Page 27 of Under the Northern Lights
The door to the kitchen swung open, and his mother and Julia came out carrying food-laden trays.
“Are you planning to eat standing?” his mother asked Gage as she stepped up to the table next to him.
“Not today,” he answered, making his mother smile.
“Then have a seat so we can get everyone served.”
“Not there,” his sister said as Gage moved to take the closest seat. “I’m sitting there tonight.”
He started around the table only to be stopped by his mother. “I was going to sit by your father.”
Unless he wanted to sit separate from the others, his only option was to take the seat next to Aurora. Gage dragged the chair back and lowered himself into it, telling himself to focus on dinner and not the woman beside him.
Trays emptied, his mother and Julia scurried back to the kitchen, their stifled giggles followed by fading whispers. They were up to no good. Of that, Gage was pretty certain. He hadn’t missed the twinkle of delight that had come into his mother’s eyes when Aurora joked about knocking Gage off his game champion podium. He could tell his family liked her, and he was pretty sure his mother and Julia were entertaining matchmaking thoughts as they had done a handful of times since his breakup two years earlier. Well, they could scheme all they wanted. He was not looking for a relationship. His focus needed to be on figuring out a way to keep their family’s retreat from being swallowed up by the bigger fish. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy an evening spent in Aurora Daniels’s company.
CHAPTER SIX
“This is where Gage knocked my front tooth out.”
Aurora’s eyes widened in horror at Julia’s statement. Lowering her camera, she stood from where she’d knelt to capture an upshot of the towering pine next to her and eyed Gage questioningly.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” he said in his own defense, splayed hands up in front of him. “And her front tooth was ready to come out anyway, I might add.”
“It was,” Julia agreed with a grin. “I was almost seven, and that front tooth had been wiggly in my mouth for weeks. Reed, Gage, and I went outside to play a game of hide-and-seek.”
“You were hiding outside where bears like Little John are milling about?” Aurora said, eyes rounded.
“We had to stay close to the lodge,” Gage told her. “And Dad and Hank were always nearby whenever we went outside to play.”
Julia nodded. “Anyway, whenever it was my turn to be the seeker, my brothers, knowing I wasn’t very good at it, would help me find them by making noises or poking their heads out.”
“Better than hiding for what felt like hours for her to finally find us.”
“So that day I was walking past this tree, and Gage popped out from behind it with a ferocious bear growl. It startled me so badly that when I turned to run away my feet got tangled up, and I fell flat on my face.”
“I felt terrible about it,” Gage said with a nod.
“You were just being a boy,” Aurora said with an understanding smile.
“I made out in the deal,” Julia said with a grin. “I might have gotten a bloody lip that day, but I also ended up with five dollars to spend the next time we went into Juneau.”
Aurora’s slender brows lifted. “Gage paid you for causing you to fall?”Hush money?
“No.” Julia laughed, shaking her head. “The ‘tooth fairy’ paid me.”
“More than double what Reed and I ever got for a tooth,” Gage said, sounding playfully salty over it.
“The boys pouted for a week over it.”
“I’d love to hear that accident-inducing bear growl,” Aurora said with a grin.
“Tell you what,” Gage replied. “You do it. I’ll do it.”
She’d never actually tried to growl like a bear before, but she was game for the challenge. “Okay.”
“Okay?” he stuttered, clearly not having expected her to agree.
“This will be entertaining,” Julia exclaimed. “I’ll be the judge. Loser pays me five dollars.”
