The Color of Forever: Book Two: Forever Cowboys Series (4 page)

“Don’t get too close to the edge,” Ben cautioned. “The ground could crumble and down we’d go.”

Reassuring him that she wouldn’t. Sam stepped back and watched as Ben raised to his eyes the binoculars hanging from a cord around his neck. He edged closer and looked down.

“I see the nest,” he told her. “Two eggs, which is the norm. Eagles don’t lay an egg a day, so it can take them up to a week to complete the clutch. I’m surprised but glad that we caught the eagles off the nest so that the eggs could be counted.”

“What do you mean the eagles, as in plural?”

“The male and female take turns,” Ben explained, “although the female is believed to sit on the eggs about three-fourths of the time. But between the male and the female, the eggs are normally incubated close to 98% of the time. Which is why I’m gratified to catch the nest unoccupied by either parent.”

He stepped back and slipped the binoculars over his head and held them out to Samantha. “Wanna see?”

“Sure!” Sam stepped forward enough to see over the lip of the rocky outcropping where they stood, Ben holding her elbow. She held the binoculars up to her eyes and looked down. The nest looked so close! It was the biggest bird’s nest she had ever seen, made mostly from twigs and sticks.

“Gosh, it’s huge!” she exclaimed. “Do all the other eagles come to help build a nest? Sort of like an old fashioned barn raising?”

Ben laughed. “No. Eagles habitually return to the same nest every year,” he said. “They mate for life. The nest starts out fairly small in the first year and as the mating pair build on to it year after year, it gets bigger and bigger. The largest known eagle’s nest so far was one in Florida that measured almost ten feet across, twenty feet deep and weighed about three tons.”

Sam was impressed by this information. Not just by the facts and figures although they were definitely impressive as she would have a lot more respect for eagles now; but also by Ben’s ready command of said facts and figures. He really knew his stuff!

“How would someone get down there to steal the eggs?” Sam inquired, puzzled. “I mean, it’s almost straight down to that ledge where the nest is.”

“Mountain climbing gear,” Ben answered. “Remember, I mentioned that a hunter saw someone trying to rappel down to the nest. The hunter watched the person give up and leave. Probably didn’t bring the right equipment. But it’s a safe bet he or she might be back to try again. If they’re determined enough to rob this nest, they’ll probably succeed.”

Sam found this upsetting. While they were watching, one of the eagle parents flew back and settled onto the eggs in the nest. What a majestic sight! Having seen one in its natural habitat, Sam could better understand why an eagle was chosen to be the emblem of the United States and was outraged that some poacher would steal in and rob the nest of a species that was already in danger of becoming extinct.

“I hope you catch whoever it is!” she exclaimed hotly. “That’s a horrible thing to do!”

“I agree and I intend to try to catch the person if they come back and try again.”

“How?”

“I can lower a webcam and position it where the poacher can’t get to it or be able to shoot it easily. That might be enough of a deterrent. But,” he said, shrugging his broad shoulders, “the sad truth is that unless I get lucky and spot the poacher in the act or on the way to or from wherever they park their vehicle, there isn’t a hell of a lot I can do.”

Well, he wasn’t entirely perfect, Sam noted with a smidgen of satisfaction. He cursed. True, it wasn’t much in the way of faults, flaws or imperfections, but it was an indication that he wasn’t the perfect Boy Scout, either.

The air was frosty but she was bundled up well enough to keep warm and the breeze was brisk but not a bone chilling wind. Up here, so close to the sky and all alone, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for them to get to know each other a little better, Sam decided.

She edged close to Ben and smiled up at him. “Hey,” she said huskily.

“Samantha, I’m so sorry,” Ben exclaimed. “I should have realized you’re cold. Come on, we’ll hurry back down to the truck. I brought a thermos of coffee. That’ll warm you up in a hurry.”

He turned and started back down the winding path. Samantha stared at his retreating figure, then followed, accepting the defeat of her impromptu plan. Ben thought she was huddling close to him for body heat! Oh well, she told herself wryly, there would be plenty of other chances for exchanging a few kisses. She brightened, remembering that he was coming over tomorrow afternoon to give her a riding lesson.

She could try again then to turn the heat up on their friendship.

It wasn’t that she wanted to rush things, but since she didn’t know how long she’d be up here she didn’t want to waste a lot of time on the preliminary stuff.

Cut to the chase. That was her plan for Ben Connors.

Ben dropped Samantha off after their trip to check out the eagle’s nest and drove home to his own ranch.

He knew the road by heart, having been driving it since he was twelve. No, he hadn’t been legal to drive at that age but most people up here on these deserted roads with little or no traffic didn’t worry much about underage drivers. Or overage either, for that matter. So he could probably count on driving his own vehicle long into his golden years.

His thoughts were all on Samantha O’Brien.

She was beautiful! Ben had seen some good looking females but something about Samantha set her apart and made her stand out from all the rest. It wasn’t just her looks, he mused. Granted, she was drop dead gorgeous but it was something else, something besides physical features that made her special.

She was so
alive
. So vibrant. So brilliant … like a bright, shining presence that lit up everything around her. A lot of beautiful women were preoccupied with how they looked and who was going to look at them. But Samantha seemed unaware of how attractive she was or how her looks affected other people, especially men. She had what the French called
joie de vivre …
a bouyant, exultant enjoyment of life that made her exciting to be around.

She
was
exciting, for sure. Ben didn’t think he had ever met anyone quite as exciting as Samantha. From her wavy mane of raven black hair, so shiny it looked polished, all the way down that fantastic body, she was nothing short of glorious.

She wasn’t stick thin. Ben liked that. He knew the current fashion was for women to be almost anorexic looking, but he found a voluptuous woman to be far more attractive. Samantha had all the right curves in all the right places. She would be a handful for any man, he sensed that much. Fiery natured, she would be passionate and expressive, intense and emotional about the things that mattered to her.

By contrast, Ben knew that he appeared cool, calm and collected most of the time.

However, his outward demeanor was no indication of what went on beneath the surface. People occasionally mistook Ben’s reserve and composure for a lack of interest in what went on around him or absence of strong feeling.

In this they were wrong.

Ben was capable of very deep feeling and once his feelings were engaged, he was fiercely loyal, a steadfast friend and supporter. He had never been in love. He had had his share of crushes in school, naturally. In the years after getting out of high school he had dated various women and liked a few of them a lot. But his feelings never progressed to annoying he would consider love. Liking and loving were two entirely different things.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to fall in love.

He did. In fact, he had really tried to fall in love with a couple of girls. But it didn’t happen. In his heart of hearts, he would like nothing better than to find the right woman, settle down with her and have a family. Maybe it was old fashioned, but he was basically an old fashioned kind of guy.

His parents had been married for almost forty years and were still in love. Sure, they had spats and arguments from time to time. But they never stopped loving each other and neither could imagine life without the other. Ben had grown up in a happy home and wanted the same thing for himself. A loving wife, kids, the whole enchilada.

He frowned. Samantha seemed like a free spirit. She was the epitome of a modern woman in every way. What little he had talked to her, she seemed caught up in her career and seemed to relish not having any ties as far as a romantic relationship. She spoke of New York

City as being the greatest place in the world to live with its fast pace and never ending excitement.

Could a woman like that be happy with a man like him?

Ben had visited big cities. He understood their appeal to a certain extent, but city living held no allure for him. Take New York, for example. He had been there several times and held with the old saying that it was a nice place to visit but he wouldn’t want to live there.

He loved these mountains and to him this land provided an endless thrill. He had grown up here but that wasn’t all of why he loved it. Quite a few of the people he had gone to school with had been counting the days until they could get away from here and move somewhere else. Somewhere with more people, more cars, more action. Ben found all of the action and excitement he needed right here.

In fact, sometimes his life was a little too exciting with more action than he really wanted. Sometimes the action and excitement came from animals and other times humans were the ones who caused problems for him. Between the two of them, though, Ben thought he preferred whatever the local wildlife dished out a whole lot better than the human brand of trouble.

Animals were fairly predictable most of the time, whereas a drunk human with a gun was completely unpredictable as well as dangerous. Like almost all game wardens, Ben had had his share of run-ins with liquored up, belligerent hunters who were a disgrace to the true nature of hunting. At times, the troublemakers didn’t have to be under the influence to be bad news for both other humans and the animals they slaughtered just for sport.

Ben had an uncomfortable feeling that Samantha O’Brien had the potential of becoming the biggest human-type problem he had ever encountered.

Because after years of wanting to fall in love … of trying and failing to fall in love with perfectly suitable women who would mesh seamlessly into his life … he felt himself falling head over heels in love with one that was unsuitable for him in every way.

Samantha was the polar opposite of what he believed would be the type of female to enjoy sharing his life. She made it crystal clear that she wasn’t interested in commitment, at least any time soon. And although she didn’t say anything negative about the wide open spaces up here in the mountains, she seemed distinctly underwhelmed with them. Last but not least, she openly admitted that her idea of excitement was a sale at a favorite boutique, bright lights, nightclubs and big crowds.

In short, all the things that he didn’t like and a lifestyle that would make him thoroughly miserable.

He laughed bitterly. Just his luck to finally lose his heart to someone who was so wrong for him but felt so right.

Back home after her outing with Ben, Samantha made a cup of her favorite rooibos tea and sat in front of the fireplace savoring the herbal brew and watching the flickering flames. A fire was so cozy, she thought. It had a soporific, almost hypnotic effect. She could easily stretch out here on the couch and fall asleep.