“We’re supposed to meet tomorrow,” he said, confirming her suspicions.
Elizabeth shrugged delicately. “I got in early.”
Between them, Sue lifted her chin. “Now the promise will be fulfilled. The healing will begin for our families. Elizabeth, your grandmother would be so pleased you’re here.”
Elizabeth smiled, and Avery’s heart sank all over again. She was lovely, but was it her imagination, or did that smile contain a trace of bitterness?
What was really happening here?
“Sue.” Walker waved a hand as if pushing his grandmother’s words away, but Elizabeth moved closer to him and raised her voice.
“She’s right, Walker, time to fulfill that promise.” The gaze she leveled at him was full of steel, even as the camera crew, who’d raced to film the action as soon as Sue appeared with Elizabeth by her side, pushed closer to record her words. “When are you going to make me your wife?”
Avery’s heart stopped. Beside her, Riley gasped.
Even Sue looked uncomfortable at Elizabeth’s direct question.
Walker’s expression hardened. “Why are you really here?”
Elizabeth met his glare with one of her own. “You made a promise.”
“But—”
Elizabeth’s gaze swept past him and landed on Avery, who flinched as if she’d been cut. “You said you’d marry me. Did you lie?”
Walker refused to turn. “Why?” he asked again. Simple and direct, the way he always was, Avery thought. Cut right to the heart of the matter and bypass all the rest.
Fury pinched Elizabeth’s face. “Do I need a reason?”
“Yes.”
For one fleeting moment, Avery saw something like fear cross Elizabeth’s features. Then her expression hardened again.
“You owe me. You know you do.”
Walker searched her face, opened his mouth to reply, then seemed to notice Sue standing next to Elizabeth. Both women watched him, their features set as stone.
Avery’s throat went dry. What did Walker owe this woman?
“So are you going to marry me or not?” Elizabeth hissed.
He couldn’t seem to find an answer to that.
Avery didn’t think she’d ever find an answer to anything again.
Chapter Two
‡
Elizabeth had changed. Where she’d once been a bright go-getter, now she seemed hard as flint—cynical beyond her years. There were lines around her eyes Walker hadn’t expected, as if life had served her a harsh hand. Her shoulders were set. Her mouth drawn.
What had happened to her since he’d last seen her?
“Well?” Elizabeth demanded.
Sue frowned. “Of course he’ll marry you. He pledged to do so.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I’ve been watching this show of his.” She gestured to the camera crew pressed around them. “He hasn’t been taking his pledge seriously at all. You know that as well as I do, Sue. He’s been running around with her.”
Walker turned to find Avery behind him, her eyes wide with pain, her face drawn into a mask of confusion. His chest burned with frustration. This was exactly what he’d hoped to avoid by meeting Elizabeth tomorrow at Sue’s place. He wanted his confrontation with her over and done with before Avery ever knew about it. Now she’d heard every word Sue and Elizabeth had said.
“Avery—” He reached for her.
She shook her head just like Elizabeth had a moment ago and turned to leave. Sue grabbed his sleeve before he could pursue her. “Let her go. This is Crow business. She has no part in it.”
“This isn’t Crow business,” he ground out, aching to follow Avery and tell her everything. It wasn’t a clan matter—it was a family one. And Avery was as good as family.
Better, he thought as he faced Sue and Elizabeth again. Where had his family been when he really needed them? His mother dead. Father dead. His grandmother present, but so caught up in her private sorrow—
“It’s our business,” Sue said, “and we’ll handle it ourselves—when we have the privacy to do so. This isn’t the place or the time. Your grandmother would be ashamed of you,” she told Elizabeth. “I brought you to say hello and to enjoy the wedding. We’re guests here.”
Elizabeth didn’t blush, but Walker thought the rebuke hit home nonetheless. Her shoulders lowered and her frown deepened as she cast a glance over her shoulder at the door through which she’d entered just moments before. “Normally, I’d prefer to do this privately as much as you,” she agreed, her voice as loud as ever, and for a fleeting second Walker wondered if Fulsom had put her up to this, before realizing how improbable that was. His chest tightened as Elizabeth pointed a dramatic finger at him, really playing it up for the cameras still focused on them. “He’s the one who’s taken this all public, going on this show and agreeing to marry at a certain time. He forced my hand.”
Walker couldn’t remember Elizabeth ever being so determined to be in the limelight. Sue looked as surprised as he was, but all she said to Walker was, “Tomorrow. Come to dinner as we planned. We’ll sort out your future then. In the meantime, remember who you are and what you owe your family.”
In other words, forget about marrying Avery. That’s why she’d brought Elizabeth here tonight, he realized. Sue knew now that Angus was wed, it would be his turn to marry in forty days. Had she been afraid he’d get carried away by the romance of the occasion and propose to Avery tonight?
He wished he had.
Walker burned to tell his grandmother exactly what he thought of her, but he’d been raised to respect his elders, and he didn’t want to ruin Angus and Win’s big night by creating a scene.
“Tomorrow,” he ground out. He’d put an end to this farce if Elizabeth wouldn’t. He should have done it a long time ago.
“Tomorrow,” Elizabeth echoed. “Don’t think you’re going to get out of it,” she added in a lower tone, but not so low the camera crew couldn’t pick it up on the boom mike. “I can make your life miserable.” She cut a meaningful glance at Sue and walked away.
“Yeah, Walker,” one of the cameramen
