The Secret Promise

Chapter Nine

Allie sighed and looked down over the rushing water below. The twenty foot drop between the bank where she stood and the water made her heart race, which was more than she could say for Henry. Behind her, he was packing up the picnic he'd brought and she glanced over her shoulder. It was a sweet gesture, but she wasn't sure just how much more of him she could take.

Allie had no sooner opened her mouth to tell Henry when she heard someone ride into the clearing. She turned to look, just as Lucas climbed down out of the saddle and she let out a long, miserable sigh as he walked over.

"Well, well," he said. "Fancy meeting you here."

"What do you want, Lucas?" she asked.

Hearing them talking, Henry stood up from where he was packing up the remains of their picnic lunch and walked over. "Ah, if it isn't Lucas Dillan, the farmer," he said, condescension dripping from his voice.

"Mr. Parker, the banker," Lucas said, shaking his hand so tightly that Henry nearly squealed. He did, however, pull his hand away as quickly as he was able, rubbing the sides of it with his other hand. "You have incredibly soft hands, Mr. Parker." Lucas smiled.

"Why are you here, Lucas?" Allie asked, sounding rather annoyed.

"Well, I actually just came from town and thought I'd rest my horse a bit. Didn't realize you were here, but what a happy coincidence!"

She glanced at his horse and noticed that it wasn't breathing hard. She also knew that town was literally half a mile a way. There was no reason why he'd need to 'rest' his horse.

"We were just leaving," Allie said as Lucas walked about the clearing as if he'd never been there before.

"Why? Was he boring you to death?" he glanced at Allie before walking to the ledge that overlooked the river.

Allie rolled her eyes.

"You can't even swim here!"

Allie gasped and Henry glared at him. "We weren't here to swim!"

"Obviously," Lucas turned around and took a good look at Allie. "She's still got her boots on."

"I beg your pardon, sir!" Henry puffed up his chest as if to show how utterly incensed he was at such an inappropriate comment.

Allie let out a soft groan and headed towards the horses. She fully intended to drive away with Henry's brand new buggy if she had to and leave the two of them there to duke it out alone.

The large brown bear, sniffing around at the edge of the clearing stopped her in her tracks. "Um, gentlemen," she said softly.

Lucas just grinned at Henry's obvious bluffing. The man was easily six inches shorter than he was and it was fairly easy to see that he'd never done a hard day's work in his entire life. "I mean, I understand why the lady wouldn't want to remove her shoes in your presence,"

"I would never expect any lady to remove their shoes in my presence!" Henry huffed.

Lucas leaned forward. "I've seen her with her shoes off plenty of times," he whispered.

Henry's mouth dropped open, which was precisely the reaction Lucas was expecting. He didn't bother adding that Allie had been all of ten or eleven years old at the time.

"Gentlemen!" Allie said, a bit more urgently.

Henry continued trying to stare Lucas down, but Lucas turned to look at her, absolutely unfazed by Henry's need to be an alpha male.

"If the two of you would stop bickering for two seconds, you might have noticed that we have a visitor!"

"Who?" Henry looked utterly confused. He glanced towards the trail that Lucas had just ridden in on and didn't see anyone.