Broken Promises (3 page)

"My father's proud of this run," Zak said, setting the bottle down. "It's called Florencia. It won a gold medal at the national competition."

Tess sipped the wine, and the bouquet filled her nostrils. "Why is it called Florencia?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Florencia is Basque for high mountain flower," Zak replied. "It's made with flower petals, some from around here." He took a slow sip of wine while eyeing her over the rim of his glass. His gaze was intense, his pupils wide, and Tess wondered if he was remembering how it had been with them--Eve draping Adam with columbine. Whenever he became aroused, his gaze became intense and his pupils opened. It was easy to tell with his gray-green eyes. She'd even joked with him about it, telling him she didn't have to look at his crotch to know when he wanted her, only his eyes...

Uncomfortable with his steady gaze, she lifted the bottle of wine from the table, and while studying the label, she said, "Then I assume you're working at the winery now?"

"I'm in charge of
Spencer
Wildlife
Park
," Zak replied. "I help at the winery some, but my work at the park takes priority."

"I don't understand," Tess said, looking up. "You always intended to work at the winery."

"My degree's in wildlife management," Zak said.

Tess found that puzzling. Before, he'd had no interest in college. He'd grown up working in the winery and was expected to take over some day. But she also remembered Zak being at odds with his father that summer. According to Zak, everything was either
his father's way
, or no way. Zak told her back then that moving into the cabin and signing on with Timber West was an escape. Maybe college had also been an escape...

"Have you been here long?" she asked, an attempt at casual conversation, when what she really wanted was to fire a barrage of questions at him:
Why did you leave me? Where did you go? Why didn't you come back? Why did you let me marry a man I didn't love?

"About six weeks," Zak replied. "That's when I was appointed head of the threatened and endangered species program." He lifted the bottle she'd been clutching in her hands and tipped it toward her glass. "We're in the process of reinstating the bald eagle in the
Channel islands
," he said. "We'll be taking chicks from nests with twins and transporting them to
California
. But first I have to fly over established nests to see if they're occupied." He looked at her, curiously, and said, "Do you still fly?"

"Yes," Tess replied. "I no longer have a plane though. My husband got custody of it when we divorced. But my dad still has his. He said I could take it up if I wanted."

"Then you're still certified?"

Tess nodded. "But that doesn't mean I fly. Right now Timber West is operating in the red, and flying costs money, so it will be a while before I try my wings again."

"How about Sunday?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The park plane's in for an engine overhaul and I need to fly over some nests before the chicks fledge, and time's running out. I thought maybe you could take me up. The park has funds. I could make it worth your while."

"Where do you want to go?" Tess asked, although she didn't know why. She had no intention of flying Zak around in her father's plane.

"Just around the area," Zak replied. "I have nests pinpointed on a map. But I'd also like to touch down at the
Pine
Mountain
ranger station and talk to the park ranger there. Do you know Ralph Tolsted?"

"No," Tess said. "But I know where the
Pine
Mountain
station is. My dad and I flew over it a few times, even landed there once. Dad wasn't too thrilled with the landing strip though... says it's the shortest strip he's ever used. Why
Pine
Mountain
?"

"I want to check a nest there and talk to Tolsted about others in the area," Zak replied. "Timing's everything right now. Most of the eagle chicks are ready to fledge." He eyed her steadily again, and it was like she was caught in his dark gaze. It had always been that way with her. He'd get that intense look, and she was like a deer trapped in headlights...

"It's pretty important work we're doing," he said.

No.
There was no way she'd take him up. Zak living in the cabin where her father found them was bad enough. Taking him up in her father's plane would set her relationship with her father back years if he found out, and she was home to try and close the rift between them...

"It shouldn't take more than an hour... two at the most with a short stop at
Pine
Mountain
," Zak said. "Besides, it will give me a chance to be piloted by the grown up version of the fourteen year old scrap of a girl who bragged to me years ago that she could fly a plane."

Tess couldn't help smiling, which brought a smile from Zak, a smile she'd tried to hold in memory over the years. A smile that still made her heart flutter and her breath quicken. "I suppose it would be all right if it's not more than a couple of hours," she found herself saying, and refused to analyze why.

"Thanks," he replied, "I'll owe you dinner when we get back."

"That's not necessary," Tess said, and resolved to stick by that. "So, show me the map."

She set her wine glass aside and stepped over to the table where a map was rolled out and held flat with four coffee mugs. "I hope you're wrong about the property line, because if you're not, my father's going to be hell to live with," she said while scanning the map."Show me what you're talking about."

Zak walked over and stood behind her. Reaching around her, he said, while dragging his finger over the map, "Your cabin's right about here, and this is the road that runs between your cabin and the camp." Moving his finger over, he said, "This is where one designated marker is, and this is the other." His finger stopped precisely on the grotto.

As Tess stared at Zak's hand she was flooded with memories of that same hand exploring and caressing her body, and of toes curling against cool moss, and flesh against flesh, and forbidden desires. Forbidden because Zak had been twenty one while she was only seventeen...

"But the grotto has always been on Timber West land," she said, impulsively.

After a stretch of awkward silence, Zak said, "According to the survey, Timber West land stops ten feet this side of the logging road. The trees your father cut are over here on our land." Zak moved his finger from the grotto.

Tess ducked under Zak's arm and stepped around the table. Away from the distraction of having his arm around her, and his chest against her shoulder, and his breath against her head, she could study the map more closely. To her dismay, she saw that the trees cut had clearly been on the de Neuville land. "Okay maybe the survey's right," she conceded, "but I still don't want to upset my father over four trees. I'll pay your father for them and make sure no more trees are cut. Just don't let your father do anything right now."

"It's not that simple," Zak said. "My father's talking about stretching a fence along the line. He wants to move the sheep onto this land for the summer, and this has to be resolved."

"Can't you stall the fence work, or at least leave that area for later?" Tess asked. "My father's health it pretty frail right now and I don't want this upsetting him."

Zak sighed. "I'll see what I can do. Meanwhile, have your men haul the trees back to our place, and I'll tell my father that your father inadvertently logged on our land and that no more trees will be cut. With luck, my father will drop the issue." He rolled up the map and walked around the table and offered it to her, saying, "Take this to your father so he can see where the line runs. That should settle it."

Tess shook her head. "I'll just pay for the trees and make sure no more are cut."

"Suit yourself." Zak tossed the rolled map on the table. "About Sunday," he said. "Are we still on?" He moved around the table and she didn't back away, even though she knew he wanted to kiss her. The years had not dimmed her memory of the look he got. It started with his eyes. Dark. Intense. Focused on her mouth. And then his nostrils flared. And the muscles in his jaws bunched. And his lips parted as he moved toward her. And his hands came up to take her arms as they had...

She turned her face away, and said, "Please don't."

Zak dropped his hands. "Sorry," he said. "Some old habits die hard."

Tess knew only too well. It bothered her that he still had such a hold on her.

"Look, about Sunday," Zak said. "That won't happen again."

"Good. Then we understand each other," Tess replied. "So I'll pick you up around two." Turning from him, she grabbed her flashlight, clicked it on, and dashed into the darkness.

As she made her way back to her cabin, she considered the ramifications of taking Zak up in her father's plane. He'd be furious if he knew, but it would only be for two hours, so she'd keep it from him. He didn't need that stress.

She also knew that Zak had the same effect on her as in the past. Nothing had changed. But after Sunday's flight, there would be no more dealings with Zak. He'd left her once. He'd leave her again. There was no place in her life for Zak de Neuville now.

CHAPTER THREE

Tess pulled up in front of the white frame house in Baker’s Creek where she grew up. When she stepped into the living room, she detected the unmistakable aroma of cinnamon and warm yeast. Aunt Ruth met her at the door. "Hi, sweetie," she said. "You'd better go into the kitchen and assure your father that you got through your first day at camp in one piece. He's been in a stew all morning waiting to hear from you."

Tess looked toward the kitchen and saw her father sitting at the table reading the paper, but she could tell he wasn't into it because the paper was crinkled where his hands held it, and one foot was shaking in agitation. "How's he been doing, other than worrying himself into a frazzle about Timber West?" she asked.

Aunt Ruth pursed her lips. "He's as cantankerous as an old dog. I only put up with him because I know that underneath that crusty exterior he's soft as a kitten."

Tess laughed. "You're right. Did you give him what for, for going to the camp yesterday?"

"You better believe I did," Aunt Ruth said. "I turn my back for a couple of hours and he's off. Well, he's not getting away today."

Tess followed Aunt Ruth through the dining room. "How did he take it?"

Aunt Ruth glanced back, and said, "He grumbled something about domineering women, and I reminded him that it was a matter of survival of the fittest." She tapped her brother's shoulder on the way to the stove. "Tess is here." She set a platter with scrambled eggs and hash browns in the middle of the table, then slipped on oven mitts and lifted a tray of fresh baked cinnamon rolls out of the oven and set them on a hot pad beside the platter of eggs and hash browns.

Tess kissed her father on the forehead, and said, while pulling out a chair adjacent to him, "Well, I survived my first day at Timber West."

"Did you have any problem with Jed Swenson?"Gib asked, while serving himself from the platter.

"No, he never showed up," Tess replied, while reaching for a cinnamon roll. "Am I supposed to put up with behavior like that, or can I fire him?. "

A worried frown creased Gib's brow. "Don't be too quick to do that," he said. "He's a good worker... knows logging and equipment. But he can be kind of stubborn at times."

"If that's not the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is," Aunt Ruth interjected.

Tess winked at her aunt, then said to her father, "Swenson wasn't at the meeting in the cook shack or at my office later, as I requested. He's openly defying me. Do you put up with that?"

"I haven't been around him that much," Gib said. "I hired him a few weeks before my heart attack, and I was lucky to get him. Before you fire him, you'd better have someone in mind who'll step in. Word's out that Carl Yaeger's about to buy the tract between Timber West and the ridge, and if he does, he'll be hiring. If you get rid of Swenson you might find yourself without a woods boss, and no one else to take his place."

"Well, Swenson's not any use to me right now," Tess said. "If he doesn't show up soon, I'll have to let him go." She licked warm icing from her fingers, then said to her father, "If
 
Carl Yaeger buys the tract, do you think he'll let us keep going through like we always have?"

"I hope so," Gib replied. "If he doesn't, we're in trouble. There's no other access to the pole timber area unless de Neuville lets us go through his land, and we know the answer to that."

"Have you ever had our property surveyed?" Tess asked, jumping at the opportunity to broach the subject of the cut trees.

"There's no need," Gib replied. "I know where the line runs."

"How do you know if you've never had it surveyed?" Tess asked. "You could end up accidentally cutting timber off someone else's land. It just seems like a good idea to make sure."

Gib eyed Tess with mild annoyance. "I'm not going to pay some half-wit to come with his fancy equipment and try to tell me what I already know."

"Then I'll do it for you," Tess insisted. "We'll get someone out there and find out exactly where the lines are so we won't have to worry."

"I'm not worried, and I don't want to hear anything more about surveys."

"If you don't want to hear about it from me, then you'll be hearing from Jean-Pierre de Neuville," Tess said, her voice rising with her frustration, "because he did have a survey done and it shows that the property line runs forty feet from where you think it is."

Gib refused to reply... his means of ending the discussion. And Tess knew better than to pursue the issue. So she glared at him instead, to which he responded by eating and ignoring her.

During the silence that stretched between, Aunt Ruth started talking about what was happening in the neighborhood, and Tess knew exactly why. It was Aunt Ruth's long-held means of defusing things. But after Gib finished eating and left to work on his truck, Aunt Ruth said, "He gets more stubborn as he gets older. You might as well save your breath about those trees. How was the cabin? I'd hoped to get out there and scrub it down before you moved in."

"It was in pretty good shape," Tess replied. "A little sweeping and it was livable."

Aunt Ruth sighed. "I don't know why your father's holding onto the place. Everything needs painting or fixing. He'll work himself to death out there."

"He'll die quicker if he sells and does nothing," Tess said. "It would be like admitting to himself that he's old and washed up, and he's not ready for that. And when he does decide to sell, I know he'll hold out until he gets what he
thinks
the business is worth, whether it is or not."

"You're right about that," Aunt Ruth agreed. "But it'll be years before the timber industry recovers from the slump. And running the camp's not a life for you."

"I don't plan to run it forever," Tess said. "But I do want to help get the business out of the red and Dad through this period."

"Well, I don't like the idea of you staying out there all alone with no one else around," Aunt Ruth said.

Tess gave Aunt Ruth a confident smile. "The men are just up the road at the bunkhouse."

"You don't know that much about those men," Aunt Ruth said. "A pretty woman all alone out there can be a real drawing card. I just wish there were more permanent neighbors around. With all the woods there, someone could be hiding out."

Tess looked at Aunt Ruth, and said, "Zak is next door."

For a moment Aunt Ruth said nothing. Then her forehead puckered, and she looked at Tess with uncertainty, and said, "Zak de Neuville?"

Tess nodded. "He's the one who brought up the subject of the survey, and the reason why I asked to have it done. Dad told one of the men to thin the trees along the strip of land between the dirt road and the de Neuville's property, and those trees are not on Timber West land. They're on the de Neuville's property. Four trees have already been cut."

Aunt Ruth eyed Tess over the rim of her cup. "I'm sure Gib knows what he's doing. Certainly he knows where the property line runs."

"That's the problem," Tess said. "He thinks he knows, but he's wrong. Zak showed me a survey map. He said his father's threatening to sue us for cutting the trees."

Aunt Ruth looked directly at Tess and said, in a guarded voice, "Have you been seeing Zak de Neuville again?"

"No," Tess replied. "Well, yesterday I saw him briefly, when he showed me the survey map, but I'm not... seeing him."

Aunt Ruth drew in an extended breath. "Does your father know he's back?"

"No."

"Then you'd better keep quiet about that. It'll just get him riled again."

Tess toyed with telling Aunt Ruth about taking Zak up in the plane, now that she'd told her that Zak was back, then discarded the idea. Aunt Ruth had enough on her mind without brooding about her brother's reaction to that.

***

The next day, as Tess pulled up to Zak's cabin, she was surprised to find an old Dodge, in the process of being restored, parked beside Zak's truck. The car's body was covered with gray primer and the rear end was jacked high with oversized tires, and inside, a grouping of beads and feathers hung from the rearview mirror. With mounting curiosity, she stepped onto the porch. But before she could knock, Zak opened the door, and said, "Come on in. Vince was about to leave. You remember my brother."

Tess looked beyond Zak at a young man wearing a black leather jacket, faded jeans with holes in them, and dirty sneakers. Where the jacket gaped open, she saw the grotesquely contorted face of a rock star on a tight black T-shirt. His mouth was planted in a slash, and his dark eyes shone with irritation, though she knew it wasn't aimed at her. "Yes," she replied, trying to assimilate the change from a bright-eyed youth of thirteen to this angry young man of twenty. "It's nice to see you again, Vince."

Vince nodded, and said nothing.

Tess sat on the couch, and Zak sat in an overstuffed chair across from her, but Vince remained standing. From the somber look on his face, and the frustration on Zak's, Tess suspected they'd been having some kind of argument. She was about to suggest she come back later, when she was distracted by movement, and looked toward the hallway to see a young boy rolling a truck into the room. When the boy raised curious eyes to meet Tess's gaze, her lips parted in surprise. It was as if she were peering into Zak's gray-green eyes. The boy scrambled over to stand beside Zak, studying her from within the circle of Zak's arm. His young face was topped by a shock of wavy black hair, and in his chin was a small cleft.

Looking at the boy, Tess waited for Zak to explain.

Zak drew the boy against him, and said, "This is Pio, my son."

At first Tess stared blankly at the boy. Then she focused on his features. There was no question. This boy was indeed Zak's son. And the boy's mother, Zak's wife? Where was she?

Tess gave the boy a nervous smile, and said, "Hi."

He didn't smile back. Instead, he looked at Zak and said something in Basque. When Zak nodded, the boy scurried outside. Tess glanced out the window at the boy, who was pushing a larger truck across the ground. He appeared to be about six years old. Which meant... Zak must have either impregnated a woman or married her shortly after he left Baker's Creek...

"Father's damn traditions are straight out of another world," Vince said, his heated words punctuating the pounding of Tess's heart. "And I'll tell you another thing. I won't marry a Basque girl just because he's decided I should."

Zak looked at Tess, and said, "Excuse us a minute."

He took Vince's arm and led him onto the porch then pulled the front door shut behind them. Although their voices were muffled some, Tess could still hear what they were saying...

"He's a proud man and the old traditions have been right for him," Zak said. "It's only natural that he wants the same for you."

"That's fine for you to say, you're
etcheko
primu
.
Firstborn," Vince spat the words. "The winery will be yours... if you marry a Basque woman and fit into Father's mold, that is."

Zak sighed. "You know you always have a place there."

"I'd die of boredom in
Navarre
."

The silence that followed was broken by Zak. "You don't have to turn your back on all the values you were taught in order to be your own person."

"And I don't have to hang around here and listen to this crap either," Vince said. "I thought at least you'd understand, but you're no different from
him
. You'll do exactly as Father says. You'll marry a Basque woman, settle into his niche at the ranch, and live his life for him. I hope you enjoy it."

When Zak finally spoke, there was resolve in his tone. "I've been where you are, caught between two worlds, not fitting into either, but there is a middle ground between the old ways and now. You just have to find it and convince Father."

Vince laughed shortly. "Ever try moving a mountain?"

Zak laughed too. "Meanwhile, try not to irritate him."

"Which means, tell him what he wants to hear. I can't do that."

"Try," Zak said. "And thanks for bringing Pio along today, even if the visit's short."

Vince eyed Pio, affectionately. "There was no way I could get out of it. He had to tell you about the kittens."

Zak stepped off the porch then and crouched in front of Pio, and said, "I'll be anxious to hear what you name your new pal."

Pio's face brightened. "When can I bring him here?" he asked in an animated voice.

"Not for six weeks," Zak replied. "Meanwhile, I'll come for you next weekend and we'll go find some eagles, maybe do a nest climb. How would you like that?"

Pio grinned. "I'd like that."

After Vince left with Pio, Zak went back inside and collected several maps from the kitchen table, and they left in Tess's Jeep. But while they were driving to the airpark, he said to Tess, "I should have told you about my son. I didn't expect Vince to come by with him today and I planned to tell you about him later."

"It doesn't matter," Tess said. "That was a long time ago." She was determined to ask no questions about Zak's past, or about the mother of his son. It would be too humiliating, and she did have some pride. And maybe her father was right. Maybe Zak
had
used her. Maybe what they had going that summer was nothing more than teenage hormones coupled with Zak's promises of
forever
to keep the sex coming. She'd certainly given him reason to come back for more. She liked the sex too, but what was more important for her was the aftermath of their lovemaking, when Zak talked about how it would be for them someday...