Page 33 of Under the Northern Lights

Aurora smiled. Gage’s sister was perceptive. “If I get an offer for a full-time position with World Adventures Magazine , I’ll be traveling more than I do already. Not just to places in the states. I’ll be flying to other countries too.”

“Oh,” Constance said, her expression one of disappointment.

Aurora nodded. “I know Gage’s life is here. He loves Conley Island, and I can certainly see why. I’ve learned that the stars don’t always align the way you hoped they would,” she admitted. “I’m just grateful to have met Gage and all of you.”

“Same,” Julia said with a soft smile.

Aurora glanced toward the retreat’s main entrance door. “I shouldn’t keep Gage waiting.” Standing, she said, “Thank you for breakfast. It was delicious, as usual.” That said, she stepped away from the table and made her way out to the porch where Gage waited patiently for her to join him.

“Are you standing out here sniffing one of Mom’s candles?”

Gage lowered his arm, along with the scented wax-filled jar. It wasn’t something he could deny. Reed had caught him red-handed. “It was sitting on the table by the door when I went out,” he replied, and then felt the need to add, “I bought it for her.”

“Well, that makes all the difference,” his brother replied as he moved to stand next to Gage. “Sniff away.”

“This is from the 1820 House’s special candle collection,” Gage told him. “It’s called Beautiful Aurora. She loves this scent.”

“Sniffing a candle, no matter how good its scent is, is not going to keep Aurora here on Conley Island,” Reed said, as if Gage didn’t already know that. “Are you really going to let her get away?”

Gage looked to his brother, who was pulling on his rain boots. “You have to have someone for them to get away from you,” he told Reed with a frown.

“You were so close to reeling her in,” his brother insisted.

“Aurora isn’t a fish.”

“True.”

His brother was hitting far too close to home. “I’m not fishing,” Gage snarled in frustration, the phone call Aurora had received that morning still fresh in his mind.

“Okay, she’s not a fish,” Reed agreed, his tone calm. “When you spend most of your days out on a boat, that’s the kind of analogies you make. But in all seriousness, I’ve seen the way you and Aurora are when you’re together. There’s something special there.”

“I think you all are so eager to see me in a relationship again that you’re reading more into what you see between me and Aurora.”

His brother’s frown mirrored his own. “It has nothing to do with our wanting to push you into a relationship. We want you to move past what Jess did to you,” Reed told him. “I know how she made you feel. Like you weren’t enough.” He looked around. “Like this wasn’t enough.”

“Maybe right after she left,” Gage admitted. “But once she was gone, I took a look at my life again and had no second thoughts about keeping it just the way it is. I’m over Jess. Have been for a very long time.”

“Maybe so. But will you be able to get over Aurora?”

Gage fell silent.

“Thought that might be your response.”

Mouth pulling down into a frown, Gage said, “I can’t do this with her. Not right now. You and I both know we have to focus on saving the retreat.”

“We’re making upgrades,” Reed said. “You’ve been coming up with ideas to draw more guests in. We will save the retreat. Of that, I have complete faith. But none of us want you to do so at the cost of your happiness.”

“I’m happy,” Gage said, not very convincingly.

“But you’re truly happy when you’re with Aurora,” his brother countered. “We’ve all seen it. However, you’re determined to keep that wall up around your heart because you’re afraid you won’t be enough. That our life won’t be enough.”

“It’s not the easiest place to live,” Gage conceded.

“Jess might not have been cut out for our life here on the island, but Aurora could be,” Reed pointed out with a frustrated frown. “Remove that emotional safety chain you’ve put on the door to your heart, and let her in. You will be so much happier for it.”

Gage grabbed for his raincoat. “What are you, my therapist?”

“Your brother, who happens to love you. As does the rest of your family,” Reed told him as he crossed the porch. “I’ll meet you two down at the boat.” Turning, he made his way down the front porch steps and out into the light drizzle that was falling from the gray September sky.

Was he holding back? Gage wondered. He’d kissed Aurora. Yet, he thought with more than a hint of regret, he hadn’t expressed how he’d felt at that moment. Maybe if Reed hadn’t interrupted that kiss ...

The lodge’s main door creaked open as Aurora stepped out to join him on the porch.

Gage hurried to set the candle on a nearby table while making a mental note to add some petroleum jelly to the door’s hinges.

Focusing on that helped steer his thoughts away from Aurora’s upcoming dinner date with her ex.

“Where’s Reed?” she asked, glancing around.

“He went on ahead to the boat to get it ready.” He handed Aurora a pair of rain pants, making another mental note to order ones with shorter inseam lengths for their female guests. “They’re going to be long, but we’ll roll them up, and you’ll be good to go.”

Smiling, she took the pants from him and walked over to sit down on the edge of one of the porch chairs. “Is everything okay?”

He met her worried gaze. “Sure. Why?”

“You left the lodge kind of abruptly,” she told him. “Was it because of Ben’s phone call?”

He hesitated before nodding. “I know you want what your sister has. But I don’t want to see you settle for less than you deserve out of life.”

She laughed. “You think I would reconsider getting back together with Ben?”

Gage shrugged.

“We are not getting back together in that way. He just has something important he wants to talk to me about.”

“What’s more important than talking to you about how he hopes to win your heart back?”

She fell quiet for a long moment, studying him closely. “Would that bother you?”

He met her scrutinizing stare. “Yes.” Well, it was out there now. He’d just taken the chain off his heart’s door. That didn’t mean he wasn’t keeping the toe of his mental shoe against it to keep the door from swinging all the way open.

“Gage,” she said with a soft smile. “You’re the most thoughtful, caring man I have ever met. Thank you for protecting me where Ben is concerned. I promise not to settle for less than my heart deserves.”

Gage felt a mixture of relief and frustration with her reply.

Aurora thought he was being protective of her because of what he knew about her broken engagement.

Not because he couldn’t stomach the thought of her with Ben or any man, sharing time, and laughter, and silly inside jokes.

The way Aurora and he had during her stay there.

“Okay,” Aurora said, “I’m ready for my boots.”

He grabbed a pair that was closest to the door.

“These are Mom’s. She said for you to wear them out on the boat today.

Even if they’re a little big, they’ll be better than the ones we have for guests,” he said, inclining his head toward the row of boots lining the wall beneath the rain jackets and pants.

“That was nice of your mother,” Aurora said as she slipped them on. “Perfect fit,” she announced as she bent over to work her cuffed rain pants carefully down over them.

Gage watched as she straightened and moved to the edge of the porch. No awkward wobble. “Looks like I won’t need to carry you to the boat.”

“It is raining,” she replied with a mischievous grin. “There’s bound to be lots of mud.”

Gage’s brows lifted. “You didn’t learn your lesson the last time I carried you in the rain?”

She laughed, a beautiful, lilting sound that Gage would never forget. “Apparently not.”