True Love (23 page)

“Because it’s on Nantucket.”

“I know that. But if it were in Indiana …”

“If it were in Indiana it wouldn’t cost even one million,” he said. “But it’s on Nantucket.”

“Yes, and it’s on the water, but isn’t twenty million a bit excessive?”

“Not if the house is on Nantucket,” he said firmly.

“Okay,” she said, “what would this house cost if it were on, say, Martha’s Vineyard?”

“Who’s she?”

“I don’t know who Martha was. I’m talking about the island that’s about thirty miles west of here.”

“Never heard of the place.” He turned and walked down the corridor.

Alix stood still for a moment, shaking her head, then she followed him upstairs to see the room he’d designed to look like a ship captain’s quarters.

Chapter Eleven

A
s they were leaving the house, Alix tripped on the porch and fell into Jared’s arms. She had taken over fifty photos of the room he’d designed—it was charming—and she was looking at them in the viewfinder of the camera. She was so absorbed in the photos that she wasn’t paying attention to where she was walking and didn’t notice when she got to the edge of the porch.

Jared must have seen what was going to happen, or else he had the reflexes of a cobra. His arms went out and he grabbed her before she fell facedown onto the ground.

For a moment they stood there, Jared holding her with her feet off the ground, both his arms around her. Alix had the camera in one hand and the other was on his back.

The only thing certain in her life was that she wanted him to kiss
her. Her eyes went to that bottom lip of his and words from her poem like “succulent” and “tip of my tongue” and “draw it in” came to her mind. Words and anticipated sensations floated through her mind and seemed to run through her body.

She felt his breath on her lips. Mingling breaths, she thought. She couldn’t help moving her face closer to his until their lips were no more than a quarter inch apart. She looked up into his eyes and they were like blue fire, like an explosion about to happen.

Had he been anyone else she would have closed the tiny gap between their lips, but with this man she had doubts.

A seagull screeched nearby and the trance was broken.

Jared set her down on the ground with such a thunk that Alix’s teeth clicked together. The second they were disentangled, he turned and quickly walked toward the sea.

Alix took a step back and sat on the edge of the porch. If he’d slapped her, he couldn’t have hurt her more. She buried her face in her hands and tried to calm her wildly pounding heart.

A conversation she’d overheard a few years ago between her father and a friend of his came to her. “The real joy of youth is that you’re desirable to everyone,” her father’s friend said. “When you get to be our age every year cuts that number in half.”

“So where are we now? Down to fifteen percent of the population?”

“You always were an optimist.”

Both men had laughed together.

When Alix had heard that she’d been about twenty, which made her father close to fifty. She didn’t think that now, at twenty-six, she was old, but she was realizing that she wasn’t desirable to every man. And definitely not to Jared Montgomery Kingsley the Seventh.

As she stood up, she took some breaths. She could not continue to carry a torch for someone who didn’t want her. The sooner she stopped her lunacy of imagining something between her and this famous man, the better.

She looked toward the water and saw him standing with his
shoulders raised as though fighting off an attack. His self-protective stance made her feel bad. She reminded herself that this island was his home, a place where he could get away from eager students pouncing on him.

It took courage on her part, but she walked the few feet and stopped just behind him. He didn’t turn around. “I apologize for that,” she said softly. “It won’t happen again.”

He kept his face turned away from her but he gave a sigh, as though in relief.

Alix couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for him. How horrible it must have been for him to be in an auditorium full of students, all of them wanting something from him. “Friends?” she said and held out her hand to shake.

When he turned to look at her, Alix drew in her breath. She’d expected sadness in his eyes, but instead she again saw that blue fire. Raging hot. So fiery that she had to work not to step back from it.

It was gone as quickly as it came. In the next second, he was smiling as though nothing had happened.

“I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I’m starving. Want to go to Lexie’s house for lunch?” He started walking toward the antique truck.

“Does this mean I get to meet the angelic Toby?” Alix asked as she hurried after him. She was hoping that they could return to the easy camaraderie they’d enjoyed these last few days.

He stopped with his hand on the door handle of the old truck. “On one condition.”

Alix quit breathing. Was he going to ask her to promise to keep her hands off him? “What’s that?”

“That you help me with that house in L.A. that I’m late on. Tim emailed me again. They want a plan yesterday.”

“Oh,” Alix said as she got into the truck. “Oh.”

“Is that a good oh or a bad one?” he asked, getting behind the wheel.

“I’m a student and you’re … him. What do you think it means?”

“That I should do my own work?”

She was glad that he was back to teasing her and that the tension between them was gone. “You have any photos of the land?”

“I have a 3-D of the terrain of the twelve-acre plot, including existing trees and a big rock formation. I was thinking—”

“Of making one wall part of the stone?” she asked.

He had his arm over the back of the seat as he reversed the truck, but he paused to look at her—and the look he gave her was just as her father used to do when she’d done something that pleased him.

“You had the same thought?” she asked.

“Exactly. But I can’t decide about the entrance. What do I do to match the stone wall? Maybe—” He broke off when Alix’s cell phone rang.

She pulled it out of her bag and looked at the ID. “It says ‘Unknown Caller,’ ” she said. She was always cautious about such calls.

“It could be your friend.”

Alix pushed the button. “Hello?”

“I’m so sorry!” Izzy said. “So, so sorry I just disappeared, but Glenn threw a fit. It was wonderful! I was never so in love with him in my life. I thought he and his father were going to start slugging each other, but Glenn stood his ground and his mother stopped pestering me about who had to be in
my
wedding.”

Alix looked across the seat at Jared and nodded that it was Izzy. At her look of happiness, he smiled. “What about your mom?”

“My dad took care of her,” Izzy said. “He was hilarious. He said that my young knight scared him half to death and that even though Mom also scared him, Glenn was bigger.”

“That sounds like your dad.”

“And your father too. Did you know that he called my dad and said …? Well, I don’t know what he said, but it started everything and— Oh, Alix, I’ve just talked about
me
. How are
you
doing?”

“I’m great,” she said, “but I’m afraid I haven’t done much about your wedding.”

“That’s okay. I have and I’ll email you all about it. Did you know that Glenn and I are in the Virgin Islands right now?”

“Yes, I did.”

“It was your dad’s idea, but both our parents paid for it.”

“My father helped?” Alix looked at Jared, who lifted his eyebrows.

“Yes, he did. And when my phone didn’t work here, they had this one sent to the hotel.”

“Actually, that was—”

“I’m pregnant.”

“What?” Alix said.

“That’s why I was crying so much on Nantucket. Hormones, I guess. And now all I do is throw up. I—” She stopped because Alix gave a scream of happiness.

“You’re sure?”

Jared looked at Alix in question and she gestured a big curve over her stomach.

“Yes, yes,” Izzy said. “But only you and Glenn know.”

“You told him first?! Before
me
?” Alix said. “What kind of BFF are you?”

Izzy laughed. “I already miss you. Have you met
him
yet?”

“Jared is right here. Would you like to talk to him?” Alix held the phone up to Jared’s ear.

“Congratulations, Izzy,” Jared said. “Sorry I was eavesdropping but we’re in a truck together so I couldn’t help hearing.” He waited in silence but there was no response. He looked at Alix and shrugged.

She took the phone back. “Izzy?”

No reply.

“Izzy? Are you there?”

Silence.

Alix looked at the phone. “I think we got cut off.”

“I’m here.”

Alix put the phone back to her ear. “You’re there? Did you hear what Jared said?”

“J …” Izzy managed to whisper the J sound but that’s all.

“Jared,” Alix said. “Jared Kingsley at home. Jared Montgomery to off-islanders, but they don’t count.”

He gave her a smile of approval.

“You’re in a truck with him now? This minute?” Izzy’s voice was so low Alix could hardly hear it.

“Yes. It’s an old one. Thirties?” She looked at Jared in question.

“Nineteen thirty-six Ford,” he said.

“That’s him talking now?” Izzy whispered.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Are you two a couple?” Izzy asked.

“Friends,” Alix said. “Colleagues. A few minutes ago Jared asked me to help him design a house that he has a commission for. He and I are going to try to use a rock that’s on the land as part of the structure.”

“You and … and …?”

“Jared,” Alix said. “Or just Kingsley. But I think he’s sometimes called Seven.” She looked at him in question and he nodded.

“I think I’m going to have to lie down,” Izzy said. “This is too much for me to take in. Alix?”

“Yes?”

“How is the plumbing in that old house?”

She remembered Izzy’s fantasy of the pipes bursting and Alix and Jared being drenched with water. “The plumbing is fine, and there is absolutely no danger of any pipes bursting.” As she said it she couldn’t help glancing at Jared’s body. He was turning a corner, his face away from her. He certainly did keep in shape! Flat stomach, heavy thighs. He straightened the wheel and Alix looked away.

“Alix,” Izzy said, “sometimes old pipes can be made to burst if they have pressure put on them.”

“Yeah, but pressure can also cause them to explode and blow the whole house apart. Izzy?”

“Yes?”

“I told Jared I was worried about you, so he had his assistant call
your mother to find out about you. And it was Jared who had the phone sent to your hotel and he paid for it.”

For a moment Izzy was silent. When she spoke, her voice was that of a commander. “Alixandra!” Izzy said sternly. “That man is a keeper. If you have to use a sledgehammer on those pipes,
do
it! I have to go. I’m going to throw up.”

Alix turned off her phone, then was silent as she looked out the windshield and thought about what Izzy had told her.

“Happy for your friend?” Jared asked.

“Very. Izzy was born to be someone’s mother. When I’m down, she’s always there with chocolate and a listening ear. You couldn’t be a better friend than that.”

“Is she still planning on having the wedding here?”

“I think so, but it’ll be fairly soon—if she plans to still fit into the dress we bought, that is.”

“You can spend the afternoon talking to Toby about what you need.” He glanced at her. “You okay?”

“Sure. Fine.” She knew she needed to adjust to this new development. Her friend was not only getting married but she was going to have a baby, while Alix … “It’s just that I’m still getting over a breakup. You ever go through that?” She waited for his answer with her breath held. It was the first really personal question she’d asked him.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Every single one of them eventually said, ‘You love your work more than you will
ever
love me.’ After that, I always knew the end was near.”

“That’s kind of what Eric told me,” Alix said. “Not about love, but that I paid more attention to work than I did to him. I couldn’t make him understand that buildings have always been a big part of my life.”

“I can vouch for that,” Jared said. “You used to build three-foot-tall towers when you were just a kid. You and Granddad—” He stopped. His grandfather used to oversee little Alix in her placement of objects. And he told her where things in the house were. Under
Caleb’s direction, she’d pulled pieces of scrimshaw and little enamel boxes, and even coins from places where they’d been hiding for a century or more.

“Your grandfather and I did what?” Alix asked.

He knew she meant his most recent grandfather, but he’d died not long after Jared’s birth. His mother’s father had died before that. When Jared was a toddler, he’d made his father laugh when he’d been shocked that one of his friends had a grandfather everyone could actually see.

“Sorry. Mixed up. You and Aunt Addy used to spend hours building things.”

Alix looked away for a moment as she felt like he wasn’t telling the truth. She didn’t remember Aunt Addy sitting on the floor and stacking things. But Alix wasn’t going to push it. She was learning that if she persisted she could get whatever she wanted to know out of him. But if she asked directly, he changed the subject. “So what’s Lexie’s house like?”