“It’s not her, it’s him,” Jared said. He started to say more, but the pastor cleared his throat. It was time for them to stop talking.
Lexie was coming up the aisle, her arm hooked through that of some man Jared had never seen before, but it didn’t take much for him to figure out this was her boss. Too pretty, was Jared’s first thought, but Plymouth did have a look about him that he might enjoy a Nantucket sleigh ride.
Next came pretty Toby. She held the arm of a tall man who looked like the Montgomerys Jared had met in Maine, but he didn’t remember this specific one. Whereas Lexie’s boss was holding her so close it’s a wonder he wasn’t tripping on her skirt, Toby was walking rather far away from her escort. A porpoise could have been passed between them.
In the next minute, the attendants broke apart and went to stand at the front of the chapel. Behind them was Alix. Never in his life had Jared seen anything as beautiful as she was in her white dress. A light veil covered her face, but he could see her smiling at him.
He watched her, never taking his eyes off her, as she came toward him, her arm hooked with Ken’s. When they reached him, he stepped forward and Ken put his daughter’s hand in Jared’s.
As Ken raised his daughter’s veil, he said, “I’m entrusting you with my most precious possession.” It was what Victoria had said, and only Jared heard him and saw the tears in his eyes.
Jared nodded in agreement, a sacred vow between the two men, and Ken stepped away to go sit by Jilly.
They had decided not to write their own vows, as the words in the traditional ceremony said everything. “Through sickness and health.” “Till death do us part.”
At the mention of death, Jared thought of his grandfather and what he had endured to be with the woman he loved. Jared smiled at Alix, who smiled back. As always, they seemed to have the same thoughts at the same time.
Alix repeated her vows to him and Jared thought how they were all about sharing. Sharing all that you had, all that you were, with another human being. He remembered her telling Victoria that she thought Jared’s life had been lonely until now. He’d never thought it was but he knew she was right. One by one, he’d lost the family he’d been born into, but gradually Alix’s family had replaced them. And now the circle was complete.
“I do,” Alix said, and in the next moment the pastor said, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Jared took Alix in his arms and kissed her sweetly, a kiss of promise. For a second he held her, and their eyes seemed to say it all. Turning, they looked at the many people inside the chapel.
It was as though all the anger and hostility had been erased by the magic of the wedding, and the crowd began to applaud joyously.
Jared took Alix’s hand and started to run back down the aisle. But when Alix stumbled over her long skirt, he picked her up in his arms and carried her. The audience loved the gesture and broke into spontaneous laughter and even more applause.
Outside the chapel, Jared set Alix down. For just a second they were alone. “To forever,” he said.
“Yes,” she answered. “Forever.”
Epilogue
Jared leaned back in the chair and looked at his grandfather. It had been three weeks since the wedding and as he’d predicted, Alix had wanted to go to New York right away to see his offices.
All the way there she’d been nervous that once they left Nantucket things would change. Specifically, she was worried that her new husband would turn into a different person, that he’d become the Great Jared Montgomery.
Of course it hadn’t happened. While it was true that most of the employees were in awe of him, Alix wasn’t. No matter how other people saw him, she saw the man—and let him know it. The first day they had a rather loud argument about a house remodel that was to go out with his company’s name on it.
“I hate this thing! And you cannot possibly allow anyone to see this. It’s so far beneath your usual work that you should be embarrassed by it,” Alix said with passion.
“There’s nothing wrong with this plan,” Jared answered just as vehemently.
Alix proceeded to tell him in detail what was wrong with every window, door, and wall. One by one, the other employees tiptoed down the corridor to listen and watch. They were shocked that anyone would talk to Jared Montgomery like that.
But Tim, also watching, was grinning.
It was only after Alix had gone over every detail of the twelve pages of drawings that she realized that actually, Jared agreed with her. She looked around, saw the office watching, and knew what he was doing. He was showing everyone where Alix belonged, that she had veto power over all plans, his included.
Suddenly, she realized that the design wasn’t Jared’s. It was the product of someone in the office—who was now going to hate her. Her face turned red, she rolled up the set, and held it up. “Who did this?”
A young man with dark hair timidly raised his hand.
Alix tossed him the plan, then, too embarrassed to speak, she left the room.
It took Jared some coaxing to get her to forgive him, not for what he’d done but how he’d done it. It was only when she saw that instead of being hated by the people in the office, she was very much liked, that she forgave him.
The employees saw Alix as the perfect step between Tim’s anything-goes attitude and Jared’s “No” that rarely came with an explanation. By the end of the first week, Alix was indispensable to all of them. Tim asked her about everything from making the employees stop using so much copier paper to presenting Jared with a bill for new computers. The other architects asked her to look at their plans before Jared saw them.