True Love (30 page)

At the time, Jared had looked at him sharply, wondering what he knew, but Ken had only been making a joke.

Now there was a second of hesitation between them because it was obvious that Ken knew where Jared had been. Ken was the first to react as he opened his arms and Jared went to him. He was so grateful that Ken wasn’t angry that the reunion was like a son coming home from war. They held on to each other for a long moment.

“Come on,” Ken said, his arm still around Jared’s shoulders, “let’s sit down. I made coffee and I brought doughnuts from Downyflake.”

Jared had never been one to postpone bad news, so he said, “You know where I was?” It was better to get this about him and Alix out in the open.

“I always believed that you and my daughter would like each other.”

Jared’s smile showed his relief. It would have been bad if Ken disliked the idea of his precious Alix hooking up with a man who
used to be less than an upstanding citizen. Forget all the success he’d had since then. Jared knew that Ken saw inside him.

The pretty little front parlor was where the good furniture was, including several pieces that his grandfather had sent back on the ship with his brother. After that time, no more children in the family were given his name, as a lot of Nantucketers were angry that Caleb Kingsley, in his rush to get home, had gone into dangerous waters and sunk the ship. Family, friends, and crew had gone down with him.

Ken took the couch and Jared sat on a chair across from him. To Jared’s great annoyance, his grandfather sat down in the big wing chair. His shape and substance were stronger in this room and it amazed Jared that Ken couldn’t see him.

“How’s Celeste?” Jared asked as he picked up a chocolate-covered doughnut.

“Gone,” Ken said. “And Avery?”

“Stormed out months ago,” Jared said. “She wanted a ring.”

The two men smiled at each other. It was humor and understanding based on many years of shared confidences about the women who’d been through their lives. That neither of them had ever settled with one had been a bond between the men.

While eating one of the delectable doughnuts, Ken took a moment before speaking. “What does Caleb say about you and my daughter?”

“He’s always thought—” Jared began, but then halted, his eyes wide.

Ken smiled at Jared’s shock. “Don’t bother trying to cover it up. I used to practically live with you, remember? You were always arguing with an unseen person. I figured you were either crazy or talking to a ghost. Of course I meant the last as a joke.”

“So you decided I was insane?”

“More or less.”

Jared refused to look at his grandfather—who, no doubt, knew that Ken was aware of the Kingsley Family Secret—or one of them, anyway.

“Besides,” Ken said, “I found out that if Addy drank enough rum she’d tell me anything.”

“But she didn’t know I could …” Jared couldn’t bring himself to say the truth out loud. Secrecy had been preached to him by every male in his family since he could understand words.

“No, she didn’t tell me about you, but she did tell me about my daughter and your ghostly ancestor. I assume Alix’s ability to see the … the man is what this year is about.”

“I think so,” Jared said. He wasn’t quite able to control his discomfort in talking of this matter.

“Has she …? Has my daughter …?”

“Seen him? Not yet,” Jared said.

Ken frowned. “I worry about that. In fact, it’s the real reason I came here—and I plan to stay until it …” He looked at Jared. “Until he shows up. I don’t know how my daughter will react to seeing a ghost.”

Jared didn’t know either. If he were alone he’d demand an answer from his grandfather, but Ken’s presence made that impossible. “I’ll be here,” Jared said. “Alix won’t be alone, and I don’t think she’s going to be too upset.” He thought it was better not to mention all the things his grandfather had already done to ease Alix into actually seeing him. Pictures falling, cheek kisses. Caleb had never stopped.

Jared wanted to change the subject. “How is the beautiful Victoria?”

Ken understood that Jared wasn’t going to say any more about the ghost that, supposedly, Alix could see. Or could when she was a child. “Victoria is telling her editor that her next book is half done.”

Jared groaned. “When she gets here, she’s going to want to take this house apart looking for Aunt Addy’s journals.”

“What do you want to bet that she’s going to try to get Alix to leave the island so she can search in peace?”

“Under
no
circumstances is Victoria going to stay in
my
house
alone,” Jared said. “For all I know, Aunt Addy may have hidden them under some hand-carved molding.”

“Victoria would tear out the wallpaper to get to those journals.” The men, both architects, both lovers of old houses, looked at each other in mutual horror. Some of the wallpaper had been made specifically for Kingsley House, hand-painted in France in the early nineteenth century. It was one of a kind. Irreplaceable.

“Which is yet another reason why I plan to stay here.” Ken looked at Jared. “Is it possible that
you
could ask your … uh, ancestor where the journals are hidden?”

Again, it took all Jared’s strength not to glance at his grandfather sitting just to the left of Ken. It was one thing to speak of a ghost in a general sense, but quite another to be told one was sitting just a few feet away. Jared and his father had talked openly about Caleb, and when Jared was a teenager there were many times when he’d also wanted to confide in Ken. “My grandfather”—Jared said the name pointedly—“knows, but it’s his sense of humor not to tell. He probably believes that if the journals are found, no one will look for Valentina.”

Jared watched Ken struggle to not show his discomfort at this outright mention of a man who had died long ago. Maybe he’d thought Jared would deny the contact—and maybe he should have.

“Oh, right,” Ken said, then cleared his throat. “The missing Valentina. I read about her in the will.”

“The one Victoria so very carefully didn’t let Alix see?”

Ken smiled. “And we keep coming full circle, back to my daughter.” He paused. “I think I was a little rough on you when I called.”

“I deserved worse. She’s …”

“Go on,” Ken said. “What were you going to say about her?”

“That she’s not like I thought she would be. I’d heard so much about her from you and Victoria over the years that I thought she’d be a spoiled brat. She had two parents who competed for her attention. To my eyes, she had everything. A real princess.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I think I was jealous.”

“There’s no need to be. We didn’t mean to, but I see now that her mother and I tried to split Alix in half. Victoria wanted her to write, and I …” He shrugged.

“Wanted her to follow you,” Jared said. “Alix told me that she hadn’t inherited her mother’s talent, that she could write but couldn’t plot. I couldn’t tell her that she had exactly inherited Victoria’s talent. And yours.”

“Alix is better than I ever was.” Ken’s voice was full of pride. “She has her mother’s ambition and my— No, I’m not going to take anything from her. Alix has her own talent. She is unique.”

“When she speaks of you she goes into a rapture.”

Ken smiled. “That’s an odd choice of word.”

Jared took his time before speaking. “Will she …? Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

“You mean when she finds out that you haven’t told her about my part in your life?” Ken asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it important that she does forgive you?”

Jared answered immediately and there was passion in his tone. “Yes, it is.” He looked Ken in the eyes. “It is
very
important to me.”

Ken didn’t try to hide his pleasure at the words. Alix and Jared were the two people he loved most in the world, and right now he was
very
glad that they hadn’t grown up together. Chalk one up for Victoria, he thought. She’d always said that it would be a mistake to let the two of them spend a lot of time together when they were growing up.

“He’ll never see her as anything but a kid,” Victoria had said.

At the time, Ken thought it had been just another of Victoria’s excuses for getting what she wanted, but it looked like he was wrong.

Ken smiled at Jared. “It’s me Alix will be angry at, but I’m not too worried. She’s forgiven Victoria for a thousand things.”

“But not you?”

“She’s never needed to forgive me for anything.” Ken’s smile and his lack of worry made Jared relax. “Until now.”

Jared laughed.

When Alix got downstairs, she tried to calm her jangled nerves as she walked into the big back parlor, tried to prepare herself for the coming argument. This is ridiculous! she thought. I’m twenty-six years old and I have a right to…

The room was empty and she didn’t know if she was glad or disappointed. The problem wasn’t that she had a boyfriend, it was a matter of
who
he was. Jared Montgomery’s designs were shown by her father in his classroom. And a quarter of his students, especially the females, had turned in papers about Montgomery’s work. More than once Alix had heard her father complaining about what they wrote. “Why they feel compelled to include whole pages about Montgomery’s sex life is beyond me. Listen to this!” He’d then read aloud something about how the man had been seen with half a dozen females in the last year.

How was Alix going to counteract that? How would she be able to make her father believe that Jared had changed?

And for that matter, what made Alix so sure that he
had
changed? Just because she’d made some statement about not wanting to be hurt didn’t mean that the two of them had a future together.

For a moment she thought of running back upstairs and hiding. Maybe she’d send her dad an email.

“Coward!” she said and started walking again.

When she got toward the front of the house, she heard two male voices. Had someone come to visit and her father was entertaining him? But as she got closer she recognized the voices—Jared and her father.

Oh, no! she thought. This is a disaster. Please, please don’t let Jared tell my father the truth. Alix needed to talk to him first.

The sound of laughter made her stop just outside the door and listen.

“It’s good to hear that Dilys is well,” her father was saying. “Think I can persuade her to have me out to dinner?”

“I think she’ll be hurt if you don’t go. She’ll make those scallops you like so much,” Jared answered. “And Lexie always wants to see you.”

“Oh, no,” Ken said. “Lexie is going to bawl me out for not telling Alix everything.”

“Get in line!” Jared said. “I try to go over there only when I’m sure Toby is home.”

“And how is that beautiful girl?”

“The same. Her dad bought her a big fridge for her flowers.”

“Barrett! I haven’t seen him in over a year. In college, we were such close friends. Is he still playing tennis?”

“Last I heard, he was. Great Harbor.” He was referring to the yachting club that cost over three hundred grand to join.

“How’s Wes? He and Daris get married yet?”

“He tried to take Alix out,” Jared said.

Ken snorted in derision. “I guess you took care of
that
.”

“I certainly did.” There was laughter in Jared’s voice. “I got Daris to show up half naked. Wes couldn’t resist her and besides, she was ready to forgive him.”

“Ever find out what he did to her?”

“Not a word of it.”

“Poor guy. How can he know what not to do again if he doesn’t know what he did wrong in the first place?”

“It’ll be good for him. Daris will keep him on his toes.” Suddenly, Jared looked to Ken’s left and his face seemed to drain of color. “Oh, no,” he whispered, then put down his mug.

“What is it?” Ken asked, alarmed.

“Granddad said Alix overheard us. She went back upstairs.” Jared crossed the room in three strides and left.

Ken leaned back in his chair. He didn’t like that his daughter had just had a bombshell dropped on her, but he
hated
that Jared had just talked to a ghost.

All Alix could think of as she ran up the stairs was that Jared and her father had known each other for years—which meant that her father had spent a lot of time on Nantucket. But he’d never told her. Alix would not have believed that her father would keep a secret like that from her. Her mother, yes, but not her dad. They had a special bond. Or she’d thought they did.