"Dane, will you stop with the ugly face? You're gonna scare Dad's client away."
"I shouldn't have agreed to do this in the first place," he grumbled. "I should've gotten somebody else to fill in."
Wondering how his sister had talked him into doing this in the first place, he decided he'd best make the most of it for his father's sake. When he kept fidgeting, changing positions constantly and acting as if he were holding up the wall, unable to take it any longer, Amara Kirkland clutched her brother's arm and hissed, "Will you please stop! You're wiggling more than a two-year old."
She watched her brother as he brooded over the situation. A part of her felt guilty for pushing him into this but she'd researched Lilah Sanderson with plans to reschedule but when she saw her photo, she nearly lost her breath. The first glance told her the woman was perfect for her brother. She couldn't shake the face of the woman. Something in the eyes. A kind of sadness that couldn't be hidden.
"I think you're doing the right thing, Dane. I know Dad was worried about this girl," Amara said. "He remembers her grandfather from way back in the day."
"Yeah, yeah. I heard all this before. So I'm taking his client and gonna show her how to fly fish which, by the way, she already knows and why she needs a guide, I haven't a clue."
"She isn't a seasoned angler like her grandfather was, Dane," she told him, getting more exasperated by the minute. "Do you know how many tournaments he won?"
It was hard not to take his anger out on his sister for doing what he didn't want to do. "Don't know. Don't care."
"You never know, you just might enjoy yourself," Amara came back with.
Dane sent daggers her way. "I enjoy myself out in the wild, not babysitting some rich dame. You should just shuttle yourself back to your little bookshop and read one of those self-help books to stay out of other people's business."
"Don't be such a stuff shirt. You never take time for yourself. Just relax and quit being such an asshole."
"Which one is she, Amara?"
"I think the lady wearing jeans and a blue sweater carrying a denim jacket over her arm, might be her."
"Can't be her," Dane said. "She isn't dressed at all like a rich dame."
Dane crossed his arms, prepared to disapprove of any woman who stepped inside the terminal looking anything like the image he had in his mind. To his dismay, all the passengers were casually dressed and none had the appearance of what he conceived to be having too much money for her own good.
Amara elbowed her brother when he didn't welcome their guest. Begrudgingly, he held out his hand.
"Welcome to Montana, Miss Sanderson," he said in as much a friendly manner as he could find in himself.
As he felt her hand in his, he felt something unfurl inside him and immediately withdrew as he didn’t like that feeling. Not at all.