“And that extends to his daughter? Dilys thinks that man can perform miracles. She used to tell me what you were like before Ken showed up. I was just a kid but—”
“You’re the same age as Alix. Dilys used to bring you over here to Aunt Addy’s to play with her.”
“I didn’t know that. She didn’t tell me.”
“I saw the two of you together once. I remember you kids sitting in the back and …” He stopped talking as he remembered the scene.
That had been the summer before Ken showed up. It was Jared’s second summer without his father. Even though people had told him that time would make it better, he’d found that time had made it worse. He’d dropped out of all school sports, he hadn’t opened a textbook that whole year, and he was drinking everything alcoholic he could get his underage hands on. He’d had several after-school jobs, but he’d been fired from all of them b
ecause he rarely showed up when he was supposed to.
His family had exhausted themselves talking to him, threatening him, offering him incentives to change his ways. Even his ghostly grandfather had endlessly lectured him on how he needed to be a man and help his widowed mother, not make her life worse. But Jared’s anger had no ability to reason.
Only his great-aunt Addy didn’t nag him. In her very long life she’d seen a lot of death and knew about grief. Her only comment had been, “You’re a good boy and that goodness will come out again when it’s time.” As a result of her understanding, the only place on the island Jared felt any peace was at Kingsley House with his aunt.
On the day Jared saw little Lexie and Alix playing, he had just been fired from yet another job. He’d taken a beer from his aunt’s fridge—she never pointed out that he was a kid—and sat in a chair by her under a shade tree.
“Alix fits in here so well,” Addy said.
“You know that Victoria will take her away. She’s not the type to live here all year,” Jared said. “You’d do better not to fall in love with the kid.” He sounded very old.
“I know,” Addy said, “but I plan to enjoy her as long as I can.”
“What does Victoria do all day? The house needs a good cleaning.”
“I know. There’s dust everywhere.” Addy lowered her voice. “I think she’s reading the old Kingsley journals.”
“How the hell did she find them?” Jared looked at Addy’s face. “Sorry. How did she find them?”
“She knocked over a cabinet while she was dancing with a tourist.” Adelaide made it sound like Victoria had consorted with an enemy alien.
Jared smiled as he drank his beer. That sounded like Victoria. She was beautiful and vivacious and—
“Earth to Jared!” Lexie was saying.
He blinked a few times. “I was just remembering you and Alix together.”
“What did we play?”
“I don’t remember. No. Wait. I do. You brought over some little dolls and she built houses for them.”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t help her with the building.”
“That was before Ken arrived, so I would have built it out of fishing lures.”
“And we’re back to Ken. So what’s this about not telling Alix that her father trained you?”
“I’m caught in the middle,” he said and told her about his first meeting with Alix. “I had no idea she recognized me, then Ken called and laid me out for lying to her.”
Lexie slid a ham and cheese omelet onto a plate. “So that’s why you’re spending an entire week holed up with her? To make up for lying to her?” She poured two cups of coffee.
“I didn’t want her to leave the island, because I knew I’d get blamed for running her off.”
Lexie took bread out of the toaster and slathered it with the jam Toby had made. “Is that it? The whole, entire, and only reason you’ve not left this house for days?”
Jared cut into his omelet and took his time answering. “It started out that way.”
“And now?” Lexie took a seat across from him.