job and coming here. I told you there was money with the house.”
“Please hang on to that guilt. I may use it if I need a loan.” In the distance, she heard a horn blow. “What time is it?”
Ramsey grimaced. “I don’t need a watch to know it’s two o’clock. Why are you going out with Luke?”
She was tossing things into the basket. “Plants. We have to buy lavender.”
“What for?” He picked up one end of the quilt and Jocelyn the other.
“Cookies. I can make those too.”
“You certainly don’t seem upset to hear that you’re broke.”
“I think maybe someone just lit a fire under me.” When the horn blew again, she looked at him.
“Go on,” he said. “I’ll get this.”
“Thanks,” she said as she turned toward the path, then looked back at him. “Three twenty-five.”
“What?”
“That’s what they charge in New York for super cupcakes. Three dollars and twenty-five cents each.”
“Of course they do,” he said, his face showing his shock at the price. “All right. I’ll get my brother-in-law to agree to the price. I’ll champion you, but if those cupcakes are awful, you’ll make me look like a fool. And you won’t get another job around town.”
“I’ll make you proud,” she said as the horn blew again. “My car keys are in the basket.” He nodded, and she took off running.
9
JOCELYN RAN THROUGH the meadow to Luke’s truck, which was parked by her car under the oak tree. He didn’t get out and open the door for her, just waited with the motor running. She opened the door of the big green truck, put her foot on the running board, and vaulted in. Luke was pulling away before she got the door closed.
“Are you angry because you were wrong?” she asked.
“I’m not angry and I’m not wrong, so what would I be angry about if I were?”
“About Ramsey not taking me into Williamsburg as you said he would.”
Luke shrugged. “I guess Tess sent him somewhere else.”
Jocelyn didn’t say anything because that was too close to the truth. But Ramsey had wanted to tell her some important things, and she was glad they were alone when he told her. All in all, she thought she’d done well at hiding her shock at his words. The lack of money to care for the old house was bad, but not something she couldn’t, somehow, deal with. Surely there were government programs to help with a house that old.
What bothered her was all the information about Miss Edi. It seemed that every hour she found out something else that wasn’t true. Since she was a child, she’d spent as much time as possible with a woman who taught her everything that was important in life. Jocelyn had seen Miss Edi as the wisest person in the world. But now she was finding out Miss Edi hadn’t been honest with her. She told herself that the woman had every right to keep huge parts of her life private, but it still hurt.
“Hey!” Luke said softly. “What’s made you frown like that? You and Rams have a fight?”