True Love Read online

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 t