The Bad Boy of Butterfly Harbor

by Anna J. Stewart

  “Sheriff Luke?” Simon’s voice brought him racing back to the present.

  “I’m here.” His mouth was dry; his head ached. But he knew what he had to do. “Did you hear me?”

  “Yes. I’ll try not to move.” But there was fear in his voice.

  “I’m going to get you out of this, Simon. I promise. And what did I tell you about my promises?”

  “You never break them.”

  “Good boy. Here we go.” Luke released his ankle and stood up.

  He examined every inch of their surroundings, searching for the clearest path to the door. To cover all his bases, he walked it, step by step, and committed it to memory, like walking a mine path in his service days. He could get to the door. But first he needed a place to put what he pulled off the pile.

  “Simon?” Luke aimed the light around the cabin as he heard the rustle of wood against wood. The cabin walls began to buckle. Whatever Simon had toppled into had decreased the stability of an already unsound structure. “I’m on my way to you.” He glanced back at Winters. He hadn’t moved. “You still doing okay?”

  “Yes.” But his voice wasn’t as strong as before. “I think I broke my arm.”

  Luke swallowed, cringing as he shuffled his way through the debris and dynamite. “Well, I guess you’ll have a pretty cool cast to go with that scar of yours.” He felt something crunch under his boots. Glass, he realized, as his pulse kicked up a beat. Another step. Clear. Another and another. Closer to where Simon had been buried.

  “Simon, talk to me, okay? About whatever you want, but I need to hear your voice.”

  He needed to know Holly’s son was still alive.

  “What should I say?”

  Luke bent to examine the pile covering Simon. It was like a giant wooden puzzle. Pull out the wrong piece and the entire thing could come crashing down. But if he chose wisely... “Tell me what classes you want to take in that new school of yours.”

  “They won’t want me after this,” Simon said, and for the first time, Luke thought he heard tears in the little boy’s voice. “I messed up real bad this time.”

  “If they don’t, then it’s their loss. Tell me about those classes.” Luke pried open the top box, looked inside and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a collection of rusted tools.

  “I like computers.”

  “This I know.” Luke hefted the box free and took the three clear steps to the side. He set down the box, returned to the pile. Another box, this one full of old hunting magazines. “Simon?”

  “I want to know how to build them.”

  “We can always use a new engineer.” Luke repeated the process of removing the boxes, moving them out of the way. “Have you thought about engineering? They build a lot of really cool things.”

  “You mean like the Proton Patrol?”

  “Exactly.” Luke grunted, and tried to quell his elation when he exposed Simon’s filthy pant leg. He could see the edge of Simon’s superhero T-shirt peeking out at him. “They do a lot with tools and science. They build things that go into space. Or you can make things to help people, like Deputy Knight. You thought his leg was pretty cool, right?”

  “I could build something like that?” The wonder in Simon’s voice lightened Luke’s heavy heart. His back burned, hotter and heavier than after that bomb went off in Chicago. But he wasn’t going to fail this time. This time he was going to get Simon out before...

  Crack!

  Luke froze.

  “Sheriff Luke?”

  “Let’s cut the sheriff, okay, Simon?” Luke lifted his foot and felt his stomach plummet. Nitroglycerin crystals caked the bottom of his boot, the crushed TNT stick screaming at him to hurry. “You and me are friends, right?”

  “But I’m your deputy,” Simon argued. “I’m supposed to call you Sheriff.”

  Now he was a stickler for the rules? “How about we’re two friends trying to get out of a tricky situation.” Luke bent down and untied his shoe, pulling free as he returned to Simon’s side. “You want to know a secret?” He lifted a box and moved it clear of the boy. Simon grinned up at him. “I’m thinking about asking your mom to marry me.”

  “Mom?” Simon started to sit up, but Luke shook his head, held up his hand to caution him to stay put. “Why?”

  “Because I love her,” Luke said, nervous for an entirely different reason than the fact they were surrounded by explosives.

  “W-would you—” Simon’s voice hitched. Luke picked up the last box.

  “Would I what?”

  “Would you want me, too?”

  Luke couldn’t have been more surprised if the dynamite had exploded. “Sure, I want you, too. You’re a package deal. Why would you even have to ask that?” He crouched down next to Simon and, after making another sweep with his eyes, slid his hands under the boy’s body and gently raised him into a sitting position. “Careful. No fast movements. We’re not out of this yet.”

  “I’m troublesome.” Simon blinked up at him. “I heard mom and dad fighting one night. Before he went away. I’m always doing something wrong or stupid. I make people tired. I don’t mean to, and I promise if you marry my mom, I’ll try to do better. Just—”

  “Just what?”

  “Just please don’t go away like my dad did.”

  Luke never realized he’d had a heart to break. Simon needed him as much as Luke needed the boy and Holly. He wasn’t going anywhere. “I’ll tell you what.” Luke planted his feet and readied himself to pick up Simon. “When we get out of here, you and your mom and I are going to sit down and have a very long talk about all those things you haven’t told her.”

  “What things?” Simon asked.

  “Like what you just told me. And all those things in your notebook. We’ll go over all your notes, look at all those things you’ve been keeping track of. And we’ll have a discussion about spying on people like Kyle.”

  “You read my notebook?”

  “I didn’t have to,” Luke said. “I used to keep one myself. It’s the best place to hide secrets. Now. Are you ready to get out of here?”

  Big brown eyes blinked at him. “Yes, please.”

  Luke heard sirens blare in the distance. Not a minute too soon. Shuffling footsteps echoed outside. Simon had been right. His left arm was broken, which meant he wasn’t going to be much help. “First, we’re going to stand you up, and then I’ll carry you out of here, okay? Let me do the work, and when I give the word, you get to your feet and stand exactly where I show you. Understand?”

  “Uh-huh.” Simon nodded as Luke stood, bent down and gripped Simon around the waist. “Ready...now.” Luke hefted him up. “Good job.” Simon was clear. “Now I’m going to lift you up.” By now he knew the way out of the debris. At least he hoped he did. They were so close.

  A voice nearby shouted, “Luke! Trucks are almost here. Two minutes out.”

  “Deputy Knight,” Simon announced.

  “I hear him.” Luke couldn’t have asked for better backup. “We’re on our way out now!” Luke called. “Open the door! Simon, when I give the word, you run as fast as you can. Do not look back, don’t wait for me, you run. Your mom’s waiting for you.”

  Simon flashed a grin. “Got it.”

  Luke heard it before he saw Matt pull the door open, shoving his body inside to keep it open. The surrounding wood began to give. The roof rumbled, trembling under the uneven weight. A branch crashed through the far wall, sending wood and dirt raining down on them. Luke bent over to protect Simon. They were out of time.

  The second he could see daylight through the door, he readjusted his grasp on Simon. “Take him!” Luke practically threw the boy toward Knight. Knight caught him like a football, hesitating before Luke yelled out, “Run!”

  Luke dived through the door after them.
<
br />   Daylight burst against Luke’s eyes as he watched Knight move faster than any man with two good legs might have. Seconds later he saw Holly racing down the path, gathering Simon into her arms as she looked at Luke over the top of her son’s head.

  He heard crashing inside the cabin, but Luke couldn’t tear his eyes away. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight than that of Holly holding Simon, Cash protectively circling. All was right in the world again. Luke bent over, huffing, and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He hadn’t failed. This time had been different. History hadn’t repeated itself. Simon was alive.

  And so was he. But he wasn’t done. Not when Winters was still inside. “I’m going back—” he yelled to Holly and Matt, who both stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Matt confronted him, the expression on his face reminding Luke of a charging bull.

  “The hell you are! That place is too dangerous—” Matt’s eyes widened as he raced toward Luke, pulling out his sidearm. “Behind you!”

  Cash barked.

  The world shifted into slow motion as Luke turned toward the cabin. Winters stood there, a rifle in his hands, the barrel aimed directly at Luke’s chest. Luke’s body turned to ice.

  Even from this distance, Luke heard the hammer cock.

  The cabin exploded, the fire ripping over Luke like a tidal wave and blasting him off his feet. He felt himself flying backward, heat searing him, vicious, murderous, and yet he was soaring. There was no pain, no fear and then there was...

  Nothing.

  * * *

  “WHEN IS HE going to wake up, Mom?”

  In the past four days Holly had developed an extended strength of patience she hadn’t known it was possible to possess. Every time Simon asked her the same question, every inquiry she’d made of Luke’s doctors, every gracious offering of assistance to help run the diner in her absence... It should have made her crumble.

  Instead, all she had to do was look at Luke, lying in his hospital bed, wearing more bandages than Simon would probably see in his lifetime, to know where she belonged.

  “When he’s ready.” She stroked Simon’s hair, grateful her little boy still felt comfortable enough to sit on her lap and let her read to him as they waited for Luke’s mind to catch up with his body.

  She had no pity for the late Rex Winters, whose arrogance and anger had cost him his own life and nearly Holly’s son’s. Had Luke been standing even a few feet closer to that cabin, he would have gone up with it along with Winters. Would there come a day Holly wouldn’t see the explosion every time she closed her eyes? The doctors had been stunned Luke hadn’t suffered a traumatic brain injury, but the severe concussion was more than enough for Holly to worry about. As was Luke’s broken left leg and six badly bruised ribs. If that blast had gone out instead of up, Luke wouldn’t have been thrown back into the overgrown clearing of weeds and grass, which had cushioned most of his fall.

  He could not have been luckier.

  The fact that Gil Hamilton, along with several other folks in town, had paid Luke more than one visit was proof Luke had made a lasting impression on the people of Butterfly Harbor. If only he’d wake up so she could tell him so. She’d stayed at his side, waiting, screaming for the ambulance, hoping, praying and wishing for Luke to stay with her. When they’d finally loaded him on to the stretcher and wheeled him away, she’d looked down and saw Simon’s notebook. She took it as a sign. Luke wasn’t going to die. Not after all he’d done, all the promises he’d kept.

  She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily.

  Today was the first day she wasn’t jumping out of her skin. She’d finally stopped dwelling on “what if Luke had been too late to save Simon?” He hadn’t been. Just as he’d promised. Her boy was safe and sound, and reveling in the dozens of signatures he continued to collect on his cast. He’d even exceeded her expectations when it came to looking after Cash.

  “But Luke should be ready now.” Simon tapped his knuckles against his neon blue cast. The break in his arm had been clean, but the cast was proving to be a weapon of mass destruction. He’d managed to knock two holes in the walls of their house and taken out three of her baking canisters in the kitchen. “He wants to marry you.”

  It wasn’t the first time her son had made this pronouncement, but she wished he’d refrain from putting ideas in Luke’s sleeping brain. She had little doubt Luke had said a lot of things to Simon during their time in the cabin. She wasn’t going to hold him to anything. All she wanted was for Luke to wake up and be okay. Anything else would be a bonus. “Simon, we talked about this.”

  “But he told me, Mom. He said he wants both of us, even though I’m troublesome.”

  “He called you troublesome?” Holly frowned. Okay, it was true, but she never would have told her son that. She couldn’t believe Luke would have, either.

  “Not Luke.” Simon shook his head. “Dad. Before he went away. You two were fighting and Dad said he needed a break because I was so troublesome. And then he never came back. Was it my fault?”

  “Simon.” Holly shifted Simon in her lap and turned him to face her. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you’d heard that?”

  Simon shrugged and stood up. “Talking about Dad makes you cry. I make you cry enough already.”

  “Your father loved you very much,” Holly said, seeing so much of Gray in Simon’s face she ached. He’d miss so much. “But he had a lot of problems.” One of which had been not knowing when to keep his mouth shut. But she was done blaming Gray for anything. He was gone, and while he’d always be Simon’s father, it was time for Holly to put him and his faults to rest. “I’m sure if he was here he’d be very sorry he said it.”

  “Are you going to let Luke be my new dad?”

  Holly sighed. Why couldn’t her son ask the easy questions? “Simon, I—”

  “Yeah, Holly, are you?”

  “Luke!” Holly sprang to her feet. “You’re awake.”

  “Hard to sleep with all this deep conversation going on.” His pale face twisted as he lifted a hand to his bandaged head. “Ah, man.” He groaned. “I hate hospitals.”

  “You were like a superhero!” Simon announced, shoving himself between Holly and the bed. “You flew real high!”

  “No kidding.” When Luke winced, Holly realized she needed to remove the enthusiastic member of the party. “Did anyone get it on video?”

  “Simon, go tell them at the nurses’ station he’s awake.” She patted Simon on the butt and angled him toward the door. Only when he was gone did Holly surrender to the tears clogging her throat. Had she ever seen a more beautiful pair of blue eyes? “You kept your promise.”

  “Told you I would. Holly...” He reached a solitary finger toward her face and she bent down, letting him catch a tear. “I don’t like you crying, either.”

  “You saved him. If it wasn’t for you—”

  A curtain of doubt draped over his face. “I did what needed doing. Nothing more. I’m glad he’s okay. Winters?”

  Holly shook his head. “He’s gone.” Anger swelled like the tide. “I can’t believe you were going to go back for him.”

  “It never occurred to me not to.” Luke pressed his hands against his ears, grimacing. Holly had been warned he’d probably sustained some hearing loss. “Whatever he did, he didn’t deserve to die.”

  And that empathy was why she loved him so much. His capacity for love and understanding astonished her and was a testament to his survival.

  “Was Simon right?” Holly had spent the past few days trying not to get her hopes up. “Did you tell him you want to marry me?”

  “Depends.” He tried to push up, but he gasped and sagged against the pillows. “This was not the setting I had planned, but it is what it is.” He took a deep breath and turned those gorgeous, kind eyes on her. “I love you. And I love that frustrating,
too-smart-for-his-own-good kid of yours, too. But I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do or say anything out of gratitude or obligation.”

  “What if I want to because I love you?”

  Luke’s brow furrowed.

  “Why is this so hard for you to believe?” Because she’d come to know him so well, she’d prepared herself for this conversation. She sat on the edge of his bed and clasped his hand in hers. “I think I knew before you stepped foot in that cabin to get Simon that I didn’t want to spend another day without you. The ten-ton explosion only confirmed it.” More tears spilled from her eyes. Happy ones this time. “I love you, Luke Saxon. Bad boy, sheriff, any and all of you. What do you say? You gonna marry me?”

  He grinned. “I don’t know. How long an engagement are we talking?”

  “A couple of months? Before Simon starts school? July would be nice. Nothing big or fancy. Just friends and fam—” She gasped as he tugged her down and kissed her into silence. “Is that a yes?” She tapped a finger against his lips.

  “I wouldn’t say anything else. I love you, Holly Campbell.”

  “I love you, too, Luke Saxon.” She touched his cheek. “Welcome home.”

  EPILOGUE

  IF LUKE HAD to spend one more day in this bed, in this hospital, he was definitely going to lose his mind. He was ready to get out of here, get back to his life. Now that he had a life...with Holly and Simon.

  A life in Butterfly Harbor. Who would have thought?

  The room was overflowing with get-well cards, flowers and balloons of every color and size. His favorite gift was a crooked, ghastly card from Charlie with the biggest smiley-faced butterfly ever put on paper. He couldn’t wait to frame it.

  His second favorite? A letter from the town council offering him their full support should he choose to run for another term as sheriff. As far as they were concerned, the job was his as long as he wanted it.

  Gil Hamilton stopped by to reiterate the offer, a paper bag of burgers and fries in hand, and if Luke understood things, the visit left them on the verge of becoming friends. Odd and unexpected, but stranger things had happened.