“Dad,” Gage said, “I’d like to introduce you to Aurora. Aurora, my dad.”
“Jim Weston,” Gage’s father said in introduction.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Aurora replied.
His father looked to Gage, his graying brows lifting upward. “Your mother didn’t tell me you were bringing s-someone special home to meet us.”
“What?” Gage replied in confusion.
His mother looked up at her husband and then at her youngest son. “Reed, you didn’t tell me your brother was bringing someone ‘special’ when you told me to expect another guest that your brother had just flown in for dinner.”
Reed shrugged. “I just repeated what I was told.”
“Gage!” Julia gasped with a clap of her hands. “I’m so happy for you!”
“Now everyone hold on,” Gage said with a frown.
“I should’ve realized she wasn’t just another guest,” Constance said, smiling at Aurora. “We’ve never had a woman come stay at the retreat by herself before. And you’re wearing a floatplane sweatshirt.”
“He does look happier,” Jim noted with a nod.
Aurora’s eyes widened as the misinformation train picked up speed.
“Whoa!” Gage bellowed, throwing up his hands.
Everyone looked his way, the excited chatter in the room finally ceasing.
“Aurora is not special,” he told them and then groaned at how his words had come out. He looked Aurora’s way with an apologetic glance as he clarified, “To me.” Then his gaze shifted to his family. “She was in need of a place to stay, and we had availability. She’s ourguest.”
Aurora could have sworn she saw the entire room deflate at Gage’s announcement.
“Sorry about that,” Jim apologized. “Gage usually doesn’t introduce m-me to our guests. My wife or Julia normally do that when the guests arrive for check-in. And you are wearing a f-floatplane sweatshirt, so I assumed ...”
“We should have known Gage wouldn’t bring anyone home with him,” Julia said, clearly disappointed that they’d been wrong about Aurora’s connection with Gage. “Not since?—”
“Well, I’m starving,” Reed blurted out, cutting his younger sister off.
Gage shifted uneasily. “Same.”
Sensing Gage’s discomfort with the direction her introduction had taken, Aurora explained, “Like we told Reed when we arrived, Gage came to my rescue in Juneau after I missed my flight back to Seattle and found myself a bit stranded in the rain. My things got wet, and clothing options in town were limited, so we stopped by a gift shop before flying to Conley Island. That’s why I’m not dressed nicer for dinner.”
His mother immediately waved her words away. “First of all, we’re so sorry for any discomfort we caused by thinking you and Gage were together. And second, you look adorable. Our guests dress however makes them comfortable. We don’t have a dress code here.”
“Other than you have to wear clothes,” Reed chimed in.
His mother gave him a disapproving glance, then focused once again on Aurora. “Most of our guests arrive by floatplane. It would be perfect to wear about as winter sets in. I might just need to have Reed draw us up a design for sweatshirts with a floatplane on them and the name of our lodge to add to our cozy little lodge boutique.”
“A.k.a., corner area by the check-in,” Reed said, garnering another glance from his mother.
“Children,” she said with a dramatic huff of feigned frustration, “you think you raised them right ...”
Her husband chuckled. “R-Reed loves to tease his mother,” he said, his words again taking a bit of effort to get out.
“And Mom can give as good as she gets,” Julia said. “She’s just refraining because you’re here.”
“True,” Reed and Gage echoed at the same time.
Aurora laughed. “You all remind me so much of my family.”
