She held her breath as he reached inside. Slowly, he pulled out a corroded metal box, the kind used for holding tea.
He started to open the box, but then held it up to Alix. Bending, she took it, and waited until Jared was out of the hole and beside her. It took several minutes and a putty knife to loosen the lid. Even then Alix had to stick her fingertips under the rim and pull hard before the old box opened. Centuries were holding it together.
When the top came up, she took a breath, glanced at Jared, then back down at the box. With a creak, the lid moved back on its hinges.
Inside was a leatherbound book. Considering where it had been for the last two hundred years, it was in good condition. The cover was a little moldy but the pages hadn’t crumbled. But then it had been protected by the stone enclosure and the box.
Alix reached inside as though she meant to take out the journal, but then she looked at Jared. Their eyes met and they seemed to speak in silence to each other. There were other people who deserved a first look at this book.
With a smile, she nodded at him, and Jared closed the lid and took the box from her.
“I think we should save this for your … relative, Caleb.” She was teasing because she had yet to find out who the mysterious Caleb was. “He’s the one who told me how to find the journal, so I think he should see it first.”
“Hey, Jared,” Dave said, “isn’t Caleb the ghost in your house?” He was grinning. “Didn’t he cause a lot of people to drown and that’s why your family’s never used the name again?”
Jared gave Dave a look to shut up but that didn’t quell him in the least. All the men were looking at them, waiting for Jared’s answer.
He looked back at Alix, whose face had drained of color. She knew! “It’s time we got Tyler home,” he said. “Ready to go?”
All Alix could do was nod.
Tyler, who’d missed his nap, seemed to know his day’s adventure was about to be over, and he started running around like he’d drunk two cups of espresso. Jimmy headed him off, Eric blocked him, and Joel, who had twins, picked up the boy and handed him to Jared. Tyler acted like he was being imprisoned and wrestled against Jared, but he held the child tightly as he took Alix’s hand and led her to the truck.
He opened the door, then nudged her inside. As soon as she was seated, Jared reached across her to strap Tyler into his car seat, then closed the door and walked to the other side. By the time he got into the driver’s seat, the boy had twisted around to face Alix and was sound asleep. She was staring straight ahead, holding on to the boy’s hand as though he were a life preserver and they were alone at sea.
Jared glanced at her but Alix didn’t look away from the windshield. He started the engine.
“Did I …? Is he …?” Alix’s voice was barely a whisper.
Jared thought about going into a long-winded explanation, something that would calm her down. But he knew that in the end the answer would be the same. “Yes.”
Alix took a deep breath, trying to grasp all of it. When Tyler moved in his sleep, she leaned over to put her cheek against his sun-warmed hair. “You told me about him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did.”
“But I thought you meant a … a …”
“Foggy light at the top of the stairs?” he said.
Colorful visions ran through Alix’s mind. Dancing, laughing. What she saw, heard, even smelled. “I think maybe I really did see a scene from Parthenia’s wedding. Oh!” She looked at him. “Parthenia looks just like Jilly Taggert. I was upside down when I met her and I didn’t realize it then. And my father looks like her husband, John Kendricks, which probably means that—” Her voice was rising.
Jared reached across the seat to take her hand and squeeze it. “It’s okay. Everything will be all right. I’m sorry you got pulled into this. Usually, only we Kingsleys can see him, and then only a few of us can. No off-islander has ever …” He trailed off.
“Just me,” she said. “An outsider. What is that term I heard? Something about arriving on a beach?”
“A washashore.”
“That’s me. I just floated into everything.”
Jared was still holding her hand as he pulled into the driveway. He shut off the truck, then turned to look at her. He knew he should start at the beginning and tell her about his grandfather from the shipwreck forward. But he didn’t. She didn’t need anything heavy right now. He looked from her to Tyler. “You two look good together.
Still think you want kids of your own?”
“What does that have to do with—?”
Bending across the long seat, Jared kissed her sweetly on the mouth. “Did Granddad scare you?”
“No. Not at the time. We danced and flirted outrageously. I didn’t mean to, but he was, well, rather persuasive.”