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dark wavy hair, always in need of a trim, his gray-green eyes, his firm chin with the hint of a cleft
she'd once teased with the tip of her tongue. The last time she'd seen him he was only twenty-one, yet
she'd considered him a man, but she was totally unprepared for the flesh-and-blood man facing her
now.
Her pulse quickened as he approached, and she had to swallow before words would come. "I...
umm... just came to see who was in the woods," she said, in an unsteady voice.
"I meant, how long have you been at Timber West?" Zak asked.
"Oh... umm... about a week," Tess replied, aware of his eyes scanning the length of her.
Even after all the years of bitterness she felt towards him at his disappearance from her life
without a word, she still wished she didn't have a yellow hardhat perched on her head, or was
wearing an old work shirt, and faded jeans, and scuffed boots. "That is, I've been about a week in
Baker s Creek... one day here at camp... well, at the cabin too," she replied, the words seeming to
stumble over each other. She willed herself to concentrate on anything but the breadth of Zak's
shoulders, and the thick wall of his chest, and a face that was even more handsome than she
remembered.
"Then you're staying in the cabin now?" Zak asked.
"I'm back and forth between here and Baker's Creek," Tess 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 it would be that way, and they made vows...
Dismissing that timeworn 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 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 replied.
"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."
"He did this time," Zak said. "Has he even bothered to look at the map?"
"He doesn't need to," Tess replied. "He owned this land long before your father bought his piece.
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 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 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... umm& 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. "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 was so unsettled by the feel of Zak's hand on her arm she could barely remember to breathe.
But that was only because of the newness of seeing him again. Whatever there was between them
before was irrelevant now because her father's health took priority. Which meant, the matter with the
trees had to be settled before Zak's father made a legal issue out of it. "I'll come," she said, "but I
won't be finished at camp until late."
Zak released her arm. "Then I'll see you when you're done."
Tess nodded and turned toward camp. She almost welcomed the diversion of dealing with a
bunch of obstinate men, if only to keep her mind off the fact that a man she'd once lusted after, and
who she'd been unable to scrub from her mind, was living not more than a couple hundred feet from
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