Broken Promises

by Patricia Watters

  "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 whe
n 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?"

  "I'll tell it as it is," Zak said. "I hired you to take me up because the park plane's out of commission. I'll give you a check right now to pass on to him. That should square things away."

  "Fine, you can give me a check," Tess said, "but I still want to talk to him alone. The doctor said he shouldn't even be at camp, and I don't want him losing his temper, which will happen if you're around." She got in the Jeep and slammed the door.

  Zak climbed into the passenger seat, and said, "I'll have to talk to him eventually. We still have the property line to settle."

  "I told you I'd pay for the trees," Tess said as she was pulling out of the parking lot.

  "That's fine," Zak replied, "but if the location of the property line isn't settled soon, your father will be right back cutting trees, and my father will slap him with a law suit.”

  Tears of anger and frustration burned Tess's eyes. "I wish they'd get off each other's backs," she said, gripping the wheel.

  "So do I," Zak replied. "But that's not going to happen."

  Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into Zak's drive and stopped, but left the engine running. Zak opened the door and jumped down, then peered across the passenger seat, and said, "For whatever it's worth, thanks for taking me up, but I wish you'd let me explain to your father. I feel responsible for what happened."

  "Well, actually, you're not," Tess conceded, in a less contentions tone. "If my father had been servicing the plane regularly we wouldn't have had a broken hose, so he'll have some explaining to do too."

  Zak stepped aside and Tess backed around and drove to her cabin, where she changed into work clothes, grabbed her hard hat, and headed to the compound. There, she learned that her father had taken a couple of men to where the four trees had been cut, so she immediately went to find out what was going on.

  In the clearing near the property line, she spotted her father standing near Sean Herring, who was limbing a downed tree. When she looked beyond the men, her heart thumped in dismay. Stacked in a pile were the four logs he'd cut the week before, but now, four more had been dragged onto the clearing.

  "Damn!" she said in an exasperated voice. Jumping from the Jeep, she rushed over to her father, and said, "What are you doing, Dad? This is not Timber West land!"

  "The hell it's not," Gib replied. "I know my own land."

  Realizing it was pointless to argue with him about the trees, Tess turned the focus on his health. "You're not supposed to be here," she said. "You know what the doctor told you."

  Leveling angry eyes on her, he said, "Somebody's got to run the camp."

  "Didn't Swenson show up?"

  "I'm surprised you'd ask," Gib clipped.

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Because you're pretty quick to go flying off with that damn Basque and leave the whole operation to run itself!"

  "It was a business arrangement," Tess said, in a restrained voice.

  Gib's eyes narrowed. "I wasn't aware you operated a flying service."

  "Zak paid me to fly him over some eagle nests," Tess replied, her heart hammering rapidly.

  "So you fly because he says fly, then ditch the plane and spend the night with--"

  "I didn't spend the night with Zak. We stayed with Ralph Tolsted," Tess replied. "And the plane's back at the airpark."

  Pinning her with irate eyes, Gib said, "Why the hell is he back anyway?"

  "He's working at the wildlife park," Tess replied.

  "Or maybe he just likes the young girls around here better."

  Tess's fingers curled into her palms. "I'm tired of your cutting remarks about Zak," she said, trying to hold her temper. "I loved him and he loved me, and he wasn't some kind of pervert."

  Gib flailed a hand in the air. "You were too young to know what you wanted so you let that no-count sheepherder crawl in your bed by promising to make legal what never should have happened in the first place."

  "I was seventeen!" Tess cried.

  "Just barely!" Gib fired back. He drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes.

  Tess reached for his arm. "Dad? You okay?"

  Gib opened his eyes again, and continued in a low voice, "A lot of years have separated us, and if I could, I'd give my soul to have those years back. But if it came down to letting the daughter, who was my entire life, go off with a man whose only goal was to get her into his bed, and I had it within my power to prevent it, I'd do the same thing again, so help me God, I would."

  As Tess looked into her father's tired eyes, she felt the pain he must have suffered because of her, and for the first time in years, she put her arms around him and buried her face against his chest, and said, "Can we start over... try to recover what we threw away?"

  "How?" Gib asked.

  "By discussing Zak objectively."

  Gib mumbled his disapproval.

  "That's part of our problem," Tess said, releasing him. "When you're angry, you don't talk. You mumble or walk away. We need to talk about this."

  "Well, I can't pretend I'm glad Zak de Neuville's back."

  "I know," Tess said. "But he is, and you'll have to get used to that."

  "I'm not sure I can."

  "Can you at least try, for us? You and me, not for Zak and me.”

  Gib gave a weary sigh and looked at her. "It's really important to you, isn't it?"

  "Yes," Tess replied. "I want us to understand each other, and the only way we can do that is to stop tippy-toeing around the subject of Zak. We're quick to fight and argue about him, but we've never discussed him in an objective way."

  "Okay then," Gib said. "Start by answering one question. Do you still love him?"

  Tess shrugged. "I don't know him any more. It's been seven years, we've both been married and Zak has a son. Even if did love him, I'm not sure I'm up to being an instant mother. Besides, Zak's family still expects him to marry a Basque woman."

  "But you cared enough to take him up in the plane."

  "Only because he asked me to. He's head of the threatened and endangered species program at the wildlife park and he's working with eagles,"
Tess explained. "That's why he asked me to fly him over nest sites. If the oil line on the plane hadn't broken, or if there'd been a spare in the tool box, we would've been back yesterday. When that hose broke it sent oil all over the windscreen, and we came a heartbeat away from crashing. I don't know why you even keep the plane. You rarely fly anymore, and the plane's expensive to fly and maintain, and Timber West is operating in the hole, and it just seems like it's time to sell the plane."

  "Well I'm not ready to sell," Gib said, in a firm voice.

  And Tess knew that was the end to that discussion. But at least Zak's return was out in the open. "Now, about those eight trees," she said, motioning toward the stack of logs. "They were cut on Zak's father's land."

  "Like hell they were," Gib said. "Our land runs forty feet beyond where the trees were cut."

  "The survey map shows clearly that--"

  "Enough about the trees!" Gib broke in. "They're on my land and I intend to keep cutting."

  Tess knew it was senseless to argue with her father, deciding it would take a court order to stop him, which was out of her hands. But running the camp wasn't. Dropping the subject of the trees she said, "You didn't say if Swenson showed up today. Did he?"

  "He did just before I left camp to come here," Gib replied. "He said he would have come earlier but he had some personal business to tend to."

  "Personal business?" Tess said, with irony. "Look, Dad, I can't run a logging operation with a woods boss who refuses to work for me. I don't know why we even keep him on if this is the way he operates."

  "He worked fine for me," Gib said. "I suggest you give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he has to say."

  Tess took in a long breath through flared nostrils, and said, "I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, then I'll give him his last paycheck."