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“The engineer who is surprised as all get out.” Cooper waved a thumb at the barn in the distance. “I don’t think it’s going to be as extensive a project as I had feared from your preliminary update. I don’t think permits will be an issue either.”
At that moment, Ted came within hearing distance. “We throwing a party?”
Earlier when Craig had introduced himself as the property owner, he’d been the only one there so Ted had not met the two Baron cousins. The men shook hands, exchanged some curt but polite words, and then turned their attention to Kate. He really wished he could step in front of her and yellback offwithout looking like a complete fool. Or worse.
“Learn anything?” she asked.
Ted bobbed his head. “The owl is tagged.”
Craig knew better than to speak up until all information was given, so he gave a short nod and waited.
“I spotted the tag with my binoculars. Couldn’t get close enough to retrieve the data. We’d need to see where she’s been this last year. In order to do that we have to catch her.”
Again, Craig merely nodded. So far his mind was thinking,good, catch her, read her tags, and let her go to someone else’s property.
“Since I spooked her, I was able to get close enough to the nest.”
And this was the moment Craig had been waiting for with less than bated breath.
“She’s got eggs.”
Not what he wanted to hear.
“We’ll have to wait for them to hatch. Then we’ll want to weigh them, tag them, and…” Ted shrugged at Kate. “Well, you know the routine.”
Kate’s head bobbed an affirmative response, but her gaze was off at the barn. “So no construction near the barn?”
The agent blew out a heavy sigh and Craig tried not to wince. He did not need more bad news coming.
“That owl is only one of your problems.”
“What do you mean?” This time Craig refrained from keeping silent.
“I walked the property and checked some of your hollow trees.”
Doing his best to maintain a stoic expression, Craig’s hands fisted in his pockets.
“You’ve got Black Striped Texas Bats. Hollow trees are some of their favorite hibernating spots and from the looks of it, even though it’s spring, I found at least two trees with bats still in hibernation.”
All of this was more than Craig cared to deal with. Taking a second to process the possibilities, he glanced in Kate’s direction. His pretty redhead was nibbling on one corner of her lower lip. That could not be a good sign.
“All of this means what exactly?” Cooper asked.
“We’re going to have to have a team come in and check all possible habitats for more bats.”
“Team?” Craig didn’t like the sound of that.
“We’re rather short-handed in general, and I’m stretched more than thin.” Ted cast a glance in Kate’s direction and offered his first hint of a smile. One that told Craig if not for her, this little tete-a-tete would be at the bottom of Ted’s to-do list sometime next spring. “As it is, as much as I wish I could fit this into my schedule, I’m going to have to hand this little finding off to one of the probies. Most likely, there will be an army of grad students available to search and mark the habitats. Once we have that straightened out, you may or may not be able to do some construction away from all the nests.”
“Birds or bats?” Porter asked.
Ted shrugged. “Both.”
Cooper turned to Craig. “This isn’t looking good.”
That was exactly what Craig was thinking. If they didn’t break ground soon, there was no way he was going to be able to pitch his studio to the Austin diva with deep pockets and the movie he’d been itching to get a piece of. For a brief moment, he wondered how much would the fines set him back for ignoring everyone and moving forward anyhow, but immediately, he discarded the potential public relations nightmare from his options. Like it or not, he was going to have to figure out a solution to make his spreadsheet—and Kate—happy. His gaze surveyed the land that extended as far as his eye could see. Hands still fisted in his pockets, he blew out a soft sigh. Fish and Game, his college crush, bats, birds, and bankers. Once again his gaze drifted to Kate. Somehow he had to make this work, because losing Kate again, and over a bird and a bat, was not an option.
Chapter Ten
