True Love

  It took several nights and multiple bottles of rum before he got Addy to tell him the whole truth.

  It seemed that his dear daughter, Alix, at four years old, used to regularly converse with a ghost. If Ken had known back then what was happening, he would have … The truth was he didn’t know what he would have done. At that time he’d been so angry and depressed that he wasn’t rational. If he’d been given any reason to do so, he feared that he would have taken his wrath out on Victoria, which could have meant that the rage would have filtered down to little Alix.

  As it was, Ken had shown only Jared his fury at what life had done to him. Oh, but the shouting matches the two of them used to have! Never before or since had Ken yelled like that. Cursed like that. But then he’d never again been so unhappy. Nor had Jared.

  There was one night when Ken found Jared crying. He was a six-foot-tall teenager who had an attitude of Don’t Mess with Me, but he was sitting by a pond on land his family owned, and crying. Ken reacted naturally and put his arms around the boy. They didn’t say a word but Ken knew of the boy’s continuing grief. Jared’s mother had told him what a good and loving man her husband had been, and how he’d doted on his son.

  “I couldn’t have any more children after him,” she’d told Ken. “I begged Six to divorce me and get some healthy girl who could give him a lot of babies. But he said that one perfect son was all he needed.”

  When Ken met Jared—or Seven, as his mother called him—the last word he would have used to describe the boy was “perfect.”

  Somewhere in there, he and Jared stopped fighting. Ken was sure it was when the boy showed his extraordinary, dazzling talent for architectural design. Only by accident did Ken see Jared drawing in the dirt. No one else paid any attention to the marks, but Ken recognized them as a rudimentary floor plan.

  Ken discussed it with Jared’s mother, and she showed him a whole drawer full of sketches her son had made. “He and his dad were planning to add a big room to this old house. Six told him that he could design it. But after … afterward, Seven put it all away.”

  Ken had to push Jared to get him to show his ideas. As Ken looked at the drawings, he acted as though he was just thinking about them rather than ready to set off cannons in praise. Slowly, Ken showed the boy how to put on paper what he saw in his mind. And since Jared knew nothing about construction, over the years Ken taught him how to build what he envisioned.

  But no matter that Ken had made a life for himself on Nantucket, he knew that if he wanted to see Alix regularly he had to leave the island. He felt torn in half. He had a daughter in America and an honorary son on Nantucket—and his ex-wife was decreeing that Ken couldn’t openly have both of them.

  The day Ken left, he saw in Jared’s eyes that he didn’t think Ken was coming back. But he had. Every holiday he wasn’t with Alix, Ken was on Nantucket. Vacations, accumulated sick days, playinghooky days, whatever time he could manage to scrape together, he spent on the island.

  Even after Jared left for school, Ken still visited as often as possible. By that time he and Addy were good friends and he knew a lot of other people on Nantucket. It was natural that he began to look after the houses owned by the Kingsley family. He’d tell Addy what needed to be repaired, then she’d tell Victoria, who would pay the bills. At first Ken hadn’t liked that arrangement, but Addy said that all Victoria’s money came from the Kingsley journals, so why shouldn’t she pay? Ken didn’t argue. Roofs that didn’t leak took precedence over his pride.

  All in all, Ken thought everything had worked out well—except that Alix had been left out. Victoria never budged on her rule that her daughter was not to go to Nantucket, not even to hear about it. At first Ken had fought her, argued with her, questioned her, but she never showed the slightest weakness in her resolve.

  It was on a snowy night when the big old drafty house was colder than the outdoors and Ken had made a roaring fire that Addy had told him about Alix and the ghost.

  “Does Victoria know about this … this person?” Ken asked, not sure whether to believe or not.

  “No,” Addy said, smiling. “Victoria thinks I’m a boring old woman. She thinks I’m …” She leaned toward Ken. “Victoria thinks I’m a virgin.”

  Laughing, he told Addy that she was much too sexy for men to be able to stay away from. She’d laughed in delight, poured them both more rum, and told him that none of the other women had written about Caleb. “They could see him but they never told about him.” She took a drink. “They wrote about their affairs and even about murders, but they told no one about seeing and talking to a ghost.”

  “But you did,” Ken said, smiling as the rum coursed through him.

  “Oh yes, I did,” Addy said. “And when Victoria finds out, she’s going to look hard for my journals.”

  “Where are they?” Ken asked.

  “I’ve hidden them quite well,” Addy said, smiling. “And Caleb and I worked out a plan so that someone who can see him will be told many things. But that will be after I’m gone.”

  At the time Ken had been too mellow to question her, and he’d only found out at the reading of Addy’s will that “someone” was his daughter.

  It was after that conversation that Ken thought about what he’d been told. Years before, even if Victoria didn’t know about a ghost that Alix could see, she’d known something was wrong. After that, Ken quit badgering her to tell Alix about Nantucket. They never spoke of it, but it seemed they had reached an understanding.

  When Addy died and her will decreed that Alix could stay in the house for a year, Ken was fairly sure he knew why and he hadn’t liked it at all. As a father, he wanted to protect his daughter.

  But Victoria hadn’t felt the same way—and Ken thought it had more to do with her quest to find Addy’s journals than it did with Alix. When he told her so, they’d had one of their blistering fights. Years before, he’d stopped beating himself up with thoughts that his neglect of his beautiful young wife was what had driven her away. It had taken a few years after the divorce, but he’d realized that Victoria’s strong personality was more than he could take. If they’d stayed together, they probably would have murdered each other. But then during one of their arguments Victoria had admitted that she’d only married him to escape her small hometown. That had hurt more than Ken allowed her to see.

  After Addy’s will was read, Victoria had begged Ken to stay away from the island and let Jared and Alix have some time alone. And it had all worked out. Ken had shown up to find Jared and Alix very much together. And he’d stayed to…

  Ken wanted to think that his reasons for staying were altruistic. First, he wanted to protect his daughter from a ghost. And he needed to be there in case Jared got a wandering eye and hurt Alix. And he should…

  Ha! Ken wasn’t fooled by his own lies. He was staying because for the first time in his adult life he had a feeling of family. True, deep down, delicious family.

  By the end of the first week he’d moved into the guesthouse and Jared was back in his own home, staying with Alix in the big bedroom that should have gone to him when his great-aunt died.

  How comfortable the three of them were together! Ken had taught both Jared and Alix about architectural design and building, so they tended to agree on everything. Jared had taught Ken about the sea and its inhabitants. In turn, Ken had relayed it all to his daughter.

  As for Alix, she bound the men together. She looked out for them, made their lives comfortable, and above all, she put new life into them.

  Several times in the past weeks, the three of them had been out on Jared’s boat. They liked the same food, baited hooks the same way, enjoyed the same scenery.

  When they were home, Ken made sure he gave the couple time alone. He often went to visit Dilys. One lovely summer long ago, they had been lovers. Dilys was older than Ken and he’d enjoyed her quiet company—and the sex she’d learned in the freewheeling seventies. But he knew he could never stay on Nantucket and she was never going
to leave, so they’d used that as their excuse to break up. They’d quit being lovers—except for one stormy night in 1992—but had remained friends.

  In these last weeks, Ken had spent a lot of time with Dilys and had taken over Jared’s repair jobs in his old neighborhood. Ken had also properly fixed the greenhouse heater for Lexie and Toby. He had let Toby cook wonderful meals for him, had listened to Lexie complain about her “horrible” boss, and had later puzzled with Toby about the matter of Lexie and her employer.

  All in all, Ken had never felt so good. He was going to retire in a few years and he was now sure that he’d do it on Nantucket. Maybe he could persuade Jared to give him a long lease on one of the houses he owned on Kingsley Lane.

  Right now it was raining outside and the old house was cool, so Ken had built a fire in the fireplace of the big parlor, and the three of them were in there together. Alix and Jared were working on the design of the movie stars’ house. It was going to be the first official collaboration between Madsen and Montgomery. The pride Ken felt at the uniting of those names was immeasurable.

  Two weekends ago Izzy and her fiancé, Glenn, had come to the island to talk about the wedding. It had taken twenty-four hours for Izzy to get over her awe of Jared. For a whole day she’d just watched him, not even blinking.

  Glenn took it all well, but then he was so in love with Izzy he could hardly see straight. On the first night Jared told Ken, “Granddad says that in another life Glenn was the local wheelwright and he was in love with Izzy back then too.”

  No matter how many mentions of the ghost there were, Ken was still shocked. He tried to hide it, but when the reference to reincarnation was added, he wasn’t successful. Jared must have seen it because he didn’t mention his grandfather again.

  And Alix certainly hadn’t said anything about seeing a ghost. Her mind was fully occupied with Jared’s California house, the remodel for his cousin, and her best friend’s wedding.

  Izzy’d had a lot of trouble deciding on flowers and cake flavors, and the music for the wedding. For most of the weekend she’d visited, all anyone talked of was tents and Porta Potties and seating and anything else they could think of. Jared had been the telephone man, calling people he knew and booking things. With Izzy’s pregnancy they’d moved the wedding up to the twenty-third of June. Very, very soon.

  “What would you do?” Izzy asked Alix on Sunday night when they were all at the dining table, a feast of their own making before them.

  “About what?” Alix asked.

  “If this were your wedding, what would you do?” Everyone at the table paused and stared at Alix. Ken was happy to see that Jared’s face was as intent as the others.

  “About the flowers?” Alix asked.

  Ken could see that his daughter was avoiding Jared’s eyes. It was too soon to think of a wedding, but then when you knew, you knew.

  He decided to help his daughter out. “Victoria has been planning Alix’s wedding since she was a baby. Everything is set. Alix doesn’t have to make even one decision.”

  Alix groaned. “No, no, please don’t tell that story.”

  “Now you have to,” Izzy said.

  “I’d like to hear it too,” Jared added.

  “A dress.” Ken smiled. “What was it your mother said about a candle lighting up the world?”

  Alix shook her head. “Okay, this is from my mother and you all know her, right?”

  “I don’t,” Glenn said.

  “You will,” Alix said. “Mom told me that I’m to wear a wedding dress with so many crystals and faceted beads on it that I can carry one candle and the thousands of reflections will light up the whole church.” She looked at Glenn. “And now you know my mother.”

  He laughed. “I think I’m going to like her.”

  Jared was looking at Alix. “Not to your taste?”

  His face was so serious that Alix turned pink. “I’m more of a cotton girl.”

  Izzy spoke up. “Alix doesn’t care about the dress or the flowers. She just wants to be married in a building of architectural significance.”

  That made everyone laugh.

  “In your chapel,” Izzy said over them. “You should get married inside the chapel that you designed.”

  “I don’t think—” Alix began.

  Ken cut her off. “I forgot about that. You told me on the phone you were designing one but I’ve not heard any more about it.”

  “It’s nothing really. It’s just—”

  “She made a model,” Izzy said.

  “Could we see it?” Ken asked.

  “No,” Alix answered. “It was just for fun. We’ve been working on a house, with a rock in one wall. It’s—”

  Jared put his hand over hers. “I would really and truly like to see the model you made.”

  Ken knew his daughter well enough to see that she was worried about criticism of the design, but with everyone staring at her so expectantly she couldn’t say so. He nodded at her in encouragement and Alix left the table to go upstairs to get the model.

  When she returned she looked so apprehensive that Ken wanted to warn Jared to make no criticism. But he needn’t have worried.

  Jared just looked at it and said, “It’s perfect.”

  Ken didn’t think Jared had ever thought that word, much less said it before. Certainly not about anything that had to do with a building.

  “Do you really like it?” Alix asked, and everyone at the table was quiet. It was the first time she’d ever sounded like a student asking for praise.

  “You’re asking Montgomery, aren’t you?”

  “I guess I am.”

  He put his hand over hers. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t think it was. I’ll tell you how much I like it: I don’t want to change a thing.”

  “The steeple isn’t too tall?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She opened her mouth to speak.

  “And it’s not too short either,” Jared said.

  She closed her mouth.

  He squeezed her hand. “Where do you think it should be built?”

  “When I designed it, I was thinking of Nantucket.”

  It was Izzy who interrupted what had become a private conversation. “Too bad that chapel isn’t here now. If I got married in it, we wouldn’t have to try to cram a hundred people into the back garden.”

  “Amid the portable toilets,” Glenn said.

  As Alix joined the laughter, she turned to look at Jared in question and he seemed to understand. Could they build the chapel on the land Jared had shown her?

  Jared shook his head. “It can’t be done. The permits would take weeks, if not months. We Nantucketers are fierce about what we allow to be built on our island.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “Too bad. It would have been nice for Izzy to get married in …”

  “Something of architectural significance?” Jared asked. “A building created by her best friend who is about to set the world on fire with her designs?”

  “And built by the world’s greatest living architect,” she said, smiling at him with adoring eyes.

  “I’m going to be ill,” Izzy said as she leaned over to kiss Glenn’s cheek. “I’m glad you and I don’t act like that.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding!” Alix said. “I remember the night after your third date with Glenn. You were so mad about him that you—” She kept talking, delighting in the telling of Izzy and Glenn’s story—and deflecting attention away from her and Jared. It was much too soon for them to even think of discussing the future.

  Alix was so engrossed in her story that she didn’t notice the way Jared and her father looked at each other over her head. Based on many years of time spent together, they easily communicated silently. All Jared had to do was raise his eyebrows and Ken nodded. Before anything was built on Nantucket it had to pass the HDC, the Historic District Commission—and Dilys was on that committee.

  When Alix finished her story of Izzy and Glenn dating, Jare
d and Ken were smiling extraordinarily widely. They had just made a plan and they were going to do everything they could to make it happen.

  Now Ken was smiling at Jared and Alix. They were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, the floor before them littered with papers. Over the last weeks, the three of them had been using the office in the guesthouse to draw the plans for the remodel of Jared’s cousin’s house in town.

  Years ago, the office had been Ken’s. He’d set it up when he’d arrived on Nantucket and it was where he’d taught Jared how to use a triangle and T-square. It had made him feel good to see Jared and Alix bent over the big drafting table.

  Each of them had a story about the old-fashioned office. Ken told what he’d gone through to get Addy to lend him the mermaid that had once been a ship’s masthead.

  “There it was, sitting in the attic amid all those old trunks, covered in dust, and she acted like I wanted to take it out and use it for firewood.”

  “So what did you have to do to get her to let you move it over here?” Jared asked.

  “I tried logic, but that didn’t budge her. Finally, I told her I was in love with the memory of the woman who’d sat for it back in the eighteenth century. That worked.”

  Alix had nearly choked on her drink in laughter, then she embellished her story of how Izzy and she had broken into the place. “But that was before we knew you were a real person,” she told Jared.

  He gave her a serious look. “I have to admit that there’s a part of me that misses that student admiration.”

  “I know just what you mean,” Ken said with a pointed look at Jared.

  They all laughed together.

  Jared’s story was simple. He had never allowed anyone into the room except the two of them.

  Ken smiled. Coming from Jared, the statement meant so very much.

  As Ken was smiling at the two of them, thinking that life was good, outside there was a quick flash of lightning, startling them with its ferocity. Seconds later came a huge crash.

  They looked at one another. As people involved in the building trade, they knew what that sound was. They nearly tumbled over each other as they ran toward the kitchen and out the back door.