True Love

  “You never heard of him. I’ll tell you why later.”

  Dilys nodded as she pulled away to go to Alix. “Welcome to Nantucket. Won’t you come in? I have tea made.”

  Jared was at the truck getting the cooler out of the back. “She’d rather have rum.”

  “I would not!” Alix said, afraid Dilys would think she had a drinking problem.

  “Don’t let her innocent look fool you. She packs away the rum like a Kingsley sailor.”

  As he took the cooler into the house, Alix stood there with a red face. “I really don’t drink very much. I—”

  Dilys laughed. “He gave you a compliment. Come inside and look around. I hear you’re a student of architecture.”

  “Yes,” she said and went inside—then drew in her breath. The inside of the house was glorious. There were huge windows that looked out on the sea, a tall cathedral ceiling, a splendidly equipped galley kitchen, a built-in banquet. Old meets new. It was part beach house, part modern convenience—and all of it was pure Jared Montgomery. But Alix knew that this house had never been photographed and put in a book.

  As she turned in a circle to look at all of it, she glimpsed Jared’s face as he unpacked the cooler. Smug, she thought. He knew just what she was thinking—and he was waiting for her praise.

  “I can see that the architect Jared Montgomery did this,” Alix said rather loudly. “It’s early, but it’s his. The windows, the way this room flows into the other—they give it away. It’s his work; I’d recognize it anywhere.” She looked at him. “Mr. Kingsley, do you and Dilys mind if I look at the rest of the house?”

  “Please do,” he said, and Alix walked down a hallway.

  Dilys’s eyes were wide. “Doesn’t she know that you are Montgomery?”

  “She does,” Jared said, smiling.

  “Oh.” Dilys didn’t understand. “Why does she call you Mr. Kingsley?”

  “I think that’s what the lawyer called me, so she keeps doing it.”

  “Have you told her to call you Jared?”

  “Naw.” He smiled. “I kind of like it. It’s a sign of respect.”

  “Or age,” Dilys said.

  “What is it about my age that everyone’s harping on today?”

  “I don’t know. Do you think it could be your ZZ Top beard and hair?”

  Jared paused, fish package in his hand, and blinked at her.

  “Shall I call Trish and make you an appointment?” Dilys asked. “Three today okay?”

  Jared nodded.

  “You fit in here so well it’s difficult to imagine that you’ve ever lived anywhere else,” Alix said. “Did you want to leave the island?”

  Jared was on his back, stretched out on the grass, while Alix was sitting up, and they were both staring at the water. Behind them was his house. He’d given her a tour of his childhood home, telling her how it had been when he was a kid, dark and dank, little more than a fisherman’s cottage. “But I fixed it,” he said, looking at her. “It was the first house I ever worked on.”

  She’d wanted to comment on the brilliance of his remodel, but she was afraid she’d start gushing so she kept quiet. He told her the house had been remodeled when he was fourteen, and seemed to think that was significant, but Alix didn’t know why.

  After the tour Dilys had shoved them out, saying she needed to make lunch and that Jared should show Alix his old neighborhood.

  They’d walked for over an hour and, just as in the restaurant, Jared knew everyone. Alix had been introduced to all the people they encountered by her first name, and she’d been invited on boating trips, to come by for scallops, and to visit gardens.

  Two older couples asked Jared to look at something that wasn’t working in their houses and he promised that he would. No one even came close to treating him as though he were anything but the grown-up version of a boy who used to live down the road.

  They were back now, and again Dilys had sent them outside. Jared took his time in responding to her question. “After my father died I was angry, furious,” he said, “and I had a lot of energy pent up inside me. I wanted to beat the world at its own game. To do that I had to leave the island, first to study and get my degree, then to go to work.”

  “Did you work hard in school and get rid of the energy that way? Wait. Sorry. I’m not supposed to ask that.”

  He ignored the last part. “Actually, I didn’t really. School was rather easy for me.”

  Alix groaned. “I have just decided that I hate you.”

  “Come on, school couldn’t be too difficult for you. You’re Victoria’s daughter.”

  “It’s been more my father’s perseverance that I inherited that got me through than my mother’s … What should I call it?”

  “Charisma?” Jared asked. “Charm? Joie de vivre?”

  “All of that. Her job is so easy for her. She goes away for a month every year and—” She looked at him. “But I guess you know that better than I do. Anyway, she goes away and plots her novels, then returns home and writes them. She has a daily quota of pages and she never falters from her original plot. I change my mind fifty times before I decide what I want to do.”

  “Do you change your mind or do you look at what you’ve drawn, see what’s wrong with it, then fix it?”

  “That’s exactly what I do!” she said, smiling.

  “To be able to see the flaws in your own work is a gift.”

  “I guess it is. I’d never thought of it that way. I know that Eric thought every design he made was perfect.”

  “The fiancé, Eric?”

  “Don’t elevate him. He was merely a boyfriend. Now an ex.” For a moment they looked at each other and Alix wanted to ask him if all his girlfriends were exes, but he looked away and the moment was lost.

  “What are you working on now?” he asked.

  She thought of her little chapel, but it was insignificant compared to the magnificent structures he’d designed. “Nothing important. I need to study for the coming tests and plan my final project.”

  “Are you going to build it?” he asked, eyes twinkling.

  She laughed. “That trick was done by someone else.”

  “It could bear repeating, couldn’t it?”

  “I don’t think so. I—” She broke off because Dilys called them in to lunch.

  Minutes later they were sitting at the table in the beautiful house eating fried fish and coleslaw and homemade pickled beach plums. Dilys and Jared were on one side, Alix across from them.

  “Alix makes great hush puppies,” Jared said.

  “Did your mother teach you how?” Dilys asked.

  “My mother—” Alix began, then saw the laughter in Dilys’s eyes. “I can see that you know her well. By the time I was six I could dial every restaurant in our area that delivered.”

  “Victoria may have faults, but it’s a party wherever she is,” Dilys said. “What we loved was that your mother could get Addy to leave the house.”

  “I didn’t know she was a recluse,” Alix said. “I remember tea parties and lots of guests.”

  “Oh, yes, Addy invited people to her home, but she didn’t go out very often.”

  “She was agoraphobic?” Alix asked.

  Dilys leaned forward as though in conspiracy. “My grandmother used to say that Addy had a ghost lover.”

  “Anyone want more slaw?” Jared asked. “There’s plenty left.”

  Both women ignored him.

  “It had to have been Captain Caleb,” Alix said. “My memory is that Aunt Addy—as she told me to call her—and I used to lie in her bed and look at his portrait and she’d tell me mermaid stories. I thought it was all madly romantic.”

  “You remember that?” Dilys asked. “But you were only four.”

  “She knows where everything in the house is,” Jared said.

  Dilys smiled. “That’s because she used to search through the drawers and cabinets to find things to use for her buildings. If you hadn’t given her those Legos she m
ight have started pulling the bricks out of the walls.”

  Alix looked at Jared in question, then memory lit her face. “You’re the tall boy who smelled like the sea.”

  Dilys laughed. “That’s Jared. He always smelled like fish and sawdust. I don’t think he took a bath until he was sixteen and started liking girls.”

  Alix was still staring at him. “You showed me how to use the blocks, and we sat on the floor and built … What was it?”

  “It was a crude replica of this house. My mother kept saying it needed work and I was thinking about how a room could be added.” Later, he’d sketched his ideas; Ken had seen them, and had used Jared’s drawings for the remodel. That Jared couldn’t now tell Alix that she, as a four-year-old builder, had inspired him in the beginning of his career greatly annoyed him.

  Alix was trying to take all of it in. She had been given Lego building lessons by a boy who would grow up to be one of the world’s greatest architects. Her face must have told what she was thinking because Jared looked away. She could see that he was frowning. He certainly didn’t want to be seen as a celebrity!

  Alix didn’t want to say anything that would deepen that frown. She looked back at Dilys. “So Captain Caleb was Aunt Addy’s ghost lover?”

  Dilys nodded. “That’s what my grandmother said. My mother told her she was being ridiculous, but truth or not, I loved the stories. And so did Lexie.”

  “Lexie? I’ve heard of her but not met her.”

  “Lexie and her mother moved in with me after Lex’s father died. When Jared left for college, he very kindly let us move into this house.” For a moment she looked at Jared with such love and gratitude that it was almost embarrassing.

  Hiding his face so they couldn’t see his expression, Jared stood up and started collecting dirty dishes. Alix moved to help, but Dilys’s look said that Jared would do it.

  “How do you have an affair with a ghost?” Alix asked. “I mean, wouldn’t there be some physical limitations?”

  “I’ve always wondered about that too,” Dilys said. “In fact …” After a glance at Jared, who had his back to them, she leaned toward Alix. “I asked my grandmother that very thing.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “That one time Addy said she loved the man so much that she kept him a prisoner.”

  Alix leaned back in her chair. “What an odd thing to say. I wonder how she could have done that.”

  “Actually, I asked her that once and she said that she didn’t do any searching for the key that would unlock his cell door.”

  “That sounds cryptic. What do you think she meant by—” Alix began but Jared cut her off.

  “Do you two think you could stop gossiping for a while?” he asked. “I have an appointment at three.”

  “The Kingsley men do not believe in ghosts,” Dilys said. “They pride themselves on being sane and sensible, and ghosts don’t fit into that image. So, dear,” Dilys said, “if you see a ghost in Kingsley House you will have to be the one to tell me all about it.”

  “Dilys,” Alix said slowly, “if I see Captain Caleb, ghost or not, I’m keeping him for myself.”

  The two women laughed so hard that Jared went back into the kitchen.

  After lunch Jared went to his truck to get some tools to make a repair. When they were alone, Dilys told Alix she had a boat and that in a week or so Jared would get it out of storage and put it in the water for her.

  “He seems to do a lot for people on the island,” Alix said.

  “He has responsibilities. He’s the oldest son of an old Nantucket family. The name carries duties with it.”

  “Not a modern concept,” Alix said.

  “There’s a lot about us Nantucketers that isn’t modern.”

  “I’m beginning to see that,” Alix said. She wanted to give Jared and Dilys time alone, so she went outside to walk along the dock that protruded into the sea.

  When Jared came back to the house, Dilys noted the way he looked around for Alix, then seemed to relax when he saw her outside on the long dock. Minutes later, he was on his back on the floor, his upper half inside a cabinet as he repaired Dilys’s leaky faucet.

  “I’ve never seen you so comfortable with any woman before,” Dilys said.

  “I owe Ken. Hand me that wrench.” He took it. “Unfortunately, her parents have kept Nantucket a secret from her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Neither of them told her that they visit here.”

  “But Victoria comes every year.”

  “Alix knows that now, but Victoria told her daughter that she goes to some cabin in Colorado.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Jared said. “Try the water now.”

  Dilys turned on the faucet and it worked perfectly.

  Jared got out from inside the cabinet. “Ken told me that Victoria didn’t want anyone to know her books were actually set on Nantucket and based on the Kingsley family.”

  “Everyone on the island knows that.”

  “And we keep what’s ours to ourselves. She doesn’t want the outside world to know.”

  “So what’s Ken’s excuse for not telling Alix that he visits often?” Dilys asked.

  “He was forbidden by Victoria. She said that if Alix knew her parents visited Nantucket, then she’d want to come here too.”

  Dilys had trouble understanding that idea, but then she nodded. “It has to do with Addy, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe. I know that Victoria didn’t want her daughter visiting Aunt Addy. They got too close when Alix was here and Victoria didn’t like it.”

  Dilys shook her head in memory. “I remember how depressed Addy was after Victoria took Alix away. I really thought we were going to lose Addy. Actually, I thought the whole business was cruel of Victoria. And it hurt Alix too. How that child cried!”

  “Alix seems to have turned out all right. I don’t think she consciously remembers much, but she knows more than she thinks she does. She moves around the kitchen like she’s spent her life in it.”

  “Don’t tell me she can work that horrible old green stove.”

  “That stove is great! And Alix turns those knobs without even thinking about it.”

  Dilys pulled back to look at him. “What’s that strange sound I hear in your voice?”

  “It’s respect, and it’s what I have for Ken and Victoria’s daughter.”

  “Don’t give me that, Jared Kingsley. I’ve known you all your life. You see something different in her.”

  Jared hesitated for a moment. “She designed a chapel,” he said softly.

  “And?”

  “And it’s good.”

  “ ‘Good’? On a scale of one to ten?”

  “Eleven.”

  “Well, well, well,” Dilys said. “Brains, beauty, and talent. Seems like she’s a complete package.”

  “It’s too soon to tell.”

  “Jared, honey, my advice is that you don’t take too long to make up your mind. Brains, beauty, and talent tend to get snatched up on Nantucket. We’re wise people.”

  Jared washed his hands in the sink. “Wes asked her to go to the Daffy Festival with him on Saturday.”

  “Your cousin Wes Drayton? The good-looking, unmarried young man who has a thriving business in repairing boats? That Wes?”

  “That’s the one.” Jared didn’t smile at her description. “I can’t fool around with Ken and Victoria’s daughter. If we got serious and it didn’t work out … How would I live that down? I owe my entire life to her parents. You should have heard Ken bawling me out because …” He waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter now. Here she comes. Just keep it light, will you? She’s a nice kid.”

  “So are you,” Dilys said, but Jared was already at the door and smiling at Alix.

  Chapter Eight

  “I like Dilys,” Alix said. They were in his old red truck and heading back toward town, passing beautiful landscapes of marshes and ponds. It was early
in the season yet, so some of the shrubs were still leafless. “What are the white flowers?”

  “It’s the shadbush. ‘The shadbush blooms when shad are running,’ ” he quoted.

  “I guess that means you’ll be heading off in your boat soon.”

  “I have some things to do here on the island.” He didn’t say what because he knew that he had to get Alix settled enough that she wouldn’t jump on a ferry the second he disappeared. He reminded himself that he needed to hook her up with Lexie and Toby.

  Alix glanced out the window. Did “some things” mean he was working on a design for some fabulous building?

  “Dilys is nice,” Jared said. “You wouldn’t happen to need some computer supplies, would you?”

  “There’s enough in my mother’s cabinet to last me. Why?”

  “Because if I drive home to drop you off I’m going to be late for my appointment. I could call Trish and change the time, I guess.”

  “Oh,” Alix said. “Are you two going out?”

  “No, Tricia is a hairdresser and Dilys told me I had to get this off my face.” He ran his hand through his beard.

  “You’re going to shave? And get a haircut?”

  He was glancing at her as he drove. “You don’t think I should?”

  She liked him with the beard but to say that seemed too personal. “I just don’t want to mix you up with Montgomery, that’s all. The hair seems to suit a Kingsley who deals with the sea and lives on an island.”

  “All right,” he said, smiling. “I’ll get the beard trimmed, not shaved, and not get my hair cut short. Is that better?”

  His tone made her frown. Why was he trying so hard to please her? “Who told you I knew about your … your job?”

  “You were angry at me,” he said. “And you kept dropping heavy-handed hints about my work. Sorry I didn’t pick up on them until later.”

  “But you went out to get me flowers,” Alix said, softening. “That was very nice of you.”

  He turned left off the wide road and into the parking area of some little shops. One was Hair Concern, another was a computer store. “I don’t know how long this will take. If you want to go home I’ll run in and tell Trish that I can’t make it right now. Or you could visit the other shops.”