Before I knew it, we were back at the big ranger station. The doe was safely penned up with food and water and slept off the tranquilizer. I was told the doc had taken the fawn, which Heidi had nicknamed Honey, back to his clinic. I went looking for Eli, to take him back to his truck, but found Heidi instead.
“Honey, huh?” I asked, and she laughed.
“I kept calling him Honey when I was talking to him. Doc asked for a name and…” She paused and glared at me, then chuckled. “If you had a name for him already, you should’ve told me before you left.” She smiled shyly, and it made me smile back at her automatically.
“You really are prettier than most rangers,” I said, my smile widening to a grin. “I can’t imagine that makes things easy for you out here.”
“No. It’s not easy being the only girl at the sausage fest. But when Butterscotch was with me, the guys loosened up. You know? I was the cool girl who brought her awesome dog to work with her. And Butterscotch loved everybody.”
“Even Eli?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Sorry about the junior’s t-shirt. He must have had to dig for one that you could fit into.”
I laughed aloud. “I make this bunny rabbit look ripped.”
She gasped. “Yes. Yes, you do.” She cleared her throat. “Doc said you can go by or call and check in on Honey. But you need to understand that he’s a wild animal, and you won’t be able to take him home or see him.”
Logan frowned. “Well, I expected that, but can you call me before you release him? I’d like to be part of that.”
Her eyes lit up, and she touched my hand. Little shocks of pleasure went through my fingertips, and suddenly I found myself imagining her in a whole lot less uniform, with a lot more of her skin touching mine. I yanked my hand back in surprise, and the smile faded from her face.
“Of course, we’ll call you. Just leave your number with the girl at the concession stand, and she’ll forward it to Eli or one of the others.”
I cursed my stupidity and grabbed her hand. “Why don’t I give you my number? I don’t really think Eli would call me, do you?”
She thought about it for a moment, then took out her phone and typed something into it. “Name?”
She glanced up at me when I didn’t answer. “Your last name?”
I flinched and laughed. “Right. For a second, my ego was pretty bruised up. I didn’t think I was that forgettable.”
She snickered and shook her head, and I knew I was forgiven for embarrassing her. “It’s Hargrave. Logan Hargrave.”
She tilted her head and looked at her phone, then glanced at me sideways. “Number?”
I told her, and she punched it in.
“You’re thinking something. What is it?”
She shook her head and sighed. “First, your face seemed familiar; now your name is trying to trigger something. Do we know each other?”
“Well, I think I’d remember a pretty thing like you.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “There’s just something familiar about you, I guess,” she said, but I heard irritation in her voice.
“Well, my family have a big old ranch here, Lago Colina, up on Lake Austin. Maybe you’ve heard of one of my brothers. The ones who decided to be cowboys, instead of photographers.”
“You’re a photographer?” She perked up like I hoped she would.
“Mostly wildlife. I worked with the Associated Press for a bit, but I lost my taste for photographing war zones after my brother got blown up by a claymore.” She gasped, wide-eyed, and I clarified my words. “He lived, and he’s healed up pretty good, considering. He even relearned to walk.”
“Still, I can imagine how that would change you. I bet you went in there with good intentions, though.”
“Nah, I went in there to get a Pulitzer. And I did. And it wasn’t worth the pain that I saw, but couldn’t fix. Now I’m home, trying to figure out what I can fix.”
She patted the palm of her hand with her phone. “You saved a baby deer today. How does that feel?”
“Pretty damned good, actually.” I tapped her phone with one finger. “How about you call me tomorrow?”
“Oh, I don’t think the doc will be done with him by then,” she stammered.
“But we could have a nice conversation. I’m putting trail cameras up along the southwest border, where the loggers seem to be inching farther and farther into the park’s forest. If you get a chance, I’d love to have company.”
Heidi smiled and tilted her head at me. “You’re working for Amnesty Wildlife? The t-shirt makes a lot more sense now.”
I groaned and tugged at the offending cloth. “I’ll wear my bunny print with pride, until I get back to my campsite, and then I’m going to burn it.”
She threw her head back and laughed, and her infectious, spontaneous joy made me grin.
“I will call you, and I will come see where your cameras are. If for no other reason than to have coordinates to give the police when you go missing. I’ll also inform them that they should question the lumberjacks in the area.” She was teasing, but I could see the anger in her eyes.
“I’m just trying to help.”
“You’re doing more than any of the government officials I’ve been harassing.” She held out a hand to shake mine. “I appreciate what you do, and I’m happy to help. As a government employee, I’m not allowed to belong to or openly support any private groups or clubs, so…” Her voice trailed off, and she stood with her hand out, waiting, a pretty blush coloring her cheeks as I held out on her. “I just don’t want you thinking we don’t care. We all do what we can.”
I grabbed her hand as she finally retrieved it and bent over it, kissing the soft skin and inhaling her sweet, clean fragrance. She tugged her hand out of mine and arched an eyebrow at me before turning away. I watched her hips swing as she strode off, and my hands itched to touch her again.
“Heidi, you have no idea what’s about to come for you,” I said to myself as I watched her perfect backend retreat. “Until then, I have work to do, and I’m losing daylight.” I chided myself for hanging out at the visitor’s center longer than I should’ve, even though I had to admit it was productive.
There had been no shortage of women passing through my life since I’d been home. Every one of them was more shallow and vapid than the last. I cursed whatever it was that had changed in me so I couldn’t enjoy the simple fun of lusting after a gorgeous woman with no possibility for a future together.
Lately, it was just more irritating when some plastic, Botoxed, big-haired socialite wandered over to me at the bar. So, I’d stopped going to the bars. Rather than sit home alone, I’d head out to the gym, where the women looked the same, but in their workout clothes. Now, some shy, fresh-faced park ranger who thought I was an idiot was on my mind as I drove back out to park and find where I’d left my water. I didn’t know if I was more irritated by little Honey for falling in a hole where I could hear him or grateful to him for being the reason we’d met.
Still, I wanted her to call. I’d gone from wanting to be completely alone to looking forward to being alone with her. There was simply something about her that made a man want to protect her, stand near her, make her smile. The other ranger, Eli, wanted her. She obviously didn’t want him. Since she didn’t want him, and she wasn’t wearing a ring, I was going to hope that I was right and she was available.
I parked the truck and hiked back across the trail I’d been using all morning. I found my water, still hidden in the underbrush. But I found something else as well. Since I’d been gone, someone had marked the trees on the west side of the path with yellow, spray-painted crosses. They were marked to be cut down. I was at least a mile into the park boundaries. There was no way these trees were legal to cut. I cursed myself for not taking Heidi’s number when she got mine. At the time, I thought I was being polite. She was skittish, and I hadn’t wanted to come on too strong.
My phone only had a bar and a half signal, but I managed to look up the park’s phone number and a young girl answered the phone. I asked for Heidi or Eli, and waited. Eli was the one to pick up, to my irritation.
“Hey, Eli, this is Logan. I’m sorry to bug you, but remember where we were earlier today?”
“Yeah, what of it?” he snapped at me.
I stifled the urge to use an obscenity and took a deep breath. “Well, sir,” I began, trying to get on his good side, “I’m back here, and I found trees that have been marked for cutting by the loggers. I mean, that’s well within the park borders. I thought you should know.”
He went quiet, and I glanced at my phone to see if I’d dropped the call.
“Why are you back there?” he finally asked.
I hesitated before replying. “I’m headed back to my campsite. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“It’s interesting that you’re heading to a campsite when there are no registered campsites in that part of the park. Why are you really out there?”
“I’m camping and taking pictures of animals. And I already know that I can camp here anytime other than hunting season,” I reminded him. “Did you have any thoughts on the lumber company marking trees in your park for harvest?”
“My thought is that you need to leave my park. What happens here is none of your business. If you can’t get that through your head, you will be arrested for trespassing.”
“Well, then I guess it’s a good thing I have a brother who’s a lawyer,” I replied and hung up. I couldn’t tell if Eli was participating in the unlawful harvesting of the forest or if he just disliked me that much. Not that it mattered. If he was involved, he’d go down with the rest of them. I glanced at the trees around me; I’d found a new place to put my cameras.