“No questions, remember?”
Tim raised his eyebrows but stood up. “This isn’t a question, but is there anything special I’m supposed to see? And if she asks what the hell I’m doing, what do I say?”
“I only care that she’s still breathing and you can tell her that you got the wrong room.”
“Breathing? As in alive?”
Jared didn’t answer, just looked at his friend, and Tim left. While he was gone, Jared didn’t think he took a breath. He could feel his heart pounding in his throat.
It seemed like an hour before he heard Tim on the stairs again, and Jared’s right hand gripped the arm of the couch so tightly he probably left fingerprints in the wood.
“She’s fine,” Tim said as he came through the doorway.
“What does that mean?”
He sat back down in the chair. “It means that she’s all right. She’s sound asleep.”
“Are you sure she’s breathing?”
“What is wrong with you?” Tim asked, exasperated.
“I just want to know for sure that Victoria is well and healthy.”
“Yes, she is breathing, and she certainly looked healthy to me. When I opened her door, she turned over in the bed. I guess you know that she sleeps in the raw.”
Jared took a relieved breath of air. Caleb Kingsley hadn’t taken his beloved Valentina’s spirit with him when he left the earth.
Jared took a few more breaths, the frown left his brow, and a smile followed.
Tim was watching him. “What in the world happened to make you think your bride’s mother wouldn’t be alive this morning?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” Jared said, a full-fledged smile on his face now. “You’re my best man, so tell me what we need to do to get ready for this shindig.”
“First, we have to choose some poor sucker to tell the crowd that Izzy and Glenn have been replaced by a couple they don’t know. That crowd is going to be pretty angry at having gone to all this trouble just to see someone else’s kids get married. Not to mention the expense.”
“Tim, old friend, your job is to get an accounting from each of them and reimburse them. The point of all this has been to keep them away from Izzy and let her have some peace. They won’t be out any money.”
Tim sighed. “I’m glad you’re getting married, but I guess this means you won’t be in the office on Monday. Honeymoon and all that.”
Jared stood up. “You haven’t met Alix. Her idea of a honeymoon will be to get her hands on every commission my company has and scrutinize every line of every plan. Those kids you hired are at last going to see some real talent—and precision. Ken taught her well.”
“She won’t hand out balloons and gold stars?”
Jared snorted. “I drew a wall four inches off and she told me—me!—that I needed to improve my observation skills.”
Tim was looking at him with wide eyes. “If I weren’t already married and you weren’t marrying her, I’d call her right now and propose.”
“Naw, this one is mine and I’m keeping her. Let’s go to Downyflake and get something to eat. After we tell Ken he’s to inform the crowd of the change, that is.”
“We better invite him to go with us. Poor guy,” Tim said in sympathy.
“Don’t worry about him. He owes me big time. You see, I brought Parthenia to him.”
“I thought the woman I met was named Jilly.”
“Victoria, Valentina, Parthenia, Jilly, it’s all the same.”
Tim stopped at the head of the stairs and looked at him. “You really need to get back to New York. This island is doing something to your mind.”