“He’s right, you know,” Gage said.
She looked his way.
“About your spending time around the wrong people if a seventy-two-year-old man and his dog managed to give you the sweetest compliment you’ve ever received.”
Her head snapped back around. “He’s seventy-two?”
Gage nodded with a smile. “Doesn’t look a day over sixty. He lost his wife about five or six years ago. Sold his house and moved into the apartment above the diner.”
“How heartbreaking. I’m sure being around so many people helps to keep his loneliness at bay,” Aurora said with a nod.
“Mom thinks Glady is sweet on Mr. Wilson and that he might feel the same way, but neither of them has ever done anything about it.”
“Maybe someday,” Aurora said hopefully.
Gage nodded. “Maybe so.”
Turning, they started back in the direction of the docks. Aurora’s focus shifted to the man walking beside her. Gage Weston was tall, an inch or two over six feet if she had to make a guess. He definitely towered over her own five-feet-two-inch stature. He was lean with broad shoulders and muscular arms, which she’d not missed in the restaurant when he’d helped her with her backpack. What she had really picked up about Gage during their brief time spent together was that he was thoughtful and kind. And, to make him even more likable, he had a soft spot for dogs. She had always loved dogs.
Aurora risked a glance Gage’s way only to be on the receiving end of one of his disarming grins. Her heart gave a little flutter. She had to believe his smile had that kind of effect on most women he crossed paths with. It was one she longed to capture with her camera. And people were rarely the subject of her photographs. Her passion was capturing nature. But Gage, in his open khaki jacket, flannel shirt, and slightly faded denim jeans, especially if he were out in the woods, could very well tempt her to capture him in the wild.
CHAPTER FOUR
Gage glanced over at his pretty passenger who had barely spoken a word since takeoff minutes before. Her wide-eyed gaze shifted between the floatplane’s front window and the one next to her. Her camera, secured by a slender strap around her neck, was held in both hands, ready for that perfect shot. Aurora’s distraction as she captured pictures of the passing landscape gave him the opportunity to really study her.
She had removed the bright yellow duck poncho when they’d boarded the floatplane and had draped it over the seat behind her. Then, after taking a moment to fluff out her shoulder-length, wavy hair, she’d slipped on a fawn-colored knit hat that she’d pulled from one of the outer pockets on her backpack.
Gage had never been so aware of a woman’s hair before. The setting sun’s golden glow coming in through the windows touched on the still-dry strands that had been protected from the falling rain by her poncho’s hood. They weren’t the dark brown he’d first thought her hair to be. It was lighter with honey-colored strands mixing in with the slightly darker hue.
“I can’t take my eyes off this incredible view,” Aurora said in awe as she brought her camera up for another shot.
He knew the feeling. Only it wasn’t Alaska that had captured his attention during that flight to Conley Island.
The floatplane dipped, eliciting a startled gasp from Aurora.
“Nothing to worry about. Just an air pocket,” he calmly explained in an effort to soothe her concern.
“I know,” she replied with a nod. “I gasped because I missed a really great shot of a mountain goat I saw standing on an outcropping.”
He chuckled. Of course she wasn’t scared by a little midair dip. She’d already survived an unexpected slide down a muddied hillside and then had narrowly missed being swept up in a mudslide.
“Sorry about that,” he said.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she replied, her gaze remaining fixed on the world outside.
“You’ll have another opportunity to get some good shots tomorrow when we head back to Juneau.”
“As long as the weather cooperates.”
“It will,” he said assuredly.
She looked his way with a smile that had his stomach flipping. Not in the “I’m not feeling so good” kind of way, but in a way he hadn’t felt for a very long time. If ever. Not even with his almost fiancée. It was a sensation he wasn’t prepared for, especially since this unexpected stirring was caused by a woman he knew nothing about.
Gage had learned the hard way, two years earlier, that his emotions couldn’t always be trusted to guide him in the right direction. Because when it came to Jess, his ex-girlfriend and almost fiancée, his heart had definitely led him astray. Thankfully, Aurora Daniels, with her pretty smile and passion for all things nature-related, would be flying back to Seattle soon. She was definitely a distraction he didn’t need. Not rightnow. His focus needed to be fixed solely on turning things around for his family’s business.
“I forgot,” she said. “You’re not only a pilot and a businessman, you’re a weather forecaster as well. Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Hula hoop.”
