Page 2 of Colton in the Wild
Brilliant, Colton. Work hard to keep your distance then whine about her being unreachable.
Maybe the brain quirk that made it hard for him to read like other people had screwed up more than just that. But thinking of it only reminded him of why he was able to function at all with such a quirk. There was one reason: the tutor who had discovered a way for him to utilize his memory and his ability to visualize and convert that talent into his atypical version of reading. It worked, and it had saved him.
True, he had kept to his decision not to go on to college. He’d been relieved just to make it through high school with decent grades—although much better than decent in math classes—thanks to that tutoring. He’d never been hot on the college idea anyway. He knew, had known from childhood, what he’d wanted to do with his life. And now he was doing it, spending his days exploring this place he so loved. And if the people he was leading on these explorations weren’t always as appreciative as he was, he just considered it the price he had to pay to do what he wanted to do.
As for the women, if they flirted, he flirted back. If they were single. He might be a bit loose with one-on-one teasing, but that was a line he would not cross. Of course, he could only take their word for that single status. When one suggested—or outright demanded—that it go further, he wiggled his way out. Because for him the banter was the end of it. His family might worry about it, to the point of them strongly suggesting he never do any trips without someone else along, but to him it meant nothing. In fact, the game was a bit taxing these days, but that was because Hetty was usually his pilot when a trip required a plane. And keeping up the front when she was there was much harder.
He’d catch her watching him with those amazing green eyes, not even bothering to hide her disgust. It stabbed at him, painfully, but he kept going. Because, in the end, that was the goal. The more Hetty disliked him, the easier it was for him to keep his distance. So yeah, he might go a little far with the flirting, but it was for a good cause.
Because Hetty Amos was not for the likes of him.
“How’d it go?”
The call from the hallway leading to the office wing of the RTA headquarters broke through his miserable thoughts and turned him around.
Uh-oh. Both of them?
He might be the premier, most-requested guide at RTA, but Ryan and William ColtonwereRTA. His father and uncle had founded the business nearly three decades ago. They had both pulled back a little now, especially since his cousin Parker had stepped into the main management role, but they essentially were still RTA. It wouldn’t exist without them. And he would likely be stuck doing some other job he’d hate because it would be hard for him. He could do it, thanks to the tricks that tutor had taught him more than a decade ago, but he wouldn’t like it.
And he certainly wouldn’t like it the way he treasured every minute of being out in the wilds of this state that was a part of his soul.
So, in a way, he owed this life that gave him so much enjoyment to that long-ago tutor. That teenaged girl who had taken the job so seriously, worked so hard at it. That tutor who had realized the contradiction in the fact that he was great at math but sucked at word-based math problems, and had made the intuitive leap that had helped him go from floundering to being able to get through. That tutor who had taught him how to apply his knack for visualizing things to words and letters and sounds, enabling him to read so much easier, even if it was in a way that was different than most people. That tutor who had showed him how to function in a world where he wasn’t the norm.
That tutor who had, in essence, saved him.
That tutor named Hetty Amos.
Chapter 2
“Great,” Spence belatedly answered his father’s question about how this last trip had gone.
“Come on back to the office,” Uncle Will said.
Spence wondered if a lecture was in the offing. Maybe Hetty had complained about Ms. Merchant. He discarded that thought immediately. She wouldn’t do that. She might call him out to his face, as she just had, but she wouldn’t complain behind his back. It just wasn’t her way.
He stepped through the door into the RTA manager’s office, which these two men had once shared but was now staked out and claimed by Will’s son, Parker, who was currently out on a short morning trip himself. Parker kept his hand in on the guide side, not just the business side. Spence didn’t envy his cousin. As good as he himself was with numbers, the manager’s job seemed daunting. Probably because there was a lot of reading involved, which he could do—thanks to Hetty—but didn’t like much. Not that he didn’t like books and stories, he did, but audio was his method of choice for consuming them. Which reminded him he wanted to finish the book he’d started a couple of days ago. And then—
“—would you suggest?”
Damn, he’d tuned out. He glanced at Uncle Will but then focused on his father, who had spoken. He’d put on a little weight since he’d semiretired, although it seemed to Spence he wasn’t relaxing, not when he was regularly trekking out for his day-long fishing trips. There was only a touch of gray hair at his temples and his blue eyes—the ones Spence had inherited—were as bright and lively as ever. If it wasn’t for the frequent hints that he would like to be a grandfather sometime soon, he’d be the perfect father figure.
He is the perfect father figure. You’re the one who’s out of step.
“Sorry, Dad. I was thinking how much I’d hate doing any other job, so if you’re going to fire me, I don’t want to hear it.”
His father snorted audibly, but Will laughed outright. Spence smiled at his uncle, just slightly more salt-and-peppered than his father but with the same blue eyes. Also semiretired yet seemingly unable to slow down, he worked as hard at promoting Aunt Sasha’s pottery business as he had when he’d helped run RTA full-time.
“Like we’d fire the most in-demand guide in the state of Alaska,” Uncle Will said, still chuckling.
Spence shifted his feet, gave his uncle a crooked grin. “Not quite. Maybe in Shelby.”
“Ha. I’ve read the reviews, son,” Dad said. “You’re going to top that statewide list before you’re through.”
“So,” Uncle Will said, “now that we’ve cleared that up, back to the question.”
“Uh…which was?” Spence asked.
“Your father and I are in need of a good spot for a nice, long day of fishing, now that we’ve survived the Fourth of July rush.”
