True Love (50 page)

Worse than physical locks was what Victoria had done to Alix’s mind. Victoria had made Alix become obsessed with Izzy’s wedding. Everything she’d done before had to be redone and presented to Victoria for approval.

“Perhaps just a few more roses,” Victoria would say as she looked up over a cup of tea, then Alix would go back and do it all over again. As far as Jared could tell, Alix was having to do each task about four times.

This morning he’d tried to talk to Alix about it all, but that hadn’t worked out well.

“It’s just until the wedding is over,” Alix said, “then things will go back to normal.”

“What does ‘normal’ mean?”

“I don’t know.” She looked at her watch. “I have an appointment with the tent people in ten minutes. I have to go.”

He caught her arm. “Alix, after the wedding your mother will hunker down with Valentina’s journal and she’ll probably start searching for the ones Aunt Addy wrote.” If Victoria is still alive, that is, he thought but didn’t add. That secret was gnawing at him more every day.

“I don’t know why that’s a problem,” Alix said as she started down the stairs.

“It’s just that you give in to your mother and obey her like you’re still four years old.”

She stopped on the stairs and glared at him. “What
exactly
are you saying? That I shouldn’t give up some of my time to help my friend have a
happy
wedding?”

“No, of course not. It’s just that I’m at the end of the hall and you’re not there with me.” He gave her a little smile.

“This is about sex, isn’t it? You want me in bed with you and my friend can take care of her own wedding. Is that what you’re saying?” She took another step down but Jared extended his arm and blocked her. She stopped but didn’t look at him.

“Alix, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that I miss you.” He leaned forward to put his lips near her ear. “I miss our talks, how we work together. I miss seeing you.”

She turned to face him. “I miss you too, but I’m also a realist. You’re going back to work in New York soon and I’m going to stay here with Mom for the rest of my year in your house. She’s asked me to help her with her outline. She’s been having trouble with her eyes so I’m going to read Valentina’s journal aloud to her.”

For a moment Jared couldn’t speak. “And you believed that story?!”

“Believe that my mother has trouble with her eyes? Really, Jared, why would she lie to me about something like that?”

“To keep us apart,” he said.

“That makes no sense! I’m in this house because of
your
aunt’s will, my mother is here because she needs to earn a living, and you
won’t
be here because you have a business to run. How is
any
of that my mother who is keeping us apart?”

“I mean
now
. Today, tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Alix said. “I see. You’re angry because I’m not jumping into bed with you right now. You’ll be fine when you’re in New York wearing a tux and dating your supermodels, but now, today, you want me because … well, because I’m here.”

“That’s ridiculous! I have a week before I go to New York and I
always
come home. Often.”

That statement made Alix so angry she was afraid to reply. She gave him a look up and down. “I have to go!” She hurried down the stairs.

It took all Jared could do to keep from ramming his fist into the wall.
This
is why he never brought his girlfriends to Nantucket, he thought. Start being nice to them at home and—

And what? he thought. They run off and help their friends instead of spending every minute with him? “So who’s the four-year-old?” he mumbled and plodded back up the stairs.

Standing at the top of the staircase was his grandfather, so solid, so
real
, that Jared knew that if he touched him he’d feel it. The man was wearing a smirk that screamed “I told you so!”

Jared hadn’t seen his grandfather for weeks—and he missed him almost as much as he did Alix. “I want to talk to you.”

“Everything has been said,” Caleb answered, then walked away. He didn’t vanish in a poof, but
walked
. Jared was sure he heard the creak of the old floorboards, which was impossible since Caleb’s ghostly body had no weight.

By the time Jared got to the top of the stairs, the wide hallway was empty and Victoria was just leaving her bedroom.

“Jared, you gave me a start. Did I hear you and Alix arguing?”

“Of course not. What would we have to fight about? What have you got planned for her to do today? Arranging dolphin rides?”

Victoria smiled sweetly. “Why no, dear, I thought we’d have the guests go on a Nantucket sleigh ride.” She swept past him.

A Nantucket sleigh ride was when, long ago, the sailors harpooned a whale from their rowboats, then the enormous creature would drag them across the sea in a terrifying, life-threatening rush.

Gritting his teeth, Jared watched her until she went down the stairs. When he looked back, he saw his grandfather again, but this time he was smiling broadly. “Do
not
leave!” Jared ordered, but Caleb just laughed and walked away.

Jared leaned back against the wall. This wasn’t his day!

“Are you all right?” Victoria asked her daughter. It was evening and they were sitting in the family room. Victoria was on the couch with a stack of printed papers on her lap, a rum cocktail in her hand.

Alix was on a cushion on the floor, her legs under the coffee table, and she was tying little green ribbons into bows. Yesterday her mother had declared that they absolutely, positively must give Izzy a baby shower on the day before the wedding. Since then, Alix had been drowning in baby things. “I’m fine,” Alix said.

“You don’t look happy. If you don’t want to do this, I can get Lexie or Toby to help. I’m sure they’d be willing.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just …”

“It’s Jared, isn’t it?” Victoria said.

“Actually, it is. We had an argument this morning and I was pretty harsh. He was saying he missed me.”

“I’m sure he does. When does he return to New York?”

“Next week. After the wedding, I guess.” She grimaced. “But he says he’ll visit Nantucket often. I guess I’ll see him then.”

“Alix …”

She put up her hand. “It’s all right. I knew this was coming. I hoped it wasn’t, but … I don’t know what I expected.” She ran her hand through the box of bows. “Do you think this will be enough?”

“More than enough.” Victoria was studying her daughter. “Why don’t you walk down to see Lexie and Toby? Maybe they’ll cheer you
up. And I think Jared’s outside with his head under the hood of his truck. Maybe you could hand him tools.”

“No, thanks,” Alix said as she got up. “Seeing him now will just make the inevitable harder. I think I’ll go upstairs and read for a while. I suddenly feel very tired.” She kissed her mother’s cheek and left the room.

Victoria put her manuscript pages on the coffee table and sat there frowning. So far, the plan that had come to her in her sleep wasn’t happening as she’d envisioned. “Jared,” she said aloud, “you’re an idiot.”

Outside, Jared looked up from his truck to see the light in Alix’s window. He’d calmed down from this morning enough to see that she was right. He’d promised Tim that he’d be back in the office on Monday and he planned to be there. Then after that, well, he would start working toward keeping Alix with him forever. He smiled at that idea. It would take a while and they’d have to work out some things together. For one thing, there was New York. His office and his work life were a big part of him and Alix needed to realize that.

He glanced back up at the window and saw her shadow moving about. Who was he kidding? Alix could probably run his office better than he could. And she got along with people better than he did, so that wouldn’t be a problem.

The truth was that he couldn’t think of any aspect of his life that Alix wouldn’t improve.

His question was how she felt about him. She certainly hadn’t seemed upset about his going off to New York while she stayed here on the island.

Jared picked up a wrench. Tim was going to be furious because in the coming year his business partner was going to be out of the office a lot.

Chapter Thirty

I
t was two days later when Victoria saw Jared walking up the path to the kitchen door. It looked like he had just stepped out of the shower and he had a big bouquet of flowers in his hand. Obviously, he was coming to apologize.

Ken said Jared had been out on his boat all day yesterday. “The chapel’s almost done but we could have used his help. And what have you done to Alix to make her look so gloomy?”

Victoria put her hand behind her back and crossed her fingers. “This time it wasn’t me. Jared and Alix had a rip-roaring fight.”

“I can’t imagine that,” Ken said. “They act like they’ve known each other forever.”

“You’d like to think that they’re clones of you,” Victoria said in disgust, but Ken smiled.

“So what did they argue about?”

Victoria shrugged. “He told her he’s going back to New York and Alix is staying here. Looks like it’s over between them. Actually, she’s so down she’s hardly speaking. You think I should take her to a doctor to get her some pills?”

The hot blood of anger crept up Ken’s neck to his face. “I’ll murder that boy!” he said under his breath, then turned and stomped out of the house.

As Victoria watched him go, she could only shake her head. “So
now
you listen to me? I lie, you listen. I’m honest and you run off to play tennis with Toby’s dad. Men!”

Now, coming toward the house with his arms full of flowers was a contrite-looking Jared. Maybe Victoria should be glad of the sight but she wasn’t. What happened next? He and Alix would make up? That would change nothing. After the wedding Jared would go to New York and Alix would still remain behind. Stay to read Valentina’s journals to her mother?

Deliver me! Victoria thought. She’d never be able to concentrate with someone reading aloud, and besides, Alix would be lovesick. She’d be looking at her phone constantly, waiting for HRH to call.

No, it would be better if Victoria hurried this whole thing along. Jared was nearly at the door, so she opened it a bit so it wouldn’t make any noise, then she went into the family room.

Alix was standing by the window looking at some house plans, but when she heard her mother’s footsteps she shoved them under three bridal magazines.

“You must be relieved to be done with a man like Jared,” Victoria said rather loudly.

“We just had an argument. Nothing is ‘done.’ Mother, sometimes I think you don’t really like him.”

“But, darling,” Victoria said, as she saw Jared come to a halt, flowers in hand and just out of sight, “I adore Jared. I always have, but do you think he’s right for a girl like you?”

“What does that mean?”

“He’s a man of the world, dear. He’s used to yachts and all-night parties and those plastic girls who remind him that he’s famous.”

Alix felt the blood rushing through her body, and just like her father, it was moving upward to her face. “Jared also likes to work and I do too. And that man who sails on yachts also takes care of a lot of people on this island. If anyone needs help, Jared is there to give it.”

“But how do
you
fit into this?” Victoria asked, an eyebrow raised in skepticism. Her tone implied that Alix didn’t know what his life was really like.

“He
needs
me,” Alix said, half shouting in her anger. “I see the person underneath the public man, behind the
famous
one. You know something? I think that before me Jared led a very lonely life, with people wanting him for what he could give them or do for them, not for who he
is
.”

“But isn’t that what
you
want from him? To further your career? To become a great success on his coattails?”

“No!” Alix shouted, then just as suddenly the anger left her. “I did. When I first met him all I wanted was to work for his firm, but not now. Now I want to share my life with him. If he wants to go build huts in Africa, I’ll go with him.”