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“I keep trying.” She took another sip of beer then addressed both men again. “Anyway, today I was by myself, walking lonely transects in addition to digging and screening. One day into a five-day job, and my survey is already behind. Like Jae, I live in Port Angeles. I left my house at four thirty this morning so I could start digging at first light. It’s been a long day, and tomorrow will be another day of digging without a partner, but at least tomorrow night, I’ll have a room here.”
“Where will you sleep tonight?” Xavier asked.
“In my truck.” She shrugged. “An archaeologist’s life.”
“So, this kind of thing happens often?”
“No. Usually when I camp, it’s because the project area is too remote. I’m lucky that this project area is only seven miles from here, and four of those miles are accessible by road and the last three are a combination of backcountry hike and trail, so I could stay at the lodge instead of camping. Except my room was canceled by a dipshit dig bum.”
“And what are you digging?”
“I’m doing a survey with shovel test probes to determine if there’s an archaeological site that would be damaged if a backwoods emergency shelter is constructed. Cellular antennas are part of the proposal, so the area of potential effect—the parcel I’m surveying—has a bigger footprint than a project of this type usually has.”
“And this is what a park archaeologist does? You dig holes to look for sites?”
“For compliance with historic preservation and environmental laws, yes. I also arrange outreach and interpretive activities and signage to describe or promote protecting cultural resources in the park.”
“Sounds like interesting work.”
Her smile was wide and utterly charming. “It’s my dream job. I mean, this position would be a dream job for just about any archaeologist, but for me, I’ve wanted to be ONP archaeologist since I was eleven years old.”
Xavier cocked his head. “Seriously?”
She nodded. “I moved to Forks—yes,thatForks, ofTwilightfame—when I was eleven. I had a hard time making friends. When I was bored that first summer, I would ride my bike to the ranger station there. The park archaeologist passed through the station a lot, and he noticed my interest in archaeology. He’d been wanting to develop outreach and education programs for kids my age, and I became his test subject—he’d run ideas by me and let me help plan activities. At one point, he convinced my dad to chaperone a weekend camping trip for middle school students out at the Ozette site on the coast.
“Even though the village site was removed with the excavation, he brought it to life. Describing the dig, and the village as it had been encapsulated in mud five hundred years before. Tribal members came out to the beach and talked about what the excavation had meant to them.” She nodded toward the man Jae had pointed out before. “One of those tribal members, George Shaw, is sitting over there. It was great to see how George worked with Roy, the park archaeologist, to protect the culture and history of the area. I was hooked. I knew, sitting on that beach, that archaeology was what I wanted to do. But not only that, I wanted to be park archaeologist for the amazing national park that was my backyard.”
“And so you went to school and got a PhD and made it happen?”
“Yep. And I was Roy’s assistant until he retired a year ago.”
“Giving the job to Audrey was a no-brainer,” Jae said. “There were hundreds of applicants, but she knows more about the archaeology and history of this park than anyone except Dr. Roy Heller, who was park archaeologist for over thirty years.”
“And you plan to hold the position for the next thirty years?” Xavier asked.
“I hope so.”
It was rare in this millennium to work for a single institution for one’s entire working life or post-college career, but Xavier could relate. He’d joined the Navy when he was eighteen—twenty-two years ago—and had no plans to retire soon.
“So what do you do, Xavier?” she asked.
Damn. But the question was inevitable. “I’m in security,” he said.
Jae gave him a dubious look before his face went blank. He’d probably expected Xavier to at least mention the Navy, but secrecy was the rule in this. If all went well, Audrey would never learn of his part in the proposal that would cross her desk in the coming weeks. “I’m not really at liberty to discuss details. Sorry.”
She looked toward Jae, her curiosity evident, and Jae gave a quick nod, vouching for Xavier without words.
She trusted Jae, which was understandable. The guy had all the good elements of Dudley Do-Right. Law enforcement and honest to his very soul.
The conversation flowed from there. Jae and Audrey shared stories from when their work intersected in the park, including the looting or vandalizing of historic sites, or the time hikers assumed Audrey was looting and called law enforcement because they didn’t believe that a woman was the head archaeologist for the nearly one-million-acre park.
Forty-five minutes after Audrey had joined them, Jae stood and turned to Xavier. “I should hit the road. It’s been great seeing you, man. Glad you finally made it to my neck of the woods. We need to do this again, but next time, not on a night when I’ve got an early shift the following day.”
Xavier hugged the guy he’d known since first grade. They might lose touch for long periods, but when they did get together, it was always like this, the easy camaraderie of a friendship that had spanned a lifetime. “Your turn to visit me now.”
Audrey stood to give Jae a hug as well. His kiss on her cheek was brotherly. Xavier had been tracking their body language the entire time and was certain there wasn’t even a one-sided infatuation between the two. He didn’t want to be relieved by that, but he was.
Audrey should be off-limits.
