Chapter One #2
Maybe that was him being overprotective in a way he didn’t have any call to be, but that was one reason he preferred a life without too many attachments.
“Come on back with me to the main house. I just need to talk to my partners.”
She blinked. “Oh. Of course.”
He looked her up and down. “Clearly.”
“Oh, I should pack my things up,” she said.
“Yeah. I’ll… I’ll help.”
“Not at all. You don’t have to do that.”
“I insist.”
“Don’t touch any of my equipment. You can help take the tent down.”
She wasn’t even attempting to be nice or to…
take whatever olive branch he was trying to offer.
She wasn’t effusive or apologetic in any way, and he had a feeling that most people, caught in a similar situation, would attempt to smooth it over at least a tiny bit.
She offered him nothing other than a bland and bald explanation and seemed to think that it made perfect sense.
She also didn’t seem to be blown away by his agreement to this.
“If my partners say yes, you can stay in one of our cabins.”
That elicited a small response. Her eyebrows lifted just a fraction. “Oh. Well. That would be nice. I do miss having a shower. I was just thinking I was going to have to bathe using water from my jug and a washcloth. I didn’t exactly relish the idea of having to be naked out here.”
For some reason, that forced him to imagine what her body might look like beneath those ill-fitting clothes.
He was a good judge of the female form, having seen, tasted and touched his share.
And if he was really critical in the moment, what he assumed was that she was lush and curvy.
The clothes she was wearing didn’t show much, making her look a little bit more like a rectangular, nondescript shape.
But he had a feeling that was just the effect of everything being a couple of sizes too big.
“Well. No one wants that.”
“Some people do. You would be surprised. On my hiking excursions to different places in the state, I’ve discovered that at a lot of the hot springs people prefer to be naked.”
“Right.”
He didn’t know how to respond to that. So instead, he went over to the tent, and started to help take it down.
She ferreted a small amount from inside it and then picked up a few different instruments.
“This is relatively new technology, and not overly common, but I’m experimenting with hyperspectral images—that was an aspect of my getting the grant, determining how much value imaging equipment can add when combined with sophisticated stratigraphy. ”
“That really is some Jurassic Park stuff.”
“This is not Jurassic Park,” she said. “I am not trying to violate laws of nature.”
“So you’re against cloning animals using the DNA from mosquitoes?”
“I am against the reintroduction of any kind of species. I believe that natural selection is infallible. Humans tampering with it is a violation of the natural order.”
“Well, couldn’t it be argued that if humans, who have survived these many millennia, bring back a species, that’s part and parcel of natural selection?”
“It cannot.”
“Okay.”
“The rest of my equipment is in my Geo Metro.”
“I didn’t know they still made those.”
“They don’t,” she said cheerfully. “I’ve been very lucky to continue to find new ones. My first car was a Geo Metro hatchback. And it was old even at the time, but I don’t want to get a different kind of car. I like this one.”
“Great. So, that’s all your stuff then?”
“Yes. That’s all of it.”
“You can follow me back to the homestead.”
“Okay.”
He got into the truck, and she rounded to the other side of the rock. Then she drove her car out from behind it, and he grabbed his phone. “Coming back to the house. With a visitor in tow.”
It took about ten minutes to get back to the homestead. And when he got there, Rowdy and Dakota were standing on the porch waiting.
He got out of the truck, just a moment or so before she got out of her car. “Wait until you hear this.”
She got out of the car and didn’t waste a moment. She walked up the front steps and extended her hand. “I’m Dr. Ernestine Martin. I would like to pay you from my grant money to conduct a paleontological dig on your ranch.”
“She was camping out there and digging in the side of one of the mountains.”
Rowdy shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too. So you’re his partners?”
Rowdy nodded. “Yes. I’m Rowdy Gardner. This is Dakota Campbell.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dakota said.
“It’s a really lovely place you all have out here. Are you a throuple?”
Rowdy and Dakota exchanged a glance, and Rowdy burst out laughing. “A throuple?”
It took him a moment to catch the meaning, and then he frowned. “They’re my business partners.”
She blinked. “Oh. I’m sorry. I misunderstood the nature of the term partner. But to be fair, you didn’t specify that they were business partners.”
“I just didn’t assume that you would think…”
“Polyamory is increasing in popularity,” she said.
“I’m sure it is. Are you polyamorous?”
She blinked. “I don’t think so.”
“I would think you’d know.”
“Well, I feel like there are certain things you don’t really know unless you end up in a situation that necessitates you find out for certain. And I’ve never been in that position.”
He knew more about this weird woman than he knew about Dakota and Rowdy. Because she just kept saying things.
“I thought maybe Dr. Martin might stay in one of the cabins.”
“How much money are we talking?” Dakota asked.
“A lot,” he said.
“Then why not? How long are you planning on staying here, Dr. Martin?” Dakota asked.
“A month. I have been given that long to be on-site. At that point, I need to begin to present findings. And I’m going to have to spend time writing up paperwork and all manner of other things to be in compliance with my grant.
I’m very grateful for the offer of a place to stay.
I was prepared to forgo lodging so that I could pay you. ”
“Well, there’s no need for that,” Rowdy said. “Everyone ought to have lodging.”
“Very kind of you.”
Jax didn’t really know what to do with this.
It felt weird that he’d been walked into the situation, but also, not bad, necessarily.
It was going to give them a weird opportunity to soft-launch some things.
Well, as long as they didn’t have to take care of her and entertain her, which they were actually going to be doing with the guests who stayed.
But in the meantime, they had work to do to get all set up. And guests wouldn’t be arriving for another six weeks, so a month of Ernestine wouldn’t detract from anything. It would just get them paid.
“Well, I guess you’d better show her to her cabin,” Dakota said.
“They got dead bolts. So you can lock yourself in.”
She nodded. Vaguely. As though she didn’t really understand why Rowdy would say that.
And he realized, the three of them didn’t have any reason to be worried about her; letting one small woman stay on the property, even unexpectedly, wasn’t weird for them.
But she should maybe be a little bit nervous. She didn’t seem to be.
“You know, so that we can’t just come in at any time,” he said.