settled over me. Maybe I had totally screwed this up, like epically, but I could get us through to the other side of this. It might take some time, but it was worth the wait.
The crazy part was the relief I felt at having Nora furious at me. It was so much better than the cold, gray wall of silence she’d created between us. It had taken that for me to realize just how much she meant to me.
She’d indicated she would listen, so I needed to figure out what the hell I wanted to say. After several moments of nothing but the sound of the wind howling while we ate, I said, “I didn’t think I wanted commitment, but I do. With you.”
Nora had finished her food and was wiping the bowl out with a paper towel. Her eyes swung to mine. She regarded me quietly for several echoing beats of my heart.
“I don’t know, Gabriel,” she finally said. “We both have plenty of baggage.”
“What do you mean?” I pressed.
“I have a father who never bothered to stick around. He also couldn’t be bothered to be a father, and he was a shitty partner to my mother. You have a mom who was hardly there. We’re not a great pair. Let’s just try to be friends.”
“Friends?”
Oh, now I was getting angry. For fuck’s sake, I did not want to be polite and friendly with her. I wanted to be with her.
She stood, holding a hand out and wiggling her fingers in my direction. “What?” I asked.
“Give me your bowl. I’ll go rinse it off in the ocean with mine.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said, just to be contrary.
She rolled her eyes and turned away. I carefully slid over the piece of plywood I’d placed outside the shed and moved the bag of gravel holding it in place. As I leaned both against the side of the structure, I was positive the plywood was there for the very reason we’d used it.
Alaska was a funny place to live. If you lived here for more than a full round of seasons, you learned right quick that you needed to be prepared at all times. No doubt others had got stuck here at some point due to the weather.
The wind was still howling, and I watched as it blew Nora’s brown curls in a swirl around her head. We stopped at the water’s edge. Even though it was late summer, the water was freezing cold. Beaches in Alaska didn’t draw many sunbathers or even swimmers. Most people who had the nerve to go in the water wore a wetsuit. Those who didn’t usually wished they had.
After we rinsed off our bowls and spoons, we walked together back to the planes. Nora had everything put away in a few minutes. Looking up at the sky, she stuffed her hands in her pockets as she leaned against the side of her plane.
“We should sleep in my plane together.”
Her eyes whipped to mine. She opened her mouth to reply before snapping it shut, pressing her lips in a line. As much as I wanted a night with Nora in my arms again, that wasn’t why I suggested that. Evenings were seriously chilly here, no matter what time of year. The temperature could easily drop into the forties and probably would. Not to mention, I’d already taken a gander in the back of her plane, and it was stacked with mail that couldn’t be delivered until I got back over here to patch up that wing.
“Fine,” she muttered.
We passed the time playing cards until the sun finally slipped below the horizon. Nora didn’t pretend I was invisible, but warm wasn’t how I would describe her.
We went to sleep in the back of the plane after I moved two of the passenger seats. Nora’s back was to me with her sleeping bag zipped up tight. With the wind dancing in a push and pull between the land and the ocean, I fell asleep to the rhythmic gusts and wondered how I could fix the fracture I’d created between us. Because with Nora, when it was good, it was so, so good.
Chapter Five
Nora
Feeling toasty warm, I burrowed closer to Gabriel’s always comforting and solid form. He had an arm curled around my shoulders, and I was shamelessly plastered against his chest. Despite the cold metal under my sleeping bag and the howling wind, I’d slept better last night than I had in months.
Until my brain flickered online, and