Lynn Davidson frowned at her email.
Email in general was not her favorite thing—she preferred to be outside, away from computers and phones, surrounded by nature.
But this particular email was getting the stinkeye for a reason.
The subject was A Request, and it was from Cal Westland, head ranger at Glacier National Park. Apparently one of his old Marine buddies worked for an environmental research company, and the buddy was being posted to Glacier to take soil samples or whatever.
Normally, the guy would have a ranger assigned to him to show him around and help him find what he needed. However, it was the height of tourist season, there’d been a dangerous fire up in the mountains last week, and although they’d caught it early enough that it hadn’t done much damage, all of the rangers were on high alert.
And since Cal couldn’t spare anyone, and Lynn ran the most popular guide service in the area, he was asking her to do it.
The problem was, it was the height of tourist season. Lynn was already overworked, and her new trainee, Nina, wasn’t experienced enough to take on as many clients as Lynn did. They were booked solid.
Maybe she could foist the environmental scientist off on Nina?
But no, she knew she wouldn’t. Anytime a big company took interest in Glacier or the land around it, Lynn wanted to be in the loop. “Environmental research” covered a lot of ground, and if anything shady was going on, she needed to know.
Honestly, that was probably one of the reasons Cal was asking her to take the guy under her wing. He and Lynn were in perfect agreement on this subject. If he couldn’t supervise an industry-funded research project personally, he knew Lynn would report back to him.
Although this guy was his friend from back in his Marine days.
Lynn tried to picture that. A Marine veteran. Probably a gruff, buzz-cut drill sergeant type, used to getting his own way and bulldozing over anyone who disagreed.
Odds were he wouldn’t want to take any orders from a woman, either. Lynn had met more than a few outdoorsmen who thought that anytime she warned them about real danger, she was just being a namby-pamby girl who was scared of a little adventure. They drove her crazy—and usually ended up in trouble that she had to rescue them from.
And the older ones were sometimes worse. If this guy was Cal’s old buddy, he was probably around Lynn’s own age, late forties or so. He’d be firmly set in his ways.
The office door opened then, and Nina came sailing in, stars in her eyes. “Hi!”
Lynn couldn’t help but smile, despite her annoyance. Watching Nina stretch her professional muscles as she worked a challenging and fulfilling job had been lifting Lynn’s heart for a month now. “So the Yang family enjoyed their hike?”
Nina nodded vigorously. “Oh, yes. They were wonderful—asking questions about everything, so impressed, so happy to be there. And they let me know when they were getting tired instead of thinking they had to push on. I had them take breaks at the best vistas, and they loved it.” She smiled broadly. “They thanked me afterwards, and I got this great tip!” She held up a handful of cash. “Should I put it in the books?”
Lynn shook her head firmly. “Are you kidding? That’s yours. You earned it, kid. Buy your man something pretty to wear or something.”
Nina burst out laughing. “Maybe I will.”
Lynn chuckled too, knowing that Nina’s mate, Joel, was a Glacier Park ranger and probably wasn’t too interested in wearing anything pretty. Although who knew—maybe he was a real clotheshorse—clothes-leopard?—when he wasn’t in the uniform. No judging people, sometimes.
“How has your day been?” Nina was asking. It was past quitting time; the sky outside was full dark, and Lynn had just stepped into the office to do the day’s bookkeeping and check the email.
Which reminded her. “Full day of clients, a couple of real experienced hikers in the mix. But now I’ve got Cal asking me to babysit an environmental scientist later this week.”
Nina frowned. “Do environmental scientists need babysitting?”
“Ha,” Lynn said sourly. “They don’t think they do, but they do. They’ve got a degree or two, and suddenly they’re sure they know more about the land than someone who’s lived here her entire life.”
Nina smiled a little. “Not that you’re bitter.”
“Not in the slightest,” Lynn said, mock-serious. “This guy’s a friend of Cal’s, so maybe he won’t be…too awful.”
“Wow, I definitely believe you now,” Nina said, wide-eyed. “Super convincing.”
“Thank you.” Lynn finally let herself crack a smile. “Anyway, he’s going to be taking an early slot, because we’re booked from six AM to full dark all week. If he wants any help during the day, I might have to foist a client or two off on you. Think you can take it?”
Nina’s posture straightened. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good on you. Now go home.”
She smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
Nina took herself off, presumably heading home to Joel. Lynn smiled a little at the thought of them—young mates, both snow leopard shifters, in the earliest stages of a life together.
Lynn had never married, or even lived together with a boyfriend. In her younger years, she’d confined herself to casual relationships, often with men who were only around Glacier for the summer. She’d never had the time or the willingness to commit too much of herself to a man.
Especially once she’d seen, over and over again, how it could go wrong.
Now that she was older, it was easier to just be single. No one tried to set her up or asked her when she was planning on settling down. The town had accepted that Lynn Davidson was a confirmed—whatever the female equivalent of bachelor was. And that was how she liked it.
Lynn needed space to herself and control over her own life, and she’d never thought that the sacrifices a relationship required were worth it. So she smiled indulgently at Nina’s young love, shook her head at Cal getting married at his age—now with a brand-new baby, no less—and went about her business.
Her extremely busy business, these days. Shaking away her thoughts, Lynn opened up a reply window and started typing out a message to Cal.
Those environmentalists had better pay well.
***
Ken Turner, formerly a Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corps, these days a mild-mannered environmental scientist, pulled his truck into the rangers’ office complex at Glacier National Park.
It was strange to be coming back here so soon. Just a few months ago, he’d visited Glacier Park when his old Gunnery Sergeant Cal Westland had married his mate, Lillian. The wedding had been the first time Ken had seen Cal in ten years…and now here he was, right back on his doorstep again.
But it was more than a coincidence. He’d asked Cal specifically if he could pull some strings to allow Ken’s bosses at GeoSync to do some work up at Glacier. Until now, they’d been having a difficult time getting through the endless miles of red tape needed to research in a national park.
Cal had
come through, though, and now Ken was in great with the bosses, and had been hand-picked to come do the fieldwork himself. As he got out of the truck, he resisted the urge to start up a cheerful whistle.
The rangers’ building was unlocked, and Cal’s office was easy to find. Ken tapped on the door, and grinned as Cal’s voice intoned, “Come.”
Some things hadn’t changed since Cal’s days as a gunnery sergeant, that was for sure. Ken had to resist the urge to stand at attention when he entered the office.