“Do we like them or not?” Alix asked, trying to make a joke.
But Jared didn’t smile. “Depends on whether they add to the community or take from it.”
Once they got in the crowd, Lexie and Toby went off on their own, but Alix stayed with Jared. Yet again, he seemed to know everyone.
“When are you going to design that guesthouse for me?” one man asked. He was short and stout and looked vaguely familiar.
When they stepped away, Alix asked who the man was.
“Forbes top ten” was Jared’s answer before he said hello to someone else.
She knew that meant a “richest list.”
When Wes showed up, everything happened at once. Alix reluctantly left Jared’s side to go to him. Her mind was frantically scheming for a way to get out of this date without offending anyone. But on the other hand, it wasn’t as though Jared had said he wanted her with him.
When Alix took a step toward Wes, Jared made no move to stop her. But then Wes abruptly halted and stared at something behind Alix. She turned to look.
A young woman had come up beside Jared, taken his arm, and was leaning toward him in a possessive way. Fairly attractive, with short blond hair and big eyes, but what really stood out about her was how she was dressed. She had on an airy white tunic that reached to the top of her thighs—and there appeared to be nothing underneath it. Her long, beautiful legs—perfectly tanned, perfectly waxed—seemed to go on forever, down to some little gold sandals.
Alix, speechless, looked from the girl to Jared, to Wes, and back again.
“This is my date,” Jared said to Wes.
Alix’s mouth dropped open. No wonder he didn’t care that she was going out with someone else. No wonder—
“Trade?” Jared asked his cousin.
Wes gave a curt nod and the girl left Jared’s arm to go to Wes.
Alix was standing still, unable to move, and she had no idea what had just happened.
“Are you ready to go?” Jared asked impatiently.
Alix was still blinking.
“The parade’s about to start and we need to get in the truck.”
Alix recovered enough to walk across the cobblestones to the blue Ford and get in beside Jared. “Did you plan that?”
He started the engine. “Plan what? Oh. You mean Daris?”
“Is that the girl with no pants on?”
Jared smiled. “Best legs on the island. She and Wes were a couple until six months ago. He did something she didn’t like so she told him to get lost. I guess she’s punished him enough. Here.” He handed her a bouquet of daffodils.
Alix took them as he pulled into place behind a gull wing Mercedes from the sixties. “So you did plan it all.”
He glanced at her with a little smile. “Did you really think I was going to let you go out with Wes?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “I did.” She smiled at him. “Thanks for proving me wrong.”
“My pleasure,” he said.
He spoke in such a vain way that she couldn’t let him get away with it. “It’s so rare that I’m wrong that I’d begun to think it wasn’t possible.”
He laughed. “Wave at the people.”
She did. “So what ideas do you have for the guesthouse for the Forbes top-ten man?”