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She turned back to him. They were in the wooded area around the two tents and the chapel, with the only light coming from inside. It made the area around them almost golden. “All right,” she said, looking up at him. “What’s your apology?”
“The pirate version or the one from the lawyer?”
It looked like he wasn’t serious after all. She didn’t smile. “Excuse me, but I have work to do.” She again turned away.
“My brother gets into trouble and I cover for him,” he said. “It keeps our father from anger that I fear would be injurious to his health.”
She knew when she heard the truth, so she looked at him. Toby knew a lot about parental problems.
“Usually …” he said. “No, actually, we always get away with it. You’re the first one outside the family to recognize our exchange. I really do apologize. When your friend thought I was the one she had seen last night in the bar, it was just less complicated to act as though she was right. Until then, I didn’t even know my brother was here on the island.”
When he finished, he just stood there and looked at her with an unreadable expression on his face. He had a strong jaw and a straight nose. His eyes were a deep, dark blue, with heavy black brows over them. His mouth had a curve to it, as though he was about to break into a smile, but at the same time there was something intense about him that made her think there was a depth that he hid from others.
“Maybe I jumped to conclusions,” she said and gave him a small smile. “Why don’t you go inside and get some food? And thank you for coming to Nantucket to escort me down the aisle.”
“It was my pleasure.”
He was staring at her in a way that she’d never seen before, as though he didn’t understand who—or what—she was. It was beginning to make her uncomfortable.
“All right, then,” she said. “I’ll leave you to … uh, find your brother.” Again, she turned away from him.
“Do you know anywhere I can stay?”
She turned back, frowning. “I thought everyone had been given a place for the night.” She and Lexie had worked frantically to get every guest a bed. This man had flown in from Maine for the sole purpose of being a groomsman. Had she and Lexie forgotten to take care of where he was to stay? “I’m sorry for the oversight,” she said, “but I’m sure we can find you a bed somewhere.”
“I apologize for not being clear,” he said. “I have accommodations for tonight, but I want to stay on Nantucket for a week. Perhaps I could rent a place?”
In other circumstances she would have said that what he was asking was nearly impossible. The summer weather on Nantucket was divine, as though it had been made up in a fairy tale. Warm but not hot; cool but not cold; sunshine but not blistering; constant breezes that refreshed. The paradise of perfect weather drew about sixty thousand tourists in the summer, and everything needed to be booked in advance.
But this man was related to the Kingsley family and they owned several houses on the island. “I’ll ask Jared,” she said. “He’s often in New York, so maybe you could stay in his house. Or the guesthouse, but then …” She trailed off.
He gave a bit of a smile. “Were you about to say that my aunt is staying there and she seems to have formed an … an attachment to the bride’s father?”
Toby smiled. “Yes, she has. Is she the reason you want to stay?”
“I want a holiday,” he said. “At home I rarely have time off, but I thought perhaps now I’d be able to manage it.”
Toby glanced at the tent. Inside, as far as she could see, everything seemed to be fine. The caterers were very experienced and they were keeping the buffet table laden. The band had arrived and soon the floor would be cleared for dancing. Right now everyone seemed to be happy, eating, drinking, and laughing.
She looked back at the man. What was his name? She’d been introduced to so many people in the last twenty-four hours that she couldn’t remember all of them. “Where are you from? Your accent—” She stopped because it didn’t seem polite to say that he had a slight, almost undetectable accent.
But he smiled. “My English tutor will feel that he’s failed, as will my American relatives. I’m from Lanconia, but my grandfather is from Warbrooke, Maine. When I was growing up, I spent time there every summer.”
“You and your brother?”
“Yes,” he said. “I was with my brother, Rory, and a hundred or so other relatives. It was always an exciting time, the happiest of my life, really. What about you? Are you a Nantucket native?”
“Oh, no. Not at all. Lexie—she’s my roommate—would say that I haven’t been blessed with that honor. She’s descended from the proprietors, the first English people who lived on the island. My ancestors came over on the Mayflower, but Lexie says that since they didn’t land on Nantucket, they’re just poor, sad dissidents.”
“Not the blessed ones,” he said, and his smile made his face soften. “My ancestors were tribes of bearskin-clad warriors who loved to fight each other. What would your roommate think of them?”
“She’d feel very sorry for you,” Toby said, and they smiled at each other. For a moment they were silent. “I better go see that everyone has what they need. You should go in and get something to eat.”
“What about you? Have you eaten?”
Toby sighed. “Not since early this morning. There’s been too much to do. Some of the flowers fell down, the plane was late with supplies, one of the
band members wasn’t feeling well, and then of course there was the whole secrecy thing, and … Sorry. More than you wanted to know. I need to go.” But she didn’t move.
