Jared practically jumped out of the truck and ran to his cousin, picked her up, and twirled her around.
“My goodness, Jared, what a greeting. I just saw you a few days ago.”
“Don’t mention Ken,” he said. “You never met him. Victoria is fine, but Ken no.”
Dilys looked around him at Alix, whom she’d already heard a lot about. Lexie had called with an extraordinary story about Jared showing up at night asking for flowers. “I’m not to mention her own father?” Dilys asked as Jared set her down.
“You never heard of him. I’ll tell you why later.”
Dilys nodded as she pulled away to go to Alix. “Welcome to Nantucket. Won’t you come in? I have tea made.”
Jared was at the truck getting the cooler out of the back. “She’d rather have rum.”
“I would not!” Alix said, afraid Dilys would think she had a drinking problem.
“Don’t let her innocent look fool you. She packs away the rum like a Kingsley sailor.”
As he took the cooler into the house, Alix stood there with a red face. “I really don’t drink very much. I—”
Dilys laughed. “He gave you a compliment. Come inside and look around. I hear you’re a student of architecture.”
“Yes,” she said and went inside—then drew in her breath. The inside of the house was glorious. There were huge windows that looked out on the sea, a tall cathedral ceiling, a splendidly equipped galley kitchen, a built-in banquet. Old meets new. It was part beach house, part modern convenience—and all of it was pure Jared Montgomery. But Alix knew that this house had never been photographed and put in a book.
As she turned in a circle to look at all of it, she glimpsed Jared’s face as he unpacked the cooler. Smug, she thought. He knew just what she was thinking—and he was waiting for her praise.
“I can see that the architect Jared Montgomery did this,” Alix said rather loudly. “It’s early, but it’s his. The windows, the way this room flows into the other—they give it away. It’s his work; I’d recognize it anywhere.” She looked at him. “Mr. Kingsley, do you and Dilys mind if I look at the rest of the house?”
“Please do,” he said, and Alix walked down a hallway.
Dilys’s eyes were wide. “Doesn’t she know that you are Montgomery?”
“She does,” Jared said, smiling.
“Oh.” Dilys didn’t understand. “Why does she call you Mr. Kingsley?”
“I think that’s what the lawyer called me, so she keeps doing it.”
“Have you told her to call you Jared?”
“Naw.” He smiled. “I kind of like it. It’s a sign of respect.”
“Or age,” Dilys said.
“What is it about my age that everyone’s harping on today?”
“I don’t know. Do you think it could be your ZZ Top beard and hair?”
Jared paused, fish package in his hand, and blinked at her.
“Shall I call Trish and make you an appointment?” Dilys asked. “Three today okay?”
Jared nodded.
“You fit in here so well it’s difficult to imagine that you’ve ever lived anywhere else,” Alix said. “Did you want to leave the island?”
Jared was on his back, stretched out on the grass, while Alix was sitting up, and they were both staring at the water. Behind them was his house. He’d given her a tour of his childhood home, telling her how it had been when he was a kid, dark and dank, little more than a fisherman’s cottage. “But I fixed it,” he said, looking at her. “It was the first house I ever worked on.”
She’d wanted to comment on the brilliance of his remodel, but she was afraid she’d start gushing so she kept quiet. He told her the house had been remodeled when he was fourteen, and seemed to think that was significant, but Alix didn’t know why.