Broken Promises (4 page)

"To answer at least one of your questions," Zak said, "my wife died about four months ago so I have full care of our son."

Tess fingers curled around the wheel. The word
our
didn't compute. She'd never imagined a son of Zak's not being her son as well. But what was almost as troubling was the fact that Zak was a widower of only four months, and two nights ago he came close to kissing her. Not exactly a grief-stricken widower. "It must be difficult for you," she said, and tried to sound convincing.

"It is for Pio," Zak replied. "My wife and I separated some time ago." He was quiet for a while, then he sighed, and said in a weary voice, "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."

"My father must have faced the same dilemma when he took over the role of both parents after my mother died," Tess said, trying to sound compassionate, feeling a little stab of guilt that he hadn't felt that way when Zak told her about his dead wife. But she could empathize with his dilemma with his son. "Nothing seemed to go right back then. The meals were terrible, the house was a mess, and neither of us cared. And I had no direction or guidance. Fortunately, Aunt Ruth moved in and took over, and our lives fell into place again." She glanced at Zak, and added, "What you need is an Aunt Ruth."

"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.

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 she'd snuggle against his shoulder, or raise her head and give him a kiss on the jaw...

"When we locate the nest, dip the wing so I can get a good look inside," Zak said.

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. "Somewhere on the ridge, in the old-growth timber up there. 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. "And there's some on Carl Yaeger's tract too. My dad wanted to buy that piece of land a few years ago. He could have paid for it fast with those old trees."

"That's our biggest problem with the eagle population," Zak said, "harvesting old-growth trees. 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. Could you circle the old-growth once more before we head out? I want to look for perch nests."

"Sure," Tess replied. "What are those?"

"Unoccupied nests the 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
McKensie
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 said, "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 that she didn't sit around waiting for him to come back, like the naive little fool she'd been. He didn't need to know she'd spent her days doing that, all the while hoping and praying that 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, as much as she wanted to, but when the opportunity came, the question popped out.

"Mostly France and Washington," Zak replied.

"Why
France
?" Tess asked, surprised that he'd been out of the country. She'd always imagined him in
Navarre
at his parents place. She'd even thought about going there after her divorce, but never could bring herself to do it. She didn't want to face the humiliation of finding Zak there with a Basque wife, as his father would have expected.

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

Tess didn't reply. Her attention was drawn to the grayish specks flipping against the windscreen. She eased the controls back. 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 that ridge," Tess said. "Start looking for the lake. There's a grass airstrip beside 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 it is!" she exclaimed. "
Pine
Lake
. But I don't see the landing strip." She leaned forward, focusing on the opening in the woods where the lake lay, then through the oil-splattered windscreen she saw the cleared area that served as a landing field. "Damn that landing strip's short," she said. "I hope the wind's right because we don't have time to approach from the other direction. As it is, we'll have to dip in over those 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," 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, now. 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…”

CHAPTER FOUR

The clearing came up fast, and within seconds they skimmed close to the tops of the trees. Tess cut the power as the plane plunged toward the airstrip. Peering through a windscreen almost completely obscured by oil, she maneuvered into the clearing and touched down, feeling a jolt as the main gear contacted. Holding her breath, she struggled to ease the controls forward, until the nose wheel touched down. Then throwing all her weight onto the pedals, she applied the brakes. The plane shuddered and bounced over the uneven ground while careening toward the wall of trees at the end of the runway... skidding to a halt at the edge of the clearing, a breath away from the mammoth trees rising before them.

After the plane dipped to a halt, Tess sat for a moment, staring into the dense growth, wondering what quirk of fate spared them from plummeting into the impenetrable wall of trees. But gradually an awareness of how close they'd come began to dawn... and a nervous shudder rushed through her, and her heart began to pound, and she started shaking uncontrollably. Zak pulled her to him and held her. It felt natural to have the side of her face pressed to his chest, and his cheek against the top of her head, and his arms wrapped snuggly around her. She closed her eyes and tried to hold onto the memory of what they'd once had, just a little longer...

"I never thought ground could feel so good," Zak said. When she raised her head to look at him, he smiled down at her. "That little scrap of a fourteen-year-old girl was right. She can fly a plane. You did one hell of a job bringing us down." Then his eyes became dark, his gaze intense, and he lifted her chin with the curve of his knuckle, and slowly moved toward her...

And the door on Tess's side of the plane flew open. "Everybody in here okay?"

Tess jerked her head back and looked around. "I think so," she said, more shaken by having Zak's arms around her and the near kiss, than by what could have happened.

"You're damn lucky. The whole front of the plane's covered with oil," the man said. "I'm Ralph Tolsted."

"Tess O'Reilly," Tess said, moving away from Zak, and this is--"

"Zak de Neuville." Zak reached around Tess to shake Ralph's hand.

"You're from the wildlife park," Ralph said to Zak. "I wasn't expecting such a dramatic arrival. That was a nice piece of flying, young lady." He stepped aside to let Tess climb out.

"Thanks," Tess replied. Gripping the wheel to quiet her shaking hands, she eased out of the seat, then stepped from the plane on weak, tenuous legs.

When she started to sway, Zak put his arm around her and said, "You okay?"

She nodded. "I will be in a few minutes." She walked around the front of the plane and stared at it. Oil bathed the windshield and streamed along the sides of the fuselage and under the belly. She raised the engine cowling and peered inside and located the problem. "A broken oil line," she said. "Looks like we've lost most of our oil. Dad better have a spare hose. We've got to get back this afternoon." She climbed back into the cockpit and searched through the toolbox for a spare hose, but found none. Flipping open her cell phone, she tried to call the airpark, but couldn't get a signal.

"We don't get cell service out here," Ralph said. "I'll call from the house and have the airpark send a plane out with a hose. It's only a twenty-minute flight up here."

Looking anxiously at Ralph, Tess said, "Could you call now? I need to get back today."

"No problem," Ralph replied. He headed toward a compound of buildings that included a modest house provided by the forest service, and a few minutes later, returned and announced that the airpark would look into getting the hose and fly it out as soon as they could." Then he turned to Zak and said, "I got your letter about the chick-transplant program and I've been watching that eyrie over there." He pointed to a huge nest atop an ancient fir. "I looked down from the ridge, and from what I could tell through the glasses, there's only one chick."

Zak eyed the nest. "I was afraid of that."

"There was other stuff in the nest too," Ralph said. "Looked like bottles."

Zak laughed. "Eagles are packrats. We've found bottles, light bulbs, old shoes, even a framed picture in one." He eyed the nest, and added, "From the size of that eyrie, I'd say it was twenty-five to thirty years old, so there could be just about anything in it. Since we have a little time before the plane from the airpark comes, I'd like to hike up to the ridge and look into it if you can show me to the trail."

"Sure," Ralph said. "It's not far."

Zak turned to Tess. "You coming?"

Tess glanced at the plane. "I don’t think so. I want to be here when the hose arrives."

"It'll be an hour before anyone can get here," Ralph said, "and when you hear the plane you won't be more than a few minutes away. But it's only about ten minutes up the trail to where you can look down into the nest. You have plenty of time."

Tess reluctantly agreed, and Zak grabbed his binoculars from the plane. As they followed Ralph toward the trailhead, Tess eyed the gathering of clouds over the mountain, hoping they wouldn't keep building, knowing they could be trapped for the night. The thought of having to explain to her father the reason she didn't show up at camp the following morning brought a sinking feeling to her stomach.

At the trailhead, Ralph pointed the way, saying, "The overlook's not more than a couple hundred feet up the trail. There's a wide flat area where you can look down." He turned and headed back to the house.

Tess and Zak started up the steep grade, following several switchbacks until, before long, they found themselves high on the hillside. At the level spot on the trail that Ralph described, Zak stopped and looked through the binoculars. While peering down into the nest, he said, "Ralph's right. One chick. I can't tell what else is in the nest though, but it looks like a couple of bottles. Here, take a look." He turned and handed Tess the binoculars.

She turned the focusing ring until a woolly gray eaglet came into view. "I thought it would be brown," she mused.

"That's postnatal down," Zak said. "That chick's only about a couple of weeks old."

As Tess watched the young bird through the glasses, an adult swooped into view and perched on the edge of the nest, a fish dangling from it's hooked beak.

"That's probably the mother," Zak said. "For the first few weeks the father hunts and the mother feeds. Keep watching and you'll see her show her chick how to rip the kill into pieces."

A series of chortling cries came from high above, and another eagle swooped down and glided in a wide circle. The mother bird left the nest and flew up to join her mate. Together, the pair circled in a wide arc, then suddenly, they came together and plunged toward the earth, rolling and tumbling as they spiraled downward, until it seemed certain they'd crash. At the last moment, in perfect control, they broke apart and pulled out of their plunge, then soared swiftly and silently together on a current of wind.

"That was amazing," Tess said. When she turned to look at Zak, he was so close she could feel his breath on her face. He was also looking at her with that intensity again...

She turned away and continued to watch the pair, but the look on Zak's face lingered, as did the almost uncontrollable urge to just let Zak kiss her and get it over with and see if there really was something about the way he kissed that was different from the way David had kissed. Two mouths meeting, tongues tangling, breaths intermingling. That's it. A kiss was a kiss...

"When they're courting, their aerobatics can be pretty spectacular," Zak said. "Just then they locked talons and begin a cartwheel toward the ground in a sort of love ritual."

Tess couldn't help turning toward him then, and again he was looking at her, not the eagles. "They mate for life," he said, holding her gaze, "sometimes staying together as long as twenty-five years. And when one dies, the other begins a lonely journey, roaming the skies." He bent down, and curving a finger beneath her chin, brushed her lips with his. Although his only contact was his finger on her chin and his mouth on hers, it triggered a reaction in Tess that could not have been stronger had he taken her in his arms and held her.

He slowly withdrew his lips. "Like I said, some habits die hard."

 
Tess moved away from him, and said, in a wavering voice, "We'd better get back."

Without waiting for his response, she turned and headed down the trail at a quick pace, intending to stay well ahead of him. It bothered her that the short, brief kiss was
not
just a kiss that made her lips tingle a little bit... that it sent her heart pounding, and her breath catching, and her mind reeling between wanting to throw her arms around Zak and kiss him long and hard, or pushing him away and demanding he explain his quick marriage seven years ago. And she
would
expect answers before she let him kiss her again. If she let him kiss her, that is.

When they returned to the house, Ralph met them on the porch. His face was glum. "The airpark called and said the ceiling's too low and they can't get here until morning."

"I have to get back today," Tess said, in a frantic voice. "There's got to be another way out."

"There's a road, but from here to Baker's Creek is almost eighty miles, since it has to go around to the mountain to connect with the road over the pass." Ralph replied. "But I told them at the airpark that you wanted to leave as early as possible in the morning, and they said they'd get here as soon as they could."

As her father's face appeared in her mind, Tess's heart started racing. Flying off on her own and getting stranded was one thing. Being stranded because she'd taken Zak up was entirely another. "Did the person you talked to know who I was?" she asked in a tentative voice.

"Oh sure," Ralph replied. "He said he'd call and let your father know that you and Zak got down safely and would be staying here tonight." He offered a smile of reassurance, and added, "Tess, you can stay in the spare bedroom. Zak can sleep on the couch."

Tess barely caught what he said, after the words,
'let your father know you and Zak are fine
.' There was no way around it now. Her father would be livid.

They spent the evening gathered around Ralph and his radio, trying to make contact with Ezzie, or Curt Broderick, or anyone at Timber West. But by eleven o'clock, no one answered the phone in the trailer, which was the only phone there, so she knew she could do nothing more. With luck, the hose would be there by eight the following morning, and she'd be back at camp by nine. The men would just have to hang around after breakfast and wait and wonder.

After signing off, Ralph gave Zak a pillow and blanket, then showed Tess to the spare bedroom, and retired for the night. Later, when Tess was scurrying from the bath to the bedroom, Zak intercepted her in the hallway, and said, "I'm sorry about all of this."

"So am I," Tess replied. "I should never have agreed to take you up."

"You're right," Zak said. "It puts me squarely between you and your father again. I never intended that to happen."

"Well it did, and my father will be furious." Tess backed away, saying, "After this you need to stay away from me, even if we're only a few hundred feet through the woods."

"Is that want you want?" Zak asked, taking her by the shoulders.

Tess braced her palms on his chest when he moved closer. "Yes, that's what I want. When I get back I'll have a whole lot of explaining to do, and my father will be in no mood to listen to my convoluted reasons for taking you up in his plane. I can't even explain it to myself. And you should never have kissed me because I have no intention of getting involved with you again. My father's health is far more important that anything you might have to offer me now."

She turned and went into the bedroom and shut the door.

***

The next morning, the plane from the airpark didn't arrive until almost nine. Tess immediately went about replacing the oil line, and as soon as they arrived at the airpark, she called her father, only to learn from Aunt Ruth that he'd stormed out of the house at first light, and that he'd been in a state of anxiety and agitation ever since he got the call from the ranger about the plane, knowing that Zak was somehow involved.

Tess was so upset that she immediately took it out on Zak. "Taking you up in my father's plane was the biggest mistake I've ever made. Well, maybe the second biggest mistake," she corrected. "Getting involved with you in the first place was the biggest. Now my father's out trying to run the camp, and he's got to be royally pissed that this all happened because of you, and with your father about to start breathing fire down his back about a few damn trees..."

"Look, I'm sorry," Zak said. "I admit it was a big mistake. But I can't imagine your father being anything but relieved that you got the plane down safely. I'll square things away with him. As long as he's convince there's nothing going on between us again he should listen to reason."

"That shouldn't be hard to do because there is nothing between with us," Tess said, just to set things straight. "But I don't want you trying to intervene. My father's mad enough as it is."

"Yeah, well, I got you into this and I'm not going to walk away from it," Zak said.

Tess glared at him. "And just what, exactly, do you intend to say to him?"