True Love

  “And we’re back to Ken. So what’s this about not telling Alix that her father trained you?”

  “I’m caught in the middle,” he said and told her about his first meeting with Alix. “I had no idea she recognized me, then Ken called and laid me out for lying to her.”

  Lexie slid a ham and cheese omelet onto a plate. “So that’s why you’re spending an entire week holed up with her? To make up for lying to her?” She poured two cups of coffee.

  “I didn’t want her to leave the island, because I knew I’d get blamed for running her off.”

  Lexie took bread out of the toaster and slathered it with the jam Toby had made. “Is that it? The whole, entire, and only reason you’ve not left this house for days?”

  Jared cut into his omelet and took his time answering. “It started out that way.”

  “And now?” Lexie took a seat across from him.

  He looked at her with eyes that seemed to spark flames. “Now Ken’s the reason I keep my hands off her.”

  “Oh, my,” Lexie said, leaning back in her chair. “You haven’t fallen in … you know, with her … have you?”

  “I’ve known her for less than a week,” Jared said, frowning.

  Lexie sipped her coffee and watched her cousin, fully aware that he’d not answered her question. Dilys said that Jared had never recovered from his father’s premature death. Lexie had been told how Jared and his mother had both nearly lost their minds when Six died. Jared had been angry at the world, while his mother had sunk into a depression that no counseling or pills could get her out of.

  Then Ken Madsen had shown up and given the boy an outlet for his rage. But nothing and no one had been able to revive Jared’s mother. She’d died soon after her son graduated from high school.

  Since then, Jared had been the family loner, living in two worlds, even using a different name off-island.

  “And you’re doing all this out of respect for Ken?” Lexie asked.

  “I owe him, don’t you think?”

  “We all do,” Lexie said, smiling at her cousin. She and Toby weren’t the only people Jared had helped. He’d given friends and relatives jobs, had subsidized the mortgages of two destitute cousins, and he’d stayed with Aunt Addy at the end of her life. “So when are you going to tell Alix the truth about you and her father?”

  “I’m not,” he said. “It’s not my place to tell her. Besides, she just found out that Victoria comes here every year.”

  “She didn’t even know that?”

  Jared shook his head.

  Lexie got up to get the coffeepot. “Did you tell her about Victoria?”

  “No.” Jared grinned. “She saw the bedroom, called it the Emerald City, and she knew it was her mother’s.”

  Lexie laughed as she refilled their cups and sat back down. “I think you need to protect yourself here. When—not if—Alix finds out the truth about her father and you, she won’t be happy that you kept such a big secret from her.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Jared said. “I’ll call Ken and say I want permission to tell his daughter about his visiting here because I’m so hot for her that my fingertips ache. That when she leans over me to look at a drawing her breath smells so good I want to swallow her whole. The way her body moves inside her clothes makes me sweat.” He looked at his cousin across the table. “You think if I tell Ken that truth he’ll give me his blessing?”

  Lexie could only blink at him.

  “Is there any more toast?” Jared asked. “Toby’s jam is great. Alix will like it.”

  Lexie took a few breaths to recover herself, then got up to get the bread. “I think …”

  “I’m open to suggestions,” he said.

  “You didn’t actually promise Ken to keep your hands off her, did you?”

  “I did.”

  “Oh, my goodness. You have to get him to come here so he can tell Alix the truth. Then you’ll be released from your promise.”

  “That should go over well,” Jared said. “Ken shows up and I immediately carry his daughter off to bed.”

  Lexie thought for a moment. “The question is, how does Alix feel about you?”

  Jared grimaced. “I’m her teacher. Although she doesn’t listen to me much. You want to hear what she’s doing?”

  “Sure.” Lexie didn’t let him see her surprise. She’d never heard her cousin talk about any of the women he dated, but then he didn’t stay with them long enough to even remember their names. He had never brought one of them home to Nantucket, never introduced one to the family.

  “While I was out on my boat, she and Izzy broke into my office.”

  “The one you never let anyone into?”

  “That’s the one.” He looked up as his grandfather appeared behind Lexie.

  She turned around, but saw no one. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” he said, but he knew his grandfather was warning him not to tell too much. “I think Alix must have seen some of the drawings I did for small structures because she designed a chapel. She even found some card stock and made a model. I saw it hidden in a cabinet and it was great. Original. Perfect. I’m going to try to get some of my clients to build it and give Alix full credit for it. A great start to her career, right?”

  “It sounds wonderful. What did she say when you told her?”

  “She hasn’t shown me the model,” he said.

  Lexie nodded. “She couldn’t very well admit she sneaked into your office. Maybe you could hint that you don’t just do big buildings.”

  “I did, but it got no reaction from her. Maybe tomorrow I can—”

  “You won’t have time,” Lexie said. “I’m here because we need to talk about this weekend. But go ahead and tell me about the chapel.”

  “There isn’t anything else to tell. She hasn’t mentioned her design and the model’s no longer in the cabinet.”

  “Why don’t you tell her you saw it and that it’s great?” Lexie said.

  “It would seem like I was snooping. I think there’s a reason she won’t show it to me, but I don’t know what it is.”

  “If it were me,” Lexie said, “I’d be terrified that you’d think it was awful. Sounds like she wants to impress you, but what if you see something done by her and you hate it? That would really hurt.”

  “I pretty much told her I’d give her a job at my firm.”

  “She probably doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that,” Lexie said.

  Jared finished his toast, picked up his empty plate, and put it in the sink. He was frowning as he thought about what Lexie had said. “What were you going to tell me about this weekend?”

  “What are you going to do about Daffy Day?”

  “Same thing I always do, I guess,” he said.

  “Stay home bent over a drawing board?”

  “More or less.”

  “You’ve spent all this time with Alix, working, drinking rum, but you’ve not made a pass at her?” Lexie asked.

  “Not a touch.”

  “No long, lingering looks?”

  Jared smiled. “Not any that she saw.”

  “Even though you’re very attracted to her?”

  “You and Dilys! Are you two trying to make me feel bad? What are you getting at?”

  “I’m just trying to see this from Alix’s point of view. This pretty young woman has spent nearly a whole week being rejected by a man known for … what can I say? … having numerous women in his life. But he—you—has fed her lots of rum but not so much as made a move toward her. And tomorrow she’s going out with Wes.”

  “Wes?”

  “Your cousin? My cousin? Remember him? Young, handsome Wes Drayton who inherited two acres out in Cisco and plans to build a house because he’s ready to settle down and have kids? That Wes?”

  “Are you trying to say that Wes and Alix might get together?”

  “Wes hasn’t shut up about Alix since he met her. Yesterday he spent an hour with Toby planning the daffodil decorations for
his dad’s old car for the festival. His family is putting on a tailgate picnic meant to welcome Alix to the island. And in the afternoon he plans to take her out on his boat.”

  Jared leaned back in his chair and stared at Lexie. “Alix wouldn’t … Look, she just broke up with some guy, so she’s not going to run off with another one she just met and get married and live on an island. She’s ambitious. She wants a career in architecture. She has to make a name for herself before she can hide away somewhere.”

  “Okay,” Lexie said, her eyes on Jared’s, “then she’ll just have a lot of fabulous rebound sex with your cousin Wes. He’ll make her feel like a man wants her for something besides drawing a house plan, and next year she’ll leave Nantucket feeling great. She’ll get a job at your big, fancy company, then she’ll marry some guy who works for you, and they’ll have kids. The end.” She smiled sweetly at her cousin.

  Jared looked back at Lexie, too shocked to say anything.

  “Maybe Ken did put some limitations on you, but you need to figure out how to change things or you’re going to lose her before you even get her.” Lexie picked up her bag and went to the door. “Toby and I will be home all day tomorrow, so come for lunch. We’ll be cooking for the picnic. Too bad Alix is going to be dining with Wes’s family. Bye-bye,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

  Jared sat where he was, thinking about what Lexie had said. The truth was that it would be good if Alix and Wes hooked up. That would free Jared from having to escort her everywhere. And having a boyfriend on the island would make her stay. No one would give Jared hell for making her leave. Instead, they’d tell him he’d done a good job. Plus, he could give Alix the boxes of info about Valentina and she and Wes could work on that.

  For a moment Jared had a vision of Alix and his cousin sitting on the floor of the back parlor, papers all around them. They would be like he and Alix had been for the last few days. Only Wes wouldn’t have chains around him as Jared did. No one was going to tell Wes to keep his hands off her.

  And what would Jared do? Return to New York and go back to twelve- and fourteen-hour workdays? And for the next year when he was on the island, would he be banished from wandering in and out of his own house? He could imagine Alix telling him that she and Wes needed their privacy. Would Jared accidentally walk in on them when they were …?

  He didn’t want to take that vision any further.

  He looked around the kitchen and thought of the days since Alix had arrived. They’d done such ordinary things: grocery shopping, preparing meals together, working side by side. In work, she had the ability to look ahead, to see how and why a feature wasn’t going to work. It was a talent Jared also had, but he knew from experience that few people did.

  But none of that really mattered.

  All in all, it made sense that Alix and Wes should spend tomorrow together and let happen what may. In fact, it would be good for everyone if the two of them got together.

  “Like hell!” Jared muttered as he left the house. He needed to shower and make some calls. Daffy Day started with a parade of antique cars and he knew just where he could get one.

  Chapter Ten

  When Alix awoke she heard voices. One was unmistakably Jared’s deep rumble and the other belonged to a woman. For a moment she lay on the couch and wondered if the voice she remembered hearing so long ago was his. She’d heard Jared laugh, but only slightly, not that kind of laughter that comes from deep within a person and is so all encompassing that it cures illnesses. That was the laugh she remembered.

  She turned her head to look at the jumble of books and papers on the floor and couldn’t help smiling. It had been glorious working with him! He was opinionated and knowledgeable and experienced and … and sexy, she thought. But she’d tried to stamp that thought down. If she got too close to him, he moved away. It looked like her original impression that he was interested in her as a woman was wrong.

  She couldn’t bring herself to ask him if he had a girlfriend. That wasn’t any of her business.

  When she heard the back door open and close, she leaped off the couch and ran for the stairs. She knew she must be a mess and she needed time to clean up. Besides, she was dying to call Izzy and tell her everything that was going on.

  Once Alix was upstairs, she phoned Izzy but it went to voice mail, which made her frown. She hadn’t talked to her friend or had a response to her many emails and text messages for days now.

  On the first night after she’d been to dinner with Kingsley—somewhere in there she’d dropped the “Mr.”—she’d talked to her father and told him of the lavish apology she’d received, complete with flowers.

  “Just an apology?” her dad asked. “Nothing else? No inappropriate innuendos or touches?” He made the last sound like his worst fear.

  “No, Father,” she said solemnly, “I’m still as virginal as I was before I met Big Bad Kingsley.”

  “Alixandra,” her father said in warning.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Jared Kingsley treats me with absolute and total respect. Is that better?”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Ken said.

  Alix wanted to say “I’m not,” but she didn’t.

  She hadn’t heard from her father since then, but she knew that he had finals to administer and grade, so he was busy.

  Her concern was Izzy. Alix sent another email, left yet another long voice message, then went to the shower.

  She took her time dressing and working on her hair and makeup, even though she wondered if she should bother. Would she see him today? On the first of these last four days they’d finished the plan for his cousin’s house. In the end they’d compromised between her ideas and his: his dormers; her windowed addition. He had surprised her by being good at landscape design, something Alix knew little about.

  “It comes from seeing a lot of gardens and drinking a lot of beer with a lot of landscapers,” he’d said.

  Alix had wanted to say “I like beer,” but she was afraid such a remark would scare him off.

  After they’d finally settled on how to remodel his cousin’s house, they were faced with being finished. There were no more reasons to work together. No reason to stay in the same room, side by side.

  It took Alix all of thirty seconds to decide to run upstairs and get her fat portfolio of school drawings. When she’d first realized that she was going to meet Jared Montgomery, actually be living near him, she’d fantasized about all the wonderful things he’d tell her about her work—just as her teachers did.

  But Jared had gone through them quickly and said, “Do you have anything original?”

  For a moment Alix felt like a little girl. She’d wanted to run away and hide so she could cry. And she wanted to call her best friend and tell her what a jerk Montgomery really was.

  But in the next moment she became a professional and began to defend her work. When she saw a tiny bit of a smile from him she knew that’s what he was pushing her to do.

  One by one, they went over her drawings and tore them apart. Only if she could give a good argument for a design feature did he begrudgingly admit it was possible. What was really annoying was that Alix saw that he was nearly always right. His eye for proportion and his intuition for design were perfect. As her father often said, “You can’t teach talent,” and talent was what Jared Montgomery Kingsley had in abundance.

  Under his guidance, she changed nearly everything she’d drawn—and they were all improved.

  It was on the last day—to Alix’s astonishment—that he brought out the plans for a house he had designed for a client in New Hampshire.

  By that time they had become quite familiar with each other through work and shared meals and even falling asleep in the same room. Even so, she was hesitant to say anything critical about his designs, but then the truth was that it was extraordinary. That he—and for all his name changes, he was the Jared Montgomery—would ask her opinion gave her a moment of speechlessness.

  “You have nothing to
say?”

  “It’s perfect,” she whispered, and the exterior was. But then she saw the floor plan. She took a breath and plunged ahead. “The living room is in the wrong place,” she said, and they went on from there.

  Now that they were truly done with the plans, she wondered if he would retreat to the guesthouse and work on his own. Several times he’d mentioned the house in California that he had to do and Alix’d had to work not to say something about her own design. But there was something so personal about the chapel she’d drawn that she didn’t want it critiqued.

  On impulse, she pulled her suitcase out from under the bed, unzipped it, and removed the little model. She was still so pleased with it that she couldn’t bear having someone tell her the roof angle was wrong or the steeple was too tall or too short. She liked it just the way it was.

  Standing up, the model on the palm of her hand, she held it up to the portrait of Captain Caleb. “What do you think?” she asked. “You like it or not?”

  Of course there was silence and Alix smiled at the thought of receiving an answer. She turned to put the model back into the suitcase, but looked back at the portrait. “If you like it just as it is, make something move.”

  Instantly, the framed photo of the two women yet again fell off the table and hit the thick rug.

  For a moment Alix felt a little dizzy at what had happened. She told herself that the picture falling just when she’d asked the question was a coincidence, but she didn’t believe it.

  She sat on the edge of the bed, still holding the model. “I guess you do like it,” she said. She was glad when there was no response to her words. “And it looks like I’m living in a haunted house.”

  She didn’t want to think about that too much. After a few deep breaths she stood up, put the model back in its hiding spot, and went to the door.

  A white envelope like the one that had been with the daffodil had been pushed under the door. “Why didn’t you tell me this was here?” she said aloud, then caught herself. “And don’t you dare answer that. One ghostly answer a day is all I can take.”