by Patti Larsen
I exhaled as I stacked the last plate into the dishwasher and turned it on, Daisy sagging over the counter, Mom beside her, the two of them looking about as wiped out as I felt. The other staff had already gone home, just as well. I think my meanness trend hadn’t eased up though I wasn’t sure why telling Suzie/Megan/Chloe/Whoever to hustle her butt was enough cause to make the kid cry.
Okay, so maybe I was a little harsh. And the reason Clara quit. Whoops.
“Fiona Fleming,” Mom finally said, faint frown between her eyes. “Sit yourself down and tell us who put a bee in your bonnet and why it is exactly you’ve been running around all day like the world kicked your puppy.”
Petunia whined softly at her feet, as if thinking Mom was talking about her. I took a second to fetch a bag of frozen banana slices from the freezer and sighed as I sat down, handing over the first of a carefully measured dozen to the drooling pug. She hopped from foot to foot as I took my time dolling out her treat and shared with Mom and Daisy what happened.
By the time I was done, they were both shaking their heads.
“Aundrea called earlier,” Mom said. “Jared was released after Philip. I hope that boy has the sense to leave well enough alone. Though she didn’t know what the problem was in the first place and he’s not talking.”
Another mystery to sort out. I met Daisy’s eyes, winced. “I’m sorry about making Chloe cry.” Gave Petunia an extra slice of banana like I could make up for the mess ahead. “And Clara quit.”
She looked confused a moment, then laughed. “Rebecca,” she said while I groaned and decided to stop trying. “I handled it.”
Right. Rebecca. Bless her.
“As for Clara,” Mom sniffed, “that wasn’t you. It was me.” Phew, good to know. “She was using boxed stuffing, Fiona. Boxed. Honestly.”
A deeply immoral and likely illegal act in my mother’s eyes. From the grin on Daisy’s face, she wasn’t upset with the loss and, frankly, neither was I and since I’d asked Mom to handle the food side of things…
Okay then.
I sent the two women home for the night, hugging them both with giant thanks, accepting Daisy’s offer to trot over to the annex to check on Grace and Philip before she left. I really should have found someone to monitor the other house but they could just fend for themselves for the night. For now, I sat down behind the computer in the foyer for some website searching with a long list of names I found I just had to know more about.
Two hours and a headache later and I sat back from the notes I’d taken between looking up and smiling and chatting with guests and my nosy investigations. Likely the cause of my headache, but oh well, I had dug up enough to make me even more curious than I had been before I started. Crew would be ecstatic.
Fleur, it turned out, was a bit of a name for herself as well, the recipient of a number of awards not only here in the U.S. but around the world, digging into the kind of global environmental issues that made reporters famous. Recently, her coverage of an oil spill off the coast to a fracking installation that locals claimed caused earthquakes and undrinkable water had shown a shift in pattern, Fleur’s passion for covering stories to do with Mother Earth driving her career. At least she seemed legit enough, though I wondered at her sudden turn to domestic issues and why she’d stopped travelling to cover small stories like this one.
Maybe not so small after all?
As for Lewis and Grace, their own story was about as public as it could get. Just typing his name into the search engine gave me so many hits my head swam. No issue was too small, no protest too out of touch with reality. If he wasn’t supporting a tiny community in northern Michigan to preserve a habitat for a beetle that actually devoured healthy crops he was waxing poetic about endangered slugs that as far as I could tell no one gave a damn about until he brought them up. And chaining himself to trees? His favorite pastime.
And there was Grace, at his side, just as she’d said, the two of them aging slowly over the course of the images I perused, fifteen years together unfolding as the internet disgorged their track record in a collection of news articles, blogs and photographs that told a tale of a pair of passionate people who really needed to get lives already. Yes, I was all for saving the environment and everything, but when an entire elementary school was in tears because Lewis Brown called the children murderers thanks to the discovery of a rare butterfly colony they’d been raising in captivity?
Seriously.
As for Philip, he seemed to kind of appear out of nowhere on the protestor scene, though I did find reference to him at the University of Vermont. Surprisingly, considering not one of the three mentioned knowing him, it turned out he graduated the same year as Jared, Carmen and Aiden. Unlike Zip It!’s young owners, though there was nothing environmental in his studies. In fact, he’d departed that fine institution with a degree in business. So what was he doing chasing endangered woodpecker sightings in a zip line park in Reading?
The message boards for the more outspoken protest organizations made mention of him and his newcomer status, but no one seemed to know who he was or why he’d been recruited. Vetting from Lewis smoothed things over quickly, however. The outpouring of grief on those same sites, all fresh, felt genuine and made my guilt resurface fast enough I clicked off to other destinations rather than lingering. Crew would be digging into Lewis. I was more interested in the outliers at the moment.
Aiden and Carmen, on the other hand, both took environmental studies, the pair of them side by side in photos on their department’s website, their college profiles professing they pretty much fell in love day one and had been together the entire duration of their stay. And there, smiling next to them? Jared Wilkins himself, the third wheel of their particularly wobbly cart, though he never looked out of place. So, best friends, then?
I was sad not to see Alicia among them and wondered again about Jared’s history with Carmen. Rather than doubt the young man I adored, I switched tactics and dove back into the protest movement involvement in Zip It!.
It took me about a minute to uncover the first claim of the woodpecker sighting, but no one seemed to take ownership of the initial instance. Pretty flimsy evidence, if you asked me. Considering the county cleared the park, it felt about as iffy as the Reading hoard showing up anywhere near this town. Then again, if Grandmother Iris wasn’t leading me on a wild pirate chase, maybe I was as wrong about the woodpeckers as the debunking treasure hunters were about the hoard’s existence.
Didn’t matter now. The damage to Carmen and Aiden’s business was done. And Lewis Brown was dead. Though whether over the little birds or some other issue I had yet to understand, it didn’t really matter at the moment.
What did matter? Someone deliberately tried to shut down Zip It!. But why? A grudge against Aiden and Carmen? I couldn’t find anything negative about the two, not on their unprotected social media—honestly, did they not understand the privacy settings were there for their protection?—nor on the actual protestor message boards or anywhere else. They seemed pretty universally liked until the woodpecker thing came up. And even some of the more prominent protestors on the more common sites came across as hesitant to jump on board, even with Lewis leading the charge.
So if the big names of the environmentally minded weren’t sold, what was up?
I really needed to sit tight. I couldn’t just up and leave Petunia’s. The house was full and I had guests to care for. But I had questions and when I called the ranger’s station, no one answered. I frowned at my computer, tapping my fingers on the keys, humming softly in agitation. Just as my father walked through the front door.
I beamed at him, hurried to hug him. Dad hugged me back, smiling, kissing my forehead. Before he could say a word, I grabbed for my jacket and Petunia’s lead, the pug practically huffing her excitement at the sight.
“I need to run out,” I said. “Can you watch things for a half hour?”
Dad looked instantly disappointed, but shrugged out of his own coat, hangin
g it over the back of the stool at the computer. “Sure, sweetheart,” he said. “But I want to talk to you when you get back.”
Hmmm. About Mom, maybe? He didn’t seem upset, so it might have been.
“I promise,” I said, kissing his cheek before bending to slip Petunia’s chubby body into the padded pink straps, a recent gift from Daisy. “I’ll be right back!”
It was a short drive to the station, Petunia perched on the seat next to me, panting her happy contentment into the darkness that had fallen over my hometown.
“We’ll be quick,” I said to her while she grinned at me like I was the only one judging me for running away from my responsibilities again for the sake of a mystery. “See, this is why I need Mom and Daisy as partners, right? I’m terribly irresponsible.”
Petunia meowed one of her squeaky yawns that was more cat than dog and kept grinning.
I pulled into the ranger’s station at the same time Matt was climbing into his truck. He seemed surprised to see me, waved as I exited my car, Petunia hopping down to the graveled ground with a grunt. She sat on my foot and panted up at the handsome ranger who crouched to scratch her ears, the subsequent groans of her delight almost embarrassing.
“Sorry to bug you,” I said, “but I had a few questions and I couldn’t reach you.”
“I was out patrolling,” he said, standing up to tower over me at his full height. He was almost as tall as Crew, not quite as broad through the shoulders. Wait, why was I noticing, anyway? Comparing? Sheesh, get a grip, Fleming. “What did you need?”
He seemed perfectly normal and not at all staring at me like he had at Petunia’s earlier so I had to have imagined the rather embarrassing things I thought about him. Like the fact I suspected he was into me even though I’d never noticed. Wow, I really was full of myself. Poor guy. Good thing I hadn’t said anything and totally humiliated myself.
Instead, I grinned to hide my flinch of overreaction at my own assumptions. “I was wondering about the woodpeckers.”
He shrugged, smiled easily back. “Not sure what to tell you,” he said. “They aren’t even supposed to be in this area anymore. They’ve been extinct in our region for years. They still have habitat in the southeast, so seeing them this far north is kind of a big deal.”
From the tone of his voice he wasn’t buying it. “You’re not convinced?”
Matt dug his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. Only then did I notice he’d changed out of his uniform, only his government issue jacket and the gun on his hip indication he was, in effect, a police officer as well as a park ranger. I was so used to seeing him in his uniform it felt odd to remember he was a person, too.
I was such a weirdo.
“I’m not,” he said. “I did my master’s program in indigenous birds in this area. I have to say, it would be a miracle to find them here, not just because they’ve been gone so long, but because of the change in habitat.” He sounded competently confident enough to me. “Even an attempt to reintroduce a family to New Hampshire five years ago failed. So how they’d accomplish it on their own… well, nature is funny. But not that funny.”
“I had no idea you had a master’s,” I said. Not that I was easily impressed, but I’d never considered him particularly scholarly.
He winked. “I guess neither of us is just a pretty face.”
Um, awkward, but in a rather adorable way. I giggled despite myself. “I guess not.” I shivered then in the breeze that picked up, Petunia whining softly while I huddled a moment inside my jacket, wishing I’d brought a warmer one. “So you think this was a setup?”
Matt stared at me a long moment before taking a step forward, arms going around me. I froze in place as he hugged me, chin on the top of my head. “Pretty sure that’s the case,” he said, voice deep and husky all of a sudden while my heart stopped.
At the exact second a sheriff’s department cruiser pulled into the parking lot.
***
Chapter Twenty Three
I have no idea why I flinched away from Matt. It was obvious he was just trying to help me stay warm while he answered my questions, right? Right? Just my luck, it was Robert who climbed out, grinning at the two of us like he’d uncovered some grand conspiracy, beady eyes darting back and forth between us while he sauntered closer, that ridiculous mustache twitching.
“Fanny,” he said. “Matt. Nice evening for a rendezvous.”
Oh, whatever, creep. “What do you want, Robert?”
He shrugged then, winked lewdly at Matt who looked about as uncomfortable as I did, scowling like he wanted to punch Robert. I wouldn’t have argued except the first hit was mine.
“Crew’s looking for you,” he said to the ranger. His gaze flickered to me. “I’ll let him know the two of you are otherwise occupied.”
“Fee was just cold,” Matt said, sounding sullen enough I groaned inwardly. Damn it, I was right earlier, he was into me. Had I somehow given him the impression I felt the same about him? This had horrifying potential to turn into something I really didn’t have time to deal with right now.
“Right,” Robert drawled, pushing his pelvis toward me in a truly disgusting gesture that almost got him killed then and there. “Cold. Gotcha.”
I closed the distance between myself and my cousin, jabbing him so hard in his beer gut he grunted and backed off, his nasty smile turning to a scowl of his own.
“Get your sick and twisted mind out of the gutter for once,” I snarled. “And mind your own damned business.”
Robert stuck that ugly mustache in my face, his narrowed eyes locked on mine. “We’ll just see what Crew thinks about your little cuddle session, Fanny.” He turned his back on me like we were in high school and he could actually impact my life with a piece of trash talk garbage gossip. Climbed into his cruiser with an index finger jabbed first at Matt then me which he used to pull an imaginary trigger before laughing and slamming his door, peeling off, gravel spraying out behind him.
Well, damn it. High school it was, I guess. I spun on Matt, heat in my cheeks, no longer needing a warmer coat, and frowned at him while he blushed in the glaring light over the ranger station.
“Tell me you weren’t hitting on me,” I said.
He stuttered and stammered long enough, not meeting my gaze, I put an end to the lack of conversation by sighing heavily and tugging on Petunia’s leash, leading her to my car. His footfalls ended with his hand on my arm and he spun me around, the pug already hopped up into the driver’s seat. I looked into Matt’s eyes, wished I didn’t see the longing there, the unrequited emotions that I really wasn’t expecting and knew I had to let him down gently before this went any further.
But whatever I had to say to him, I didn’t get the chance. Instead of waiting to be let down, Matt turned and hurried to the station door, disappearing inside. I stood there for a long moment, getting cold all over again, wishing I had the courage to go after him and just put an end to it once and for all, but unable to muster the nerve.
Instead, Petunia whining finally she was as chilled as I was, I pushed her over into the passenger’s seat and joined her, cranking the heat once we were on the road, groaning over what Robert might say to Crew and wishing I didn’t care. Wanting to believe the sheriff I was rapidly falling for wouldn’t take the childish word of my ridiculous cousin I’d been inappropriate with another guy while wavering into frustration that I shouldn’t have to explain myself anyway since I didn’t do anything wrong.
Fun drive home, let me tell you. I was in such a lather of anxiety and annoyance by the time I reached downtown I drove directly to the sheriff’s office to talk to Crew personally. When I didn’t spot his truck, I instead cruised past his house, embarrassed to find he wasn’t home and that I was actually stalking him now. On impulse, feeling badly for leaving Dad alone at Petunia’s but needing to meet this head on, I drove out to the only other place I was sure he’d be.
Crew’s truck was parked near the entrance of Zip It! but unfortunately so was R
obert’s cruiser. There was no sign of Matt’s ranger vehicle, though, so I had that going for me. Knowing it was a disaster waiting to happen and wondering what the hell I was actually doing there in the first place, I climbed out of the car, Petunia hopping down gamely to join me, free of complaint, as I leaped over the barricade, the pug weaving easily under the gate, and entered the park.
I was in such a hurry to reach Crew before Robert could pull his jerkish act and cause the sheriff any kind of discomfort—not to mention my discomfort, thanks—I failed to notice the shortcut I took past the main entry building led me into a small stand of bushes. And that, as I passed into the center of the collection of thick shrubbery, I wasn’t alone.
Not that the pair in the middle of said foliage noticed me, though it was clear from the light shining through the leaves the guy Carmen was kissing rather vigorously wasn’t Aiden. Nope, not even close. And when he turned his head for better traction on her lips? Well, the reason for Jared’s animosity toward Philip became fairly clear.
The fact I’d caught the protestor and the park owner kissing wasn’t lost on me. However, their embrace, unlike me and Matt? Kind of hard to misconstrue their make out session as anything but exactly what it was.
***
Chapter Twenty Four
Carmen noticed me first, while I stared at them in shock and tried to figure out what to do, wishing I was anywhere but there at that moment. She jerked herself free of Philip, backing away until she impacted one of the bushes which she then leaped away from, putting herself back in his reach as terror crossed her face. She flushed deeply, Philip meeting my eyes a moment as his own flared with shock, then barely contained anger.
