Jared leaned back in his chair and stared at Lexie. “Alix wouldn’t … Look, she just broke up with some guy, so she’s not going to run off with another one she just met and get married and live on an island. She’s ambitious. She wants a career in architecture. She has to make a name for herself before she can hide away somewhere.”
“Okay,” Lexie said, her eyes on Jared’s, “then she’ll just have a lot of fabulous rebound sex with your cousin Wes. He’ll make her feel like a man wants her for something besides drawing a house plan, and next year she’ll leave Nantucket feeling great. She’ll get a job at your big, fancy company, then she’ll marry some guy who works for you, and they’ll have kids. The end.” She smiled sweetly at her cousin.
Jared looked back at Lexie, too shocked to say anything.
“Maybe Ken did put some limitations on you, but you need to figure out how to change things or you’re going to lose her before you even get her.” Lexie picked up her bag and went to the door. “Toby and I will be home all day tomorrow, so come for lunch. We’ll be cooking for the picnic. Too bad Alix is going to be dining with Wes’s family. Bye-bye,” she said as she closed the door behind her.
Jared sat where he was, thinking about what Lexie had said. The truth was that it would be good if Alix and Wes hooked up. That would free Jared from having to escort her everywhere. And having a boyfriend on the island would make her stay. No one would give Jared hell for making her leave. Instead, they’d tell him he’d done a good job. Plus, he could give Alix the boxes of info about Valentina and she and Wes could work on that.
For a moment Jared had a vision of Alix and his cousin sitting on the floor of the back parlor, papers all around them. They would be like he and Alix had been for the last few days. Only Wes wouldn’t have chains around him as Jared did. No one was going to tell Wes to keep his hands off her.
And what would Jared do? Return to New York and go back to twelve- and fourteen-hour workdays? And for the next year when he was on the island, would he be banished from wandering in and out of his own house? He could imagine Alix telling him that she and Wes needed their privacy. Would Jared accidentally walk in on them when they were …?
He didn’t want to take that vision any further.
He looked around the kitchen and thought of the days since Alix had arrived. They’d done such ordinary things: grocery shopping, preparing meals together, working side by side. In work, she had the ability to look ahead, to see how and why a feature wasn’t going to work. It was a talent Jared also had, but he knew from experience that few people did.
But none of that really mattered.
All in all, it made sense that Alix and Wes should spend tomorrow together and let happen what may. In fact, it would be good for everyone if the two of them got together.
“Like hell!” Jared muttered as he left the house. He needed to shower and make some calls. Daffy Day started with a parade of antique cars and he knew just where he could get one.
Chapter Ten
When Alix awoke she heard voices. One was unmistakably Jared’s deep rumble and the other belonged to a woman. For a moment she lay on the couch and wondered if the voice she remembered hearing so long ago was his. She’d heard Jared laugh, but only slightly, not that kind of laughter that comes from deep within a person and is so all encompassing that it cures illnesses. That was the laugh she remembered.
She turned her head to look at the jumble of books and papers on the floor and couldn’t help smiling. It had been glorious working with him! He was opinionated and knowledgeable and experienced and … and sexy, she thought. But she’d tried to stamp that thought down. If she got too close to him, he moved away. It looked like her original impression that he was interested in her as a woman was wrong.
She couldn’t bring herself to ask him if he had a girlfriend. That wasn’t any of her business.
When she heard the back door open and close, she leaped off the couch and ran for the stairs. She knew she must be a mess and she needed time to clean up. Besides, she was dying to call Izzy and tell her everything that was going on.
Once Alix was upstairs, she phoned Izzy but it went to voice mail, which made her frown. She hadn’t talked to her friend or had a response to her many emails and text messages for days now.
On the first night after she’d been to dinner with Kingsley—somewhere in there she’d dropped the “Mr.”—she’d talked to her father and told him of the lavish apology she’d received, complete with flowers.
“Just an apology?” her dad asked. “Nothing else? No inappropriate innuendos or touches?” He made the last sound like his worst fear.
“No, Father,” she said solemnly, “I’m still as virginal as I was before I met Big Bad Kingsley.”
“Alixandra,” her father said in warning.
“Sorry,” she said. “Jared Kingsley treats me with absolute and total respect. Is that better?”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ken said.
Alix wanted to say “I’m not,” but she didn’t.
She hadn’t heard from her father since then, but she knew that he had finals to administer and grade, so he was busy.
Her concern was Izzy. Alix sent another email, left yet another long voice message, then went to the shower.
She took her time dressing and working on her hair and makeup, even though she wondered if she should bother. Would she see him today? On the first of these last four days they’d finished the plan for his cousin’s house. In the end they’d compromised between her ideas and his: his dormers; her windowed addition. He had surprised her by being good at landscape design, something Alix knew little about.
“It comes from seeing a lot of gardens and drinking a lot of beer with a lot of landscapers,” he’d said.
Alix had wanted to say “I like beer,” but she was afraid such a remark would scare him off.