Nope. She had nothing to say to Vienna.
There was another knock on the door.
“Go away, Boone,” Avery called out from her loft, but when the door opened, Renata walked in.
Win smiled to see her dressed in a Regency gown like the other women at Base Camp. The director used to favor highly tailored clothing in the current fashion. Everyone had been terrified of her probing questions when she first arrived, but Win had gathered from watching the show that over the last few months she’d transformed. Now that she had married Greg, it looked like she’d gone all in on joining the community.
“Congratulations,” Win told her. “I can’t wait to see footage of your wedding on the next episode. You shouldn’t be working; you got married last night!”
“No one gets a honeymoon around here,” Renata said dryly. “You gave us terrific footage for the end of this week’s episode, though, with your dramatic return.”
“I aim to please.”
Avery popped her head over the edge of the loft. “Hi, Renata—what’s it like to be an old married woman?”
“It’s pretty damn nice when you’re married to Greg.” Renata’s features softened with her smile. “Can’t believe we really did it.”
“Congratulations again.”
Renata turned back to Win. “You’re right; I’m not really working yet, and you’ve been in the hospital, so we’ll take it easy on you for the moment, but you know you’re going to get a lot of scrutiny during the next forty days, right?”
“Can’t you focus on that backup bride?” Win moved to get Renata a drink. There was nowhere to sit, so they both remained standing.
“Oh, we will for sure,” Renata said. “But we’re going to focus on you, too. Which means you’ll want to let all your skeletons out of the closet before we shake them out.”
“Skeletons? That sounds intriguing,” Avery said from her high perch.
Win stilled. What did Renata mean by that? How much did she know? Was she talking about the way her mother had lied about her illness? Or was she talking about the past?
Win hated the past.
“Got it,” she said to Renata.
“Good. See you at lunch.” Renata left and closed the door behind her.
“Do you really have skeletons?” Avery asked.
“My father is running for reelection,” Win conceded, unwilling to admit to anything else while being filmed. “And he’s got his eye on the governor’s mansion.”
“Ooh, politics. That’s always good for controversy.”
“You’ve got that right.”
Chapter Six
‡
“We need to switch places,” Angus said to Walker when he found him in the barn. Boone had brought him home to shower and change before they left again to meet his backup bride at a restaurant in town. That gave him just enough time to try to get out of it altogether. “Win just came back, and now I’m supposed to hover around this Leslie person? No way!”
“Angus—what are you up to? You’re supposed to be getting ready!” Boone hurried into the barn. Angus ignored him.
“Walker? Come on, man.”
“Can’t,” Walker said. “Not until April thirteenth.” He was bent over a saddle, giving it a good polish. Angus would have liked to have this conversation face to face.
“The day after my wedding? That’s convenient,” he growled.
“What’s happening on April thirteenth?” Boone demanded.
Walker shrugged. “Family stuff.”
Angus gave a long-suffering sigh. “That is such baloney. You’ve been milking your family obligation to marry some woman since the beginning of the show. You’ve kept Avery on tenterhooks all this time, and now you’re messing with me. I can’t squire around some strange woman right now. What if Win leaves again?”
“If you think she might leave, maybe it’s better to get it over with,” Boone countered. “If we’re going to win this, she has to stay.”
“I don’t know what she might do!” Angus hadn’t meant to let that out, but his mind was all over the place. She was here, which was good, but she’d hidden his baby from him, which was really bad. She’d gone to California to help her mother, which he could understand, but she’d decided without consulting him that the best thing was for him to marry someone else—and now she was back again, without much of an explanation for what had changed her mind.
“Well, you drew the short straw fair and square,” Boone said firmly, “which means you marry next. Walker has nothing to do with it.”
Walker half turned and shrugged. “It’ll be my turn soon enough. Won’t be easy for me, either.”
Angus didn’t buy that at all. “You’ve planned this all along, haven’t you? To be last. Why?” If he hadn’t spent months living in close quarters with the man, he might not have caught the split-second of consternation in Walker’s eyes, but Angus had, and he did. “I’m right! You did plan it!”
“How could he plan it? I’m the one who did the straws—most of the time.” Boone’s brows furrowed.
He was seeing it, too. At least once, Walker had been the one who’d held the straws. Had he manipulated the game somehow?
Why?
“April thirteenth,” Walker said again, more forcibly this time. “It’ll be settled.”
“It better be,” Angus told him. “Don’t make me go through all this crap for nothing.”
Win stuck close to Avery when they went to the bunkhouse to have lunch. Other people stopped by to say hello, but everyone’s greetings were reserved. They were all waiting to see what she did, Win supposed. Waiting to see if she stayed—or took off again.
Walker sat some distance away through the meal, his gaze on Avery. Avery ignored him. When she and Win finished eating and got up to take their dishes to the kitchen, Avery swore under her breath. “Here we go again.”
“What?” But Win realized what she meant when she saw Walker coming toward them, a tall, carved stick in his hand.
“You think he’s going to try to beat some sense into me?”
Win didn’t get to answer that before Walker reached them. “For you,” he said stoically and handed her
