“You’re incredible at this, you know,” she finally said, still feeling a little awed. She didn’t know much about mining, but for some reason, Damon was so good at explaining that she felt as if it had all come alive around her. “It was like I could see it all before me. Do you teach?”
Damon turned towards her, giving her a small smile that turned her knees liquid. His eyes had that same metallic gleam again—the brown turning to bronze for a moment, like a mysterious, powerful inner light.
“Sometimes,” he said. “My father does, for the most part. I assume that if I ever retire from my duties, I might do the same.”
“I think you should,” Autumn said earnestly.
She really didn’t know much about geology—but Damon had a true gift for making facts about rocks so fascinating that she’d lost all sense of time.
“And you? Are you a teacher?” he asked.
“Me? Oh no, it’s much more boring than that. I’m a travel agent.”
Damon smiled. “So you get to travel for free for your job? That doesn’t sound boring at all.”
“If only.” Autumn sighed as she left the car.
Before her, she could see stretches of mountain, the stark rock covered with white snow. She took a deep breath. Even the air tasted differently here—like freedom. Like wilderness.
Like adventure.
She smiled to herself, filled with sudden joy at the realization that she’d really done it. She’d flown to a different country, all on her own. And she was making the most of her days here.
“I work in a tiny travel agency,” she said when Damon joined her. “These days, it’s just me and Karen, my boss. We used to have another woman working with us, but she retired a year ago. And now I get to do her work as well, for the same pay. I’ve never even left the country before. Travel agency sounds glamorous, but I could probably do the same job for the same pay as yet another underpaid call center drone. At least it’s not quite as soulless in Karen’s little shop. We’ve got regulars who come in for a chat, even if all they do is book a plane ticket to see the grandkids twice a year.”
Once, long ago, when she’d started working for Karen, she’d been so thrilled by all the brochures of far-away countries and luxury resorts—but somehow, there’d never been any money left at the end of the month, what with rent and groceries and having to pay off her tiny car.
At least her car was all paid off now, which meant that after this trip, she could go back to saving up a small sum each month. And eventually, she’d step on a plane again...
“I get to travel a lot for work,” Damon said. He nodded at the distant mountains. “I know there are lots of people who get sick of it—but I never have. I love the beauty of flight—that moment when you climb through the clouds and see the sun shine above them. There’s nothing that compares to it.”
A shiver of pure happiness ran through Autumn. She’d experienced that—and it had been so beautiful that she’d spent most of the flight with her face pressed against the window.
“And look at this,” he then continued, his voice soft and strangely distant. He’d wrapped his arm around Autumn again, who felt heat rise up within her at the warmth of his touch.
“If I ever grow bored of getting to experience the majesty of these mountains, then I know it’s time to retire.”
“Maybe I was wrong,” Autumn murmured as she looked up at him. The wind was tugging on his dark hair, blowing strands into his eyes, which were gleaming with that beautiful, metallic inner light again. “Maybe you should be on a board of tourism somewhere.”
“If I had to be anything other than what I am,” he said earnestly, “I’d want to be a ranger. Outside all day, hearing the stones talking to me, preserving the beauty of mountains and forests.”
“I can see that,” she said softly.
He’d fit right in, too. With his warm, woolly sweater and that broad, strong body he seemed made for rescuing lost tourists and carrying injured lambs to safety.
All he needed was a farm of his own, with a herd of the fuzzy Icelandic horses and a fire in the fireplace.
And a family, a treacherous voice whispered inside her. A family just like Tilly has...
For a moment, she thought of all the pictures of Tilly’s family she’d seen: the handsome Icelandic farmer whom she’d married, the two cute little kids playing with the sheep dog, the way her husband always proudly hugged her in all of the pictures, the way you could just see the love in him when he held one of his kids.
Nothing at all like her asshole of an ex who’d cheated on her on the day of their engagement party.
Nothing like him, no.
But Damon... Damon would fit right in on a farm like that.
Even now, although he barely knew her, he looked at her as if she was something incredibly precious. He’d saved her life, although he’d been in danger himself. And he’d never been anything but earnestly chivalrous, in a sweet, almost old-fashioned way.