Not even in her dreams.
They took the leisurely boat ride through a winding course. People walking by stopped to wave. Music echoed off the ceiling and reverberated all around them. She caught sight of stores whose names she’d only seen in magazines. Everything about the moment was perfect.
Then Stephen put his arm around her and it all got better.
When they rounded a corner, a man was waiting with a camera. He told them to smile, then snapped their picture. Once the ride was over, they went to check on the digital image displayed on a computer screen.
“You’re beautiful,” Stephen told her.
Aurelia knew he was being kind, but she was pleased with how the photo had turned out. They were both looking at the camera, with genuine smiles. She noticed they were leaning into each other and looked very much like a couple. If one ignored the age difference.
“We’ll take two,” he said, then paid for them.
“I should buy them.”
“Why?”
Because she made more than him. Because he was still in college and this wasn’t a date. But she didn’t want to say any of that, so instead she simply said, “Thank you,” when he handed her the thin bag containing the pictures in a paper frame.
“Hungry?” Stephen asked, pointing to one of the outdoor restaurants.
“Yes.”
“Good. Me, too.”
It was midafternoon, and there wasn’t much of a crowd. They were seated immediately at a small corner table next to a plant. Despite being in the open, the space felt private. Intimate.
The server gave them menus. Even though she was hungry, Aurelia couldn’t imagine eating. She chose a salad and iced tea. Stephen ordered a pizza and soda.
“You know why I decided to do the show,” she said. “Why did you?”
He picked up his fork and turned it over in his hands. “A lot of reasons. I wanted to get out of South Salmon and this was a good way.”
“A good way? You left college in your last semester. How is that smart?”
Stephan rolled his eyes but Aurelia persisted.
“Getting an education can’t hurt. What are you going to do when the show is over?”
Stephen put down the fork and leaned toward her. “I don’t want to fly.”
“I don’t understand. You want to drive back to Alaska?”
He laughed. “No. I mean I don’t want to be a pilot, like my brother. I don’t want to go into the family business.”
“Oh.” She knew all about family expectations. Despite the fact that she was nearly thirty, she had never once been able to please her mother. “Is that what Finn wants? He expects you to go into the family business?”
“It’s implied.”
“Have you told him how you feel?”
“No. He doesn’t care about that.”
Aurelia shook her head. “You’re talking about a man who flew a thousand miles to make sure you and your brother were okay. I think he cares a lot about you.”
“That’s different. He wants me home so he can control me. If I were to tell him that I wanted to be an engineer, he’d fly me up to ten thousand feet and kick me out of the airplane.”
“Now you’re talking like a kid.”
“Hey!” He straightened. “Where do you get off saying that?”
“Look at your actions. You’re not willing to sit down and talk to Finn. Instead, you ran off. How is that mature?”
“You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m a disinterested third party.” Disinterested probably wasn’t the right word. Embarrassingly enough, she found herself more than a little interested in Stephen. Why couldn’t he have been thirty instead of twenty? Life was nothing if not karmically cruel.
“Besides,” she continued. “If you’re one semester away from graduation, he already knows your major.”
“The major isn’t important as long as I come back home.” He shook his head. “When our folks died, things were bad. Finn took care of us. Now he can’t let that go. He thinks we’re still the little kids who needed him.”
“You should talk to him,” she said. “Why wouldn’t he be happy that you wanted to be an engineer? It’s a good, solid job.”
“I’ve known him all my life, Aurelia. You’re going to have to trust me on this. Finn would never approve.”
She wanted to argue but didn’t. After all, there were plenty of people who would tell her to simply stand up to her mother. From the outside it seemed so easy. But from the inside, everything was different. She couldn’t seem to survive the waves of guilt every time she tried. It was as if her mother had been given an instruction manual on how to manipulate her and had memorized every page.
Stephen had been one of the few people to accept her limitations. “I do trust you,” she said.
In the square, someone called their names. She and Stephen turned toward the sound of several people running. One of the production assistants hurried up to them.
“There you are,” Karen said, sounding breathless. “We’ve been looking everywhere. Geoff is furious. We’re all packing up and going home. You have to come right now.”
Aurelia looked at Stephen, who shrugged. “I guess we’ll get something to eat at the airport,” he said.
“Hurry,” the production assistant said. “We have to get to the airport. Geoff is furious that there wasn’t a date.”
Aurelia and Stephen walked out of the restaurant. As they followed the production assistant to the elevators, he leaned close.
“Geoff was wrong,” he whispered in her ear. “There was a date and I had a great time.”
Deep inside of her, she felt her heart give a little tug. “Me, too,” she whispered back.
He smiled at her and took her hand in his.
CHAPTER SEVEN
DAKOTA OPENED HER FRONT DOOR to find Finn standing on her porch. It was a little after seven in the evening. She and Finn had managed to catch the four-thirty flight out of Las Vegas, which meant she hadn’t even been home an hour.
“I know, I know,” he said, shuffling his feet. “You have stuff to do. I shouldn’t bother you.”
“Yet here you are,” she said with a smile. “It’s okay. I didn’t have any
