“That’s a pretty nihilistic outlook Elizabeth has.” Savannah leaned close to Avery. “I can’t see Walker being attracted to a woman who thinks that way. It’s not like him at all.”
“It’s exactly like him,” Jericho countered. “You’ve seen Walker only around Avery.” He cut off and cleared his throat. “I mean… he’s always been pessimistic as hell. He didn’t join Base Camp thinking we’d change the world, you know. He just needed something to do until it all crashes and burns.”
“Nothing’s going to crash and burn. Jericho, don’t say that! That’s awful!” Savannah took Jacob from his arms and held her baby close, kissing his cheek as if to protect him from such a future. “Everything is going to be fine,” she crooned to him.
“I’m just saying what Walker thinks.” Jericho shrugged.
“I think he’s wrong,” Hope said. “Maybe one show isn’t going to change the world, but people will do the right thing when they realize how bad it all could get if they don’t.”
“Scientists have known about global warming for over a hundred years,” Jericho pointed out. “The general public has known since the ’70s. Nobody’s done anything so far. What makes you think they’re going to start now?”
Savannah stared at her husband. “They have to.” She looked down at her son again pointedly.
Jericho swore beneath his breath. “I’m sorry. Of course we’ll figure it out. Don’t mind me, I’m just on edge because we’re in the final stretch of this show, that’s all.”
Avery looked around her. Took in Boone and Riley talking together. Clay and Nora leaning together on a log, Clay’s father, Dell, close by. All the other couples talking over their meals.
She loved these people. Loved this life—and this world.
Elizabeth couldn’t be right. They had to be able to fix things. As she watched Elizabeth head off after Walker, Avery wished she would keep on going and never come back.
“Oh!” Nora, sitting on a log nearby, suddenly leaned forward, her plate slipping from her hand.
“Nora?” Clay crouched next to her. “What is it?”
“Contraction,” she said through gritted teeth, grabbing hold of his hand. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Breathe, honey. Remember to breathe,” Clay told her.
“I’ll get her bag.” Riley leaped to her feet and ran for Nora and Clay’s house.
“I’ll call the hospital and tell them we’re coming,” Boone said.
Avery looked for Walker, wanting to share the excitement of the moment with him—
And remembered he was gone.
“I remember, you know,” Elizabeth said that night as they were getting ready for bed. Walker had no idea where Avery had gotten to. He wondered if Avery would simply refuse to sleep in the bunkhouse with Elizabeth here.
He’d phoned Sue from the hospital to make sure she wasn’t expecting them at dinnertime.
“No need for dinner when you’re already living together” was all she’d said. “Elizabeth’s got her bags with her. She’ll stay with you from now on.”
Trust the two of them to think Elizabeth was welcome here without so much as an invitation.
He’d given up, joining the others in the waiting room until Clay came to give them the good news.
After waiting two weeks past her due date, Constance Lizette Pickett had been in a big hurry to see the world, and she was born barely an hour after they’d checked into the hospital. Mother and baby were resting there now and would be discharged tomorrow.
“What do you remember?” he asked Elizabeth tiredly, wishing her back wherever it was she’d come from. Siberia would do just fine.
“The night we graduated. I remember what you said.”
Walker wasn’t following. Graduation? He was a kid back then. He remembered that night, though, now that she’d brought it up. The reservation school held its ceremony the same night as Chance Creek High. Elizabeth and Netta had stopped by to wish him well, and when the two grandmothers had gone into the kitchen to discuss plans for a party the next day, he’d found himself alone with Elizabeth, who’d told him of her big ideas to change the world. Neither of them had mentioned the promise they’d made half a year before, because neither of them cared a fig about it. Netta was fading and needed to lean on someone’s arm when she walked. Her sister was coming to live with her in a week or so to help her until the end. Elizabeth had broached putting off going to college, but Netta insisted she keep to her plans.
“What did I say?” Elizabeth was persistent, and if she had some point to make, she’d make it.
“You said people don’t change and never would. You said no amount of recycling would clean up the mess we’ve made. No amount of government rules would stop pollution. No amount of education would trim down people’s buying habits. You told me I should quit trying before I started.”
Hell. “I was right, wasn’t I?” He wasn’t ready to admit to Elizabeth he’d changed his mind. There’d been so much news about environmental degradation that year. The Amazon rainforest was disappearing; species were going extinct. But kids he knew from school were excited about the expansion of fracking in northeastern Montana and North Dakota. Talking about the money they could earn. Calling him an idiot for wasting his time at college.
“You said the world was doomed.”
Walker stilled. Elizabeth dropped the bedding she’d been fussing with and came to stand in front of him. “You said you’d never marry and you certainly wouldn’t have kids. You planned to walk away from all this when you turned thirty, move north into the wilderness and watch the rest of the world burn.”
She had him there; that’s exactly what he’d said. Thirty had seemed ancient back then. Now it was in his taillights.
“So what happened to change your mind? Did you see something during your Navy SEAL years that proved you wrong?”
Walker snorted. “Just
