Lavender Morning by Jude Deveraux Page A

bags,
    something.
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    “This tea is too much trouble for you. Really, I didn’t mean to bother you. I’ll get something to eat on the
    way home. They have a few fast-food places over in Williamsburg. Off the highway. It’s not too far away.
    Couple of hours, that’s all.”
    She couldn’t help laughing. “All right, sit down,” she said, and he did. She took the container of leftover
    pasta out of the old refrigerator and stuck it in an ancient microwave.
    “What makes you think that Rams didn’t tell me about his secretary?” She tried to seem as though she
    didn’t care, and she used his nickname to sound closer to him.
    “I take it you haven’t met Tess,” Luke said as he got up, went to the cabinets, then reached over her head
    to get a plate. He took a knife and fork out of a drawer.
    Jocelyn hadn’t looked in the cabinets, so she didn’t know where anything was. “No, I haven’t met her, but
    I’ve heard about her.”
    “From Sara? She tell you about the red dress?”
    “What is it with this woman and a low-cut, red dress?” Joce asked as she opened the microwave.
    “Sure you want to hear?”
    “I’m all grown up. I think I can stand it. What happened with the secretary and a dress?”
    Luke took the bowl of pasta from her, dumped it on the plate, and put it on the table. “Want some?”
    “No, thank you. I ate earlier. With Ramsey, remember?”
    “Oh, yeah. You were together such a short time that I nearly forgot about that date. It was a date, wasn’t
    it?”
    Joce didn’t bother to answer him but poured some wine into a glass and took a sip. “Sorry, but that’s the
    last of it,” she said, but her tone let Luke know she wasn’t sorry at all. What was it about this man that put her in
    the worst possible mood? Or was her mood caused by the fact that Ramsey had made her think they were on
    the way to becoming an item, then he’d gone next door to another woman?
    Luke got up, opened the refrigerator, and got out a beer.
    “You certainly have made yourself at home in my house.”
    “I’m here a lot, so you better get used to me.” He tasted the pasta. “This is pretty good. Did Rams make it?
    He always was a good cook. He can even make worm pies. You should get him to tell you about them.”
    “Before or after you tell me about the red dress?”
    “Oh, that,” Luke said, his mouth full. “Tess doesn’t take well to being given orders. The way she sees it,
    she does her job and that’s all that’s required of her. Anything else is her own business.”
    “Don’t we all feel that way?” Joce asked. She sat down in a chair across from him.
    “Not to the extent Tess does, but Rams always was a bit of what we call down here persnickety.”
    “I see,” Jocelyn said with a cool smile. “He can cook and now he’s persnickety. What will you tell me
    next? He used to be a female?”
    “Not that I know of,” Luke said innocently. “Did he tell you he wanted to be? I hear there are some really
    good clinics for that kind of thing nowadays. Not that I know anything about them, but I bet ol’ Rams knows a
    lot.”
    Joce couldn’t keep from laughing. “You’re horrible. Just tell me the story.”
    Luke ate a few more bites, then said, “It was simple really. Rams told Tess he didn’t like what she was
    wearing.”
    “She didn’t take it off, did she?”
    “Is that what the secretaries do in law offices in Florida? If so, I’m in the wrong state.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him.
    “No, she didn’t remove anything. It was just after she started working at MAW. That’s—”
    “I know what it is. Go on.”
    “You certainly have picked up on a lot around here. So, anyway, Tess had only been there about six
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    3/16/2010 ou certainly have picked up on a lot around here. So, anywa
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