by Cora Seton
“Avery, slow down.” Riley had followed Avery up the stairs to one of the manor’s guest rooms, where Avery paced back and forth, too distraught to sit.
“I can’t compete with her. Did you see her? She’s gorgeous. She’s probably brilliant. Sue loves her—”
“But Walker doesn’t. He loves you.”
“Does he? Because he’s known me for nearly a year, and obviously he’s done nothing to break off his relationship with her! He had plenty of chances just now to tell her he’s marrying me, and he didn’t.” She hated how her voice was rising. How trapped and betrayed and devastated she felt. He’d told her he was going to propose tomorrow, and she’d believed him.
Didn’t she ever learn from her mistakes?
“Of course he loves you. Didn’t you hear how angry he was? He doesn’t want this Elizabeth person. He just didn’t want to make a scene.”
“But you said it yourself before—Sue is a formidable woman. What she wants, she gets.”
“Walker won’t marry a woman he doesn’t love—”
“Yes, he will. If he thinks it’s the honorable thing to do! He always listens to Sue,” Avery burst out.
“Not always. At least, he didn’t when I knew him as a kid. There’s more to this than we know,” Riley said reasonably. “You’re upset and rightly so, but don’t fly off the handle. Give it time. Besides, you can’t leave Base Camp. We need you here.” She hugged Avery.
“I can’t stay if she does.” Avery pulled back, even though she appreciated Riley’s intentions. She still felt uncomfortable around all her friends—they hadn’t believed her when Clem framed her for the theft of Walker’s fan. “I just can’t.”
“Then I’ll make sure she doesn’t. You stay here. I’ll go see what’s happening.” She sat Avery down on the bed, slipped out of the room and shut the door behind her. As soon as she did, Avery was back on her feet pacing again. She couldn’t kid herself; she’d always known this moment would come, ever since Sue had announced to them Walker was promised to someone. All this time she’d managed to keep her hopes in check—until this morning, when Walker had declared his intentions. Then she’d let them run wild.
Here was her punishment, right on time.
All Elizabeth had to do was crook her little finger, and Walker had folded. Maybe it was because Sue was there. Maybe Riley was right, and he didn’t want to spoil Win and Angus’s wedding.
All Avery knew was that he hadn’t stood up for her. Hadn’t said, “I’m marrying Avery.”
Hadn’t said anything to her at all.
She was so stupid, hitching her cart to a man who wasn’t free to be with her. Riley was right; he’d seemed angry at Elizabeth’s arrival and stunned when she demanded that he marry her, but he’d known this was coming, and he hadn’t stopped it.
A new thought occurred to her, and Avery sat down, the fight going out of her. Had Walker wanted to marry Elizabeth all this time? Had he been afraid Elizabeth might not show up at the last minute?
Maybe she was nothing but a backup bride.
Avery hugged her arms across her stomach, afraid she might be sick. Stayed there until she heard Riley returning.
“Sue and Elizabeth are leaving.” Riley said. She sat next to Avery on the bed and took her hand. “They both look mad as hell.”
At least that was something.
“Do you think you can pull yourself together and come back to the reception? I’m serious, Avery, you can’t leave Base Camp. Not with my baby coming. Not ever. No matter what happens.” She patted her belly as if it trumped everything.
Avery let out a gusty breath. At one time it would have, but her friendship with Riley wasn’t as strong as it once was. Neither Riley nor any of the others had defended her when Clem had accused her of stealing Walker’s treasured ceremonial fan. Why should she stay here when everyone she cared about had let her down?
“Avery.” Riley’s eyebrows knotted. “Avery, you know we’re all so sorry we ever doubted you, and we’d do anything to take it back. You know how bad Clem made it look. We shouldn’t have been fooled, but we were. I wish I could go back in time and change everything.”
None of them could do that. If she could go back in time, she’d erase this whole year—
No.
That wasn’t true. It had been the best year of her life even if Walker had strung her along and her friends had been tricked by a conman into blaming her for something she didn’t do.
“I love you.” Riley held her hand even tighter. “You know I do. You know how much I’d hate being here if you left.”
“How can I stay?”
“If anyone leaves, it should be Walker!” Riley cried, and Avery found herself softening—a little.
“Then everyone would have to leave,” she said reasonably. The only way for any of them to keep Base Camp was for all ten of the original founding men to marry and stay here—at least until June first.
“You can’t quit now,” Riley said. “Walker loves you. Nothing can persuade me I’m wrong about that. Give him twenty-four hours to straighten it all out, at least. I can’t believe he would marry anyone other than you.”
One more day.
Avery sighed, raw with pain. She supposed she could hang around for another twenty-four hours. To leave now meant ruining Angus and Win’s wedding, and they didn’t deserve that.
Besides, she had no idea where she would go.
As angry as she’d been at Walker and her friends for not believing her, she realized now she’d assumed those rifts would heal over time. She’d wanted to believe in Walker’s love—and in the friendship she’d shared with Riley, Savannah and Nora.
She was such a fool. Always looking for things to turn out when she knew darn well she wasn’t lucky like that.
For the first time, she contemplated a future without Riley and the others. Without Walker.
What would it be like to be on the outside looking in? To hear about life at Base Camp second-hand?
She couldn’t bear to think about it. “I guess you’re right,” she forced herself to say. She loved it here at Base Camp. Knew in her heart that Riley, Savannah and Nora had been tricked. They still cared about her, and she cared about them.
As for Walker, she was going off half-cocked. She hadn’t let him explain.
Didn’t want him to.
She didn’t think she’d ever forget how it felt when Elizabeth had asked, “Are you going to marry me or not?” and Walker hadn’t told her no. It was like someone had torn her in two, pulled out her heart and set it on fire.
This morning, she’d utterly believed he meant to make her his wife.
Now she wasn’t sure. Why had he hesitated? Why not just tell Elizabeth no?
To save them all from a scene? Or because seeing Elizabeth again had changed his mind?
Avery closed her eyes in pain.
If he married Elizabeth, he’d break her heart, but it wasn’t the first time it had been broken, she reminded herself.
She’d always survived.
Would watching him love someone else be better or worse than leaving Base Camp for good and losing everything?
Avery didn’t know.
“Avery—”
“I forgive you.” She opened her eyes again and swallowed at the relief on Riley’s face.
“Really?”
Avery’s heart softened even more. Riley really did love her.
“Of course. You guys thought you saw me take the fan. How could you have known Clem doctored the footage?” she forced herself to say. When it had happened, she’d thought nothing could hurt her the way it did to know all of them believed her capable of such a thing.
Now she knew how much worse things could get.
“We should have known,” Riley said. “You’d never do anything to hurt someone else!”
“But I had been stealing things—as a joke.” Avery sighed. “That’s the messed-up thing, Riley. No matter how much someone else hurts me, I always manage to hurt
myself worse.” Like the way she’d accepted Walker’s assertion that he’d marry her before he’d done what it took to clean up his past.
Riley pulled her into a hug. “We’ve all made mistakes this year. All we can do is try to move forward.”
“I guess.” Could she do that if Walker married Elizabeth?
She thought of the way he’d held her hand while Ruth labored this morning. How tender he’d been when she cried with relief and joy after Champ’s birth.
Walker understood her better than anyone else. She’d never felt so loved as she did with him. Was she making too much of what had happened tonight? Should she give him the chance to explain?
Once again she heard Elizabeth’s voice in her head. “Are you going to marry me or not?”
She didn’t need to hear anything from Walker, Avery decided, until he’d answered Elizabeth definitively. Yes or no. It was a simple question.
“It will be so much better if you make an appearance,” Riley said. “People will focus on Win and Angus again. Wash your face. Have a drink of water. No one will know you were upset.”
Avery doubted that was true. She had always been an open book. Everyone knew she loved Walker—
And now they’d know how miserable she would be if he left her behind.
Walker lay on his bedroll in the bunkhouse the following morning, staring through the dark at the ceiling, wondering why he’d woken so early with a sense that something wasn’t right.
Something besides the obvious.
It wasn’t that Elizabeth had arrived in Chance Creek last night and challenged him to marry her, disrupting all his careful plans.
It wasn’t that Avery hadn’t spoken a word to him since she’d run from the ballroom last night, even though he’d tried to take her aside once the reception was over to explain what had happened.
It was something else. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on until a breeze stirred through the room from one of the windows left open last night.
A warm breeze.
Walker sat up. It was mid-April, and not too long ago, snow lay on the ground outside. April could be mild, but that breeze wasn’t chilly at all, and the sun wasn’t even up yet.
He noiselessly got out of his sleeping bag, as Avery turned over in hers across the room. Until recently they’d shared the bunkhouse with Byron, one of the cameramen, and his girlfriend, Leslie, who’d come to Base Camp expecting to marry Angus but had shifted her affection to the younger man. That became uncomfortable as soon as Byron and Leslie hooked up, and even though all the single residents of Base Camp were supposed to sleep here, Walker had given them permission to spend their nights temporarily in the shell of the tiny house that was being built for his use when he was married.
He hadn’t reckoned with how awkward it would be to sleep alone in the bunkhouse with just Avery when he wasn’t allowed to touch her—even more so after Clem pulled his scam. It was torture keeping to his side of the room night after night when he knew Avery wasn’t sleeping well, either. As hard as it had been to keep his distance these past weeks, he was grateful now he had.
He couldn’t believe the ultimatum Elizabeth had given him last night—or the threat she’d uttered. That she’d make his life miserable.
She was already doing that.
Was Avery awake? Walker couldn’t tell.
Last night when the reception was over, she’d gotten ready for bed, disdaining his help with her gown, wrapped herself in her blankets on her pallet on the floor and turned her back to him without a word. The implications were clear; she had nothing to say to him as long as Elizabeth was in the picture.
He couldn’t blame her.
Should he wake her up now and explain what was going on? Walker remembered her drawn face and red-rimmed eyes last night. If she was sleeping, he should let her be. Today he’d get his chance to face down Elizabeth and Sue, without an audience—except perhaps a camera crew. Tomorrow he and Avery could start fresh.
As for Elizabeth, what had gotten into her? Walker pulled on his clothes and went outside. Why did she look like she’d fought a war? Why on earth had she come home to marry him? He’d never once considered the possibility she’d hold him to the stupid promise they’d made so many years ago.
Something was wrong. He knew it in his gut. Whatever it was, he’d have to help solve it and send her on her way, before she ruined everything.
As he crossed to the barn, figuring he could feed the chickens and goats and other critters and get those chores done, he remembered what Sue had said last night when she’d called him long after she and Elizabeth left the reception.
“Why would you treat her that way when she’s just come home?”
“You know why.” He wasn’t going to allow Sue to pretend she didn’t know he was in love with Avery.
“You made a promise.”
“I did,” he acknowledged, even now torn between telling her he had no intention of following through and wanting to give Elizabeth the chance to explain why she’d lied in the first place.
“It’s time for you to step up. It’s your job to give that girl a good life.”
His job.
Because of what his father had done.
Would he ever be free of Joe Norton’s sins? He remembered little of his father. A tall man—strong. His brooding silences at the dinner table on his rare trips home. His sharp replies when Sue remonstrated him for staying out late instead of spending time with his son.
The way he had of looking into Walker’s eyes as if he couldn’t fathom Walker’s presence in his life.
His father had joined the Army months after Walker was born and served as if a demon was after him, according to Sue.
Maybe one had been.
Everyone made mistakes, but some mistakes had consequences so devastating it seemed like some independent evil had to be behind it.
Walker stood in the empty barn. Had he been fooling himself all these years? Sue had always spoken of the debt their family owed to Elizabeth’s, but the idea of providing Elizabeth protection and sustenance through marrying her was laughable.
At least it had been until last night.
Elizabeth was the most independent woman he knew. She’d made it clear from the time they were children she had no interest in him—not like that. Hell, they were brought up practically as brother and sister. Fought like cats and dogs when they were young. Barely spoke when they got older.
Why was he supposed to shoulder responsibility for the mistakes of a man he barely knew? Or the lie of a teenage girl trying to make her sole remaining relative happy?
Walker shook his head. He couldn’t blame his father for the predicament he found himself in. Couldn’t blame Elizabeth, either. He’d said he’d marry her. He never should have done that, no matter what the circumstances.
Why the hell would she want to marry him when there’d never been a spark between them, though?
Something had happened to cause the haunted look in her eyes. Maybe if he figured out what, he could fix it and send her on her way—
Before his forty days were up.
A rumble of a truck and the flash of headlights down the lane caught his attention. Who would be coming so early? Even the camera crews wouldn’t arrive for another half hour. He watched as it parked next to one of Base Camp’s fancy new electric trucks and a woman got out.
Elizabeth, he realized with a sinking feeling in his gut.
He strode over to intercept her. He didn’t even want her on the property. She’d only hurt Avery more, and God knew they’d both done that enough already.
“What are you doing here?”
“Good morning to you, too.” Like last night, Elizabeth’s expression gave little away. She surveyed the ranch in the early morning gloom, but Walker knew she couldn’t see much other than the silhouettes of the bunkhouse and barns against a sky gradually shading from indigo to cerulean. “I have to say, the last thing I ever expected was that you’d land on reality TV.�
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He grunted. “Didn’t expect it either. Here to tell me what’s really going on? What happened to having dinner at Sue’s and talking things over then?”
She didn’t answer at first. She was probably calculating how best to regain the upper hand. They’d always fought for supremacy.
“We have a lot of catching up to do,” she allowed. “Forget dinner. I told Sue I’d spend the day with you here, instead. We don’t need an audience when we talk.”
Like hell they didn’t. They needed to tell Sue the truth.
“I’ve been busy this year—in Siberia,” Elizabeth went on.
“So I heard. But what does—?” He broke off at the sound of another engine.
Elizabeth looked over her shoulder and nodded as another vehicle pulled into the lot. “Ah, here they are.”
Walker nearly groaned when several crew members got out, bringing their equipment with them. What the hell were they doing here so early?
“Morning, Walker,” one called out.
He ignored them. Had Elizabeth told them she was coming? Why would she do that?
She waited until the crew had their equipment, including a circle of bright lights, set up before she went on. “It’s my job to study the effects of climate change on wildfires,” she said as if this entire situation was perfectly normal. “Right now I’m specifically studying the effect of climate change on fires above the arctic circle.”
He shook his head, wanting to tell her to stop bullshitting. “Can’t be too many of those.”
“You’d be surprised.” She spoke clearly for the crew’s benefit. “I was certainly surprised last year when I discovered the man who’d promised to marry me had joined a reality television show and never even told me. Especially since he’d agreed to wed within forty days from the time he drew the short straw. What if I hadn’t been able to cut my fieldwork short? What then? Would you have lost the game and ruined Base Camp for everyone?”
He opened his mouth to say he had, too, informed her—through Sue. Had been practically begging her for months to come home and sort things out.
