animals weren’t exactly domesticated. They were as dangerous as those in the wild. Often more so because they weren’t afraid of humans.
The waiter arrived with salads and Reidar’s soup and set them in front of each person at the table.
A small silver dish followed hers, filled to the brim with ranch dressing. Her stomach growled. She picked up her fork then looked at each of the brothers.
“Go ahead,” Reidar said.
They waited until she’d taken her first bite to lift their forks. Wow, how gentlemanly of them.
She’d definitely never had a date do that before. It made her smile, but she set into her salad with gusto.
When she’d finished, she looked up again to see Kelan and Reidar grinning at her.
“Sorry. Guess I am a little hungry.”
Reidar winked. “Yeah, we figured as much. Good?”
She nodded and wiped her mouth with her linen napkin. “Very. Homemade dressing too. I guess you bring a lot of dates here?”
“Fishing now?” Kelan asked, raising one eyebrow at her.
She shrugged and grinned. But she did wonder if she was special, or if this was a weekly thing with them. How many tourists did they wine, dine, then bed? On second thought, she didn’t want to know. It made her chest ache to think along those lines. That she was one of many, even if she wasn’t naive enough to assume otherwise. They were grown men, single and handsome. She’d be a fool to think they’d been celibate before meeting her. Even she wasn’t a virgin.
“After work, we mostly eat and drink at the Tap ’n Tine,” Reidar said. He set his spoon into his empty soup bowl. “But this is a nice change, now and then.”
“Actually,” Kelan offered, “we normally eat at home. Heidi likes to cook.”
“You live with Heidi?”
“And our…parents,” Reidar said.
“Why?” They were late twenties, early thirties, but neither one looked the type to be sci-fi gamers who dwelled in Mommy’s basement and debated conspiracy theories online.
“Our parents own a big log home and a lot of land on Mountain Home Road, and they aren’t as young as they used to be. They can use the extra help in taking care of it, so we stay there when we’re not out on a hike or working at the store.”
She took a sip of her ice water. “And what about your other brothers?”
“Axel and Gunnar just built a house not far from our parents. Torsten and Sindre live in an apartment above the shop.”
She chuckled. “Heidi must feel like the odd duck.”
“Why? Because she’s the only girl?”
“Yeah, a little, but mostly ’cause I heard you guys all travel in pairs.”
The men didn’t laugh.
“You heard?” Reidar asked.
“Yeah. The Falke family is a popular topic over at the local diner.”
Reidar groaned, muttering, “The gossip mill never stops,” which made her grin.
Kelan asked, “Does that bother you?”
“The gossip?”
“The pairs…”
After last night? She shook her head. “Not at all. Just seems a little…odd, I guess, that you all…”
She laughed and waved her hand. “Well, not that I know all of you do what we…umm.” Biting her tongue, she gave them a sheepish grin. “That’s probably none of my business, is it?”
“You remember the other woman at the shop when you shot me? The pretty one with jet black hair?” Kelan asked, staring into her eyes.
Beth nodded.
“She lives with Axel and Gunnar.”
“Ohhh. Well.” She fiddled with her napkin.
“So, what about your family? Any ‘odd ducks’ in it?” Reidar asked with a teasing smile.
“Man, my mom…” She shook her head and laughed. “Then again, she’s on her fifth marriage, and if you count all the men in between, sticking with just two would be a step up for her.”
Reidar asked, “Lots of stepfathers in your life?”
“Yeah. My parents divorced when I was around four. Mom cheated. Wound up marrying the guy she cheated with. That lasted about a year. Then there were a half dozen boyfriends/uncle figures hanging around before she started marrying them. She was on the third husband when I moved into the dorms for college. I never even met number four. Married in Vegas and divorced there a few months later. The guy she’s with now actually seems the most stable, and has lasted the longest.”
“And your father?”
She made a face. “Used to spend summers and holidays with him, but he left Seattle with a new wife when I was fourteen. I’ve only seen him a handful of times since then, although he never misses a birthday or Christmas.” She poked her fork at what was left of her salad. “He’s got another family.
Lives in Florida. He was a fisherman here, and he’s one there.”
“So you do have siblings?” Kelan asked.
Beth nodded. “Three half-sisters from my dad, and seven step-siblings from my mom’s various marriages. Never close to any of them.”
“Sounds like you’ve been on your own a very long time,” Reidar said.
“Yeah, well…” She shrugged. “It’s better than being in the middle of all the drama.”
Kelan leaned his elbow on the table and propped his chin on his hand only to straighten up when his cell phone buzzed. He checked the number and pocketed the phone without answering it. “It’s Heidi. I’ll call her back later.” To Beth he said, “Family drama can be interesting at times. Really damn annoying at others.”
She laughed. “I guess you’re stuck in the middle all of the time, huh?”
“Middle children too, kind of. Not the oldest, not the youngest.”
Kelan’s eyes…She could stare into them forever.
“What made you pick your line of work?” he asked.
“A trip to the zoo with my dad when I was ten.” She grinned and lifted her mixed drink. “I fell madly in love with the tigers. So big and beautiful.” She took a sip. “But, as you know, there aren’t a lot of tigers around here, and I can’t imagine living anywhere but Washington, so I had to find something closer to home.”
“What’s your goal? Why do you do what you do?”
“That’s simple. To learn everything I possibly can about the elusive predators and to make sure their numbers don’t dwindle while I’m still on this earth.”
Reidar raised his eyebrows. “All by yourself?”
She laughed. “Of course not. But I want to be part of the solution. Starting with genetic samples to make sure they’re not inbreeding, which leads to birth defects, high mortality rates and eventually the end of a species.” She leaned forward, warming to her subject. “There are only estimates on the numbers because they’re so hard to find, but there are between two thousand and twenty-five hundred in Washington State, and though the population seems stable in western Washington, the numbers are declining in the eastern parts. I want to know why.”
“But every week on the news there’s a sighting near a town, or a cougar eats someone’s beloved toy poodle, so there can’t be too few.” Kelan sat back and crossed his arms again.
“Yeah, the towns keep expanding. People build in the country, in the forests, in cougar territory.
What do you expect?”
“You want everyone in high rises in downtown Seattle?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No. I’m not a tree hugger, but I do love the country. Spent my childhood on a huge farm surrounded by forest on Whidbey Island. Human population grows; it’s a fact. But we also need to make sure that the creatures in our world don’t suffer unduly because we want to share their space. By studying and helping the cougars, we can learn things that will help other breeds of big cats that are in greater danger all
