“Yes,” Toby said, smiling. “My father visits me every few months, takes me there, and the owner, Noël, dresses me. Isn’t that one of her tops you have on?”
“Yes, it is,” Alix said.
“If you ladies are going to talk about Petticoat Row, I think it’s time for me to go,” Jared said.
Alix looked at him to explain that term, but Lexie answered. “When the men were at sea, the women ran the island, and where their shops were was called Petticoat Row.”
“Still is,” Jared said as he stood up.
“That’s because the women did such a fabulous job of running everything, and still do.” Lexie looked up at him. “I want you to check the heater in the greenhouse, and there are rats burrowing under a couple of the flower beds.”
“Rats?” Alix asked.
Jared looked at her. “Thanks to our illustrious ancestors’ world travels, we have an extraordinary variety of rats on the island.”
They were all looking at Alix to see how she’d take this. Would she cringe and squeal in distaste?
“A rodent Galapagos,” she said.
“Right.” Jared smiled at her so warmly that Alix blushed. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll leave you girls to it. It smells good in here. Alix is a great cook and she has a wedding to plan and …”
Lexie and Toby were gazing at him in curiosity.
He looked down at Alix. “If you need anything, let me know.”
Alix stood up. “I will. You’ll be outside?”
“Yes, but after I fix the heater and wire out the rats, I’ll go home.”
“Big or little house?”
“Your choice,” he said.
“Big. I’ll wrap the last two fish in rosemary. I saw some growin
g in the back. Maybe you could put a couple of potatoes in the oven. Two fifty. Slow bake.”
“Okay.”
They stood there looking at each other, neither of them seeming to want to move.
Lexie and Toby sat across from them, watching Jared and Alix just standing there, gazing into each other’s eyes and saying nothing. They didn’t seem to know how to separate.
Shaking her head in disbelief, Lexie stood and threw up her hands. “I think I’m going to be sick. Jared! Go fix the heater. Alix! Go to the kitchen and help Toby stuff some mushrooms or whatever.”
Jared looked away from Alix to give his cousin a half grin. “And what are you going to do, Miss Dictator?”
“Pop over to the church to give thanks that I am still sane.”
“What does that mean?” Jared asked.
Still shaking her head at him, Lexie went around the table, reached up to put her hands on his shoulders, and shoved him through the kitchen to the back door. “Go outside. Breathe. I promise that Toby and I won’t hurt her.”
“Really, Lexie!” Jared said. “This is—” He cut off because she shut the door in his face.
Lexie went back through the pretty little sitting room into the kitchen, where Toby was at the counter. Alix was standing in the doorway looking like she wanted to run away.
“Lexie,” Toby said softly, “why don’t you walk down to Grand Union and get us some limes?”