“Help yourself. The big question is why you’re trying to give me so much to do that I don’t leave the island.”
“Hey, Jared, old man,” a male voice called.
“Saved!” Jared said under his breath.
“Ha! You’re not safe by any means.”
A young man who looked vaguely familiar came to the table. “I see you found him,” he said to Alix. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
Wes, where the sun sets, she remembered, but said, “North by northwest, isn’t that your name?”
He laughed. “How wonderful to be remembered by a beautiful woman. You and this old man aren’t a couple, are you?”
Alix was still smiling and out of the corner of her eye she could see Jared frowning. “Mr. Kingsley and me? No way.”
“Great,” Wes said. “How about going to the Daffodil Festival with me this weekend? We’ll ride in my dad’s old car for the parade, then later we can go to ’Sconset for a tailgate picnic.”
“What do I bring?”
“Just your pretty self. My mom and sister will do the cooking.”
“Keep it in the family, I guess,” she said, remembering that Wes had said he was a cousin to the Kingsley family.
“Doing that would include half the island. I’m going out on my boat today. Want to go with me?”
“I’d—”
“She and I are going to see Dilys,” Jared said, his voice firm. “And we have some things to do around town.”
Alix kept her eyes on Wes. “And Mr. Kingsley and I have a lot of things to talk about.”
“On second thought,” Jared said. “Maybe she could go with you.”
Alix turned and gave Jared a warm smile. “You’re my host and I think we should get to know each other, don’t you?”
“I came here for breakfast, so maybe I could join you two,” Wes said. “And I haven’t seen Dilys in weeks.”
“We’re finished.” Jared stood up and put money on the table. Downyflake didn’t take credit cards.
“See you Saturday,” Alix said to Wes as she left, Jared right behind her.
They got into his truck and he had the job of maneuvering out of the close parking lot, which he did with ease.
“So why does my mother want me here?” Alix asked as soon as they were on the road.
“I have no idea,” he said.
She heard the honesty in his voice.
“Look, this whole thing is a shock to me,” he said. “My aunt Addy died and I was told that she’d left our family’s house—which should have gone to me—to Victoria’s daughter for a year. I will admit that I was quite angry when I was told.” He looked at her to see how she’d take that.
“I don’t blame you. I would be too. Why did my mother come here?”
“For inspiration?” he asked, trying to sound innocent. “Aren’t her books set in a seaside town?”
“You haven’t read them?”
“No.” He didn’t say that he hadn’t because he knew they were based on his ancestors. Who wanted to read that his great-great-grandmother had affairs? Or that a distant cousin probably murdered his brother-in-law?