True Love (Nantucket Brides 1)

But Victoria hadn’t felt the same way—and Ken thought it had more to do with her quest to find Addy’s journals than it did with Alix. When he told her so, they’d had one of their blistering fights. Years before, he’d stopped beating himself up with thoughts that his neglect of his beautiful young wife was what had driven her away. It had taken a few years after the divorce, but he’d realized that Victoria’s strong personality was more than he could take. If they’d stayed together, they probably would have murdered each other. But then during one of their arguments Victoria had admitted that she’d only married him to escape her small hometown. That had hurt more than Ken allowed her to see.

After Addy’s will was read, Victoria had begged Ken to stay away from the island and let Jared and Alix have some time alone. And it had all worked out. Ken had shown up to find Jared and Alix very much together. And he’d stayed to…

Ken wanted to think that his reasons for staying were altruistic. First, he wanted to protect his daughter from a ghost. And he needed to be there in case Jared got a wandering eye and hurt Alix. And he should…

Ha! Ken wasn’t fooled by his own lies. He was staying because for the first time in his adult life he had a feeling of family. True, deep down, delicious family.

By the end of the first week he’d moved into the guesthouse and Jared was back in his own home, staying with Alix in the big bedroom that should have gone to him when his great-aunt died.

How comfortable the three of them were together! Ken had taught both Jared and Alix about architectural design and building, so they tended to agree on everything. Jared had taught Ken about the sea and its inhabitants. In turn, Ken had relayed it all to his daughter.

As for Alix, she bound the men together. She looked out for them, made their lives comfortable, and above all, she put new life into them.

Several times in the past weeks, the three of them had been out on Jared’s boat. They liked the same food, baited hooks the same way, enjoyed the same scenery.

When they were home, Ken made sure he gave the couple time alone. He often went to visit Dilys. One lovely summer long ago, they had been lovers. Dilys was older than Ken and he’d enjoyed her quiet company—and the sex she’d learned in the freewheeling seventies. But he knew he could never stay on Nantucket and she was never going

to leave, so they’d used that as their excuse to break up. They’d quit being lovers—except for one stormy night in 1992—but had remained friends.

In these last weeks, Ken had spent a lot of time with Dilys and had taken over Jared’s repair jobs in his old neighborhood. Ken had also properly fixed the greenhouse heater for Lexie and Toby. He had let Toby cook wonderful meals for him, had listened to Lexie complain about her “horrible” boss, and had later puzzled with Toby about the matter of Lexie and her employer.

All in all, Ken had never felt so good. He was going to retire in a few years and he was now sure that he’d do it on Nantucket. Maybe he could persuade Jared to give him a long lease on one of the houses he owned on Kingsley Lane.

Right now it was raining outside and the old house was cool, so Ken had built a fire in the fireplace of the big parlor, and the three of them were in there together. Alix and Jared were working on the design of the movie stars’ house. It was going to be the first official collaboration between Madsen and Montgomery. The pride Ken felt at the uniting of those names was immeasurable.

Two weekends ago Izzy and her fiancé, Glenn, had come to the island to talk about the wedding. It had taken twenty-four hours for Izzy to get over her awe of Jared. For a whole day she’d just watched him, not even blinking.

Glenn took it all well, but then he was so in love with Izzy he could hardly see straight. On the first night Jared told Ken, “Granddad says that in another life Glenn was the local wheelwright and he was in love with Izzy back then too.”

No matter how many mentions of the ghost there were, Ken was still shocked. He tried to hide it, but when the reference to reincarnation was added, he wasn’t successful. Jared must have seen it because he didn’t mention his grandfather again.

And Alix certainly hadn’t said anything about seeing a ghost. Her mind was fully occupied with Jared’s California house, the remodel for his cousin, and her best friend’s wedding.

Izzy’d had a lot of trouble deciding on flowers and cake flavors, and the music for the wedding. For most of the weekend she’d visited, all anyone talked of was tents and Porta Potties and seating and anything else they could think of. Jared had been the telephone man, calling people he knew and booking things. With Izzy’s pregnancy they’d moved the wedding up to the twenty-third of June. Very, very soon.

“What would you do?” Izzy asked Alix on Sunday night when they were all at the dining table, a feast of their own making before them.

“About what?” Alix asked.

“If this were your wedding, what would you do?” Everyone at the table paused and stared at Alix. Ken was happy to see that Jared’s face was as intent as the others.

“About the flowers?” Alix asked.

Ken could see that his daughter was avoiding Jared’s eyes. It was too soon to think of a wedding, but then when you knew, you knew.

He decided to help his daughter out. “Victoria has been planning Alix’s wedding since she was a baby. Everything is set. Alix doesn’t have to make even one decision.”

Alix groaned. “No, no, please don’t tell that story.”

“Now you have to,” Izzy said.

“I’d like to hear it too,” Jared added.

“A dress.” Ken smiled. “What was it your mother said about a candle lighting up the world?”

Alix shook her head. “Okay, this is from my mother and you all know her, right?”

“I don’t,” Glenn said.