Broken Promises Read Online Free

of his chest, and a face that was even more handsome than she remembered.
    "Then you're living in the cabin now?" he asked.
    "I'm back and forth between here and Baker's Creek," she replied. "I'm looking after Timber West until my dad's back on his feet. You knew he had a heart attack, didn't you?"
    "No, I didn't. I'm sorry to hear that," Zak said.
    His tone was unconvincing, and Tess knew the angst between him and her father still stood. She pulled off the hardhat and ran her finger through her hair to dislodge the tangles, and Zak's eyes immediately focused there. When he said nothing, Tess wondered if he was remembering how it had once been, when he'd run his fingers through her hair and bury his face in it and tell her she smelled like the forest...
    Restlessly she fingered the hardhat, her palms feeling cold and damp against its smooth surface. Uncomfortable with Zak's intense gaze, she looked down at the machete in his hand, noting the strength of the fingers curved around the handle. Masculine, sun-bronzed hands that once drove her wild. She even gave up her virginity to Zak because she knew she'd be with him forever. He'd promised her it would be that way, and they made vows...
    Dismissing that time-worn thought, she glanced at the woods where Zak had been hacking away, and said, "What are you doing?"
    "I came to check on the trees your father cut on our land," Zak replied.
    Tess looked toward the clearing where her dad had ordered trees to be thinned, her gaze coming to rest on four trees, now limbed and laying in a row. "My father didn't cut any trees on your land," she said. "He's thinning the trees along the property line."
    The muscles in Zak's jaw bunched. "Those trees weren't on Timber West land," he said. "According to the survey my father just had done, this strip doesn't belong to Timber West. I have the survey map at the cabin."
    "Then the map's wrong," Tess insisted. "My father knows where his land runs."
    "The map's not wrong," Zak argued. "The county did the survey."
    Tess eyed Zak with irritation. "My father doesn't cut trees on someone else's land."
    "Well, he did this time," Zak said. "Has he even bothered to look at the map?"
    "He doesn't need to," Tess replied. "If you remember, he owned this land long before your father did. He should know where the property line runs."
    "He should, but obviously he doesn't." Zak drew in a long slow breath. "Look, if we're going to be neighbors, let's not get into the feud between our fathers. Come by my cabin and I'll show you the survey map and you can square your father away before he cuts down any more trees. My father's angry enough about losing four. He's threatening to sue."
    "My father doesn't need this right now," Tess snapped. "He's supposed to stay quiet. If your father makes an issue out of four trees, regardless of whose property they're on, my father will be on his doorstep, and you know it."
    Zak sighed. "Then you'd better see that he doesn't cut any more trees. According to the map, the line goes right through the... hollow."
    Tess noted that Zak carefully avoided saying the word, grotto. "I suppose you've been back there already?" she asked, then wondered why she'd bring up something as intimate as the place where they'd made love more times than she could remember.
    Zak looked at her soberly, as he said, "I went to the area to look for the survey stake, which is about forty feet north of--" he hesitated "--the old oak tree there."
    Say it, damn it, Tess wanted to scream. Admit it's our Adam and Eve tree. Her heart pounded and blood rushed to her face. She backed away. "Look, I have to get back to camp," she said, hearing the shakiness in her voice. "Please, just don't let your father start legal action yet."
    As she turned to go, Zak caught up with her and took her arm. "At least come to my cabin and look at the property line on the map. If nothing else, maybe we can figure out a way to keep a couple of stubborn old goats from locking horns."
    Tess