As she removed the biscuits from the oven, she looked up to see Jared, shirtless, with a sleepy Tyler snuggled against him. It was a truly beautiful sight.
“The smell woke us,” Jared said. “At first I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”
At the sight of the two of them, Alix’s steely resolve left her. Feeding a child was more important than Caleb and his mysteries. “Think Tyler eats bacon and eggs?”
Jared was putting the boy into the high chair. “From the heft of what he put in his diaper yesterday, I think he eats whole roast rhinos for breakfast.” He took a biscuit off the sheet, tossed it from hand to hand to cool it, broke it apart, buttered it, and gave it to Tyler. After the first bite the boy laughed and banged his heels in appreciation.
“That’s the way I feel too,” Jared said as he sat down and took another hot biscuit. “I was thinking,” he said as he slathered it in Dilys’s homemade strawberry jam, “that you and I ought to drive up to Warbrooke and spend a few days there. We could even go before Izzy’s wedding. We need to take a look at that old Montgomery house and get its floor plan on paper. I could send some of the kids from the office up there, but …”
What he was saying sounded so wonderful—especially his frequent use of “we”—that Caleb and Valentina seemed to fly out of Alix’s mind. “But you’d like to get to know your new relatives.”
“I would. Mike Taggert and I hit it off, and I told you that his twin brother, Kane, is married to Cale Anderson.”
“Don’t tell Mom, but I love her books.”
“Okay, but only if you promise not to tell Lexie I met her. She’d be hysterical. One time Lex made a trip to Hyannis just to get Cale’s latest novel on the day it came out.”
“What’s she like in person?”
“Smart, funny, perceptive. She’s little and her husband is the size of a bear. All the Taggerts are big, heavy men while the Montgomerys are like me.”
“Tall, lanky, and beautiful?”
Jared laughed. “You didn’t think that yesterday when I was covered in the offerings of young Tyler here.”
“Especially then. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful sight.”
“Yeah?” That blue fire returned to his eyes—but then Tyler laughed and threw a chunk of buttered biscuit, hitting Jared on the nose. “Talk about a mood killer!”
Alix walked over and kissed Jared long and lingeringly. “It didn’t kill my mood.”
Jared looked at Tyler and shook his head. “You’re going to learn that any man who says he understands women is a liar.” He looked back at Alix. “You ready to go find Valentina’s journal?”
Alix’s smile was deep. He had been thinking about Caleb. “Give me about ten minutes. I thought we’d take a whole package of diapers. Think it’ll be enough?”
“Are you kidding? Those packs are so big that if I run my truck into the sea it’ll float.”
“True, but will it be enough for Tyler?”
They looked at him, at the egg, milk, jam, and buttered biscuit on his face, in his hair, and down the front of him.
“We’ll take the second pack just to be safe,” he said.
“I’m on it and I’ll get some towels too.”
“Great idea,” Jared said as he pulled the child out of the chair and headed for the kitchen sink. “Can you get him a clean shirt?” he called to Alix.
But she was ahead of him and handed him one before he finished speaking.
“Thanks, Mom,” he said as he kissed her forehead.
Alix went away smiling.
It took longer to get all the things needed for Tyler into the truck than it did to drive to the site. They decided that figuring out how to strap in the car seat required a degree in engineering.
“I used to think my education was worth something,” Alix said as she stood on the ground and leaned across the truck seat to hold the safety belt for Jared. Tyler was trying to start the engine.
“There were too many long-legged girls in school for me to think mine mattered.”