“The latecomer? We met in kindergarten!”
Boone had to know what he meant. “Spent half my time on the reservation.”
“Don’t I know it,” Boone said resentfully. “Drove us crazy wondering what you got up to there. We were positive we were missing out, and you hardly ever invited us over!”
How could he invite his three boisterous friends to Sue’s quiet, orderly house?
“You came to the powwows,” Walker pointed out.
“As guests. We didn’t get to dance or any of it. We had to sit on the sidelines and watch while you had all the fun.”
Walker chuckled suddenly, a vision of his friends in traditional regalia sprouting in his mind.
“What?” Boone demanded.
“Never knew you felt left out.”
“Never knew you did, either.”
They contemplated each other.
“Hell, what the fuck, Walker?” Boone laughed. “We’re really sorting this out nearly thirty years into being friends?”
“Guess so.”
They thought about that.
“Really didn’t think you’d agree to join us here, you know. You surprised the hell out of me.”
“I’m here.” Walker turned serious. “Mean to stay, too.”
Boone shook his head. Turned to look at the mountains far in the distance. “I depend on you,” he said roughly. “The others are my friends. You’re my rock. I’ll never forget that you trusted me enough to join me in this thing. And I’ll never forgive myself for causing you so much pain.”
Walker cocked his head. Shrugged. “You meant well.”
Boone stiffened, then laughed again. “Damning words, my friend.”
Walker chuckled along with him, glad his joke had landed right. “You did your best.” He patted Boone’s shoulder.
“Jesus, Walker, give a guy a break!”
“At least you tried.”
They were both laughing when they made it to the bunkhouse, and if their laughter had a tinge of something darker underlying it, who could blame them?
“There he is,” Leslie exclaimed when they arrived. “It’s funny how men always take off when there’s a problem to sort out and then they try to make you think they’re the problem-solvers. Since when does chopping wood solve any problems, except for heating a house in the winter, which is a good thing, but it’s nowhere near winter, and even though I believe in thinking ahead, I don’t really think you were thinking at all, or if you were, you weren’t thinking very effectively because an effective bout of thinking would have led to a plan, and I haven’t heard you mention a plan at all, Walker.”
“How could he mention a plan when he just got here and you’ve been talking the whole time?” Boone pointed out. “Where did Brody and Avery get to?”
Byron scowled and stepped between him and Leslie. “You don’t need to speak like that to my—”
“They’re in the kitchen with Kai and Addison. Kai’s making Brody chop vegetables,” Savannah said. “He put Avery to work on dessert.”
“Good plan,” Boone said.
“I’ve been thinking of a whole bunch of plans,” Leslie went on, undeterred. “We could kidnap Brody and dump him in the wilderness somewhere with a bunch of supplies so he’s safe until the show is over, or we could take him to the nearest port and pay a captain to take him out to sea, or we could lock him in the root cellar, or we could just send him outside on his own a lot and see if that intruder comes back—”
“Oh, my God.” Savannah covered her ears with her hands. “I didn’t even hear that last one.”
But the camera crew was making sure to get all of it.
“It’ll work out somehow.” Byron spoke right over Leslie. “Just when you think it can’t, love finds a way. Don’t give up, Walker.”
“Don’t give up on Base Camp,” Clay said. “Just do what you have to do for now. We’ll sort out this mess when the show is over and we’ve won the ranch for good.”
“Avery isn’t going to stay with that guy,” Byron argued. “Brody is an opportunist. Anyone can see that. Where the hell has he been for the last decade if they’re really married?”
“They’re married,” Boone told him.
“Still, funny that he shows up now, right? When Avery is on a television show.”
“Maybe he didn’t want her to commit a crime by marrying Walker when she’s already hitched,” Riley said.
“Or maybe he wants something else,” Byron said.
For the first time, hope edged into Walker’s heart. Byron was right—maybe Brody wanted something else.
And maybe he’d be willing to give up Avery to get it.
“They’re going after a bunch of us today,” Addison said when Avery met up with several of the women during a morning break five days later. She was avoiding Brody—and Walker and Boone and just about every other man on the place out of her irritation with all of them. “Star News is really having a field day with Base Camp, aren’t they?”
“I wish they’d just shut up,” Savannah said with uncharacteristic savagery. “I have a baby, and I would like to enjoy one week of his little life without some disaster happening, especially fake disasters. Could those people lie any more than they do about us?”
Avery understood her frustration. They had twenty days to go until Base Camp was over, and the film crews were falling over themselves trying to document every last minute of their time here. Brody was following her everywhere. Elizabeth had attached herself like a limpet to Walker, and Gabe, cast off from his role as backup husband, had attached himself to Elizabeth. Walker was as growly as a bear, and Avery had had no chance to explain to him any of the circumstances of her stupid marriage to Brody. His expression was so stony every time he was near her, she wasn’t sure she’d dare to.
She had gotten on the phone to Fulsom herself and explained as best she could that she couldn’t even remember if she’d slept with Brody, and if she hadn’t, surely the marriage couldn’t be real. She’d tried to keep the conversation under wraps, but the camera crew following her around had crept in closer and closer until it was like
