She followed his gaze downward, stopping at the misshapen bulge beneath the front of his raincoat. “What in the world ...?” Looking up into Gage’s mirth-filled eyes, she said, “Did you come across Little John on your way here and swallow him whole for lunch?”
“And miss having lunch with you? Not a chance.”
One arm still wrapped around the bottom side of the protruding lump, he unzipped his raincoat, revealing a tall pair of boots. “For you to wear up to the lodge,” he told her as he pulled them free.
“I have waterproof hiking boots.”
“No sense in you getting them all muddy. These take five seconds to hose off.” He handed them to her. “I guessed on the size. Hope they at least come close to fitting. If not, I’ll be carrying you to the lodge.”
She laughed. “I don’t think that will be necessary. Like I said, I have my own boots.”
“The trail to the main lodge gets pretty muddy when it pours like this. So humor me. Please.”
“Fine.” As she set the boots on the floor beside her to step into them, Aurora saw the forgotten pools of water surrounding his booted feet. “The floor,” she gasped.
“I’m sure it’s not the first time someone dragged water and a bit of mud into the cabin with them,” he said, his tone calm. “There should be some utility towels stored in the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink. Would you mind grabbing one so I can clean this mess up? Then I’ll stand on it until you’re ready to go.”
Nodding, she set the boots down and hurried to grab one of the neatly folded utility towels from the stack in the very back of the sink cupboard.
“It’s expected to be an all-nighter, and my family is looking forward to having you there for the rainy-day activity Mom has planned for this afternoon. She always has a backup activity on days like this for our guests. Certain conditions keep the boats from being able to safely take them out fishing. Such as today’s inclement weather. Guests are welcome to join in if they want to, or if they prefer to just relax in their cabins, or take a walk in the rain, they have those options as well.”
“That’s really thoughtful of her,” Aurora said as she hurried across the room to where Gage remained standing. “Let me guess what activity your mother has planned for us thisafternoon,” Aurora said as she moved to dry up the water with the towel. “I’m thinking trivia.”
Gage shook his head as he knelt beside her.
Aurora looked up as he placed his large hand over hers, stilling her attempt to clean up the puddles of water.
“My mess,” he told her. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay,” was all she could muster as he gazed into her eyes for several long moments.
Gage cleared his throat, then redirected his attention to sopping up the puddles. “Would you like for me to tell you what we’re going to be doing today?”
“And take the fun out of trying to guess it?”
“Have at it,” he told her, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the floor in front of him.
“I have to warn you, I’m pretty good at guessing games,” she said as she rose to her feet. “Jade and I used to play them all the time as kids.”
“Let’s see how good you are then,” he replied with a grin, finally glancing up at her. “If you guess right, I’ll take you to Juneau for lunch, weather permitting. Maybe we’ll even see about finding you some moose to photograph while we’re out.”
“Moose! Seriously?”
He chuckled. “Seriously.”
“And if I guess wrong?”
“You’lltake me to lunch in Juneau instead.”
Her heart pounded with far more enthusiasm than usual. “I accept the challenge.” Spending time with Gage anywhere excited her to the point of being almost embarrassing. She was going to miss him when she returned to Seattle.
Gage took one last swipe across the mat and the floor around it with the towel and then spread it out, stepping onto it. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s have that guess.”
“Keep in mind that this is my warm-up. It doesn’t count if I get it wrong.”
“Noted,” he said with a refrained grin. “Was this how you and Jade used to play this game?”
“Maybe.”
