e said.
“I was just going to clean them. This sink is bigger than mine in the guesthouse, but I wouldn’t have come in if I’d known anyone was here.”
“My friend Izzy and I came earlier than we’d planned, and she left this morning,” she said. The intensity of his gaze was making her so nervous that she needed to be busy. As she walked across the kitchen she could feel his eyes on her. Without thinking, she opened the third drawer down and got out a steel mesh glove and an old knife with a long, thin, flexible blade. “You mind if I help?”
“Knock yourself out.” He was surprised that she knew where the glove and knife were kept. “I take it you’ve been through the house thoroughly.”
She took a fish head in her gloved left hand and cut down to the backbone. “Not really. I’m an architecture student and I’ve mostly been working since I got here.” She paused to give him time to say something, preferably to tell her who he was. But he was silent. “Anyway, I didn’t see all of the house.”
“But you saw the kitchen.”
“Yes.” She didn’t know where he was going with this. She clamped her hand on the side of the fish and cut from the head down to the tail.
Jared got up and went to stand next to the drainboard as she flipped the fish over to cut the other side. He watched as she pulled the fillet away, leaving the skin attached at the tail. A few more quick slices and the fish was done, perfectly filleted.
He leaned back against the sink. “Who taught you to do that?”
“My father. He loves to go fishing, so we went.”
“Was he any good?”
“Excellent.” As she spoke she picked up another bass off the counter.
“Would you like a drink?”
“That would be nice,” she said. Inside, she was jumping up and down. Jared Montgomery is making me a drink. Can I put this on my résumé?
“I’m afraid I don’t know how to make appletinis.”
At his condescending tone, the elation left her. She was glad she had her back to him, as she couldn’t help the frown that ran across her face at his put-down. “That’s okay. Since I got to Nantucket all I’ve wanted to drink is rum. I like it with Coke and lots of lime.”
It was Jared’s turn to frown. It’s what he drank, when he wasn’t sipping rum straight, and it’s what his aunt Addy liked the most. Rum was what all the Kingsleys, male and female, drank.
“So what do you do?” Alix asked, and held her breath. How would he describe himself and what he did?
“I build things,” he said.
“Oh?” Her voice went up an octave. She lowered it. “Design and build?”
“Naw. I’m not fancy. I just run around in my pickup and build what I can.”
Alix paused in slicing the fish. It looked like he didn’t plan to tell her who he was. But did he have to flat-out lie? Did he actually think that a student of architecture wouldn’t know who he was? Wouldn’t recognize him? Could he be that naive? On the other hand, maybe he was just being modest. “Do you work here on Nantucket?” she asked.
“Sometimes. But I have a company off-island.”
“Do you?” She’d been in the lobby of the building in New York where his office was. Security wouldn’t let her get on the elevator, but she’d run her fingers over his name on the directory.
“Yes, and I need to get back to work, so I’m leaving the island tomorrow morning. I probably won’t be back while …”
“While I’m here?”
He gave a quick nod.
“I see,” Alix said, and she was very much afraid that she did understand. She’d been told that “Mr. Kingsley” would be on the island all summer, but it looked like he’d decided to stay away. Why? Did he really have a job that needed to be done? Or was he leaving because he didn’t want to be near a student? But maybe he didn’t want to brag. Perhaps if she encouraged him he’d open up. “My father’s an architect and he’s done a lot of construction,” she said. “What are you working on now?” She heard him pop the top on a can of Coke.
“Nothing important.”
“Who designed what you’re building?”