Page 33 of Me and Mr. Just Right

“I’m pretty likable,” she teased breathily.

He leaned toward her like a fish being drawn in on a reel, and she tilted her head.

Jules banged again, and they paused. Supersonic hearing on that one.

Lia’s eyes twinkled with amusement.

Haydn practically mouthed the words this time. “Want to go on an adventure?”

Haydn lowered the dinghy from Bennett’s boat and maneuvered it away from the island quietly, waiting until they were a good distance away from the cabin to let the engine roar. Lia sat across from him, the brightly colored hat from Bennett cinched under her chin, her braids peeking out from the brim.

It was too difficult to talk over the engine, so he enjoyed the view—of both the ocean and Lia. He inhaled the salty scent of ocean and mist, and navigated them around a few other small islands, most of them uninhabited.

Lia pointed to houses set on platforms on the water, and he saw them through her eyes. There were some Alaskan quirks he was so used to that he sometimes forgot how unique it all was.

Finally, they got to his favorite cove in all of Alaska. He slowed the dinghy until it coasted over the gentle waves and then came to a full stop. The drone of the engine silenced, leaving only the sound of water lapping on the hull.

“I can’t get over how gorgeous it is here,” Lia whispered. Sun shone on the blue-gray mountains in the distance. On all sides of them, like the hedges of a royal maze, massive pine trees rose up into the cerulean sky. He framed it in his mind as if looking through his viewfinder, and then gave in to the urge to pull out his camera and snap a few photos. When he aimed the camera at Lia, he paused to see if she’d say anything about not taking her picture.

When she didn’t, he caught her in profile as she stared out over the water.

“You were made for this,” he told her as he took a few more.

She shifted, and he saw the first few hints of her feeling uncomfortable. He shifted to take more pictures of the island behind her rather than making her the focus, though she was still the focus of his attention.

“Have you lived here your whole life?” Lia asked. She tilted her head up toward where the sun poked out of the clouds. He’d lent her one of his waterproof jackets—hers was still damp from exploring the tide pools—and it completely engulfed her body.

“Born and raised,” he said. “We spent our childhood in Ketchikan, and then moved out to Petersburg after our mom died.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lia said. “You’re the oldest, right?”

“I am.” His grip tightened on the camera, and he knew the photos he was taking during this conversation weren’t going to be any good, but he also wasn’t willing to put down the shield of his camera. Even though they had been told their mom would die, even though she’d talked to them all and written letters and made sure her finances were in order, and even though her illness was the catalyst for their dad leaving—he hadn’t been prepared emotionally. “Rosie had just graduated high school, and she needed a change. We all needed a change. Bennett had the opportunity to buy out an expedition business, so he decided to take it, and we all moved out to Petersburg. Except for Jules, who was in Juneau at UAS.”

“Did you always know you wanted to be a photographer?” she asked.

Since this was a more comfortable topic, he finally put his camera down before he used up his entire memory card on unusable pictures of the ocean. “No. I wanted to be a doctor.”

She nodded. “I can see it. So, what happened?”

“I studied biology for my undergrad and was applying to med schools when my mom died, and I knew I needed to stay home. I’ve been taking photos for several small-business websites in Alaska since I was in high school, and the editor atAlaska Ridgessaw some of my photos and reached out to me to do some contract work. When they had an opening for a staff photographer, they asked me if I wanted to work with them full time. That was about five years ago, and I’ve been with them ever since.”

“Do you think you’ll ever go back to med school?” Lia asked. She pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her calves, resting her chin on her knees. The waves pushed at the boat, lulling him into a sense of peace, even though this part of his history was always intertwined with the biggest losses of his life—his plans of becoming a doctor, his dad, and then his mom.

“No. I can’t imagine being in school again for so many years. And after the freedom of being a photographer and traveling through Alaska—it’s hard to contemplate a job that would keep me indoors all day.” On really cold nights, when he was camping and the light wasn’t good enough for any pictures, or his feature articles were rejected over and over again—sometimes then he wondered what life would have been like if he’d been able to go to med school. But what-could-have-beens were a quick way to feeling miserable about life, and he wouldn’t trade moving to Petersburg with Rosie and Bennett for anything.

“Jules mentioned that your dad left too. That must have left you with a lot of responsibility.”

Jules had told her about Dad? He hated talking about it. “It did, but I’m not resentful about it.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that you were. I can tell you’re a great brother. They’re lucky to have you.”

The warmth from the sun shining down on him seeped all the way to his bones. “Thank you. Rosie might say otherwise. She’s constantly reminding us we’re her brothers and not her dad.” He smiled sardonically.

She stared at him in an appraising way that made him feel like his stomach was pitching and rolling, just like the dinghy. “It’s good Rosie has you three.”

“Who do you have?” he asked. It hadn’t escaped his notice that when she was in crisis, her answer had been to come to the middle of nowhere, all alone. Did she have the equivalent of Rosie and his brothers in her life?

She ran her fingers along the rim of the dinghy and looked out on the horizon. “I don’t trust a lot of people.”

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