True Love Read online

  Victoria smiled. “Still my favorite. Shall we indulge and forget about men?”

  “Gladly!” Alix said.

  At about four that afternoon, Alix got a text from Lexie. TOBY AND I ARE GOING TO DRESS UP AND GO OUT FOR DRINKS. PICK YOU UP AT 7:30? She read it to her mother. “I’m not sure I’m in the mood to go out.”

  “I want you to,” Victoria said. “Freddy is coming over and we’d like some time alone.”

  Alix still looked hesitant.

  “What if I lend you my blue silk Oscar de la Renta?”

  “With the Blahnik heels?”

  “The black ones with the rhinestones on the side?” Victoria put her hand to her heart. “The sacrifices one makes for her child.”

  Alix pushed three magazines—all bridal—and two rolls of wrapping paper off her lap and started for the stairs. “And your silver earrings with the pavé diamonds,” she called as she ran up the stairs.

  Victoria gave a loud, melodramatic groan, which wasn’t easy considering she was smiling broadly.

  When Lexie appeared at the back door, she looked at Alix and said, “Wow! You look like—”

  “Cinderella,” Toby said from behind her.

  They were dressed nicely but Alix looked like she was about to step onto a runway. “Mom did my hair. Like it?” Victoria had pinned it up, with soft tendrils framing her face.

  “You look wonderful,” Toby said. “I wish we’d hired a limo.”

  “But my truck will have to do,” Lexie said.

  Victoria kissed all three of them, wished them a good evening, and waved goodbye.

  The three young women got into the front of Lexie’s pickup. Alix had no idea where they were going, but she was surprised that they were heading toward where the chapel was being built. She hadn’t been there since they’d found Valentina’s journal, which right now seemed like a long time ago. When Lexie pulled onto the dirt drive, Alix began to suspect something was up. “What are you doing?”

  It was Toby who answered. “We’re sorry, Alix, but Jared asked us to bring you here. He’s in the chapel and he wants to talk to you.”

  Alix frowned. “If he wants to talk to me, he didn’t need to put on this charade. He could have—”

  Toby put her hand on Alix’s. “Please go. He’s been quite upset since your argument.”

  “Does everyone on the island know about that?”

  Toby looked at Lexie, then back again. “Pretty much, yes.”

  Alix couldn’t help laughing. “Whose side are they on?”

  “Yours,” Toby said.

  “Most definitely yours,” Lexie said.

  “In that case I’ll go.” She opened the truck door and stepped out—and sank into Nantucket sand. She removed her heels and walked barefoot toward the chapel as Lexie backed the truck out.

  She could hear the ocean in the distance, and the chapel silhouetted in the bluish dusk was beautiful. Alix couldn’t help a feeling of pride at the sight. To see something that had existed only in her mind in solid form was inspiring. It made her want to create more buildings.

  The windows were in now and she could see candlelight flickering inside. She paused before the big doors, touched the hinges that she had designed and Jared’d had made, and got her shoes on before the door swung open.

  Standing there was Jared, all six-feet-plus of him, wearing dark trousers and a soft linen shirt. He still had his beard but it had been trimmed, as had his hair. With the candlelight behind him, he took her breath away.

  “Please come in,” he said, sweeping his arm back and taking her hand. “And may I say that I’ve never before seen anyone as beautiful as you are tonight.”

  There was no furniture in the chapel yet. Instead, a large, beautiful rug of blue and gold had been spread on the floor. Around two edges were what looked to be a hundred pillows of silk and cotton, embroidered and plain. On the other side were a couple of chairs and a little table with champagne in an ice bucket, two crystal flutes, and plates with cheeses, crackers, and chocolates.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered as Jared went to the table to open the wine. She looked around at the chapel with its hundreds of candles, some on tall stands, some suspended from ropes attached to the overhead beams, and many of them on the floor.

  At the end was the stained-glass window that Jared had bought in Maine. She’d seen photos of it but hadn’t seen it outside its crate. Since there was no electricity, she saw that there were candles behind the big window, which meant that it had been set forward in its frame. That hadn’t been in her drawings, and it was something she should have specified. She turned to him. “Did you extend that?”

  He handed her a flute of cold champagne. “It’s my single contribution. Do you mind?”

  “No,” she said. “Maybe you can teach me more about lighting. You could—”

  “Not tonight. No teaching. Tonight is for …” He looked up at the knight in the stained glass. “Tonight is for the future.” They clicked glasses and took a sip.

  It was when she looked back at the window that she realized the knight looked like Captain Caleb. “Ancestor of yours?”

  “Could be, couldn’t he?” He paused. “Alix, I have something I want to talk to you about.”

  She took a breath. Was this about New York? About who would live where? Work where? Would he tell her how often he would visit the island?

  He took her hand and led her to one of the chairs. She sat but he stayed standing. “First of all, I want to apologize for our argument. I was being a jerk.”

  “No,” she said. “You were right. I’ve been following my mother around like I haven’t done since I was a kid.” She glanced around the chapel, at the candles, the rug, the table, the food. “I must say that no one apologizes better than you do. Daffodils and now champagne. But in this case, half the apology is mine. It’s just that I’ve felt so guilty about neglecting Izzy’s wedding that I was overwhelmed—still am, for that matter.”

  He was standing over her looking down and smiling. “That you care about people is one of my favorite things about you. Tyler’s mom said he was asking for you.”

  She smiled. “I’ve missed him these last few days. I’ll have to invite him and his parents to Izzy’s wedding. Did you hear that Mom is inviting lots of island people? And that Jilly has asked some of her relatives from Warbrooke? She and Cale are trying to get the family to buy that big house at the end of the lane and—” She looked at him. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”

  “Because I’ve missed you and because I love you.”

  Alix just sat there and looked up at him, blinking, not sure she’d heard him correctly. It was so very beautiful around them, with all the candles flickering and the brilliant colors of the rug and the pillows—and Jared. To her eyes, he was by far the most beautiful thing in the room.

  Still smiling, Jared reached inside his jacket and pulled out a ring box.

  Alix was sure that her body stopped: heart, lungs, brain, all came to a halt.

  He went down on one knee before her. “Alixandra Victoria Madsen, I love you. With all my heart, with all my being, now and forever, I love you. Will you marry me?” As he picked up her left hand and prepared to slip a truly gorgeous ring on her finger, he waited for her answer.

  But Alix was too stunned to react. She just sat there, not moving, not breathing, a human statue frozen into place.

  “Alix?” Jared asked, but she didn’t answer. She just stared at him. “Alix?” he asked louder. “Are you thinking of saying no?” He looked worried.

  She managed to take a breath. “No. I mean yes. Yes and yes! And—” She threw her arms around his neck. Since he was still on one knee and not expecting her leap, he fell backward onto the rug, his body between Alix and the floor.

  “Yes, I’ll marry you,” she said. “A million times yes.” She punctuated her every word with a kiss to his face and neck. “I can go with you to New York?”

  Jared was laughing. “Yes, of course