This time they made love leisurely, savoring each other’s bodies, kissing and caressing, exploring. An hour later, when they lay in each other’s arms, sweaty and sated, Jared’s stomach growled.
“I forgot to make anything for dinner,” Alix said.
“That’s all right. I raided Victoria’s fridge before I left. I have meals from the best restaurants on the island.” He got out of bed and headed toward the bathroom.
“My mother does believe in eating well.”
As he stood in the doorway in all his naked glory, their eyes met. They didn’t have to say what they were thinking. Now that Victoria was there, things would change. If nothing else the big old house would no longer be theirs alone. Jilly was so quiet, and spent so much time with Ken, that her being in the apartment hadn’t bothered them. But Victoria would be in the room across the hall, and she always had people around her. As a teenager, Alix had been the one to complain that the music was too loud and on too late at night.
Jared gave a sigh, then smiled. “We’ll be all right. She wants Valentina’s journal so maybe if we give it to her she’ll …” He shrugged. “Want to take a shower with me?”
“Love to,” Alix said and threw back the covers.
By an unspoken agreement, they didn’t talk more about Victoria. They wanted to enjoy their time alone. After their shower together, they spread the feast on the floor and did what they so loved: looked at architectural plans. Alix was pleased with what she’d come up with, but Jared didn’t agree with a lot of it, and told her so.
“Kingsley,” Alix said, “you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
It was what she’d said the first time they worked together, which now seemed so long ago. They looked into each other’s eyes and laughed. Back then, Alix had been almost afraid of him, but now it was hard for her to remember that he was the Great Jared Montgomery.
They seemed to understand each other because he pushed away the plates and they made love on top of the sketches of the old Montgomery house. It was an especially sweet lovemaking, as both were realizing the changes in store for them.
Afterward, Alix peeled three sheets of paper off Jared’s stomach and said, “We could stay here.”
“Dilys comes home tomorrow. She’ll want her house back.”
“Lexie and Toby’s house?” Alix asked.
“No privacy.”
“We’ll just have to be firm with Mom,” she said. “And we’ll lock the bedroom door.”
“Want to go to my apartment in New York?”
For a moment Alix’s eyes lit up, but then she shook her head. “Maybe after Izzy’s wedding.”
“Right,” he said. “After the wedding.” He looked away so she couldn’t see the fear that crossed his face. That’s when his grandfather would leave the earth and maybe Victoria would go with him.
Jared looked back at Alix. “If you can keep your hands off me long enough, I’d like to show you a much better idea for that east wing.”
“Different maybe, but not better. And as for hands off, you promised me a meal eaten off my stomach. What happened to that?”
“You didn’t see the chocolate mousse I brought back with me? It’s made for smearing across your bare belly. But first I have to teach you about remodeling a house.”
“I am your pupil and eager to learn. Did you bring any whipped cream?”
“A whole bowl full of it.”
“Get those papers and let’s get started,” she ordered—and Jared obeyed.
The next morning Victoria was sitting at the kitchen table and for the first time in the big old house, she was feeling lonely. How strange it was to be there but not to see and talk to Addy. Over the years they’d developed ways of doing things, who they’d see, where they’d eat. Now the house seemed enormous and empty.
Last night at dinner, Victoria had loved seeing some of her old Nantucket friends—but it hadn’t been the same. Addy wasn’t there. Victoria’d always had to work hard to get Addy to go out with people, but she enjoyed it once she was there. As for Victoria, she’d loved having someone nearby who knew the truth of whatever she was saying. She’d look at some man and say, “How very interesting!” then at home she and Addy would sip their drinks and laugh about how dull and pompous the man was.
But last night there’d been no one to look at with raised eyebrows and suppressed laughter—and Victoria had missed Addy horribly.
Standing at the kitchen sink and pretending she was washing dishes was Jilly Taggert. Victoria knew there was a married name but she didn’t remember it. She’d met Jilly’s sister-in-law, the writer Cale Anderson, at several functions and had liked her. That they wrote in different genres and their sales were fairly equal prevented the jealousy writers so often had for one another.
Victoria looked over her coffee cup at Jilly and knew there’d be no deep friendship there. At least not now. Right now all Jilly could do was stare out the window toward the guesthouse, her eyes searching the garden for any sign of movement. She was waiting for Ken to appear.
She and Jilly had chatted some this morning about inconsequential things, nothing important, but Victoria could see that Jilly was ready for a life change. She’d been widowed many years ago and now her two children—twins, a boy and a girl—were leaving home to go to college—which made Jilly free to go wherever life took her. And she was ready.
Victoria knew that Ken was going to be a problem. She’d learned through long, painful experience that her ex-husband had to be pushed to do things. It was so bad that after their five years of marriage Victoria’d had to jump into bed with another man to try to make Ken listen about how miserable she was. He’d been oblivious to the way his parents snubbed Victoria, of how they’d constantly reminded her that she’d been a waitress at the country club where Ken played tennis every day—as if she could forget! No matter what Victoria did, it wasn’t good enough for his parents. But worse was how they watched little Alix as though they were judging her. They seemed to be waiting to see if she was going to be like them or become like her mother and take life without the seriousness it deserved.
Victoria had cried, pleaded, and threatened in an attempt to get Ken to listen to her complaints, but he’d just talked to her like she was a child and said she was exaggerating everything. In an attempt to placate her, he’d said that what he liked about Victoria was that she was the opposite of what he’d grown up with. The truth was that Ken didn’t believe in displaying emotion—but then up until he met Victoria, his life had been so perfect that he’d had no reason to feel anything deeply.
From Victoria’s point of view, going to bed with Ken’s business partner was something she had to do. It still amazed her that Ken had never wondered why she’d done it in their house, their bed, and just when he’d said he’d be home.
But Ken’s anger and hurt didn’t have the effect Victoria’d hoped it would. Afterward, he still wouldn’t listen to her. He just wanted to yell or sulk, with nothing in between.
Frustrated beyond her ability to cope, Victoria decided to give her husband time to calm down. She took little Alix and ran away to Nantucket, but she’d never thought of staying away. She just wanted Ken to know how it felt to be truly miserable—which she knew he would be without them. And also, she wanted to put him in a place where he had to listen.
But an afternoon of dancing and an old cabinet falling down had changed everything.
Since then, Victoria had felt some guilt that Ken had never seemed to recover from his hurt of the divorce. Over the years, as she’d seen him with one ghastly woman after another, she’d tried to keep her mouth shut. It hadn’t been easy.
Victoria had seen that each of Ken’s former girlfriends had all been the same: outspoken, almost gaudy, ambitious. Victoria couldn’t help being flattered that the women were poor copies of her—which meant that they weren’t right for Ken.
From her perspective, she thought he was afraid to love again. He didn’t want to risk having his hea
rt ripped out a second time, so he’d taken up with women who liked him for what he could give them. But then they made breaking up an easy choice.
As always, Addy had been quite perceptive about what was going on. “If you hadn’t kicked Ken in his very heart,” Addy said one night, “he would have become a mediocre architect struggling to stay in business. And he certainly wouldn’t have so much as canceled a tennis game to help some kid stay out of jail. But you showed him what rage can do.”
It took Victoria a moment before she could laugh at that backhand compliment, but it was so true that she did.
“Too bad Ken let his heart turn to stone,” Addy added and Victoria couldn’t help nodding in agreement. Yes, much too bad.
But now, as Victoria looked at Jilly standing by the sink, constantly looking out the window to see Ken, that old feeling of guilt ran through her. This woman was right for Ken, but would he be smart enough to act on it? Or would he be so damned scared that he’d spend years making up his mind?
When Jilly looked as though she’d seen something heavenly on earth, Victoria knew that Ken was coming. She got up, went to Jilly, and kissed her on the cheek. “I like you,” she said. “Remember that.”
When Victoria saw Ken walking toward the house, she threw open the door and hurried out to greet him. She had to admit that he looked better than he had in years. The usual hangdog, melancholy sadness that lingered in his eyes wasn’t there.
“Darling,” Victoria said loudly as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed both his cheeks.
Pulling away, he glanced at Jilly standing in the doorway. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Victoria said. “Can’t I be glad to see the father of my child?” She slipped her arm in his and moved to the side, but kept him where Jilly could see them. “I met your newest and I must say that she’s adorable. She’s so sweet that I think even you can handle her.”
“Victoria, you can emasculate a man in a sentence. I need to go.”
“No,” she said, smiling and holding firmly on to his arm. “You and I have to talk about our daughter. I’m sure your bland little doll won’t mind waiting for a few minutes.”
Ken, his face already angry, pulled out of Victoria’s grasp, and glared at her. “Jilly is far from bland. She—” He waved his hand. “What do you have to say about Alix?”
“I was just wondering about her and Jared. You know what he’s like, and I’m afraid he’s going to cast her aside and break her heart.”
“You read too many of your own novels. Jared and Alix are well suited. I need to—”
“You mean they work together? I hear he has her doing all his drafting for him. What’s he doing while she works? Picking up girls at a local bar?”
“Victoria, I don’t have time for this! Jared is a good man and you know it. He and Alix—” Ken took a breath to calm himself. “Look, I need to get to work myself. I’m late as it is.” He turned away.
“Thank you for letting this Julie live in the house with me. She’s so docile and eager to please that she’s doing all my washing and she cleans up the kitchen for me. I wonder if she irons. Can she cook? I want to have a dinner party on Saturday, so your Julie can take care of it for me. Thank you so much for lending her to me.”
“Victoria!” Ken growled, his teeth and fists clenched. “If you—”
“If I what, darling?” She smiled at him sweetly.
Ken was so angry he couldn’t speak. He gave his ex-wife one more look of rage, then stomped off into the house, slamming the door behind him.
Victoria watched as Ken stormed over to Jilly, who was still standing by the window. Ken grabbed Jilly and kissed her so hard and with so much passion that when he stepped away, she looked dazed. Ken held tightly onto her shoulders and Victoria saw him speak to her with such force that all Jilly did was nod yes.
Moments later, Ken slammed out of the house. He didn’t so much as slow down when he went past Victoria, but he said, “Get your own damned maid!”
Turning, Victoria looked at Jilly through the window. She still looked to be in a state of shock. She disappeared for a moment, then opened the back door and practically ran to Victoria.
“Ken said that I wasn’t going to be your maid so he wants me to pack and move into the second bedroom in the guesthouse. With him.” She was blinking rapidly. “Victoria, I don’t know what to say except …” She took a breath. “I love you. Really, I do. If there’s anything I can ever do for you, please let me know. Ken—” She broke off at the sound of quick footsteps coming toward them.
Victoria put her finger to her lips as she said loudly and in an arrogant tone, “Of course my undies have to be washed by hand. And my sheets are from Lion’s Paw so they’re ultra luxurious. I need them ironed as I must have crisp sheets.”
Ken stopped by the two women and glared at Victoria before turning to Jilly. “Why don’t you spend the day at the site with me?”
“I would love to,” Jilly said. “Just let me get my bag.”
Left alone with Victoria, Ken gave her a look of contempt before going to his truck.
Moments later, Jilly hurried out of the house, big bag over her shoulder. She slowed down long enough to kiss Victoria’s cheek. “Thank you, and I owe you,” she said, then hurried after Ken.
Victoria listened for the truck leaving the drive, then, smiling, she returned to the house.
In the upstairs window, looking down at her, Caleb too was smiling. “You had to do the same thing the first time they met,” he said, chuckling.
Victoria spent the rest of the morning returning calls and emails and setting up her beloved green room. It was Addy who’d encouraged her to so thoroughly indulge herself with the color scheme.
“Why not please yourself?” Addy said. “It’s what I do every day.” She was referring to the fact that she only accepted invitations to events she really wanted to attend. When Victoria wasn’t there, she mostly stayed home.
Victoria had agreed and done her beautiful room all in green. At home she never dared do something like that since, even as a child, Alix was as critical as her father.
“Mother,” Alix had said when she was just six years old, “you have to think of the overall concept.”
Victoria hadn’t known whether to be horrified or amused. She chose laughter. But then so much of the time Victoria felt like she was the child and Alix was the adult.
Just before noon, Victoria began preparing lunch for three. That meant she took packages out of the refrigerator and arranged the contents on platters. Alix had shown her how to use a microwave but Victoria hadn’t yet mastered it—not that she’d let anyone see, that is. She found it rewarding to let other people feel needed.
As she moved about, she kept looking out the window, as nervous as Jilly watching for Ken. It hadn’t been easy for her since Alix went to college. Leaving her writing studio to return to an empty house had sometimes left her dizzy with yearning. There were always invitations and Victoria was good at throwing parties, but she still missed her daughter.
When Alix came home, it was as though the world could start turning again. They talked and talked, with Victoria telling her about her books, people she’d seen, places she’d traveled. She was well aware that Alix often left out tidbits about her own life, but Victoria knew how to get them out of Ken. All she had to do was start a sentence with, “I’m worried about Alix,” and Ken blabbed his guts out. But then Victoria had never thought it was fair that their daughter told him more than she did her.
Victoria got everything ready for lunch, setting the big old dining table up beautifully. She and Addy had put on many dinner parties there. Victoria had been the one to scour the closets and even the attic for beautiful old china and tablecloths. Addy had made up the guest list. “No, no,” she’d say. “Those two hate each other. Their great-grandfathers were in love with the same woman.” Or “Who knows about them? Their family only moved to the island in the 1920s.” Sometimes she’d say, “They?
??re summer people, but they’re still respectable.”
As for the food, someone else cooked it and they poured it into the eighteenth-century Chinese import dishes that Captain Caleb had brought back.
So now Victoria set the table for Alix and Jared, two people she loved very much.
That first summer when she’d met Addy’s nephew, she’d seen a tall, surly boy who was so angry he was a bit frightening. That summer Victoria’d had her mind full of the journals and had stayed away from him. Besides, he’d made it clear that he didn’t like an outsider in his family home.
But the next summer she’d seen a different person. There were still vestiges of that first boy, but Jared had spent most of a year under the tutelage of a very angry Ken. It had taken some work on her part but she’d managed to elicit a few smiles from the boy.
By the time Jared graduated from high school, he was completely changed, and when Ken approached Victoria about helping pay to educate him, she’d readily agreed.
Sometimes Victoria had felt bad about keeping Alix from knowing about Nantucket, but she also knew it was for the best. Early on, Ken had shown her that Jared had a talent for architecture, and Alix had been scribbling pictures of houses since she could pick up a crayon.
That first summer, one afternoon Victoria had walked into the big family room to find a fourteen-year-old Jared and a four-year-old Alix sitting on the floor building some great, tall structure out of Legos. Alix was looking at the boy with eyes filled with stars, while Jared saw her as a kid.
In an instant, Victoria saw Alix’s future: She’d crush on the big, handsome boy so hard that she’d forego her own life. Victoria wanted more for her daughter. She didn’t want Alix to do what she’d done, marrying too young and taking on responsibilities too soon. And when you were settled with a man you had to deal with his family, something Victoria had been too young to handle. No, Victoria wanted her daughter to find out about herself first, then later, if she met Jared again and they liked each other, that was another matter.
All this led Victoria to her present worry. For all that she’d used Jared to goad Ken into an argument, she was concerned about how Jared felt about Alix. When it came to women, he really was a bit of a scoundrel. Every August they’d laughed about his girlfriends. He never had time for them—and he kept his work life separate from his personal one. “Half of them don’t know what I do for a living,” he’d said just two summers ago. “And the other half don’t care.”