Butterfly Hunter 01 (11 page)

Well, there was only one
thing to do – once Dave had stopped grinning back at the man, of
course. He slowly and quietly put everything down except Nicholas’s
camera, and then started taking photos. A few full–length shots,
and then close–ups of the butterflies, and of that beatific beaming
smile.

“
Here,” said
Nicholas after a while. “I want some of you.”

Dave scoffed a bit, but he
was happy enough to let Nicholas have what he wanted. The man
approached, pacing evenly, and encouraged one of the butterflies on
his arm to shift over to Dave’s instead. The thing tickled there,
so beautiful and so delicate. Dave watched it, mesmerised, until
the click and whirr of the camera shutter caught his attention, and
he offered Nicholas a genuine smile to save in pixels.

Now that Nicholas was
moving about, the butterflies had mostly lifted away to hover
around him, but a few had come to Dave instead. They seemed to be –
He carefully lifted an arm to look closer at one. It seemed to be
smelling him, or something, with a long probing thing unwinding
from just below its head to poke and dab at him. “What’s he
doing?”

“
Drinking
your sweat,” Nicholas said, in tones that were amused and – it was
true – slightly envious.

“
Huh. Old
pervs, the lot of you,” Dave retorted, though more fondly than he’d
intended.

Nicholas laughed, and went
to sit in the chairs Dave had set beside the Cruiser. “Oh, he’s not
old. He’s newly emerged. And the longest any butterfly has been
known to live is eleven months. They know all about seizing the
day. They have to!”

“
They’re
gorgeous, aren’t they?” Dave offered.

“
Yes.”
Nicholas’s smile was back. He picked up his guide, and quickly
flipped through to a particular chapter. “Now, let’s figure out
exactly what he is …”

“
I had another
phone call for you today,” Denise said that evening.

“
What,
more
apologies? It’s all coming back to them now, is
it?”

“
No, not that
lot. A client. A potential client. D’you think you’ll be with your
earling for the full three months?”

“
Well, I hope
so.”

A beat of silence.

Dave wondered what on
earth he’d just said.

“
Do you?”
Denise belatedly asked. “I thought you were pretty much dreading
it.”

“
No, it’s
fine, he’s – great. Anyway, hopefully he’ll find what he’s looking
for, and get the chance to study it properly, and –”

“
And you like
him, don’t you?”

“
Not
like
that!”

Denise just laughed.
“Davey, I wasn’t even going there, but seeing as you raised the
topic …”

“
Oh shut up,”
he grumbled without an ounce of heat.

“
All right,
well, I’ll tell this guy you’re definitely booked for the three
months, but you’re available after that. He’s heard good things
about you, Davey. I’m guessing he’ll try to reschedule for later in
the year.”

“
OK, thanks,
Denny, that’s great.” But he found himself watching Nicholas set
the campfire, and when he wandered over there after putting the
phone away, Dave met Nicholas’s affectionate smile with one of his
own.

That night, as they sat
around the campfire, they weren
’t around
it so much as by it. Because Nicholas had placed his chair close
beside Dave’s. Well, not
close
close but not far away
either. And then Nicholas sat there. With his forearm resting on
the chair arm, and his long hand with its pale fingers dangling
from that narrow wrist. And he very deliberately
didn’t
reach to hold Dave’s hand. Dave was watching him warily
from the very edges of his gaze, and he could see that Nicholas was
holding himself back, almost as if the sheer anticipation of the
chance that he
might
cross that boundary was the most delicious thing
out.

For once they didn’t talk
much. Until at last Dave thought it was better to clear matters up
now rather than risk any misunderstandings. Because it seemed that,
quite inadvertently, and to be honest he really wasn’t sure how,
Things Had Taken A Turn.

“
Look,” said
Dave into the silence. “Nicholas.” Staring hard at the flames
dancing on the wood.

“
Mmm … ?” said
Nicholas in response.

“
I’m
not
homophobic. That’s not where this is coming
from. But I’m
not
gay.”

“
I think that
–”

Dave barrelled on
regardless. “It doesn’t matter to me that you like men. Honestly. I
always thought that it didn’t matter whether you loved a guy or a
girl. What matters is that you love the
person
. You are in love with
the person.”

Nicholas was watching him
with a guarded kind of interest. “So why can’t your person be a
guy?”

That flummoxed him. Dave
thought about it. “Denny,” he said after a while. “There’s
Denise.”

“
I know you
loved her,” Nicholas said, expansive. Reasonable. “You’re loyal
enough to love her still, which is not such a deal–breaker as your
friend in Toowoomba seems to think. But I think you could feel that
way for a guy as well. I think if you met the right person, it
wouldn’t matter whether they were a guy or a girl.”

“
Well, I guess
that’s true in a general kind of way –”

“
Oh come on!”
Nicholas cried. “It’s not about theory, it’s about
practice.”

“
But I don’t
–”

“
You
kissed
me.”

Dave frowned, and wondered
if the night’s darkness would hide the fact he’d just turned pale.
“I did,” he admitted. “But just to, like … cheer you
up.”

“
Right
…”

“
It’s not as
if it was a real kiss.”

Nicholas was merciless
with the light scepticism. “You can tell yourself that, David, if
it helps you sleep at night.”

“
Well, that
doesn’t make a difference, anyway, does it? A guy or a girl. It’s
still a kiss. It’s not like – their bits are involved.”

Nicholas laughed hollowly.
“Oh, my boy bits got involved, believe me.”

Dave threw him a scowl,
but then frowned as he tried to think it through. “It’s not
something I’ve done before,” he eventually continued. “In fact,
I’ve only ever been with Denise. That’ll sound pathetic to you, I’m
sure, but I’ve never even kissed anyone else.”

The tones in response to
this confession were a little softer. “Then I’m honoured, and I’m
glad. Thank you, David.” After a moment, Nicholas argued as
strongly as ever, “But that puts me in a category that consists of
only two people in all the world. And I say that a kiss isn’t just
a kiss. Apart from which, you called me beautiful.”

Dave went from pale to
bright red in a millisecond. “I did not!”

“
You did, too.
You were driving at the time. At first I thought you were murmuring
sweet nothings to the Cruiser. But you weren’t.” Nicholas grimaced
a little. “I suspect I wasn’t meant to hear. You seemed to be
thinking out loud.”

“
Oh.”

“
Ha! So you’re
not denying that you’ve thought it.”

“
Well
–”

“
Obviously you
have atrocious taste, but in this particular case I’m not going to
argue you out of it.”

“
Look,” Dave
finally came back at the man with. “Just because I said – I mean,
you are, that’s all, and I can have an objective opinion, can’t I?
I can think that guys are beautiful in a purely es – esth
–”

“
Aesthetic.”

“
Thank you. –
sense. I can appreciate a guy like I’d appreciate … a
sunrise!”

“
Right.
Especially one you’ve kissed.”

“
Oh God, shut
up, would you?”

“
I just
don’t think that straight guys
think
like
that.”

“
Well,
obviously they do. It’s self–evident! Cos here I am, thinking like
that.”

Nicholas was about to
retort, but then he seemed to have second thoughts, and closed his
mouth again. A moment went by, before Nicholas sighed, and asked,
“Why are you fighting this?”

“
What!
Why are
you
?”

“
Because I
fancy you, of course! I’ve fancied you since the moment I saw you
at the airport. I fell at your feet, remember?”

“
You tripped
on the trolley.”

“
You
distracted me, all fit and golden–haired and
beyond
handsome, like
some Australian god …”

Dave had no words in response to
any of that.

“
Since then,
I’ve got to know you a bit. And I like you, David. Very much. I
like you very much.”

“
Well, and I
like you,” Dave was able to say, “but that doesn’t mean
–”

“
All right,
all right!” Nicholas had his hands up as if giving in at last. Or
maybe he just couldn’t bear to hear any more. “I’m sorry. I’ll let
you be. Of course I don’t want you feeling harassed. I just thought
–”

“
What? What
did you think?”

“
That we might
have a chance.”

Dave looked at him, and
saw the very real emotion that was barely hidden by a cool exterior
shell. And for the first time in a very very long time, he used the
S–word. “I’m sorry, mate,” he murmured.

And Nicholas quietly
replied, “I am, too.”

Nicholas seemed to take
this final rejection philosophically. He didn’t get angry, he
didn’t sulk. He didn’t even get sad, though his happiness felt a
shade less bright. Dave found himself missing those hundred–watt
grins, though he could hardly change things back to how they were
when it had been based on a misunderstanding. He was scrupulous in
continuing to be as professional a guide and as friendly a host as
he always was, though, and Nicholas likewise continued to be the
perfectly equable and helpful client. Perhaps they didn’t talk
quite as much, but that was all.

And one thing they
definitely didn’t talk about was the next trip to town.

Dave got up early that day, only
to find that Nicholas had gotten up earlier, and was already
brewing a pot of tea. Nicholas was sitting on one of the chairs,
slumped down into it with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.
And he had his stubborn face on.

“
Morning,”
said Dave.

“
Good morning,
David,” was the reply, more formal than ever.

After dealing with the
necessaries, Dave came back and sat in the chair near Nicholas’s.
Accepted a mug of tea. “Well?” he prompted once the tea was cool
enough for him to take a reviving mouthful or two.

“
I’m not
coming into town with you, David. Not this time.”

“
My rule still
holds.”

“
I think you
can make an exception.”

“
I’m concerned
for your safety. Anything might happen. And you haven’t learned
enough in two weeks to know how to survive out here.”

Nicholas looked across at
him, and said very reasonably, “I’m not going. I’m sorry, but I’m
not.”

Dave let a moment or two
drift by. He drank some more tea. He sighed. “We’re not going to
have a repeat of last week’s dramas. You might have noticed, I’ve
been taking us generally north–east. I figured we’d go to
Charleville. Nothing bad happened there, did it? And if Charlie’s
there … Well, he knows who you are, and he welcomed
you.”

Nicholas nodded soberly.
“I shall miss seeing Charles again. But I’m going to stay here. I’m
sorry, David,” he said again.

For a long while – through
that cuppa, and then a second one – a silence stretched, and Dave
thought about the situation. Well, he didn’t really think about it
as such, but instead reflected on an inevitability that didn’t make
him happy at all. It seemed that Nicholas was determined to have
his way. And while the professional David Taylor could pull rank
and overrule him, the soft–hearted Davey knew that he was already
too involved with this man to do so. But that left Dave making a
decision that he knew was wrong, that he already felt bad
about.

He thought some more.

“
All right,”
David eventually agreed after Nicholas had quietly gone about
setting up breakfast for them both. “All right, you can stay. But
I’ll only go for the day. I’ll be back for dinner.”

“
You don’t
have to give up your night in town for my sake.”

“
But I
do,” Dave explained in simple tones. “There is absolutely no way
I’m going to leave you alone out here overnight. Just
no
way.”

“
But
–”