True Love by Jude Deveraux Page A

word of this. Don’t leave out anything.”
    Alix told him as succinctly as she could manage. “Maybe I would have been a pest to him or whatever he thought I’d be—if that’s the reason he didn’t tell me who he is—but to just sit there and tell one lie after another was … was …”
    “Despicable,” Ken said, and she could hear the anger in his voice.
    “It’s okay, Dad. He’s a big shot and I can see why he wouldn’twant to announce to a student that he’s the Jared Montgomery. He was probably worried that I’d kiss his ring or do some groupie thing. And to be fair, I would have. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. He’s leaving in the morning and he won’t be back while I’m here.”
    “Are you saying that you’ll be alone in that big house for an entire year?” Ken asked. “You know no one on that island and you’ve promised to put on a wedding for your friend. How are you going to do that?”
    “Dad, you’re supposed to cheer me up, not make me feel worse.”
    “I’m being a realist.”
    “Me too,” Alix said, “and that’s why I think I should return to the mainland. Besides, this house belongs to Mr. Kingsley and he wants it back, if for no other reason than for the big sink.”
    “Who’s Mr. Kingsley?”
    “Jared Montgomery.”
    “He told you to call him Mr. Kingsley?” Ken was aghast.
    “No, Dad. That’s what the lawyer called him. But I called him that and he didn’t correct me.”
    “That upstart!” Ken said with his teeth clenched. “Look, honey, I have something I have to do. Promise me that you won’t leave the island before I talk to you again.”
    “All right,” she said, “but what are you planning to do? You aren’t thinking of calling his office, are you?”
    “Not his office, no.”
    “Dad, please, you’re going to make me sorry I told you. Jared Montgomery is a very important person. When it comes to architecture, he’s in the stratosphere. It’s understandable if he doesn’t want to deal with a nothing, nobody student. He—”
    “Alixandra, it may be a cliché to say this, but you have more talent in your little finger than that man has in his whole body.”
    “You’re sweet but that’s not true. When he was my age, he—”
    “It’s a wonder he lived to be your age. All right, Alix, how about this? I’ll give him twenty-four hours to come to his senses. If he’s the same this time tomorrow and your feelings are still being hurt, thenI’ll come and get you. And furthermore, I’ll help you and Izzy with the wedding. Is that a deal?”
    Alix thought about telling her father that she was a grown woman and could take care of herself, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. “That sounds like a bet you don’t want to lose,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. She had no hope that Jared Montgomery was going to change anything about himself.
    “Good! I’ll call you this time tomorrow. Love ya.”
    “And I love you back,” Alix said, and hung up. She was tempted to call Izzy and tell her there was going to be a change in the wedding venue, but she didn’t.

    Jared was bent over his drawing board, working on what had to be his fiftieth sketch for the house in California, when his cell rang. Since so few people had his private number, he always answered it.
    Right away he recognized the very angry voice of Kenneth Madsen.
    “When I met you, you were a fourteen-year-old juvenile delinquent. You’d been in and out of the local jail so many times they knew your breakfast order by heart. Your poor dear mother was on six medications because you were driving her insane. Am I right? Am I saying anything wrong?”
    “No, you have it right,” Jared said.
    “And who straightened you out? Who dragged you out of bed in the mornings and put you into a truck and made you work?”
    “You did,” Jared said meekly.
    “Who searched under your bad-boy act and found your talent as a designer?”
    “You did.”
    “Who paid for your goddamn