“That’s true,” Maud said cheerfully, giving Avery a final pat. “I’ll tell Mrs. Wood to set an extra place at the table just in case! See you tonight!” She took her husband’s arm, and they hustled off toward the bunkhouse.
“If Elizabeth is going to marry you, she should be nice to your friends,” Avery said tartly when they were gone and Hope had moved back to the fence to watch Champ gambol about.
“She’s not going to marry me,” Walker said.
“Really?” A flash of hope crossed Avery’s face, but she caught herself and schooled it into an indifferent nod. “Someone should tell her that.” She turned on her heel and went to the pasture fence. When he made to follow her, she held up a hand. “You’ve got a fiancée. Go spend time with her.”
“I don’t have a fiancée.”
“Then what do you have?”
“I’ve got a family problem I have to sort out.” He swallowed the frustration building inside him. This was all his fault; Avery was the victim here, and she didn’t deserve to be the recipient of his anger. He couldn’t explain more than thirty years of history to her in a moment. Didn’t want to explore his family’s dirty laundry with a camera crew filming all of it. Sue would hate that. It had been bad enough the first time around.
He could show Avery how he felt about her, though. He moved closer. Took her hand gently and drew her in against him. “You know I want you.”
“No, I don’t.”
Avery stood rigidly in his arms, but Walker was patient. He knew she felt as strongly for him as he did for her. They worked together, always had. She was fighting it, but he could see it was a losing battle, and when she finally relaxed against him, he circled his arms around her, needing her even closer. Avery’s curves sparked a hunger in him he knew could never be satisfied. He’d need a lifetime with her.
“No.” Avery pushed him away, and he let go, surprised at her vehemence. “You don’t get to make me feel like this when you’ve got another woman waiting for you in the bunkhouse.”
“A woman I don’t want.”
“A woman you haven’t sent away,” Avery countered.
“Because I can’t. Because—”
She waited for his explanation, but how could Walker explain generations of pain and obligation? She didn’t grow up on the reservation. Didn’t know how important promises could be when your people had once been hunted and hounded and forced into settlements that bore no resemblance to their previous way of life. Off the reservation, a man’s word meant little these days. You could always explain your behavior based on extenuating circumstances. Change your mind? Let down a friend? Renege on an obligation? Who cared? There was enough money, people, possessions, distractions to solve any little crisis your behavior might cause.
On the reservation, things were different. Everything was finite, everything counted—and a broken promise could lay waste to networks and alliances that held the whole nation together.
He’d spent a lifetime keeping his family’s secrets. Spilling them now felt like—
Walking on his father’s grave.
“I’ll get it sorted out,” he said.
“You could sort it out today if you wanted to. Right now. Find Elizabeth. Tell her you don’t want her. Send her on her way.”
“It’s not that simple.” His family owed Elizabeth’s family a debt that couldn’t be repaid. If he broke his word, it would kill Sue. She was depending on him to redeem his father, to set right the wrongs he’d committed. Sue might not be demonstrative, but she’d loved her son. Sometimes Walker thought it was a miracle she remained alive with his father gone. Especially after Netta passed away.
Her determination to set things right was part of what drove her. All that would be undone if he broke the promise he’d made to Elizabeth. He needed to give her time to admit she didn’t want him. “Be patient. Elizabeth won’t marry me. You’ll see.”
“She won’t marry you?” Avery echoed. “But you’ll marry her if need be?”
“I don’t want to.”
“This is ridiculous. Walker, talk to her. Tell her what you want.”
The one thing he couldn’t do—not without pushing Sue to the brink. He reached for Avery again, but she nimbly evaded him, backpedaling out of reach.
“She’ll make you leave, you know. Elizabeth,” she added when he didn’t respond. “I looked her up, and her work takes her around the world for months—years—at a time. She’ll take you away from Base Camp. Is that what you want?”
She didn’t give him time to answer.
Walker watched her walk away, her back straight, her head high. He knew Avery well enough to know she’d be fighting against tears by now. She hated any tension in the social fabric, especially between them.
Like Elizabeth said, she felt things too strongly.
Hope rushed past him in pursuit. “Walker, we’re supposed to stay together!”
He heaved a sigh and followed them.
“Avery, there you are! I was just coming to look for you!”
Avery sighed when Boone came bounding up, wishing more than anything she could escape to the manor, let herself into one of the guest rooms, lock the door behind her and be alone for a while.
She couldn’t keep going on this path, waiting to find out what Walker planned to do instead of making up her own mind about her future. She needed time to harden her heart if Elizabeth was going to make off with him in the end.
She’d never seen him so stymied by a situation, and that left her deeply unsettled. Normally when a problem came up, Walker surveyed his options and acted decisively. She’d never seen him second-guess himself until Elizabeth came.
For some reason, he’d assumed Elizabeth wouldn’t want him and was surprised when she’d showed up and said she did. He didn’t seem to think he could call off the relationship but felt Elizabeth had that right.
