“Dakota Rivers? You’re in 12C, love. Aisle seat.”
“And Jayden Pierce?”
“Let me check . . .” Bonnie scanned her list. “7B. Also aisle.”
Five rows apart.
Dakota told himself it was fine. Good, even. After last night, after everything, they both needed space. Distance to remember they were basically strangers who’d happened to share an emergency landing and a cabin.
Except she didn’t feel like a stranger, did she?
He found his seat. Stowed his bag. Settled in.
The elderly bird-watcher—Gerald, he remembered—claimed the seat beside him with the enthusiasm of someone who’d found a captive audience.
“Ah, Dakota! Wonderful to see you again.” Gerald was already pulling out field guides. “I’ve been thinking about the birds we might see in Cairns. Absolutely spectacular this time of year. Riflebirds, cassowaries if we’re lucky, and of course the rainbow bee-eaters . . .”
Dakota nodded, hummed a response, and let Gerald’s enthusiasm wash over him while his attention kept drifting forward.
Five rows up. Aisle seat.
He could see the back of her head. Hair loose around her shoulders. She was sitting next to an older woman—silver hair, but that’s all he could see.
The plane taxied. Lifted off. Fiji fell away below them.
Gerald launched into a detailed explanation of bird migration patterns. Dakota listened with half his attention, made comments when appropriate, but his mind was elsewhere.
On last night. On her voice, yanking him from the darkness.
On the smile that had exploded light through him this morning.
Shoot, he was actually going to miss her.
“—and that’s when I spotted the eclectus parrot in full breeding plumage, which was quite remarkable considering—Dakota? You all right, son?”
“Yeah.” He pulled his attention back to Gerald. “Sorry. Just tired from last night.”
“That storm was quite something.” Gerald shook his head. “I half thought the whole place would blow away.” He paused. “You seemed to handle it well though. I saw you at breakfast with that young lady. The one who was sitting next to you on the flight yesterday.”
“Jayden.”
“Pretty girl. Sharp too. I can always tell.” Gerald smiled, winked. “You two make a nice pair.” Gerald tapped his field guide. “My wife and I met on a birding expedition in Costa Rica. She passed away a couple years ago. It would have been thirty-seven years ago this August.”
“Sorry for your loss,” Dakota said.
“Thanks.” Gerald took a breath. “Now I’m . . . doing all the things we dreamed about doing together.” He launched into his study on Australian avifauna.
Dakota glanced forward again. Caught Jayden looking back.
Their eyes met for just a second before she turned away.
And there went the heat again, all the way to his mitochondria. Yeah, she’d gotten to him.
Gerald was still talking about bee-eaters. The plane droned through tropical sky. And Dakota sat there, five rows away from a woman he barely knew, wondering how she’d managed to become the safest place he’d found in years.
She had sort of hoped that they’d be seated together.
Okay, stop.