“Yes,” Alix said softly. “Yes, I do. I love him more than all the buildings in the world. More than I thought it was possible to love.”
Victoria’s beautiful face lost its haughty look and once again she was Alix’s mother. “That’s what I wanted to hear.” She opened her arms and Alix ran to her to be enclosed in a loving embrace. Victoria looked over her daughter’s head at Jared, who was silently standing in the doorway.
With a smile of such warmth that it seemed to illuminate the room, Jared turned away and went outside.
Jared started to get into his truck, but what he’d heard had left him a little too dazed to be able to drive. When he realized that he was still holding the flowers, he tossed them in the open window and kept walking. He went down the streets of his beloved town, oblivious to the tourists pointing and staring at the perfection of the old houses.
He went down Centre Street to the JC house, took a right past the bookstore. It was a short walk to Jetties Beach, a place where he could see and hear the ocean.
He’d just reached the edge of the water when his cell rang. Maybe it was Alix, he thought, but it was a number not in his contacts list. Usually, he wouldn’t pick up, but this time he did. A woman’s nervous voice said, “Mr. Montgomery? I mean, Kingsley. I mean, Jared?”
“Yes?”
“It’s me, Izzy.”
“Alix is okay,” Jared said, “and I’m sorry I made her so miserable.”
“Oh,” Izzy said. “I don’t know anything about that, but I’m sure you are. That’s not what I called about. Do you have time to talk right now?”
“Sure,” he said. “What’s the problem?”
“I don’t want to upset Alix, but I’m going to do a terrible, awful thing to her. I’m not going to show up for my own wedding.”
“You’re going to leave Glenn at the altar?” Jared asked.
“No, no! Of course not! He’s going to be with me. The people I’m leaving behind are our parents and relatives who do nothing but constantly bicker and fight.”
“I don’t understand what you want to do.”
“Wait, here’s Glenn and he can explain it better.”
When her fiancé got on the phone, his voice was firm. He was a man protecting the woman he loved. “It’s been bad here, with both our families fighting all the time. I thought for a while it was solved, but it wasn’t. It was just brewing under the surface and it’s erupted again. I didn’t know how awful it was since Izzy usually handles everything, and she could now if she weren’t pregnant.”
He paused, then began again. “Izzy hasn’t even been able to get rid of those repulsive bridesmaids that were chosen for her. She tried but … Anyway, I feel like a jerk because I didn’t pay more attention to all this, but I thought it was what women did so …” He took a breath. “That’s not what’s important. Yesterday the doctor said that the stress she’s under is causing physical problems. If Izzy doesn’t get some relief from all this, it’s possible we could lose the baby.”
Instantly, Jared said, “What can I do? Name it and I’ll do it.”
Glenn said they wanted everything to go ahead as planned, that their relatives would go to Nantucket, but that at the time of the ceremony someone would tell the guests that there would be no wedding. “You—or someone—can say that Izzy and I have eloped to the far ends of the earth. They’re paying for everything so let them enjoy the food and music. It’s just that they won’t have my bride there to torture.”
“I understand,” Jared said.
“There’s another thing. Izzy’s afraid to call Alix because she knows how hard she’s worked on this wedding, especially since Victoria showed up. Izzy’s also afraid you’re going to think she’s a bad person for letting everyone down.”
“Could I speak to her, please?”
“Yes?” Izzy asked tentatively.
“Izzy,” he said slowly, “I think this is the wisest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. And any woman who’d choose her child over a weddin
g is at the top of my list of best people.”
Izzy promptly burst into tears and Glenn took the phone from her.
“Is she all right?” Jared asked.
“She’s fine. Everything makes her cry, but then for the last couple of days my mom and hers have made me close to crying. Izzy’s kept most of it from Alix so she’d …” He trailed off.
“So she’d what?”