“He’s not!” Riley straightened. “If anything, I’m using him. If Boone and his friends fail, Fulsom will take back Westfield and give it to a developer who will carve up the ranch. My ranch! It’ll be gone forever. I can’t let that happen.”
Riley was marrying Boone to save her ranch? To get it back? Was that what she meant? Avery knew how much Riley loved the place and how devastated she’d been to find she wouldn’t inherit it like she’d thought.
But marriage—
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us,” Savannah said.
“I figured you’d react pretty much like you did,” Riley said helplessly. “I understand, though. No hard feelings.”
There were definitely hard feelings, Avery realized. Riley wanted them to approve of her plans, and their astonishment and disbelief were cutting her to the quick. She was torn between her desire to comfort her friend and wanting to shake Riley until her sense returned. You couldn’t trade your future for a piece of property—
“We’ll need to move out, won’t we?” Nora said slowly, interrupting Avery’s thoughts. She caught Riley’s eye and hurried to add, “Not because of Boone, because of Fulsom. If we stay on the ranch, his camera crews will try to pull us into the show.”
She was right; Boone would make them puppets in his master plan to seize what should have been Riley’s, Avery thought. He’d known from day one what he meant to do, hadn’t he? He’d stalked Riley, convinced her she loved him—all so he could win his little show and build his stupid sustainable community. He’d never once thought of their feelings—or Riley’s, probably.
She opened her mouth to say that but caught sight of Riley’s pleading gaze and was filled with the uncomfortable realization she wasn’t being very fair. Riley was an intelligent, independent woman. She wouldn’t marry someone she didn’t think she could love—would she?
In fact, she probably already loved him. It had been clear for days she was falling for him.
Avery couldn’t blame Riley, either. Boone was handsome. An old friend. Shared her love for the ranch and this area of Montana. He was a Navy SEAL, for heaven’s sake, made to be worshipped by women. And he was a good guy in his own way, even if he had loosed a tornado in their well-laid-out plans.
“We’ll have to look for a rental in town, I guess.” She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hold in the pain at the thought of breaking up their group so soon after their arrival here.
“Which means we’ll need to look for jobs. Just like I said at the outset,” Nora said, her jaw tight.
“It’s only temporary,” Riley pleaded with them.
“Maybe it’s time for me to go back to teaching,” Nora went on as if she hadn’t heard her. “If there’s nothing in Chance Creek, there might be in Billings.”
“Maybe I should move back home,” Savannah said with a sigh. “My parents have a beautiful piano. Maybe if I took a part-time job they’d support me in trying to play seriously.”
Avery’s heart sank. If Savannah was talking of leaving Montana altogether, then this was worse than she’d suspected. They’d worked so damn hard to get here. They’d sold everything, taken a huge chance. “No,” she burst out, and her frustration increased when Riley winced. “Come on. We’ve come so far; please don’t ruin everything now!”
“We’re not trying to ruin anything,” Nora said reasonably. “Sometimes things don’t work out… Where are you going?”
Avery untied her apron and threw it on the table as she marched right out of the house. Riley wasn’t to blame for this, and she couldn’t fix it, either. Time to go right to the source. “I’m going to tell Lieutenant Boone Rudman what a colossal ass he is!”
“Now we’re talking,” Greg Devon said, and Walker Norton looked up to follow his gaze. He’d arrived only a couple of hours ago, and it was still strange to be back in Chance Creek, back on this ranch where he’d spent many summers working during his teens with his best friends, Boone, Clay and Jericho. He’d left home after graduating from high school, first to pursue a degree at Montana State, then to join the Navy and serve with the SEALs. It was Boone who’d come up with the idea to start this sustainable community, and he, Clay and Jericho had already been here for several weeks, joined recently by six other men who’d served with the SEALs. It had been strange to arrive in Chance Creek to find the ranch already populated with so many men. Stranger still to know that good old Riley Eaton, who was sixteen the last time he’d seen her, had settled up at the manor with several of her friends.
Right after he’d arrived, Boone had introduced him to all the men who’d come to join their community, but Walker hadn’t seen the women yet. Clay had made it clear he was interested in one of them—Nora—and Jericho fairly bristled when anyone mentioned Savannah. Both were content to settle down and marry soon, perfectly happy with the whole situation.
Walker couldn’t understand that, even though it was hard to point fingers when he had joined Boone, too, knowing full well what Martin Fulsom’s rules for them were. He still didn’t know what had made him say yes to this travesty of a project when it was clear it was doomed to fail, but then he’d always had a hard time saying no when Boone, Clay and Jericho had agreed to an adventure. They’d gotten him into plenty of trouble when they were kids. His grandmother, Sue, who’d raised him, used to tell him to give them a wide berth.
“If you went right home to Grandma Diane’s after school, you’d keep yourself out
