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  Bucking Bearback

  Bear Ranchers Book V

  by

  Becca Fanning

  Jeanie Buchanan found herself surrounded by pine and spruce. She loved spending time out in nature and it seemed that Sun Valley was as close to authentic nature as you could get nowadays. Birds sang around her as the breeze whispered in the trees. She stood for a moment and closed her eyes. Life was oozing out of the ground all around her as her feet crunched the needles that carpeted the forest floor. Behind her the mountains rose into the sky. It was beginning to get chilly in these parts and she zipped her jacket closed.

  Strands of her long auburn hair waved in the breeze that carried a hint of ice. If she dragged this Environmental Impact Assessment out she might be able to get her company to sponsor her being here through the winter. She loved winter in the mountains. But it was quite clear that they really wanted a rush on things.

  Petersen-Snow was a huge client of the Wilkes Environment Assessment Agency who were her current employers. Her manager, George Chavez, had made it abundantly clear that any deviation or delay would see Jeanie out on her ass. She couldn’t help that she did her job properly. It wasn’t her fault that she felt a sense of obligation to actually visit the sites before they became office blocks, mine dumps or landfills, or whatever else their clients had in mind. With Jeanie there was no compromise and she didn’t care about politics. She was however becoming vaguely aware that perhaps she should start to care about those things, if she planned to stay employed.

  Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she had moved to New York right after graduating with the promise of work at Wilkes. She had been there for five years now and she thought she did a good job, but lately her manager had been irritated with her thoroughness.

  George would often berate her for her travel account, her reports that were always more than competent and complete, and her flagrant disregard for specific instructions to ignore certain things.

  “It’s not that you’re not good at your job, Jeanie. You’re too good,” he would complain. “You just don’t have to turn over each rock in the place to see if there’s some endangered species of butterfly or something.”

  “Well, George, turning over each rock is kind of what this is about. And you will never find a butterfly under one. Unless some total douche has put it there,” she would retort.

  And so it would go.

  This time she was told to go out to Sun Valley, look around and then approve the deal.

  Jeanie Buchannan had other ideas.

  She took out her camera. Yes, she could use her phone, but she loved her Canon with its awesome zoom lens and it went everywhere with her anyway. Sighting through the eyepiece Jeanie captured the light as it slanted through the leaves turning the world around her a lovely shade of green. It was so peaceful here. She could forget just about everything. And even better, there was no mobile phone service here. No signal. It was like stepping back into the eighties but without the bad hair.

  The Canon clicked with great self-satisfaction as she took pic after pic. There were colorful birds and small animals in the brush that she caught glimpses of through the lens. Then suddenly she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

  It was big and black. Jeanie started in surprise.

  She turned but there was nothing there just tree trunks. Jeanie smiled to herself. Alone in a spooky forest and her mind was already playing tricks on her.

  “No more horrors for you,” she told herself aloud.

  She sighted through the lens. There it was again the movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw nothing but trees.

  Then she heard something in front of her and she turned her head.

  This time she saw it properly. A big black bear was standing not ten yards from her. He was huge and shaggy with a thick, luxuriant coat. He raised his muzzle in the air and sniffed. She was down wind. Well that would make things interesting. If the bear decided she was food, well then that was it. That would certainly spell the end of her. There was no way that Jeanie was going to make it to her car that she’d left up on the side of the road. Not unless she suddenly morphed into Hussein Bolt, which was unlikely.

  The bear turned his shaggy head and bellowed. It was a raw, guttural sound that just emanated power. Jeanie let out an involuntary whimper as she stood transfixed. The roar was answered a moment later from behind her. Jeanie turned very slowly as though she was standing in treacle. Out from behind the trunks of the trees a big black shape lumbered. It wasn’t alone. It had two little black shapes in tow and they were heading right for Jeanie.

  She knew they could see her and smell her but the bears didn’t seem to care that she was standing there. Carefully Jeanie lifted the camera to her eye and focused the lens. She just about sighed with the sight. What a pic! This close to a mother bear and her babies. She had seen amazing photos taken by people who were in the right place at the right time, and had always lamented the fact that it was never her. Jeanie just had no luck with capturing the prize winning photo, or being in the right place at exactly the right time. But maybe today, maybe right now she was in the right place. Finally!

  The mother bear and her cubs were walking towards her. She was an amateur and getting this shot would certainly put her Instagram account right up there with Clark Little’s. Jeanie wished the damn Canon would click quieter. She didn’t want to disturb the bears. The mother bear was grunting to one of her cubs who was loping close to her. The other smaller one was gamboling around the tree trunks.

  Eventually the mother bear stopped walking and growled at the little bear who quickly rushed over to his mother. Jeanie caught the whole thing clicking away, a series of images that she was sure were spectacular and unique. It was amazing.

  They were getting closer and closer.

  Every instinct in Jeanie was telling her to run away now. Climb, run, panic! Where? Where could she run to that wouldn’t make the bears chase her? No, she had to keep her head. Just breathe. Jeanie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Running wouldn’t save her. If she was about to die by bear then there was nothing she could do about it. Of course there hadn’t been any overtly aggressive behavior from the bears. If anything they didn’t seem to care that she was in the woods at all. Even the large one that was now behind her off in the trees, seemed undisturbed by her presence. Perhaps the people here were no threat to the creatures and so the bears didn’t worry about them.

  Jeanie stood mouth open, clicking away on her camera as the bears walked right passed her. They were so close if she’d reached out a hand she would have run her fingers through the mother bear’s fur. It was amazing.

  The mother and her cubs met up with the other big bear. There were grunts and nuzzlings as though in greeting. This was unusual to say the least. Bears were only social when they were young or mating. They didn’t stay in family groups and male bears could be especially bad tempered and violent. But this one nuzzled the cubs and then as one creature they all turned to look at Jeanie as though p
osing for a family portrait, the parents behind the babies.

  Jeanie took the shot and stood flabbergast as the bears then turned and carried on walking through the woods.

  Jeanie’s legs were rubbery on the walk back to her car which made it rather difficult. She knew it was just the adrenaline draining out of her, but that didn’t make it any easier. She kept stumbling and bumping into the trees, taking more care of her camera than herself. At one point she slipped and landed heavily on her backside.

  “Well done Buchanan,” she moaned and hauled herself up.

  She began to slip and slide down a steep embankment. The ground suddenly gave way and Jeanie was sliding, arms pin-wheeling to keep her balance. The pine needles underfoot were smooth and slippery as ice. Her hiking boots, though good, had no hope of gaining traction as in a cloud of dust, Jeanie slid down into a ditch. She over balanced and landed heavily on her right arm bending it at a strange angle at the wrist.

  She heard the pop and cried out.

  As the dust settled around her, Jeanie felt her wrist explode into a world of agony. She had never felt this awake and horribly in her body before. There was nothing but her wrist at its strange angle and her pain. She wanted to cradle her arm but didn’t dare touch it. It was while she was sobbing and rocking herself to and fro that she heard a voice.

  “Hi,” it called, “Are you okay?”

  Jeanie looked up and out of the ditch she was sitting in.

  A man was standing on the edge looking down at her. He was tall and broad shouldered with thick black hair lying in a wavy mass on his head. His eyes were an unusual hazel color that made them seem to be golden. For a moment Jeanie forgot her pain and wanted to reach for her camera. She moved her arm and cried out again.

  “Looks like you’ve done yourself an injury,” the man said. He slid down into the ditch and came to rest on his haunches next to Jeanie. “What’s your name?”

  Jeanie looked at him and swallowed. “Um, it’s Jeanie,” she said. “Jeanie Buchanan.”

  “Hi Jeanie, my name’s Ryan Hunt,” he spoke gently, quietly to her in a calm and reassuring voice. Jeanie knew he was doing this to stop her from freaking out and she was amazed to realize that it was working despite her knowing what he was doing.

  Ryan spent a moment examining her wrist. “Well, it’s not broken. That’s the good news.”

  “It’s not? Sure feels broken,” Jeanie said feeling shock take over. She was hot and cold at the same time.

  “It might be fractured, but you’ll need x-rays to be sure.”

  “Is there bad news?”

  “’Fraid so. The bad news is it looks badly dislocated,” Ryan continued. “Now ordinarily I would put it back myself, but this looks a little out of my league. I think you need a professional. Just in case. So let’s get you up. My car is just over there through the trees. I’ll drive you to the doc.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to, really. I’m fine, I can drive myself,” Jeanie said. She didn’t want this hunk of a man to think she was the typical damsel in distress. She was a scientist. She didn’t get distressed.

  “You left handed?” Ryan asked.

  “No.”

  “Then you’d better let me take you.”

  Ryan pulled her to her feet and then lifted her in his arms. Jeanie was amazed. He picked her up like she was a feather. Then he walked up and out of the ditch without slipping once. She wondered where he bought his boots. Clearly they had better grip than hers did.

  It took Ryan a couple of minutes to walk back to his truck carrying Jeanie. He deposited her and her camera on the passenger seat and then slotted the seatbelt into place around her.

  “There we go,” he said and smiled at her. “Wouldn’t want you hurting any other parts on the way now would we?”

  His smile was naughty but nice. Jeanie hated thinking in clichés but it really was. It seemed to hint that this man had a fun streak that wasn’t on the surface. This one hid it deep, and she would bet good money that the only telltale sign was that smile.

  The drive to the main road took some time with Ryan going slowly and carefully over the uneven road surface.

  “So what brings you all the way out to Sun Valley?” he asked conversationally.

  “Work actually,” Jeanie confessed through gritted teeth.

  “You one of those National Geographic photographers or something?” Ryan asked indicating the camera that lay on the seat between them.

  Jeanie chuckled and shook her head. Her hair had come undone and was hanging about her in gentle auburn curls. She wished she could tie it up. It was such a bush when left down. But there was no helping it now.

  “Actually I’m only an amateur with the camera,” she confessed.

  “Oh, so what does Jeanie Buchanan do to pay the bills?”

  Jeanie sighed. “I do EIA’s; environmental impact assessments.”

  The change that came over Ryan was sudden and quite astounding. He hit the brakes and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

  “Do you work for Petersen-Snow?”

  “No! Well not directly. How do you know about them?”

  Ryan was angry. His face was flushed and he was gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles. “Let’s just say we’ve had run ins.”

  “You have? Here? Wow! I thought this was the first time they were looking at property in this area.”

  “It is. Let’s just say that they aren’t my favorite people. Actually no one here likes them much,” Ryan said still sounding upset.

  Jeanie looked over at him. This wasn’t the most violent outburst she had ever endured. Once she had been doused in red paint by a person who thought that Jeanie would ever sign off on a project that involved destroying a wetland where a whole host of protected species nested. People jumped to conclusions all the time about her and her work. She knew how to deal with this.

  “Look Ryan,” she said trying to keep her voice calm through the pain in her wrist. It had throbbed with each jolt of the truck and had now settled into a constant thrum of pain that caused Jeanie to speak through gritted teeth. “You probably don’t understand the full extent of environmental impact assessments are for. It’s quite common to…”

  “Yeah, I know how this works.” He said interrupting her. “You come in and take a look around and then sign everything my people have worked for for generations over to some stuffed shirt in New York!”

  “That is not what I do!” she yelled, indignant. “Why do people always think that? Shit!” she turned to face him. “Some people in my profession might be a little hasty in their approving projects. That’s not me. I have to make sure that everything is above board. It’s a complex survey of the area taking the animal and human life into consideration. So don’t just assume that I’m in P & S’s pocket. Okay? Because I’m not! I take my job very seriously and I never just sign off. I’m extremely thorough.”

  Ryan’s golden eyes met hers and held her gaze. She hoped he could see her sincerity. Jeanie wasn’t in this game for the money, which could be huge if you took bribes which she didn’t. She was in this to do good, to make sure that people couldn’t run wild destroying environments that were unique and could never be reclaimed. It was her passion, her calling in life. It was amazing how often people got it wrong.

  After a while Ryan swallowed and looked out at the road ahead but stayed silent. Jeanie was panting a little as she calmed down after her outburst. She glared out the window feeling her pulse return to normal. The dirt track ran under a canopy of leaves, all turning golden and red as fall swept the land outside the car. Overhead clouds were massing, thick and grey. Ryan seemed to sniff the air. Then he sighed and put the truck back into gear and pulled out onto the road.

  They drove in silence then suddenly Ryan burst out saying, “You know Petersen-Snow, they plan to kick us all out of Sun Valley. Just think about that while you’re doing your job so thoroughly.”