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He patted Buttercup for a few more moments, then made his way back to the house.
Molly was helping Naomi put the food on the table, while Luke was washing his hands at the sink—which had a perfect view of Sam’s truck. Good thing Sam had taken care to disguise every movement as something for Buttercup.
Luke was most definitely paranoid. But then again, in this case he was right. Sam was here for one reason only—to investigate him.
And so Naomi and Molly could bond over their hair color, of course.
16
Molly had fielded plenty of comments about her hair over the years. In her younger days, kids had mocked her “Pippi Longstocking” hair. In middle school, she’d had enough. She shaved her head with her mom’s boyfriend’s razor and painted swirls on her scalp with body paint.
Everyone had been furious with her. Lila had even cried the first time she saw her. Charlie had high-fived her and called her a badass. Ani had concocted a whole cover story for her, something about donating her hair to women with cancer. But it was such a relief to get a break from all the teasing that she didn’t care what anyone thought.
When her hair grew back in, it wasn’t the same shade anymore. It was a deeper color, somewhere between garnet and burgundy.
“You totally manifested a new hair color,” Charlie had said in amazement, pacing around her like a lioness circling its prey. “It’s like you told your hair to take a timeout and come back when it was ready to behave.”
“It’s gorgeous,” Ani agreed. “This time you really might have a cancer patient wanting your hair.”
But even with all that hair baggage in her past, no one had ever focused on it quite as much as Naomi Chilkoot.
“Where is your family from?” she wanted to know as she dished out some kind of mystery meat stew into the bowls on the table.
“Oh, all over the place.” The truth was, she didn’t really know. Her mother didn’t talk about things like that, and she had no interest in any DNA testing.
“When you say, all over the place…” Naomi prompted.
Molly answered with her own question. “Where are you from? Did you grow up in Alaska?”
“My family lineage is from Aberdeen. I come from a line of Celtic druids.”
“Really, you were able to trace your family tree all the way back to druid times? I didn’t know that was possible.”
Naomi cast her a pitying look as she dished out another bowl. “I’m proud of my ancestry. All the family stories, legends…”
“Legends? What sort of legends?”
Naomi just smiled and gestured for her to sit down, which Molly did carefully, since the chair had a hand-crafted shape that meant it had probably been made by a Chilkoot from local wood. Who needed shop class when you grew up in the wilderness?
“You’ve never looked into your family tree?” she asked.
“No. My only interest in my family tree was leaving it.” Naomi didn’t seem to get the joke. Apparently this was a very serious topic for her. “You’re interested in genealogy?”
“Amateur only, but yes. I find genetics fascinating.”
“Do you do your research online?”
“Oh no. We don’t believe in the internet. I have a number of genealogy books. We prefer scientific books out here. Do you have any children?” Good lord, this woman was persistent.
“I don’t, no.”
Naomi scanned her face, as if she didn’t quite believe her. Then she relaxed ever so slightly and smiled.
“You’ve been building a career, I imagine.”
“That’s right. I’m a lawyer.”
It was subtle, but Naomi reacted with a nearly imperceptible tightening of her lips. Molly was good at noticing details like that. She’d honed that ability during cross-examinations. Did the Chilkoots have a problem with lawyers?
