Riley took a deep breath as if she doubted that, and Avery’s stomach sank. Whatever was coming must be bad. “After Andrea’s wedding, I’m afraid we’ll have to put our plans on hold for a while. Fulsom is funding all this.” She waved a hand to include the manor and the rest of the ranch. Martin Fulsom, a billionaire known for his environmental causes and his flamboyant self-promotion, was the one who’d purchased the land from Riley’s uncle. “He’s given the ranch to Boone and the others to build their community on for now, but he still holds the deed and purse strings, and Boone’s let me know they have to do what he says.”
“What is he saying?” Nora asked in what Avery thought of as her “teacher voice.” Avery figured she must be tough but fair in the classroom, someone students knew they couldn’t fool.
“You know Fulsom wants to film a television show about the process of building their sustainable community. Well, he doesn’t like that we’re wearing Regency clothes when we wander around the place. We have to stop for the duration of filming, which is going to be six months.”
“We can’t wear our gowns?” Savannah asked.
“No. We’ll have to buy some modern things.” Riley’s hands twisted the fabric of her gown, and it was clear she hated the directive as much as she knew the rest of them would.
“Boone expects us to take part in the show? And he never asked?” Sometimes Boone was arrogant, or at least bossy, but even he had to know they’d never agree to that.
“He’d like us to,” Riley nearly whispered. She was obviously miserable, and Avery’s heart went out to her, but that didn’t change how she felt.
“No,” Savannah said. “I’m not going to do that. I know what reality TV is like, and I don’t want any part of it.”
“Me, neither,” Nora said. “Not in a million years.”
Avery shook her head, too, desperation growing inside her. What was Boone thinking? Did he think he got to ruin everything, and they’d traipse along after him like happy little puppies? He was stealing Riley, destroying the careful plan they’d made for their futures, making them go back to normal clothes, normal life—and she hated the life she’d left behind. “That’s an invasion of privacy. It would ruin Westfield for me,” she sputtered. She couldn’t say what she wanted to say—that she wished Boone had never come at all.
Riley closed her eyes for a moment, then seemed to steel herself and opened them again. “Then you don’t have to do it.” She began to lay out the forks and knives, her face white and her eyes bright with unshed tears.
“But you’re going to?” Savannah came to her side. “Do you really want to?”
“I plan to.”
Avery looked down. She knew Riley cared for Boone and suffered when his interference made the rest of them unhappy.
“There’s more you should know, though. About the men,” Riley went on.
More? How could there possibly be more? Avery backed away from the fire, wishing she could run out of the kitchen and slam the door behind her. She wished she could go back in time to when they’d first come up with their plan and suggest a different place to settle, one where Boone would never have found them.
“What is it?” Savannah asked.
“The television show is going to be set up like a contest. There are certain benchmarks the men have to meet and they’re… unusual.”
Avery stifled a groan. Reality television could be brutal. It was all about exposing the participants for the gleeful derision of the viewers. She’d been biting her tongue ever since she found out Boone and the other men were going to be a part of one. She’d pretended to herself it wouldn’t affect her or her friends, but she’d known she was wrong.
“Why do I feel like I’m going to hate this?” Nora asked.
“Because you are,” Riley said baldly. “You all are. His demands are utterly ridiculous. Boone said he’s doing it to make the show controversial enough that the audience will be huge. He’s going to spend a bundle advertising it. He wants it to be the most talked about thing on television.”
“What are the benchmarks?” Savannah asked.
Avery felt like she was watching their conversation from somewhere far away. She was losing her opportunity to make a better life for herself—they all were.
How could they be so calm?
“It was Fulsom who told them they had to increase their numbers until there are ten men. Now they have to build houses for each of them that use a tenth of the energy an average American house uses. All that energy has to be from renewable sources, and they have to grow or raise all the food they’ll need to get through the winter. They all need to marry, too, and have three kids on the way, which means Clay and Jericho need to find wives fast,” she added pointedly to Nora and Savannah. “They’ll probably want to try for children right away.”
Avery couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Marriages? Kids? How on earth could Fulsom dictate those kinds of things? She looked around to the others, but they were both staring at Riley.
“How come Boone isn’t doing that?” Nora asked finally.
Riley pressed her lips together, and there was a long, uncomfortable pause. Avery knew she needed to put something together here, a leap her mind couldn’t make.
Refused to make.
Nora’s and Savannah’s horrified expressions told her they already had.
Nora was shaking, her hands on her hips. “Is he doing that? Riley, what have you done?”
“I’m… I’m going to marry him,” Riley confirmed, and Avery felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Marry him? If Riley married Boone, this whole thing was over. “June first will be my wedding day,” Riley went on. “You have to understand; Boone’s an old friend. We know each other, and we have chemistry. It’s not like we just met.”
“But
