Page 77 of Under the Northern Lights
“Safe trip,” Emmy said with a wave as she turned and melted into the crowd of art-goers, living her best life.
Aurora took one last glance around the art gallery her friend had opened earlier that year. It was something Emmy had been dreaming about most of her adult life. She had renovated an old shoe store she was leasing, added feature walls and had painted everything calm, soothing colors that allowed whatever artwork was on display to take center stage. She’d also put in new flooring, which helped eliminate the creaking you heard when walking on the old wood plank floor. Aurora had helped pick out the modern light fixtures, and Emmy added dimmable spotlights to allow the best lighting possible for each artist’s display during art shows. She and Emmy were so fortunate to have seen their career dreams come true. Now, if only they could do the same with their personal lives.
Aurora made her way out of the gathering crowd inside the gallery and walked to her car, which was loaded with baby gifts she hadn’t been able to resist buying. Jade might just threaten to sew Aurora’s wallet shut, instead of her lips, once she saw everything. Her sister tended to be more of a minimalist. Aurora was not. If anything, Gage was to blame for her out-of-control gift buying. She had discovered that shopping, especially for her soon-to-be niece or nephew, helped take her mind off her unsettled feelings for a certain Alaskan pilot.
It was hard to believe that it had been nearly two months since she’d stood under that breathtaking Northern Lights sky with him. Or had it been Gage making her breathless that night? She’d been both surprised and elated to receive a call from him the very evening she’d flown back from Juneau. He’d said he was making sure she’d gotten home alright. The calls continued, coming once or twice a week, allowing them to catch up on each other’s lives. Their continuing friendship wasn’t something she had expected, but she was so grateful Gage made the effort to keep it going. Even if it was a challenge for Aurora to keep her heart from wanting more.
Gage had mentioned, during one of their more recent phone calls, that things were looking up for his family’s retreat. Oddly enough, guest reservations had started picking up over the past couple of weeks, despite it being the off-season. People were coming to see the island and its varied wildlife, to stargaze, and to simply spend evenings playing games by the warming fire in the hearth at the lodge.
Aurora hadn’t been able to suppress her glee at the news. She had done her best to put the word out about his family’s warm and welcoming fishing retreat. Gage and his family had done so much for her during her stay there. If Gage hadn’t invested so much of his personal time into helping her get those perfect shots, Aurora wasn’t sure her editor would have offered her the position with their magazine over other equally qualified photographers.
When she was about half an hour away from the exit she would get off at to go to her parents’ place, Aurora called her sister.
“Sis!” Jade answered.
“Almost home,” Aurora said happily.
“I can’t wait to see you!”
Aurora smiled. “Same. How are you feeling?”
“I couldn’t be better,” her sister replied. “Morning sickness is gone. Thank goodness for that. And I’m able to eat all the pistachio ice cream with peanut butter on top that I want and not have anyone question why.”
“Ew,” Aurora said, cringing at the thought of eating that mixture. Pistachio ice cream was bad enough.
“You say that now,” Jade retorted. “Someday you will find yourself also craving things like steak with strawberry jelly, garlic pickles with chocolate milk.”
“Again, ew,” Aurora told her. “Please stop before I completely lose my appetite.” And she wasn’t so sure that day her sisterspoke about was ever going to come for her. She was twenty-eight years old and doubting she would ever find herself sayingI do. Mostly because the man she saw herself marrying in her dreams had chosen to keep their relationship on a friendship level.
Her sister’s giddy laughter filtered through the phone. “Okay. Just don’t look my way at the dinner table when we’re eating this evening.”
“Noted,” Aurora said with a smile. “See you soon.”
The call disconnected, and Aurora felt that rush of excitement she got whenever she went home to visit. It was where she needed to be right now. By now, there would be some other town gossip or excitement going on, and her broken engagement would be old news. Truth was, if Ben’s mother had anything to do with it, everyone would be fully aware that her son was dating again and head over heels with his new sweetheart.
Ben’s new love interest was the reason he’d contacted her in Alaska. He’d wanted to get together so he could introduce her to Charlene. Aurora had to admit she really liked her. And Ben had a special light in his eyes when he looked at Charlene that he hadn’t had whenever he’d looked at Aurora. Even when he’d proposed. That dinner with her ex-fiancé had eased any of the remaining guilt Aurora harbored over calling off their wedding. Her decision to set them both free to find the people they were meant to be with had been the right one. Aurora could say, without a doubt, that she was genuinely happy for her still-very-dear friend.
Flipping on her turn signal, Aurora eased over into the exit lane and onto the off-ramp that led to her hometown. Soon, she was passing all the old, familiar landmarks she’d grown up around. Her excitement to be home again grew. She really hoped they would play games like they used to before she graduatedfrom college and moved away to Seattle to start her photography career. Those game nights she’d shared with Gage and his family at the lodge had reminded her of how much she missed out on living so far away from her family.
She also missed spending time with Gage. And, if she were being totally honest with herself, she had to admit that night they’d stood watching the Northern Lights on the dock, she’d felt a spark of hope that things might be able to work out between them somehow. Then, the next morning, while they waited for the other guests to arrive at the floatplane, Gage fed into that hope as he admitted to having feelings for her. Inner exuberance and joy had filled Aurora. And then he’d followed that unexpected statement by saying he wished his situation was different, but they both knew that he wasn’t at a place in his life where he was free to pursue a relationship with anyone.
Aurora understood his whys, truly she did, but that didn’t stop his words from feeling like the tip of a very sharp needle, bursting her balloon of hopes and dreams. The only response she’d been able to give Gage at that moment had been an offer to show him around Seattle if he was ever in the area. He’d told her he might just take her up on that someday. And that was it, because the other guests arrived and their chance for any further personal conversation came to an end.
She had tried to accept that she and Gage could be nothing more than friends, but his unexpected call that same evening and every week since threatened to reignite that spark of hope she’d felt that night on the dock. Aurora had to constantly remind herself that theirs was only friendship, and if she pushed for more than that, she would find herself in Ben’s shoes—on the receiving end of a breakup.
Gage stood on the boat dock, watching Reed and Hank lead their newly arriving guests away to the main lodge. Despite it being late in the season for their usual bookings, guests were still coming in. If not to fish, then to just get away from it all and unwind, which was a new reason they were being given when some of their guests booked a stay. He wasn’t about to question intentions. A reservation was a reservation. Besides, Julia had said she’d been working on getting their retreat information out on more online social platforms. Apparently, whatever his sister was doing was working.
Turning, Gage walked out to the end of the dock, the wintry wind gusting between the two docked fishing boats tossing his wavy hair about. After raising the collar of his winter jacket, he tucked his hands into its pockets to warm them. How was it even possible that it had been almost two months since he’d stood on that same dock with Aurora, watching the brilliance of the Northern Lights dance across the fall night sky?
Forty-three days to be exact. Sharing nature’s light show with Aurora that night had been an unexpectedly profound moment in his life. So much so that the memory surfaced every time he stepped back out onto that dock. And in his dreams. And when he took walks. Thankfully, his plane had been put in storage for the winter. He couldn’t afford to be distracted when flying guests back and forth from Juneau. This time of year, they used one of their boats for runs into Juneau and back.
Gage’s phone vibrated in the back pocket of his jeans, its ringtone cutting into the surrounding silence and his distracted thoughts. Slipping it free, he glanced down at the lit screen. Then he quickly brought the phone to his ear.
“Hello,” he answered with a widening smile.
“Hi,” Aurora replied on the other end. “Am I catching you at a bad time?”
Gage frowned as the call dropped in and out. “I’m out on the boat dock, and the connection here isn’t the best.”
