Page 22 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
I nodded my agreement, since I didn’t want to say or do anything more to upset him. We were both stressed, but I was hurt that he thought I considered him unable to take care of us. I wasn’t questioning his abilities. I was questioning the intelligence of getting off the boat.
After he dropped a rope ladder down the side of the boat, I climbed down, jumped onto the sand, and called up to him. “I’m good!”
He gave me a thumbs-up then lowered Mojo into the water. I whistled and called his name. He doggy paddled around the side until he got his feet on the rocks; then he ran through the water, and I took three steps back as soon as he hit the sand. If I didn’t, I’d be the one wet when he finished shaking the water off. The water sprayed through the air the way a sprinkler does on a hot, sunny afternoon, and I couldn’t stop laughing at him.
I glanced up, and Gulliver was leaning over the boat. “I’m going to hand you my crutches, toss my shoes over, and take the same route as Mojo did. I can’t climb, but I can swim.”
I didn’t say anything even though I was scared to death. If he fell or got hurt, I was never going to forgive myself for coming up with the idea of visiting the islands.
In less than thirty seconds, he joined me onshore. “Wow, a swim in Lake Superior is always refreshing,” he joked. He sat on the rocks in the shallow water and crab-walked with one leg to shore. “Grab me a towel and my shoes, or I can’t get up. Towels are in the blue one,” he said, pointing at a blue plastic tote.
I unsnapped the buckle and unrolled a beach towel, running back to him on the shore with the towel and shoes. Once he had zipped the bottom of his wet pants off, leaving him in shorts, he stood and took his crutches from me. “Thanks. Now, we only have a little time to make camp, and you’re going to have to do most of it. Are you up for it?” he asked, one brow lowered.
I nodded once. We were in this mess because of me, and I’d do anything to make sure Gulliver still liked me when this was all said and done.
CHAPTER 7
Gulliver was able to get a signal on his phone, and he called Laverne, letting her know the motor was fried and that we needed a rescue. She wanted to send someone immediately, but Gulliver insisted we were fine and it could wait until morning.
We were fine, truthfully. It wasn’t going to rain, the weather was warm, we had food and water, and a beautiful fire was blazing on the beach. I didn’t wander too far into the woods to look for kindling and logs for the fire, though. The way our day was going, I would meet a bear.
I heard a snap behind us and I jumped, but Gulliver pulled me in close to him and rubbed my back. “You’re okay. It was just Mojo.”
I lingered in his arms because he always made me feel safe. That was a disturbing fact for someone like me. I was used to being alone, right? Maybe I was, but that didn’t mean I didn’t yearn for the touch of a man. I did, I just didn’t realize how much until I met Gulliver.
I sat up and straightened my shirt, hating that I was so jumpy in such a beautiful location, but rarely did I camp out where wild animals could eat me in one bite. Namely bears.
“How did you know this little strip of sand was here?” I asked, relaxing against a long piece of driftwood I’d found on the edge of the beach. After dragging it over, we buried our butts in the warm sand and stretched our legs out toward the fire. It was spookily comfortable yet disturbingly creepy. It was nearly ten p.m., dark other than a slight sliver of the moon in the sky, and there wasn’t another soul around.
“I’ve been to this island before with my kayak,” he explained. “I paddled around the whole island and happened to stop in this very place a few years ago. I’ve been trying to do some recon work here, but the foliage is too thick to get through. The island hasn’t seen life for a long time. At least not human life.”
“I had no idea anyone once lived here. It’s a beautiful place but ridiculously remote. What must it have been like to live here in the middle of a winter storm? The only word that comes to mind is ‘brutal.’”
“I can’t even imagine,” he agreed. “I bet you never dreamed you’d end up on a deserted island your first trip out on the lake.” He shook his head as he stared up at the stars.
“I’m not on a deserted island. You’re with me,” I said, bumping him in the shoulder.
Gulliver laughed at himself and gave me the palms up. “No one can say I don’t know how to show a woman a good time.”
We sat in companionable silence again, listening to the water lap on the shore and the owls hoot while hidden off somewhere in a tree. “Why do you have Laverne’s number?”
Gulliver laughed and threw the last of the stick he was fiddling with into the fire. “Everyone has Laverne’s cell number. She’s the clerk of courts and the treasurer. In small towns like Plentiful, everyone does more than one job.”
“Ahhh.” I laughed, mostly at myself. “It never crossed my mind that Laverne did anything else in the community. That leads me to my next question,” I said, pausing.
“What other things do I do?” he asked, and I nodded. “I’m the science curriculum director for the school district.”
My mouth hung open until he closed it with his finger.
“Sounds strange, I know. You could probably say I’m more of a collaborator. I work with them on what the students should be learning, and they take that information and write or buy the curriculum. It’s fun, and something different than what I do on a day-to-day basis. I always enjoy being part of what the next generation is taught.”
“In my world of big cities, that doesn’t happen.”
“What big city are you from?” he asked, his eyebrow raised. “You said you were from Michigan.”
I drew a heart in the sand but immediately ran my hand through it to erase it. “I’m from outside of Flint. I lived there until I was fourteen.”
“What happened at fourteen?”
