“If all goes well, less than two months. They’ll be on their own by fall.”
“Then your job will be over?”
“It will, but this is only a stopgap until I get another full-time state job, or maybe something with the national parks.”
“It’s a pretty cool temp job, though. It would be exciting to see those little ones fly for the first time.”
“I hope to. If I don’t personally catch it with my still camera, I’m hoping the webcam will. Is the father still there?”
“Yep.” Luke shifted his weight and the platform creaked. “But I think he’s about done with the feeding routine. There he goes. Now the babies are huddling down.”
“Unless the mother comes back, there won’t be much to see for a while.”
“No sign of her.” Luke lowered the binoculars and crouched down next to the webcam. “So this is on 24/7?”
“Yes. Fortunately it has a zoom, so the pictures are pretty good, but quite a few researchers prefer to mount the camera on the tree where the nest is.”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “How the hell would you do something like that without freaking out the eagles?”
“You have to mount it before they start nesting and then hope they come back to that same place.” She powered down the laptop to save her battery. “The professor who hired me hopes to get someone to monitor the nest next year and see if the pair returns. This year, by the time someone discovered the nest, the eggs were already laid, which meant this was the best we could do.”
He stood and turned back to her. “Are you hooked up to the internet so you can broadcast it? I’ve seen people do that.”
“So have I, but that wouldn’t work here because of the location.”
He glanced around. “Too remote?”
“No, too accessible. The professor doesn’t want the place overrun by tourists trying to see the eagles up close and personal, which could disturb them. The Chance family isn’t too eager to have that happen, either. Eventually, with proper supervision, the Chances might approve an ecotour back here, but it would be carefully planned.”
“Makes sense. So this is a strictly private study.”
“It is. The professor would be up here himself if he could manage it. He’s the only one who gets the webcam feed, and I send him written reports.”
“Am I breaking any rules by being up here?”
She smiled. “It’s not that hush-hush. Everybody on the ranch knows about the eagles, and quite a few people in town. Fortunately, we’re a protective bunch of folks around here, so the eagles should be safe.”
“I think you’re right about that. I’ve only lived here since the end of October, but I can tell it’s a close community. You take care of your own.”
So she was right—he was a fairly recent hire at the ranch. Getting one piece of the puzzle made her curious to find out more. “What brought you here?”
“More a who than a what. Nash Bledsoe. He was my boss when he co-owned a riding stable in Sacramento with Lindsay, his former wife. She wasn’t much fun to work for after he left. Actually, she wasn’t much fun to work for while he was there. I stayed because of him. Once he moved back here, I asked him to put in a good word at the Last Chance, and here I am.”
“And now Nash has his own place, the Triple G. Are you headed there next?”
He shook his head. “Wouldn’t be fair to Nash. I tend to move on after about a year, no matter where I am, so my time’s two-thirds gone. He needs a ranch hand who’ll stick around longer than a few months.”
“You leave after a year?” She’d never heard anything so ridiculous in her life, unless he was trying to escape a woman or the law. “Are you on the run?”
“Nope.” He smiled.
She looked into those smiling brown eyes. He didn’t seem to be hiding anything. “Then I don’t get it.”
“Most people don’t. It’s just the way I like it. New scenery, new people. Keeps things interesting.”
She should have known there’d be a fly in the ointment. He might be the sexiest man she’d met in ages, but if he avoided all attachments, then she literally couldn’t see any future in getting to know him.
“That bothers you, doesn’t it?” He sounded disappointed.
She shrugged. “Not really.” At least it shouldn’t. She’d leaped to some unwarranted conclusions about how this would go, and now he’d set her straight. At least he’d told her up front, so she could back off. “It’s your life. You’re entitled to live it the way you want to.”
“Yes, I am.” He sighed. “But I guess I’ll pay the price where you’re concerned.”
“What price?”
“I…was hoping to get to know you better.”
“Oh?” She wondered if this was leading where she thought it was. “In what way?”
“Well, I thought we might become friends.”
“Sure, Luke. We can become friends.” But from the way he’d flirted with her earlier, she didn’t think he was looking for a platonic relationship. Maybe she was wrong. “You can come out here and check on the eagles from time to time, and we’ll chat. Is that what you had in mind?”
“Uh…no.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked off in the distance, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion. “See, the thing is, I thought, from the way you looked at me back there at the stream, that you might be willing to go a little beyond friendship.”
How embarrassing that he’d read her so accurately. “I see.”
“But I can tell you don’t like the idea that I don’t stay around. Your attitude toward me changed.”
“You act as if that’s hard to understand. Do most of the women you meet like the idea of a temporary affair?”
“They do, actually.” His gaze was earnest. “I tend to be attracted to women who have something going on in their lives, like you. The last thing they want is some needy guy who wants to monopolize them. So we get together, have great discussions, great sex and no strings attached.”
“That must suit your lifestyle perfectly.” Having this discussion while he stood there looking virile as hell wasn’t helping. She didn’t want to want him. He was a girl-in-every-port sort of guy. And yet…her insides quivered at the tantalizing possibilities.
“It does suit me, and it seems to suit them. I jumped to conclusions about you, though. I thought you’d be happy to hear my exit plan, but you’re not.”
She cleared her throat to give herself some time to think. He was right about the signals she’d been giving off, so she couldn’t blame him for putting her in the same category as his other girlfriends. Maybe she was in that category and hadn’t realized it.
Although she’d like to settle down someday, she hadn’t yet felt compelled to do that. She’d been building her career in wildlife research in Florida, but that had petered out. She hoped to get another full-time job in her field, which could be anywhere in the country. She didn’t want to be either saved or tied down by a guy.
But in the meantime, she was going through a period of sexual deprivation, and he’d suggested a reprieve from that. Was it so terrible that he wasn’t into making a lifelong commitment, especially when she wasn’t looking for that, either?
“I need some time to think about this,” she said. “After all, I just met you.”
“Fair