True Love Read Free Page A

wedding … Eric …” She shrugged.
    Izzy glared at her. “Alix, it’s as though your fairy godmother waved her magic wand and gave you just what you need at exactly the right time. You must do this!”
    “Think my fairy godmother has green eyes?” Alix had asked and the two of them had dissolved into laughter. Alix’s mother, Victoria, had emerald eyes. Of course she’d been behind obtaining this year of work and study for her precious daughter.
    What made them sure Alix’s mother was behind the hiatus was that she’d been the one to tell Alix about the strange provision in Adelaide Kingsley’s will. Izzy had always been in awe of Victoria. Even if she weren’t internationally famous for all those wonderful, exciting books she wrote, she’d still be magnificent. For one thing, she was gorgeous. She had thick auburn hair, a figure like a Spanish soap star’s, and a personality that commanded a room. Victoria wasn’t loud, wasn’t really flamboyant, but when she entered a room everyone took notice. A hush fell over people as they stopped talking and turned to look. It was as though they felt Victoria’s presence as much as saw her.
    The first time Izzy met Victoria, she wondered how Alix would react to her mother getting all the attention, but Alix was used to it. To her, that was how her mother was and she accepted it.
    Of course it helped that whenever Victoria spotted her daughter entering a room, she stopped charming the people who’d gathered around her and went straight to Alix. They would link arms and turn away to some quiet corner, just the two of them.
    When Alix had first been told about the contents of the will of some woman she didn’t remember, she’d said no. Yes, Alix had always planned to take a year off, but not on some isolated island.
    The real problem was that she hadn’t told her mother she had a boyfriend whom she was thinking about marrying. If Eric asked, that is.
    “I don’t understand,” Izzy said. “I thought you and your mom told each other everything.”
    “No,” Alix said. “I said that I find out everything about her. I am very selective about what I tell her.”
    “And Eric is a secret?”
    “I do my best to keep my love life with any man away from my mother. If she knew about Eric, she’d be here interrogating him. He’d probably run away in terror.”
    Izzy had to look away so Alix wouldn’t see her frown. She’d never liked Eric and she wished Victoria would do whatever it took to get rid of him.
    After Alix had finished her designs for the last school year and made her model, she’d “helped” Eric with his. The truth was that she’d almost done his whole project for him.
    After the breakup and Alix’s decision to go to Nantucket, she’d been very adult about it. “I’ll also have time to study.” To become a licensed architect, one had to take a series of truly horrific exams. “I’ll do well on the tests and make my parents proud,” Alix vowed.
    Izzy thought that Alix’s parents couldn’t be more proud of her than they already were, but she didn’t say so. When Alix finally said she was going, it was her depressed, fatalistic tone that made Izzy decide that she would travel with her friend and stay in Nantucket until Alix got settled. She wanted to be there when Alix finally broke down.
    It happened when they stepped onto the ferry to Nantucket. Until then there’d been so much to do to get ready for the trip that Alix hadn’t had time to brood about Eric. Her mother had covered all expenses, even shipping their luggage to the island, so the two young women would only have to deal with overnight bags. And they’d left days earlier than the original plan because Izzy was afraid Alix would see Eric again.
    Alix had seemed to be doing well until the ferry pulled away from the dock. When she looked at Izzy, there were tears running down her cheeks. “I don’t understand what I did wrong.”
    Since Izzy had known this was coming, she had