Page 12 of Snowed In With the Maverick
“A family business,” said Andrea. “Nice.”
“Well,” said Seth. She detected a hint of hesitation in his voice. “It’s kind of the thing I do to get away from the actual family business.”
“Okay,” said Andrea. The way he said it made it seem like he was from a house of mobsters or something. “And what’s that?”
“My family owns a ranch as well as a company called Taylor Beef. Not sure if you’ve ever heard of it.”
Andrea resisted the instinct to gape, keeping her expression carefully composed. Taylor Beef? The name was stamped on every cellophane-wrapped striploin and box of burgers at every grocery store in the country. As a member of the Taylor family, Seth wasn’t just wealthy. He was mega rich. “I’ve heard of it,” she said, as casually as possible. “So you’ve defected?”
Seth grinned. “Nah. I still work at the ranch. The Triple T, in Bronco. But I do this as well.”
Andrea let that sink in. “So it’s a family business—how many of you are there?”
“We’re a pretty big brood,” Seth said with a grin. “My dad and his three brothers, plus their collection of wives over the years. I’ve lost track of how many cousins I have. And then there’s my five siblings.”
Five siblings? As an only child of parents who’d died long ago, Andrea found the concept of such a big family almost incomprehensible, like trying to decipher a foreign language without so much as a dictionary. But before she could ask more, Seth slowed the car and pulled onto a gravel shoulder beside a blue pickup truck.
As they slowed to a stop, a man emerged from the truck and waved at them. “That’s Luca Sanchez,” said Seth. “He’s the one who found the bones.”
With his Stetson perched at a confident angle, worn boots and well-fitted blue jeans, Luca was every inch the quintessential rancher. His dark hair curled slightly at the edges, complementing his equally dark eyes, which held a sharp, assessing glint. A hint of stubble along his strong jawline added a rugged charm as natural as the wide Montana skies. “Luca Sanchez. Nice to meet you,” Luca said, extending his hand to her as she exited the car, then nodding at Seth. Andrea shook his hand, then he motioned toward the field. “I’ll show you where it all went down.”
They passed through the unlocked gate into a wide, grassy space. “And there was a—what kind of contest going on here?” Andrea asked. “Pumpkin chuckin?”
“Chunkin. With an ‘n.’ You’ve never seen a pumpkin chunkin contest?” said Luca, grinning. Andrea could see the resemblance between him and his sister. “It’s equal parts high-energy spectacle and engineering marvel. You’re in for a treat next fall.”
“Sounds like it,” she said. Between whatever a “chunkin” contest was, never mind a “hoedown,” Andrea was increasingly confident that by this time next year, she’d be well-versed in the art of small-town living.
“It was right here, beside this rock,” said Luca, indicating a patch of cleared-out earth.
Andrea crouched down and inspected the ground. The reddish-brown dirt was dusty and powdery, with small stones and pebbles scattered throughout. She picked up a handful and let it sieve through her fingers. “How’d you figure out they were dinosaur bones and not something else?” she said, looking up at Luca. “And where are they now?”
“Luca’s got them back at his ranch,” Seth said.
“I was telling Seth I wasn’t sure at first, but they were unlike anything I’d ever found in these fields. The shape was too strange to be a rock. Once I picked it up and really looked at it, held it in my hands, I was pretty sure I knew what I was hanging on to, and when I did a Google search, I was certain. I’ll keep them as long as you need,” said Luca, as his phone chirped from his pocket. He slid it out and glanced at the screen. “Listen, I’d better run. But I’ll be interested in hearing how this all pans out.” He tipped his hat to Andrea. “Nice to meet you. See you around.”
“Thanks again, Luca,” Seth said.
As Luca strode off, his boots crunching over the dry grass, silence settled over the field. Andrea turned to Seth, suddenly aware of how the quiet amplified the tension between them, the wide-open space feeling a little smaller now that it was just the two of them.
“What do you think?” said Seth. “What are the chances those mean there could be more?” Andrea noted the anticipation in his voice. For all his ruggedness and even-keeled nature, Seth seemed like a kid on Christmas morning, with all the hope in the world that Santa had brought him item number one on his list.
“Well, I wouldn’t count it out,” said Andrea. “You’d want to start with some prospecting. That would involve a really careful and purposeful survey of the area to see if you can find any other bones. If they’re like the ones Luca has, you have a clue where to start digging. You might also find other fossils already uncovered and visible at the surface.”
“And what do we do then?”
“If it’s set in the ground? Next step’s quarrying. Chipping away at the area around the fossil with chisels and rock hammers. Then you dig a trench around it. There’s a process of casting plaster and then the whole thing needs to be lifted out and sent to a museum to be properly excavated.”
“What about ground-penetrating radar?” Seth said. “Is that something we can arrange?”
Andrea grinned. “Someone’s been watchingJurassic Park.”
“Guilty,” Seth admitted, his smile broad and undeniably charming. “I think I can recite every line of dialogue.”
“I mean, yeah, it can be helpful, but it’s not like you can just wheel a machine around and aim it at the ground and boom, locate bones. It doesn’t really work like that.”
“Okay, so what would you recommend?”
Andrea surveyed the area, considering. “Plan for the prospecting, and at the same time, start to quarry this spot. Dig down and you might find the rest of that dinosaur.”
