True Love (12 page)

That night Jared had to throw a drunken Ken over his shoulder,
put him in his pickup, drive him back to the guesthouse, and put him in bed. The next day neither of them acknowledged what had happened and they never spoke of it.

Eventually, Ken recovered enough that he wanted to go back to architecture—and by then he’d discovered that he liked teaching. But by that time he and Jared were like father and son and the thought of separation hurt. “I can’t stay here,” Ken said. “Victoria won’t allow Alix to return to Nantucket. That book of hers sold millions and she says she has an image to uphold. Between you and me, I think Victoria doesn’t want Addy to take over Alix.” He looked at Jared. “If I want to be part of my daughter’s future, I have to go back to the mainland and set up a life there. I’ll come back when I can.”

Jared worked to conceal his pain. A few years before he’d met Ken, his father had gone out on his boat one day and never returned. It was days before they found him. He’d had a heart attack in his sleep. Jared had loved his father to the point of worship and losing him had brought out the worst in the boy. He’d always been a big kid, nearly six feet when his father died, and Jared started drinking just months later. Fistfights, racing cars, vandalism—you name it, he’d done it. His mother, trying to deal with her own grief, had no control over him.

Then Ken, also angry at the world, had stepped in and taken over.

When Jared said goodbye to Ken, he thought that would be the end. Nantucketers were used to summer visitors. They came and went and you never saw them again.

But Ken had returned often. He was the one who got Jared into college, then into architecture school. And when Jared made his mark by building his final project, it had been Ken who left his office and his classroom, strapped on a tool belt, and helped Jared build it.

Yes, Jared owed Ken, and he owed Victoria because she was part of his life too. And now he owed their daughter.

He stood there for a moment and all he knew for sure was that he wanted to talk to his grandfather.

Jared was sitting in the family room of Kingsley House. He hadn’t turned on any lights, but he didn’t need to. He knew that if he sat there long enough, his grandfather would show up.

When he did, Jared didn’t even look up. “I messed up. Really big. Ken is angry at me, and when Victoria hears what happened she’s going to tear me apart, piece by piece. I doubt if I’ll live through it. Our friendship certainly won’t survive it.” He looked toward the window at his grandfather. “If you’d only told me she was here, I could have escaped.”

“Young Alix has always been a considerate person,” Caleb said.

When Caleb started to say more, Jared cut him off. “If you’re about to tell me some of that reincarnation mumbo-jumbo, don’t do it. I don’t want to hear.”

“I never try to put knowledge into that hard head of yours. You only believe what you can see and touch. Turn on the light and look inside that far cabinet.”

Jared hesitated, almost afraid of what he’d see. Reluctantly, he got up, switched on the light, and opened the cabinet. What he saw wasn’t what he’d expected. Inside was a model of what looked to be a little chapel, complete with bell tower.

Right away he could see the influence of his own work on the design, but he also saw that of Ken Madsen. But most important, it was a new and fresh design, Alix’s own voice, unique to her.

“Lost your tongue?” Caleb asked.

“Pretty much.”

“She made it to show you. But you—”

“You don’t have to rub it in. What made her choose this to work on?”

“I made sure she saw an old photo.”

Jared nodded. “The one of Aunt Addy and Grandma Bethina laughing together?”

“Yes, that one.”

He picked up the little model and held it on the flat of his hand, turning it around to study it. “This is better than I would have done.” He put it back in the cabinet, then took out her freehand sketches and went through the pages. “She’s good. Three of these are buildable.”

“She and her friend broke into your house.”

“They what?” Jared was still looking at the drawings.

“What is that heretical thing you say about heroes and Our Father?”

Jared had to think for a moment to understand that one. His grandfather often mixed up old and new slang. “Hero worship.”

“That’s it. Alix used to feel that way about you, but after tonight I don’t think she does.”

“That’s exactly what I didn’t want to happen,” Jared said. “Some kid looking at me with big puppy-dog eyes, thinking I hung the moon. That’s impossible to live up to.”

“And there you were, lusting after Ken’s daughter.”

“I did no such thing!” Jared said angrily, but then he grinned. “Well, maybe I did. She’s a beauty—and built. I’m only human.”

“You like that her father taught her what you showed him about fish.”

“Which my dad taught me.”

“And
I
taught all of you,” Caleb said, and the two men smiled at each other.

“So now what do I do?” Jared asked.

“Apologize to her.”

“And she’s going to forgive me? I just say I’m sorry and that’s it?” Jared hesitated. “I know. I could give her a job at my office in New York. She could—”

“You could help her with the wedding.”

“Oh, no! I don’t know anything about that. If she wants to stay here I’ll get the office to send her some work and I’ll … I’ll buy her a drafting table. Or a CAD system. Maybe she could use the guesthouse
as an office. I’ll go back to New York and …” He broke off at the look on his grandfather’s face and sighed. “What are you plotting against me?”

“She’s here alone. She knows no one on this island.”

“I said I’d get Dilys to—”

“Young Alix is planning on leaving for good,” Caleb said.

“Ken and Victoria want her here.” Jared took a breath. If he was the reason she left, everyone would be angry at him. “When is she planning to leave?”

“I heard her father—the man who made you what you are, I might add—ask her to give him twenty-four hours to change things. Did he mention that time allotment to you?”

“No, he didn’t. At least I don’t think he did, but then he yelled a lot. It was hard to keep up with every word.”

“Good man. Protective of his child. It looks like Kenneth’s leaving it up to you to figure out something to do to make her stay. If she weren’t his daughter, what would you do to keep her here?”

“Go upstairs and get in bed with her.”

Caleb grimaced. “In this case, that’s not an option.”

“When it comes to women, I’m better in bed than out of it,” Jared said in a matter-of-fact way.

“There must be something you know how to give to women outside of bed.”

“You’re talking about your old-fashioned ideas of courting, aren’t you? And when have I had
time
for that? I’ve worked seven days a week since I was a teenager. I only stopped to be with Aunt Addy. As for gifts, my assistant took care of that, usually from Tiffany’s. Maybe—”

“No jewelry.”

Jared stood there in silence, thinking, but he came up with nothing.

“How did a descendant of mine get so smart yet so dumb?” Caleb asked in disbelief.

“Maybe we better not talk about stupid acts of the Kingsley men.

Tell me again what happened to your ship that was so horrible that you aren’t allowed to leave this earth?”

Caleb glowered, then shook his head and smiled. “All right, we’re equally befuddled when it comes to women. However, I’m trying to teach you what I’ve learned in my lifetime.”

“Which spans a few years.”

“More than a few of them. How about flowers?” Caleb asked.

“Okay, so tomorrow morning I go buy her a bunch of flowers. That’s easy.”

“In my experience, ‘easy’ doesn’t win a woman. They like men to climb mountains for them.”

“Right. And get the single, rare blossom on the top. Of course nowadays we know doing that will wipe out an entire species.”

Caleb grimaced. “And you wonder why women don’t hang around you.”

“For your information—”

“I know,” Caleb said, “you leave them, they don’t leave you. I think she should wake up to find flowers.”

“Where would I get them? It’s too early in the season to pick them in the garden. Think I should break into a florist shop?” He was trying to add some humor to the whole thing, but Caleb wasn’t smiling.

“It wouldn’t be the first time you’d done something like that,” Caleb said.

“No, but it’s been a while.”

“If only we knew someone who grew flowers even when it’s cold outside.”

Jared blinked at Caleb as understanding came to him. “No,” he said, then stood up. “No, no, no. I won’t do it.”

“But—”

“I’m not going to. Lexie will give me hell and I don’t want to hear it. I’ve had enough of being yelled at today.” Jared left the room and went to the back door in the kitchen.

Caleb put himself in front of the door.

“No,” Jared said again and reached through his long-deceased grandfather to turn the knob, then went outside.

Jared got all the way to the guesthouse before he stopped. He mumbled curse words as he stood there, knowing that his grandfather was watching, and worse, knowing that he was
right
. As Jared went toward the gate, he raised his hand in a very old gesture.

Caleb chuckled. He’d known his grandson would do the right thing. He just had to be pushed hard—something Caleb was good at doing.

Jared’s cousin Lexie lived just a few houses away and he hoped that at this hour she’d be asleep so he could use that as an excuse not to bother her. Last summer he’d restored an old greenhouse on the property. For years it had been buried under several feet of vines and briars and poison ivy. He’d tried to talk her into letting him bring in a dozer and level it all. “Then I’ll buy you a brand-new Lord and Burnham greenhouse,” he’d said.

But neither Lexie or her roommate, Toby, would have any of it.

“You’ve been away from Nantucket too long,” Lexie said. “We were recycling and reusing before it became fashionable.”

“My whole house is reused and recycled,” he’d snapped, not liking being accused of having off-islander tendencies.

In the end, the two women won because Jared had made the mistake of asking Toby what she wanted to do. Toby was tall, slim, blond, with a dreamy look in her blue eyes. Ethereal, fragile. There was an otherworldly air about her that could turn grown men into mush.

“I rather like the idea of an older greenhouse,” she’d said as she smiled up at Jared.

“Then I’ll do it,” he said.

Lexie had thrown up her hands. “I ask and you argue. Toby asks and you give in instantly.”

“What can I say, little cousin?” Jared said. “Toby is magic.”

“Whatever,” Lexie said. “If it gets you to do the work and pay for it, that’s all that matters.”

Toby worked in the best florist shop on the island, while Lexie was a PA to a man she described as a “helpless idiot.” When he wasn’t on Nantucket and demanding her attention, Lexie planned to help Toby raise flowers that they could sell to shops around town.

Jared had sent a text message to Jose Partida, who owned Clean Cut Landscaping, and he hadn’t blinked an eye at the daunting job of cleaning up the poisonous tangle.

When the debris was cleared away they saw that there wasn’t much left of the old greenhouse, but Lexie expected her cousin to put the pieces back together.

“This thing is rotten,” Jared said. “A new one—”

“I want
you
to do it,” Lexie said. “I want you to be a Kingsley—if you can remember how—and put it back together yourself. Or have you become too much of an off-islander to put on a tool belt?”

For a moment Jared thought about strangling his cousin, and he pondered ignoring her challenge, but he didn’t. Instead, he’d called New York and postponed what he was doing for a rich client. He went to the drawing board in the guesthouse and spent three days designing a garden for flowers and berries.

As Lexie had requested, Jared put on a tool belt and worked with contractor Twig Perkins’s men to put the old greenhouse back into working order. They also installed raised beds, made a compost area, and added a seating place for clients.

When it was all done, Toby stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” she said.

After Toby left, Lexie said, “If you’re so enraptured with her, why don’t you ask her out?”

“Toby? That would be like dating an angel.”

“I get it. And you’re too much of a devil.”

“At last someone truly understands me. I get any thanks from you?” He tapped his finger on his cheek.

“That’s not the side Toby kissed,” Lexie said as she planted one on him.

“I’m never going to wash the cheek
she
touched ever again.”

Lexie groaned. “Come on and help us fill the pots full of dirt.”

Jared held up his hands. “These were made for holding tall glasses of beer. You girls are on your own from now on.”

That had been over a year ago, and since then the two roommates had been able to supplement their income with the flowers they grew.

Jared tapped on their front door lightly. All the lights were out so he doubted if they would hear him. He’d have to wait until morning to get the flowers—which meant that he wouldn’t get told off by Lexie. He didn’t know why he let his grandfather goad him into doing things he didn’t want to. Ever since he was a kid—