“Never a straight answer from you.” Jared drank deeply, poured himself another one, then sat down at the table and looked around at the kitchen.
“Thinking of tearing it out and putting in granite countertops?” Caleb asked.
Jared nearly choked on his drink. “Where did you hear that piece of blasphemy?”
“Just something someone said. Maple cabinets and granite countertops.”
“Stop cursing!” Jared said. “You’re turning my stomach. This kitchen is perfect just as it is.”
“I remember when it was put in,” Caleb said.
“The Fifth, wasn’t it?”
“The Fourth,” Caleb said, referring to the number on the end of the names of the eldest sons. His son with Valentina, back in 1807, had been named Jared for Caleb’s middle name, Montgomery because it was her last name, and Kingsley for Caleb’s family. Even after all these years, what she’d had to do to get that last name for their son still sickened him. Since that time Caleb had made sure that Valentina’s choice of name had been honored, with each succeeding eldest son being named Jared Montgomery Kingsley. This one, the most obstinate of the lot, was the Seventh.
“I’m sure you know who did what.” Jared was still looking around the old kitchen.
“Are you trying to memorize the place?” Caleb asked.
“Considering all the things I’m not supposed to tell Victoria’s daughter, I think it’s better that I don’t come back. At least not while …”
“While Alix is here?” It was easy to hear the disapproval in Caleb’s voice.
“Don’t start on me again!” Jared said. “I’m not a teacher and have never wanted to be.”
“Didn’t you have teachers?” Caleb asked.
“And so does she!” Jared groaned. “Look, I’ve spent the last few days thinking this through. I can’t live up to what these students expect of me. They expect me to be a fount of wisdom, which I’m not. Tomorrow I’ll ask Dilys to introduce this girl to Lexie and Toby. The three of them can be friends. They can have lunch together and go shopping. They’ll be fine.”
“So Dilys will mother her and Lexie will befriend her. And you’ll run away and hide.”
For a moment Jared’s face turned red at the accusation, but then he smiled. “That’s me. Yellow-bellied coward. Terrified of a girl with a T-square. But then, she probably doesn’t even know what one is. I’m sure she’s up on the latest CAD system, the latest everything that is modern and high tech. She probably has some kit that has a dozen roofs, twenty doors, and sixteen styles of windows. They’re little punch-out shapes and she puts them all together to form buildings.”
Caleb’s anger showed in his eyes. “I’m sure she’s just like that. I think you’re right and you should run away and never even meet her.” With that he disappeared.
Jared knew he’d angered his grandfather, but that was nothing new. He’d been doing that since he was twelve years old.
He knew he should get up and start cleaning the fish, but he sat at the table and looked across the room at the old stove. He could imagine some student of architecture coming up with a design for a sleek new kitchen. An eight-burner Wolf with three ovens. Tear out the wall and put in a Sub-Zero fridge. Take out the sink with its porcelain backsplash and long drainboards and put in some stainless monstrosity.
No, he couldn’t bear having to explain to some architecture student why that shouldn’t be done. He couldn’t—
“Hello.”
Jared turned to see a pretty young woman standing in the doorway. She was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, her long hair pulled back off her face. She had big, greenish eyes with thick black lashes, and a truly gorgeous mouth.
“I thought I heard voices,” she said, “but I assumed it was someone in the street and didn’t pay any attention. But then a picture fell off a wall and some dirt fell down in the fireplace and that made me look up and—” She broke off to take a breath. Be cool, she told herself. This is him. This is … She couldn’t think of anything else to call him, but Him. Capital H.
He was looking at her as though she were a ghost, as though she weren’t quite real.
Alix had to work not to gush about how much she loved his designs, admired what he’d done in the architectural world, to ask what was he working on now, did he have any words of wisdom for her, and could she please, please, please show him the chapel she’d designed?
She suppressed all that even though her heart was pounding. “I’m Alix Madsen, and I’m staying here for … for a while. But I guess you know that. Are you Mr. Kingsley? I was told that you would take care of the house if it needs repairs.” She thought it would be better to let him introduce himself.
He liked her curvy little body. “Yeah, I can fix things.”
Alix searched for something else to say. He was still sitting at the table, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He had on the same clothes he’d been wearing when she’d seen him get on the boat days before. They were dirty and she could smell the fish on him. But even with his scraggly beard and long hair he was still formidably good-looking. Maybe right now he was a bit intimidating in the way he was scowling at her, but then maybe he hadn’t expected her to be there. She couldn’t help glancing at his lower lip. It was exactly as she remembered, had dreamed about, written about.
When she made herself look away, she saw a pile of striped bass on the drainboard. “You’ve been fishing,” sh