Bittersweet Return (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 6)

by Patricia Watters

  "Okay guys, this is how we'll do things," Kit started in. "Marc and I have sectioned off a one-hundred-foot square study area that's divided into fifty-foot quadrants—quadrants one, two, three and four. Since there are four of you, it will work out perfectly. The idea is to locate the area with the greatest volume of debitage, which is basically a garbage dump of artifacts and pottery shards and the remains of their manufacture, and that's where we'll excavate."

  After giving them a quick tutorial about what debitage included, Kit took Ryan by the arm and pulled him into the northwest quadrant, and said, "This is quadrant one. Marc got it started, and he already found a grinding stone so it looks very promising. You can continue digging holes two feet deep and at ten-foot intervals, which is where the flags are located." She pulled Josh into the next section and said, "This is quadrant two and you'll do the same as Ryan." Motioning to Jeremy, she said, while pointing, "You'll be over there in quadrant three, and Tyler, you'll be here in quadrant four. If any of you encounter what's called hole refusal, which is when you hit something you can't get past, call me over and I'll take a look and see what's stopping it. If it's a root you'll move over one posthole digger width and dig there. If it's something else we'll dig it up. Either way I'll want to note on a Posthole Test Record form what caused the hole refusal, as well as any soil anomalies or indications of archaeological features."

  Kit looked at the deadpan faces, which were a far change from the enthusiasm earlier, and had to suppress a smile. But Jack Hansen wanted to expand the horizons of this bunch of rodeo cowboys and she needed diggers, so it seemed she and Jack were a team of sorts.

  "Once we've defined the area with the most debitage," she continued, "we'll start the two exploratory excavations, which will be five-feet-square each. We'll excavate in arbitrary six inch levels, and at each level make notes about the color and condition of the soil before it's passed through a mesh screen and dumped into those five-gallon buckets over there."

  All heads turned to the long line-up of white plastic buckets, and Kit knew there wasn't a guy among them who wasn't wishing he could be mucking out stalls instead.

  "Cheer up, guys," she said. "We could be on the cusp of discovering the fossil remains of a giant grasshopper or another Jaekelopterus rhenaniae."

  "I thought this was a garbage dump," Ryan said, but with far less bluster than before, like maybe being hooked up with an archaeologist wouldn't be all that great.

  "It is a dump," Kit said, "but all kinds of discoveries are made when you're digging for something entirely different from what you start out to find." She saw Ryan look towards the stables, like he was thinking about leaving, so she walked over to where he stood with his wrist resting over the wooden bar of the posthole digger, placed her hand on his bicep and squeezed, and said, "You're well-muscled. You should be able to churn these holes out in record time." She removed the little flag marking the spot to dig, and stepped back.

  Ryan glanced around at his brothers, like he'd scored a hit, then grabbing the wooden cross bar with both hands, jammed the posthole digger into the ground and started turning it.

  Following his lead, the others started in.

  By late afternoon, with all four guys covered in sweat and dust, and the area dotted with small mounds of dirt and debitage, Kit and Marc determined that the two five-foot-square exploratory excavations would be positioned about a hundred feet apart, and placed in quadrant one, where the grinding stone was uncovered, and quadrant four, which was diagonally opposite quadrant one. It was decided that Ryan and Jeremy would work with her in quadrant one, and Josh and Tyler would work with Marc in quadrant four.

  As Kit was standing outside the quadrants, while describing the initial procedure, which would be to carefully remove the plowzone, she saw Ryan look in the distance again, like this time he really would bolt, and the others appeared as if positioned to follow their brother if he took off. Walking over to Ryan, Kit placed her hands on her hips, scanned the length of him, and said, "You must look pretty impressive on a bull. Do you get this covered in dust when you're conquering the beast?"

  Ryan smiled in a way that told her he knew what she was pulling but still liked the praise, and said, "The battle with a bull is over in eight seconds."

  Kit smiled back, and replied, "But when the ride's over you've got to be real sore in a couple of places."

  Ryan eyed her dubiously, as if he wasn't sure she'd implied what he thought she had, and said, "Yeah, my butt can be a little sore afterwards."

  "Then you have two butts?" Kit asked.

  Josh let out a hearty laugh. "She got you on that one, Ryan. But she's right. Your other butt's stuck to the top of your neck."

  Ryan eyed his brother with irritation. "Yeah well maybe I'm sore some after a ride, but you don't have to worry about that because you haven't got anything there to get sore."

  Josh let out another sharp laugh, and said, "I've got more than you. I just don't go flashing them around."

  "Okay guys," Kit said. "I'm sure you both have enough down there to get real sore, but digging won't do them any damage. So, moving on..."

  Kit couldn't help glancing at Marc, who gave her a thumbs up and smiled, and all she could think at the moment was placing a kiss on that sexy smile and having Marc pull her against him like he had up at the cabin, and just letting things go from there. She imagined the kiss taking place in her tent where no one would see them, and Marc would pull her down onto the mattress and stretch out with her and hold her against him.

  Glancing beyond him she saw Jack walking toward them in long strides, and she wondered, as he closed the gap between them, if he'd changed his mind about the dig. There was definitely something imminent on his mind.

  "Sorry to break this up," Jack said, as he approached, "but Adam needs someone to lead the trail ride. He scheduled a sundown ride up on the ridge and he can't make it." He looked over his sons. "Any volunteers?" Within seconds, all four abandoned their quadrants and got into a four-way argument as to who was best qualified to lead a string of greenhorn guests on a trail ride.

  Kit approached the group, and said to Jack, "The worst of the digging's over. Marc and I will be fine on our own." But still wanting to hold onto a couple of diggers, she glanced around, and said, "It's just too bad you're all leaving when we're getting into the good stuff. This mound could be way more than just a pile of broken flint tools and animal bones. Recently, in North Dakota, a group was digging in a mound like this and one of them dug up the fossilized remains of a 67-million-year-old dinosaur that had been mummified through a natural process. They could see skin and muscle and tendons and even internal organs. Right now he's at Boeing being analyzed in the world's largest CT scanner. The best part is, when there's a find, whoever makes the discovery gets to name it, so the paleontologist named the dinosaur Dakota, and both their names are written up in the records."

  "Maybe I'll stay," Jeremy said, stepping away from the group.

  Ryan hoisted the posthole digger onto his shoulder. "How recently was the find? A century ago?" he asked, with irony.

  "No, actually it was in 1999," Kit replied. "So you can look at it this way. You could either spend the afternoon riding a horse, which you can do anytime, or stay around here and maybe be the next one to discover the mummified remains of a muscular, meat-eating, macho dinosaur known throughout history as Ryan."

  Ryan smiled. "You're pretty good at this, aren't you?"

  "Does that mean you're passing over leading a string of greenhorns to dig?"

  "It could," Ryan said. "Will there be any other benefits for me besides a dinosaur christening?"

  "Ryan!" Jack said. "I think you can take over for Adam."

  "I was only joking with Kit," Ryan said, in a contrite voice.

  "Yeah, well, I don't like to hear that kind of talk."

  Ryan eyed his father intently, and for a moment Kit was certain he was on the verge of informing him that the woman he was defending had just been talking about men's
balls. Then Ryan straightened his back, and said, "Sorry."

  Jack looked over his offspring. "So, who's coming with me?"

  When no one spoke, Josh said, "I guess I will."

  "I could still use another hand in the stables," Jack said. He looked at Ryan, who remained standing with the posthole digger propped on his shoulder.

  "I'll come," Tyler said, and followed his father and Josh back to the stables.

  Kit glanced at Marc again, who looked disgusted. She'd remind him later that they got more work out of Ryan than the other three combined, and that she wasn't in danger of succumbing to his full-of-himself cowboy charm, which she wasn't. But she did find him kind of amusing—a juvenile wolf who was determined to hold his position at the top of the pack.

  While Marc was on the mound staking out the two, five-foot square units where they'd be excavating, Kit stood by Marc's truck, showing Ryan and Tyler the tools they'd be using. Picking up a couple of trowels, she said, "These are Marshalltown trowels. This one with the square end is called a plains trowel. It's used to work in tight corners and keep straight lines." Holding up the other, she said, "and this one with the point can get everywhere the plains trowel can't."

  Ryan eyed the small hand tools, and said, "I sincerely hope we won't have to dig up an entire dinosaur with those. Don't we get to use shovels?"

  "We will at first to cut the layers, but then we scale down to trowels and toothbrushes and dental tools. You'll love it. There can be lots of tartar buildup on a dinosaur's tooth."

  Ryan folded his arms, and said, "Sounds fascinating."

  "It is. Just don't go at it too energetically," Kit said. "We start by stripping off the plowzone, which is the top several inches of soil about the depth of a plow, and when we're done with that, we'll dig in arbitrary levels, two-to-three inches thick. When we find patterns of intact structures, such as pit house holes we'll adapt to match what we find."

  Ryan looked at her skeptically, then picked up his shovel and started in...

  For the next couple of hours, Kit worked alongside Ryan, carefully stripping off the top layer of soil in their five foot square area and documenting the characteristics of the soil, while Marc and Jeremy, in the diagonally opposite square, did the same. They had just made their way to where they'd have to take the layers down in two-to-three inch increments, when Kit spotted Maddy standing some distance away, watching them. Ryan turned to see what she was looking at, and seeing Maddy, said to Kit, "She's mad. She wants Marc to leave."

  "Do you?" Kit asked, looking directly at Ryan.

  Ryan shrugged. "It's been different around here since he left."

  "Different how?" Kit asked, in a sober voice. "Is he a brother you liked having around?"

  "Yeah," Ryan replied. "He was fun. I never really understood why he left."

  "Neither does Maddy," Kit said, "so I'm going to try to explain it to her. Meanwhile, we're through for today. Thanks for the help and if you still want to continue tomorrow, we'll be here."

  "I suppose we'll be back," Ryan said. Glancing over at Jeremy, he called out, "Come on, Jere, we're done for today."

  As Ryan and Jeremy headed for the stable, Kit walked toward where Maddy stood, and hoped she wouldn't turn and walk off. When she didn't, Kit was encouraged, thinking Maddy felt left out of the digging, and might be open to reason. As she approached, she said to Maddy, "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

  Maddy eyed her with suspicion. "Is it about Marc?"

  Kit nodded. "I know you're mad at him for leaving like he did, which is why I want to talk to you and try to explain how it was with him so you'll understand a little about him."

  Maddy folded her arms and eyed Kit with misgiving. "Is he your boyfriend?" she asked.

  "No." Kit replied. "He and I work together. I spent some time with him at the last dig and I got to know him pretty well. Do you understand why he left home?"

  "Yeah," Maddy said. "He was mad at Mom and Dad because they lied to him."

  "Do you know why your parents lied to him?" Kit asked.

  "Sure," Maddy replied. "Dad told me all about it, but Marc didn't have to leave like that. He never called Mom or anyone, and Mom's depressed and has to take medicine, and Dad's always worried about her, and Marc didn't even care enough to come home for Christmas. After he left, Mom thought he would, and she had everything ready for when he'd come home, and we all had presents for him, but he never came. That's when Mom started getting depressed. And Dad would get mad if we went in Marc's room and fooled with his things, and he told us we had to stay out and leave everything like Marc left it. But then Dad would go in there and read through all of Marc's notebooks about stuff he'd found at the Indian mound."

  "Wait a minute," Kit said. "It was your father who kept Marc's room like it was."

  Maddy nodded. "Mom was too upset to go in. But then, after a while Jeremy wanted his own room instead of sharing with Josh, and he asked Dad if he could have Marc's room, and Dad said no, that no one was to touch Marc's things and he didn't want to hear any more about it. Jeremy was mad at Dad and they had a big argument, but Dad took Jeremy off to the barn, and after Jeremy came back, he was upset because Dad told him more about Mom. That's when Dad talked to me and told me mom was taking medicine to keep from being sad, but it didn't seem to help. Mom's still depressed and it's all because of Marc."

  "Marc didn't just leave because your parents lied," Kit said. "He left because he never felt like he belonged. He knew he looked different than the rest of you from the start, but he never knew why. Then when he learned about the mix up and realized he wasn't even a blood relation, he figured no one wanted him, and that your parents only raised him out of obligation. He never contacted your parents or any of you because he didn't think anyone cared he was gone. He still doesn't think anyone cares, but I'm trying to change that because I know everyone does."

  Maddy said nothing, just stood looking down at the ground. Then tears started filling her eyes, and she said, "I said something terrible to him."

  "I know," Kit replied. "But you can undo it. He'll understand. He's feeling a whole lot of guilt already because he left a mess behind, but he hasn't yet figured out that the only reason he left a mess is because he's loved. If he wasn't, no one would care. Men sometimes are a little dense about certain things."

  Maddy swiped a finger beneath each eye, then looked up and said, "What should I do?"

  "Go out there and talk to him some. Maybe he'll show you how to dig and you can help. We could use another digger, and it's fun to uncover stuff."

  "But what do I say to him at first?"

  "That you're sorry and you didn't mean what you said, and you're glad he's back. I think that will about do it."

  "What if he's mad because of what I said?" Maddy asked.

  "Trust me. He won't be," Kit replied. "Even though he's a complicated man, in some areas he's very easy to understand, one being that he loves his little sister, who was wrapped from head to toe in pink and wearing socks with lace around them when she came home from the hospital, and he couldn't possibly stay mad at her."

  Maddy's eyes brightened with tears again, but different kinds of tears. "He talked about me when I was a baby?"

  Kit nodded. "You're one of the main reasons he came back. So go on out there and tell him you're glad he's here. You can also tell him I'm through for today and we can talk about the dig later at my campsite. Meanwhile, I'm going to go soak in the hot spring."

  A half-hour later, knowing the trail ride would take the guests in the opposite direction from the trail alongside her campsite, and that Marc was working at the Indian mound, Kit immersed herself in the hot springs pool and closed her eyes, and for the first few minutes, found herself questioning, from a scientific standpoint, what could possibly be producing the eerie sounds coming from the interior of the mountain. But soon, she began wondering how things were going with Marc and Maddy. She was reasonably sure it would go well. Marc might have a giant bone of his own making to p
ick with Adam, and he could get irritated with his other brothers out of sibling rivalry, and he still had issues with his father, but there was no question he had a soft spot for Maddy. But he also had a soft spot for Rick's little son. She still couldn't get the image of the two Marcs together out of her mind.

  If Marc could bond to a one-year-old in a matter of minutes, he could understand how adoptive parents could bond with the infant they brought home from the hospital. She was sure Marc hadn't considered that, because he'd been so certain the bond between parents and a child was stronger when there was a blood tie. She'd eventually point it out if needed, but hoped Marc would come to the realization on his own. But for now, she was anxious to get back to her encampment and see how it went with Marc and Maddy.

  After drying off and briskly rubbing her hair with the towel, she was in the process of wrapping the towel turban style around her hair when Marc appeared in the entrance. Hands still holding the turban in place, Kit said, "What are you doing here?"

  Marc's eyes slowly drifted over her. "I came to bathe. I didn't know you were here," he said, in a distracted voice.

  "Well, you have to leave."

  Marc raised his eyes to meet her gaze. "Oh, yeah, see you at camp," he said, and left.

  After he'd gone, Kit realized she was shaking, not because Marc had seen her standing naked, but because of the way he'd looked at her. More than just a man in his prime wanting a woman for sex. Marc looked distant, and troubled, like maybe he wanted her for more than just sex. Like maybe he wanted… her.

  I've never been in a committed relationship...

  I know. It's kind of scary, isn't it...?

  Although he'd been clearly troubled by the idea, Kit couldn't help thinking he was seriously considering it. From her standpoint he still had issues to resolve. A man who walked away from his family because he felt unloved could walk away from a wife for the same reason. If, what they had ever evolved into a commitment that brought them to the altar, Marc would first have to be convinced his family loved him unconditionally, then he might believe a wife could do the same. But how could she convince a man he was loved unconditionally, when the woman who gave birth to him, and the man who was his legal father, didn't even want him?