Page 66 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
“You’re saying your reputation precedes you,” Mathias said with a smile.
I shrugged once. “People hire me for one reason. Google my name sometime. I have no secrets.”
He grinned for the first time all day. “Oh, I have. I know if you hadn’t shown up, we’d be in much worse shape.”
I winked. “It’s what I do.”
“And taking care of my friends is what I do,” Mathias said. “We’re going to the professionals to help us with this, or we’ll never get out of it alive.”
“We might not anyway,” Honey whispered. “I’ve come to terms with it.”
Gulliver stood and braced his hands on the table. “I won’t let anyone die because of a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper, Honey! Do you understand me?” Her nod and wide eyes said he’d made his point. “Good. Now I want all three of you to listen and listen closely. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
CHAPTER 20
Early yesterday morning, the police chief showed up at the loading dock dressed in the same outfit as the security guards Mathias had hired. He worked with them for an hour, pretending to be a new hire, to avoid suspicion if anyone was watching. We had to take the chance the three guys hounding Honey were from out of town and didn’t know who the police chief was.
When it was time for his break, he disappeared inside and had a long discussion with all of us. Honey described the three men who attacked her, but other than height and build, she couldn’t tell them much. All of them wore masks whenever they showed up. She always faced down Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. It was Bill who broke her arm. When Chief Flats went back to work, the police tech arrived, dressed as an air-conditioning repairman, to go over everything with Honey regarding her online contacts. She let him read the information she’d saved but refused to give him copies.
Rather than upset her, he spent extra time reading the information at Butterfly Junction and making copious notes before he left with her log-in name and password to a forum for farmers. Irony.
“The police have hackers who can get into these chat rooms and get their IP address and real names. They plan to do that tonight,” Gulliver said as we sat out on the shore of Lake Superior tossing flat rocks into the water. It had been a few days since the storm and people were still cutting trees and cleaning up debris.
I made thepfftsound, and it ruffled the hair on my forehead. “Big deal. It would take me ten minutes to get the information. What’s your point?”
Gulliver whipped me around so fast I almost tipped off the log. “I’m not going to say this more than once. Do. Not. Mess. With. This. Do you understand me?” he asked in a staccato voice.
I laid my hand on his waist to calm him. “I have no intention of doing it, Gulliver. I was just saying I could.” I tossed another rock into the water. The storm had riled the Lady of the Lake, and she was tossing debris onto the shore at an unprecedented rate. I’d found clothing, a boat motor cover, a cell phone—which surprisingly still worked—and an old hockey stick. I was still trying to track down the cell phone’s owner, but I was pretty sure I had a good lead. “I’ve been curious about something since I read Honey’s letter to Mathias,” I said, changing the subject.
“What about it?” he asked before taking a sip from his bottle of IPA.
“Why can’t they be together? It couldn’t be more obvious to everyone that they care about each other.”
The next rock was tossed into the water with exasperation from Gulliver. “Your guess is as good as mine. Best I can figure out is the social class is too much for them to bridge.”
I wrinkled my nose at his explanation. “I don’t understand.”
His lips twisted, and I could tell he was arguing with himself about telling me the truth. “I asked Mathias about Honey’s parents. It turns out she’s from the wrong side of the tracks.”
I snorted in disdain. “Which to Mathias means they’re not loaded and don’t live in a fancy house.”
“No, Mathias isn’t uppity like that,” Gulliver insisted, shaking his head vehemently. “Yes, he grew up with money and affluence, but he doesn’t flaunt it or use it for anything but good. Sure, Mathias stands to get a lifetime payout when this pesticide goes live, but he’s the one who put a boatload of cash in to make sure we could research it at all. He understands he has money; therefore, he feels obligated to make sure he does right with it. If he gets a windfall from the pesticide sale, he’ll invest it into something else to better our planet. It’s what he does.”
I braced my hand on his chest in a silent apology. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m sorry.”
He grasped my hand and lightly kissed my lips. “Don’t be. I know as far as you’re concerned, you grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and truth be told, you aren’t different from Honey in the way you grew up, at least according to what Mathias tells me. Her parents are both recovering drug addicts, and they raised Honey during a time when they were using. She didn’t always eat, go to school, or have clothes to wear. Mathias befriended her at the park one day when she was dressed in nothing but underwear. His family made sure she got what she needed from then on, without calling the authorities or Child Protective Services on her parents. I don’t know if I agree with it, but it was during a time when foster care in this area was more abusive than living with your druggie parents. Honey hasn’t had it easy. Hell, even her name is ridiculous.”
“Well, I have nothing to say about ridiculous names, but I don’t know why two people’s upbringings should matter once you’re an adult. The two of us together is proof of nature versus nurture. Our life experiences shape us, but our determination and will to improve our situation in life is what makes us. I think socioeconomic status is a lame reason not to have a relationship with someone when you care about each other.”
He tipped his head to the side at that. “I can’t disagree, but I also know they’re best friends. Maybe Mathias sees her more as a little sister than a potential mate, you know? Maybe he doesn’t want to screw up their friendship by attempting to make it something more.”
“I guess, maybe, but little sister and big brother were not what I witnessed this morning. Best friends, yes, but there’s a layer of something more under the surface.” I put up my hands when he lowered a brow at me. “All I’m saying.”
“I love you, Charity Puck. I love you for loving our friends the way you do, and whether you believe it or not, you deserve all the love this world has to offer you.”
With my forehead braced against his, I could stare into his eyes, and the reflection off the lake made the gold strings vibrate with truth. I blinked, waiting to see if it changed to any other emotion. Fear. Distrust. Pity. It didn’t. The intensity of the hazel blazed with love, trust, and honor. He wanted me to stay in Plentiful and be part of his life forever. Most of me wanted the same thing. The rest of me, the abandoned child who hid away in the dark inside me, was the reason I wouldn’t be part of his life forever. My parents didn’t want me after a few years. What made me think he would?
Those eyes. Those bright, honest, open hazel eyes were what made me think he would. He would be there through it all if I could find the strength to leave my baggage behind and follow him down this new road.
