Barefoot in Pearls (Barefoot Bay Brides Book 3) by Roxanne St. Claire
Authors: Roxanne St. Claire
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her. “What the hell are you talking about?”
With two hands, she lifted the strand of pearls that hung around her neck. “I found this here today, and I believe that this unusual hill might be a sacred burial mound, most likely from Calusa Indians who, according to a Google search on my smartphone, lived here thousands of years ago. Until the proper archaeological inspections and digging have been done, you cannot level this ground.”
He tried, really tried, to process it all. But it wasn’t easy being drop-kicked from the pleasure he’d expected to… this . So, she’d found a necklace someone lost, checked the Internet for the name of an Indian tribe, and deduced that he couldn’t go forward with construction because dead people were buried there?
It would be funny, except it wasn’t.
“That’s why you brought me up here?” Incredulity lifted his voice. “Why didn’t you just tell me at the wedding?”
“I needed to get up here again, to…feel it.” She dropped her head back slightly and closed her eyes, touching the necklace. Whoa. The woo-woo girl was cray-cray.
“So, what do you feel? Is it the Age of Aquarius yet?” he asked.
She snapped her head up to scowl at him, her eyes glinting in clouded moonlight. “Don’t make fun of me.”
Kind of hard not to. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and sighed. “Okay, why don’t you start from the beginning? You found that string of stones up here.”
She bristled at the words, but nodded.
“You dug it up or it fell from a tree or…what?”
“It was on the ground. A bird pooped on it.”
He snorted softly, but realized instantly she wasn’t joking. “Are you sure the bird didn’t poop it out?”
Black eyes narrowed. “You’re hilarious. But that doesn’t change what I believe, which is that this is most likely an artifact from Native Americans who lived here long ago. And if they lived here, there’s a reason this land that we’re standing on is elevated, and that reason could be because the bones of tribe members are buried here, along with art and religious items. That makes this land protected by the government, and you cannot put a bulldozer on it until the proper archaeological inspection has been done and the land is cleared to—”
“That’s all been done,” he interjected, mentally skimming the three inches of county and state documentation that the former general contractor had filed and notarized before he’d been fired. “Listen to me. There are a half-dozen different pre-construction surveys and inspections, and they’ve all been done. Boundary, topographic, deformation, geodetic, and location surveys, especially this close to the water with the Army Corps of Engineers breathing down a builder’s neck.”
“Which of those would dig into this mound and search with the care of an archaeologist?”
None. “Core sampling has to be done if there’s restructuring of geography, then—”
“Restructuring of geography?” She sputtered the words. “That’s what you call destroying an ancient burial place?”
Irritation churned in his belly. “You found a necklace, Arielle,” he said. “For all you know, some Realtor could have dropped it.”
“Or it could have been unearthed in the hurricane, along with bones or tools or artifacts from four thousand years ago! You don’t know. But I can’t sleep until this land has been properly and carefully excavated and inspected. Can you?”
He thought about that for a moment, considering which was worse: pissing off Cutter or a code violation that could blow up in his face. He had only a temporary general contracting license, which Cutter had helped him get by pulling a few strings and using his famous name. One mistake, and that could be ripped away. Lose the temp license and he might never get another one, giving up any chance of staying here and working in the States. Working as a contractor, at least, and that was all he really knew.
But if he
With two hands, she lifted the strand of pearls that hung around her neck. “I found this here today, and I believe that this unusual hill might be a sacred burial mound, most likely from Calusa Indians who, according to a Google search on my smartphone, lived here thousands of years ago. Until the proper archaeological inspections and digging have been done, you cannot level this ground.”
He tried, really tried, to process it all. But it wasn’t easy being drop-kicked from the pleasure he’d expected to… this . So, she’d found a necklace someone lost, checked the Internet for the name of an Indian tribe, and deduced that he couldn’t go forward with construction because dead people were buried there?
It would be funny, except it wasn’t.
“That’s why you brought me up here?” Incredulity lifted his voice. “Why didn’t you just tell me at the wedding?”
“I needed to get up here again, to…feel it.” She dropped her head back slightly and closed her eyes, touching the necklace. Whoa. The woo-woo girl was cray-cray.
“So, what do you feel? Is it the Age of Aquarius yet?” he asked.
She snapped her head up to scowl at him, her eyes glinting in clouded moonlight. “Don’t make fun of me.”
Kind of hard not to. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and sighed. “Okay, why don’t you start from the beginning? You found that string of stones up here.”
She bristled at the words, but nodded.
“You dug it up or it fell from a tree or…what?”
“It was on the ground. A bird pooped on it.”
He snorted softly, but realized instantly she wasn’t joking. “Are you sure the bird didn’t poop it out?”
Black eyes narrowed. “You’re hilarious. But that doesn’t change what I believe, which is that this is most likely an artifact from Native Americans who lived here long ago. And if they lived here, there’s a reason this land that we’re standing on is elevated, and that reason could be because the bones of tribe members are buried here, along with art and religious items. That makes this land protected by the government, and you cannot put a bulldozer on it until the proper archaeological inspection has been done and the land is cleared to—”
“That’s all been done,” he interjected, mentally skimming the three inches of county and state documentation that the former general contractor had filed and notarized before he’d been fired. “Listen to me. There are a half-dozen different pre-construction surveys and inspections, and they’ve all been done. Boundary, topographic, deformation, geodetic, and location surveys, especially this close to the water with the Army Corps of Engineers breathing down a builder’s neck.”
“Which of those would dig into this mound and search with the care of an archaeologist?”
None. “Core sampling has to be done if there’s restructuring of geography, then—”
“Restructuring of geography?” She sputtered the words. “That’s what you call destroying an ancient burial place?”
Irritation churned in his belly. “You found a necklace, Arielle,” he said. “For all you know, some Realtor could have dropped it.”
“Or it could have been unearthed in the hurricane, along with bones or tools or artifacts from four thousand years ago! You don’t know. But I can’t sleep until this land has been properly and carefully excavated and inspected. Can you?”
He thought about that for a moment, considering which was worse: pissing off Cutter or a code violation that could blow up in his face. He had only a temporary general contracting license, which Cutter had helped him get by pulling a few strings and using his famous name. One mistake, and that could be ripped away. Lose the temp license and he might never get another one, giving up any chance of staying here and working in the States. Working as a contractor, at least, and that was all he really knew.
But if he
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