Page 28 of Honey Be Mine
Dane shot him a questioning look.
Everett shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Uh-huh.” Dane glanced after Rosemary. “That’s why she hightailed it out of here as soon as she saw you?”
That was sort of how it looked, but that wasn’t how it was. He glanced after her. Last time he talked to Rosebud, things were good. Weren’t they? She seemed fine now. Laughing at something Tansy had said. Maybe he had done something? But what?
He turned back to see Dane, Kerrielynn, Leif, Benji Svoboda, Halley Driver, and Oren Diaz all staring at him.
Great.
“Leif.” Kerrielynn nudged him. “Leif heard something that might help with... You know.”
Everett didn’t know. He frowned.
“Right.” Leif nodded, then leaned forward. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with the paintball stuff, but I figured I’d tell you.”
Which caught his full attention. Considering there were zero leads, he’d take what he could get.
Everett listened as the boy recounted the conversation he’d overhead between one of the Dwyer boys and some unknown participant. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t think anything of it. But there was nothing normal about what had been happening. And, as much as it pained him to admit it, where there was smoke, the Dwyer boys were often fanning the fire causing it.
“Also...” Kerrielynn held out her phone. “I was watching the Alpine Springs video again, and I saw this.” It was a screenshot. “One of them has braces.”
Everett narrowed his eyes, enlarging the image. “Well, I’ll be. You’ve got good eyes, Kerrielynn.”
“I might have watched it a few times.” Kerrielynn glanced at Leif. “Okay, a lot of times. But, see, it paid off.”
Maybe. He was pretty sure rounding up every braces-wearing Lewis County resident wasn’t feasible. Heck, a third of the teens in this building had braces. Still, it was something. “Can you text that to me?”
She nodded, clicking away on her phone. “The Dwyer boys don’t have braces, though.” Kerrielynn looked almost apologetic when her gaze met Leif’s.
“That’s okay. We shouldn’t assume anything—about anyone.” Everett didn’t want this to turn into a thing. Those boys had it hard enough without being accused of this. If Jed ever got wind of it? Those boys would get a whooping whether or not they had a thing to do with it. “I’m asking you to keep this between yourselves. People talk. A lot. We don’t want things getting out of hand.”
“I won’t say a word. Having a grandma like Willadeene has taught me...” Benji grimaced “...that words can hurt, and people can get mean. Even nice people.”
“Aw, Benji.” Halley hugged him. “You’d never do anything like that.”
“He’s laying it on thick so you’ll hug him.” Oren Diaz laughed. “And it worked.”
There was a lot about these kids that reminded Everett of himself, Nicole, and the Hill sisters at this age. Or him and Dane. Things had been simpler. The biggest stress back then was turning in homework, making sure the pasture gates were latched behind him, and whether or not he’d get to borrow his dad’s truck for the football game that weekend.
“We won’t say anything, Everett,” Kerrielynn assured him.
“Nope.” Halley pretended to lock her lips and throw the key over her shoulder.
“Anyway, it’s innocent until proven guilty.” Oren shrugged.
Technically, that was true. But the court of public opinion wasn’t always too keen on the facts if the story was too juicy to pass up. Since everyone in the county wanted to find out who was responsible, this was probably one of those stories. And now that Rose Prairie had been hit intwoplaces, people were going to be more on edge than ever.
“Anything else?” Dane asked Leif.
“Nope.” Leif glanced at Kerrielynn, Benji, Halley, then Oren. “Anything?”
“I’m not Miss Sherlock over there.” Oren pointed at Kerrielynn.
Benji shrugged. “Nope.”
“And there’s no new posts.” Halley glanced at Kerrielynn.
