Page 3 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
“You named a dog Mojo,” Gulliver said, more a statement than a question.
“I did. I’ve always wanted to say to someone, ‘I’ve lost my Mojo. Will you help me find him?’”
“I’m picturing it.” He shook with laughter. “That would be epic.”
I held out my hand as if to say,I know, right?“The problem is, he’s never run away in the six years I’ve owned him, so he’s kind of a disappointment.”
Gulliver laughed again, this time a tinge of discomfort creeping in at the end. “Honey said he’s your service dog. Are you disabled?”
He leaned back in his chair and waited for my answer. Since he wasn’t hiring me as an employee, he could ask me if I was disabled, but it was slightly rude all the same.
“I never said he was my service dog. Honey was mistaken. Mojo is more like my protection detail. He comes with me to every job, regardless of how many times people tell me he can’t. I’m four-feet two-inches tall, a woman, live in a motor home, and work only at night. Mojo is all that stands between me and an early grave.”
Gulliver’s delectable eyes shuttered, but he nodded once. “I see. Well, you will be working here at night, but you won’t be alone. I’ll be here working with you. I don’t leave the business unattended with an independent contractor inside.”
“Perfectly acceptable. I never expect to be alone, but you wouldn’t believe how often I am. Also, I don’t have a car, so I hoof it in from Plentiful Campground, which means he’s my only protection.”
Gulliver tapped his pen on the desk as he eyed me longer than necessary. “I’m afraid I can’t allow you to be walking around town in the dark alone, even if you have Mojo. There are too many wild animals, namely wolves, in this area. I’ll pick you up tonight at eight and drive you back to the campground when you’re finished.”
“Okay,” I answered agreeably. After all, it was his business. I didn’t care what he did as long as at the end of the night, I got paid.
His eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn’t decipher, and he sat forward again. “Okay? You mean you’re not going to give me a hard time? Most women give me a hard time when I order them around.”
“Gosh, I can’t imagine why,” I said, tongue in cheek. “If I wanted to, I could give you a hard time about my independence and not needing a man, blah, blah, but in this case, it took me thirty minutes to get here on foot. I’ll gladly take a ride.”
“Excellent. How about if I show you around Butterfly Junction? This is the first floor, and below us is the research department.”
Ahh, one more clue to what Butterfly Junction does. “Sounds great, since I don’t know what you do here other than it having something to do with butterflies. Mojo will stay here. His aura says big and bad, but mostly he’s just lazy.”
Gulliver chuckled and tipped his head to the left. “Not an untold story when it comes to dogs.” His gaze settled on me, and it was warm but intense. The longer his eyes traveled up and down my body, the more I felt like he could see all the secrets in my soul. Finally, his gaze lifted to mine and held it before he spoke. “I’m sure you know why I called you in, Miss Puck.”
“Charity,” I said. “I prefer Charity.”
“Okay, Charity it is,” he said on a nod. “As I was saying, I’m concerned that my server has been hacked. I cannot afford to let someone get the research we’re working on.”
“As you mentioned,” I agreed. “You’re talking about the research you’re doing downstairs?”
“Correct. I followed your suggestion from our first conversation and changed the password. Since I did that, it seems to have solved the problem.”
“You didn’t solve the problem. You patched a leak that won’t hold for long.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he agreed. “I’m worried that eventually they’ll get to the research we have stored there. I have to make sure the server is secure before we put any more information on it.”
“Say no more. I’m your gal. This doesn’t sound like it will take me too long. I should be able to knock it out in one night. Two at most.”
I groaned internally.Way to jinx yourself, Charity.Whenever I got too cocky, it always backfired on me.
“That would be great,” Gulliver said as he bent over. “We are at a point in our research that would spell disaster if the information fell into the wrong hands.” He straightened again and had a pair of crutches on each forearm. He hoisted himself out of the chair and joined me at the end of the desk.
My mouth dropped open as I took in his six-foot frame before me. His left shoe had a black lift sole glued to it that was at least four inches thick. “Now I understand why you were upset about Mojo,” I said with a grimace, and he chuckled, his head shaking.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll admit it does irritate me when people pretend to have service dogs just to take them shopping or inside a restaurant.”
I grasped my hands behind my back and bit my lip. “That’s not something I would ever do. He’s with me most of the time, but he waits in the motor home or outside if I go into a store. It must be hard for you when you run into those situations, though.”
“Hey, you don’t grow up the way I did without developing a thick skin, which is good since I have thin bones,” he said, waiting to see if I would get the punch line. When I didn’t, he motioned at his legs. “Rickets cause weak and thin bones,” he explained. “But don’t worry, everything else below the waist developed perfectly fine.”
He crutched off toward the door and left me standing there with my jaw slightly ajar. Who was Gulliver Winsome, and was he for real? The bigger question was, why was I so interested in figuring out what made him tick? I shook off the questions and followed him out the door and into an elevator. The first question I needed an answer to was what this interesting guy did in this building. As we stepped onto the elevator car, something told me the answer wasn’t going to be simple. When my gaze swept his frame again, his muscles flexed as he braced the crutches on the floor, I wasn’t sure I cared if the answer was complicated. When those exquisite hazel eyes met mine with the same air of curiosity in them, I secretly hoped I’d jinxed myself after all.
