I don’t care if your dog died. When you step onstage, you play your part. You think Broadway stars sulk in their changing rooms if they have a hard day? They’re professionals. They show up. They leave themselves at the door. They never let the company down!
Ms. Samuelson’s directives had served her well many times during her life when she couldn’t afford to let anyone see her true feelings, but Avery had never needed to call on them as much as she did right now. Funny how everyone always told her she wore her heart on her sleeve.
They didn’t know her heart. Not really.
And Walker wasn’t going to know it now.
Elizabeth hadn’t come here on a whim. She loved him.
Had loved him all her life.
“Avery.”
She put up a hand to stop Walker from advancing. If he touched her after Elizabeth had kissed him, it would cheapen everything they’d had so far. Maybe that was unfair. Maybe Walker wasn’t to blame for Elizabeth’s actions.
But he hadn’t stopped her.
“I’m going to make this right,” he said.
“How?”
He set his jaw and shook his head. “Trust me.”
Trust him? Did he have any idea what he was asking of her?
He held out his hand. “Let’s do our chores.”
Avery let out a sound that was half laugh, half gasp of disbelief. Chores? With him—and Elizabeth? She’d heard what the other woman said. Elizabeth was here to be his wife, starting today.
“Are you sending her home?” she managed to ask, proud of the way her voice remained steady.
Walker hesitated, and Avery knew she’d lost him.
Elizabeth had some kind of hold over him. A promise. And the one thing Avery knew was how highly Walker valued his honor. It was why he hadn’t led her on. “When I’m free,” he told her once when he’d leaned in to kiss her, then drawn back before their mouths touched. At the time, she’d thought he was as frustrated by the waiting as she was.
But maybe she’d been reading too much into all that.
“I’ll sort it out. I promise.”
She didn’t want to hear about promises. “I… can’t do this.” She turned on her heel and headed to the bunkhouse, bracing for him to come after her. Praying he would, even if the cameras followed him.
He didn’t.
Avery checked over her shoulder despite telling herself not to, but the only ones behind her were crew members.
Walker was giving her up without a fight.
She swerved around the bunkhouse and scrubbed the tears from her face with her sleeve as she stumbled along. How could she have been so fooled by him? She covered her face with her hands as shame heated her cheeks. He’d never made her any promises, had he? Not until yesterday. It was all looks and little courtesies and dry jokes that only they shared. She’d read love into his tenderness with her, desire into the time they’d spent doing chores. It could just as easily have been the kind of attention a bored man gave to the nearest woman when his real love was miles away.
If that were true, though, why would he say he was going to propose to her today?
She dried her cheeks again and marched on as it grew light. What did it matter? Today had arrived, and he hadn’t proposed.
The truth was, Elizabeth had something she didn’t have. Walker’s ties to his grandmother and the Crow clan meant everything to him. His mother had never figured in his life. His grandparents in town had done their best but had little to offer him compared to the rich community he experienced on the reservation. Over time, the Crow side of his family had claimed his heart.
Elizabeth was part of that.
When her phone buzzed, Avery took the call without thinking and winced when she realized it was her mother. She was feeling far too raw to deal with her mom’s happy chatter, but it was too late now.
“How’s my favorite daughter?” Diana Lightfoot asked.
“I’m your only daughter,” Avery said tiredly.
“You’re still my favorite! Has Walker proposed yet, or is he waiting a couple of days to build tension?”
“He hasn’t proposed,” Avery said flatly.
“He will,” Diana trilled. “I can’t wait for your wedding. It’s going to be so romantic, I just know it. You are cute as a bug, and he’s so handsome!”
Nothing about this was romantic, but she couldn’t say that to her mother. Her parents’ story was all rainbows and sunshine, love at first sight and happily ever after. They called each other darling and honey bunch, tucked love notes into lunch bags and between the pages of books each other was reading, held hands when they walked and smiled when they met up again after the shortest separation.
Once she’d thought she’d have a love like that.
“What about your work? Have you convinced Fulsom to back your project?”
“Not likely.” Avery nearly snorted. Fulsom had plenty of money to throw behind Renata and Eve’s documentary ideas, but when she’d gathered her courage and called him directly to see if he was interested in funding the romantic comedy she was writing, she hadn’t made it past his secretary. She’d let the other women know she was done with going along to get along. She’d be focusing on her own work from here on in, no matter how hard it might be to get anywhere with it. Since then, she’d found it hard to focus.
“You’ve given everything back you stole, right, honey? You know that worried me. I don’t want the others to dislike you.”
“I gave everything back.” Avery counted to ten. God knew she wouldn’t do anything to be disliked. Harmony and friendship, love and cuddles, that’s what the Lightfoots were all about.
“Everything will work out. It always does. Oh, here comes your father with the biggest bunch of flowers you ever saw! We’re heading out for our morning walk. Call you later, honey!”
Avery pocketed the phone with a sigh. Everything might
