Wildly, Boldly (Return to Culloden Moor #4)

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

T he first ribbons of green light appeared just as the evening darkness settled in, threading their way across the star-filled sky. Wyatt heard Sophie’s sharp intake of breath before she whispered, “Would you look at that.”

He’d seen the northern lights hundreds of times, and found himself watching her face instead of the sky. The way her eyes widened, how she unconsciously stepped forward as if drawn by the lights’ ethereal dance—it made him see the familiar sight anew.

“I’ll get the others!” Johnny’s voice carried from the lodge’s porch where he’d been keeping watch. The screen door slammed as he ran inside, and soon the quiet night filled with excited voices as the lodge’s guests emerged.

“It’s starting!” Claire Parker called out, dragging her new husband by the hand. “Miles, look!”

Professor Manning already had his notebook out, though what he planned to write in the dark, Wyatt couldn’t imagine. Quinn followed more slowly, hands in his pockets, but even his usually serious expression held a touch of wonder.

The lights strengthened, pulsing across the sky in waves of green and violet. Sophie worked quickly, adjusting her camera settings, but Wyatt noticed she kept looking up, as if she couldn’t bear to miss a moment.

“The colors,” she breathed. “I never knew they could be so...”

“Alive?” Darrow suggested, coming to stand beside them with Whitney. He had Connor bundled up in his arms, the toddler surprisingly awake and transfixed by the display. “Reminds me of the old stories about spirits dancing in the sky.”

Wyatt expected Sophie to jump on that, to start theorizing about paranormal connections, but she just stood silent, mesmerized. A particularly bright wave of purple light rippled overhead, reflecting in her eyes and painting her face in otherworldly colors.

Something shifted in his chest, an unwelcome realization he couldn’t quite suppress. She wasn’t anything like he’d expected. Her enthusiasm, her wonder at everything Alaska had to offer—it was genuine, infectious even. And that was exactly the problem.

She’d be gone in a few weeks, back to her life of traveling and ghost hunting, while he stayed here where he belonged. Getting involved would be a mistake. A beautiful, tempting mistake, but a mistake all the same.

“This is amazing,” she said, checking her camera’s preview screen. “I’ve seen pictures, video even, but it’s nothing compared to seeing it in person.”

“Some things you just have to experience for yourself,” Wyatt found himself saying.

She glanced at him, surprise and something else flickering across her face. “Even things you can’t explain?”

Before he could answer, Johnny rushed over. “Sophie! Did you see that one? It looked like a dragon!”

“I saw it!” She knelt down to show him the photo she’d just taken. “See? Right there, where the green meets the purple?”

Wyatt watched them bent over the camera screen, Johnny’s excitement matching Sophie’s own. Around them, the other guests pointed and gasped as the aurora continued its celestial performance. The Parkers held each other close, Professor Manning had given up on his notebook and simply stared upward, and Quinn had pulled out his phone to call his parents.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” Whitney said quietly, appearing at his elbow.

“The aurora? Yeah, it’s a good show tonight.”

“That’s not what you’ve been watching for the past ten minutes.”

He shot her a look, but she just smiled knowingly and walked back to Darrow, who was pointing out shapes in the lights to Connor.

Sophie straightened up, returning to her camera setup. The aurora painted her hair in shifting colors as she worked, completely absorbed in capturing the moment. Her face held such joy, such genuine wonder at the beauty around her. It drew him in despite his better judgment.

“Hey,” she called softly, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Want to learn how to photograph the lights properly?”

“I know how to—” He stopped himself, remembering their earlier conversation. “Sure. Show me.”

Her smile was brighter than any aurora he’d ever seen.

He was in trouble. Real, serious trouble. Because watching Sophie Marlow experience the northern lights for the first time, her face full of wonder and joy, he knew he was falling for her. And that was a dangerous thing. She wasn’t staying. She couldn’t stay. His life was here in Alaska, and hers was wherever her next story took her.

But standing beside her under the dancing lights, close enough to catch the scent of her shampoo and feel the warmth radiating from her body, he was finding it harder and harder to remember why that mattered.