Come To Me (Dare With Me #3) - J.H. Croix Page 0,29

fingers in her kitchen. I confided in my sisters plenty, but I did have some limits.

“I want to meet her,” Harley announced.

“Jesus, Harley. It’s not like we’re getting married. We had dinner. Once. Pump the brakes.”

She sighed. “You need to settle down at some point. I feel like you’re letting what happened with Deana ruin romance forever.”

Leaning back into the couch, I ran a hand through my hair and cast her a glare. “No, I’m not. When the time is right and it feels right, I’ll settle down. I’ve had dinner with Gemma once. Don’t get so far ahead of yourself.”

“You also took her for a plane ride. That’s more than just dinner.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “It is definitely more than dinner. Look, you’re going to meet her. You’ll be here at least a few weeks, right?”

Harley nodded. “Of course.”

“Daphne and Nora are trying to work it out for Gemma to offer a weekly class here at the resort. So, if Daphne doesn’t sweet talk you into doing a class in town, you’ll meet Gemma when she comes out here.”

Harley clapped her hands together. “Yes! I need to screen her. If she’s secretly a bitch, then it’ll be good to know right off the bat.”

“God help me,” I muttered. “Worry about your own love life, please.”

“I’ve sworn off men forever. I only had to walk in on one boyfriend screwing my friend. That’s enough to last me a lifetime.”

“You’ll feel differently after the sting fades.”

Harley’s brows rose toward her hairline. “You’re one to talk. All Deana did was steal money. You haven’t been serious with anyone since then.”

Elias leaned against the plane wing, dragging his sleeve across his forehead. “Fuck, man. That’s a lot of dog food.”

I chuckled as we turned together to glance over toward the pallet stacked with bags of dog food. We were loading up one of our planes for a delivery run to the general store in a small village.

“It’s always something. This isn’t as fun as taking that rescue dog who got adopted the other week.” Elias flashed a grin. “Thanks for helping me load up. You seem pretty close to one hundred percent,” I commented, gesturing toward his ankle.

Early last winter, Flynn and Elias had been in a minor plane crash when a bird flew into one of their engines. Aside from cracked ribs, Flynn had been otherwise unscathed. Elias had sustained a nasty ankle break and gotten poked good and hard in the side by a branch. He’d been a cranky ass for a few months, but he was flying again and in love with Cammi, so all was right with his world.

Elias flashed a quick grin, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Pretty much. I’m guessing I’ll be able to predict the weather with this ankle for the rest of my life, but otherwise, it’s all good.”

I chuckled. “That’s like my shoulder,” I said, patting my left shoulder. I’d dislocated the shoulder during a training exercise in the Air Force—a total fluke. Ever since then, it felt okay most of the time and didn’t give me any trouble, but I sure as hell could tell you when it was about to rain or snow. “What’s on your schedule today?”

Elias glanced through the open garage doorway of the hangar out toward another plane already waiting near the runway. “I’m taking one of the tourist groups. Just a nice pretty flight over a few glaciers. Maybe the wildlife will cooperate for us.”

We laughed together. That was a running joke. There was wildlife in abundance in Alaska, and for the most part when we took tourists on the “money trips,” as Flynn called them, we usually saw some wildlife. Most often, we encountered moose, occasionally bears, and along the shorelines, the rare sighting of a sea lion from the air if they were in the shallow water, or resting on the rocks. We also saw rafts of otters, seals, puffins, and eagles all over the freaking place. If we were really lucky, we might see a whale breaching, or pods of orcas and beluga whales.

On occasion, we saw nothing more than common seagulls. “I’ll be thinking positive for you. That one area, just past the harbor, has been a good spot for bears lately. I’ve seen one or two most every time we go through. I’m guessing a mama bear hibernated nearby over winter.”

Elias dipped his head in acknowledgment. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll make sure to keep to a low elevation in that