Forbidden Spirits (28 page)

Still, she found herself saying, "It must be difficult for you."

"It is for Pio," Zak replied. "My wife and I separated some time ago. I had no idea how tough it was to be a single parent, shuffling job and family and school, being there when Pio's sick. There's no question, a young child needs a mother. As it is, Pio's with my folks during the week so he can go to the Basque school in Navarre, and I go there on weekends. But as soon as school's out, he'll be moving into the cabin with me. We need to make our own adjustments."

Tess tried to get beyond her bitterness toward Zak by saying, "My father faced the same dilemma when he took over the role of both parents when my mother died of the aneurism when I was nine. Nothing seemed to go right back then. Meals were terrible, the house was a mess, and neither of us cared, and I had no direction or guidance. Fortunately, Aunt Ella moved in and took over, and our lives fell into place again." She glanced at Zak, and added, "What you need is an Aunt Ella."

"It isn't about what I need," Zak said. "It's about Pio, and he needs a mother."

"Then I guess you'd better start looking for a wife," Tess clipped, "presumably Basque, if you don't want to be in trouble with your father."

When Zak said nothing, Tess realized that was precisely what he intended to do.

Thirty minutes later, after filing a flight plan, Tess gave the plane its preflight check, taxied to the end of the runway, checked the flaps, and took off. They headed toward Timber West and the ridge where Zak wanted to look for the first nest. Sitting close to him in the small cabin conjured up images from the past when she'd be riding with Zak in his truck, and she'd rest her hand on his thigh, or snuggle against his shoulder, or give him a kiss on the jaw...

Zak interrupted her timeworn memories, by saying, "When we locate the nest, dip the wing so I can get a good look inside."

Tess shifted her thoughts to the panorama below. Within minutes, they skimmed over Timber West land. She spotted Zak's cabin and hers, and just beyond a patch of woods was the clearing with the logging camp. "Where should we start looking for the nest?" she asked.

Zak scanned the forest below. "In the old-growth timber on the ridge. Look for an old snag."

Tess turned the plane in a wide arc toward the ridge and flew low over the treetops. "There's a pretty big stand of old-growth just above where we're getting ready to cut pole timber," she said. "There's also some on Carl Yaeger's tract. My dad wanted to buy that piece of land a few years ago. He could have paid for it with those old trees."

"That's our biggest problem with the eagle population," Zak said, "harvesting old-growth. If it isn't stopped, there won't be any trees strong enough to support nests."

"We always leave a lot of good-sized second growth," Tess assured him.

"Are the trees big enough to support a two-ton nest?" Zak asked.

Tess looked askance at him. "Aren't you exaggerating?"

"No. Some older nests are eight feet across and six feet deep," Zak replied. "They can easily weigh two tons." He sat up straight. "Over there!" He pointed to a massive nest of coarse limbs atop a huge fir. Tess maneuvered the plane near the nest and dipped the wing. "Twins!" Zak exclaimed. "Looks like the tree's fairly accessible too. Circle once more before we head out. I want to look for perch nests."

"What are those?" Tess asked, as she guided the plane in a wide arc.

"Unoccupied nests eagles use as perches for spotting prey and roosting at night."

Tess circled the old-growth once more, while Zak logged his findings, then they headed east toward McKenzie and Plum lakes. As they slowly gained altitude, Tess felt the exhilaration of flying again. "My biggest regret about my divorce was that David got the plane," she said.

After a stretch of silence, Zak commented, "How old were you when you married?"

"Eighteen," Tess replied, feeling some satisfaction that he'd asked the question. She hoped he'd take her answer as meaning she hadn't sat around waiting for him to come back, like the gullible, trusting little fool she'd been. He didn't need to know she'd spent her days doing just that, all the while hoping and praying he'd appear one day with a perfectly logical explanation as to why he'd left. And her world would be right again...

"Was he from Baker’s Creek?" Zak asked.

"Seattle," Tess replied. "He'd been flying into Baker’s Creek every week to work on a big house he was contracted to build, and we met at the airpark."

"Where is he now?" Zak asked, while scanning the forest below.

"I don't know," Tess replied. "He moved east and I haven't heard from him since. What about you? Where have you been for the past seven years?" She'd had no intention of prying into Zak's past, but the question popped out.

"Mostly France and Washington," Zak replied.

"Why France?" Tess asked, surprised he'd been out of the country. She'd always imagined him in Navarre with his parents.

"My father sent me there to learn about Basque wines," Zak replied. Looking into the distance, he said, while pointing, "There's McKenzie Lake. Circle a little lower if you can."

Tess didn't reply because her attention was drawn to the grayish specks flipping against the windscreen. She eased the controls back and the plane leveled off before slowly rising as they headed for the ranger station at Pine Lake. For the moment they cruised smoothly, but while Zak was watching the thick forest closing in on the valley below, Tess was scanning the panorama below for other reasons. "That's oil on the windscreen," she stated. "We have to land."

Zak looked up and saw the specks. "Land where? There's nothing but forest down there."

"The ranger station should be just over the ridge," Tess said. "Start looking for the lake. There's a grass airstrip alongside it." She focused again on the specks of oil, which now merged together and were moving in grayish streaks up the windscreen. "We've got to get down fast!"

The engine began to sputter. "Jesus," Zak said. "The engine's about to cut out!"

"We can glide in if we can find the airstrip," Tess said. "Just keep looking for the lake. It can't be more than five minutes from here... I hope." Squinting through the murky windscreen, she scanned the terrain in the distance and spotted a silvery patch. "There's Pine Lake!" she exclaimed, "but I don't see the landing strip." She leaned forward, focusing on the opening in the woods where the lake lay, then through an oil-splattered windscreen she saw a cleared strip that served as a landing field. "Darn that landing strip's short," she said. "I hope the wind's right because we won't have second chance to approach from the other direction. As it is, we'll have to dip in over the tall trees at this end."

She banked the plane in a sweeping turn to align with the landing field below, then throttled back, lowered the flaps, and continued to nose the plane down. As they dropped toward the runway, Tess saw a windsock perched atop a tree and realized, with alarm, that they were approaching with the wind. "The wind's wrong for us," she said. "We're coming in too fast." She scanned the field for obstructions and studied the trees at each end of the narrow, grassy strip.

The engine sputtered, cut out and sputtered again.

She advanced the throttle slightly. "This is going to be a hot landing, and it better work the first time because we won't get a second chance," she said, her heart pounding so hard she felt lightheaded. She gripped the wheel. "Okay. Here we go. Put your head in your lap for the landing and be ready to jump out and run in case there’s a fire…"

BROKEN PROMISES
to be continued

If you want to read on, here's the link to
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DANCING MOON RANCH SERIES

Prequel: Justified Deception

LIVING WITH LIES TRILOGY

Book 1: Righteous Lies

Book 2: Pandora's Box

Book 3: False Pretenses

THE LIES UNCOVERED TRILOGY

Book 4: Uncertain Loyalties

Book 5: Becoming Jesse's Father

Book 6: Bittersweet Return

CUTTING THE TIES TRILOGY

Book 7: Cross Purposes

Book 8: Dancing With Danger

Book 9: Bucking the Odds

BOUND BY LOVE TRILOGY

Book 10: Forbidden Spirits (mid 2014)

Book 11: Imperfect Magic (late 2014)

Book 12: Sheer Combustion (early 2015)

Sequel: Finding Justice (mid 2015)

HISTORICAL ROMANCES

Colby's Child

Perilous Pleasures

Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron

Her Master's Touch

Come Be My Love

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES

In Hot Pursuit

Broken Promises

Adversaries and Lovers

Never Too Late

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Patricia Watters gave up city life and now writes from a log cabin nestled in the evergreen forests of Oregon. An author with Harlequin and Avon-Harper Collins in the past, Patricia specializes in romance, and she invites you to visit her website and drop her a line. She responds to all notes.
http://www.patriciawatters.com/