“I told you something important was happening!” William Sykes bellowed. A thickset blond man in his forties, laden with equipment, he was out of breath from hurrying toward them. Avery sighed and faced the camera crew that must have recently arrived from town.
“I’m sorry!” That was Jess Sims, one of the younger crew members. Usually so quiet you didn’t notice her, it was obvious William had been giving her a hard time this morning.
“Sorry doesn’t get the footage this show depends on. Morning, Walker. Morning, Avery.”
Walker grunted something. Avery nodded. William wasn’t usually this grumpy, and she wondered what was wrong.
“No coffee,” Craig Demaris, another crew member, filled her in as he pointed a video camera her way. “What kind of motel runs out of coffee?”
“We could have stopped at the doughnut shop,” Jess said. She wore what Avery thought of as the crew uniform: cargo pants, T-shirt, boots and a long-suffering expression that said Craig had been chiding her since they left the motel. Her dirty blond hair was in a twist on top of her head, her soft features ruddy with embarrassment.
“Yes, we could have—if you weren’t late,” William said. “What’d we miss?” he asked Walker. “You two looked awfully cozy.”
“You missed the birth of the first bison calf.” Avery hurried to deflect him, not wanting her love life—such as it was—with Walker dissected by this cranky group. “Come and see.”
“I’d better get to the other chores.” Walker met her gaze and held it a moment before turning away, and Avery’s chest warmed with the promise there.
One more day.
He was going to ask her to marry him.
“What were you two talking about before we arrived?” William asked suspiciously. “Walker was holding you. Did he propose?”
She shook her head. “We were talking about bison. Isn’t Champ adorable?”
“Champ?” Craig asked, moving closer.
“That’s the calf’s name. His mother is Ruth. She’s a prodigy among bison.” Avery kept talking until she’d deflected the crew’s attention. After months working alongside Walker to care for the herd, she could talk about bison all day long.
She wished Walker hadn’t left, though, and that the crew hadn’t arrived when they did. Walker had wanted to kiss her. Wanted more than that, if she wasn’t mistaken. There’d been that tension between them since the day they’d met, an instant attraction that took her breath away on a daily basis.
She couldn’t wait to have the right to run her hands all over his body. She dreamed about being with him almost every night. Walker was—
Everything.
She knew they made a comical couple, him so tall and broad and her so… well… short. She knew they’d fit together perfectly, though, when they got the chance. Every molecule of her yearned to be close to him, and she was sure he felt the same way, even if he’d held himself back all this time.
Would he really propose, though?
They all knew he’d been promised to someone; the question was who? And where had she been all this time? Did she still want him? What would it take to dissolve whatever relationship was holding him back?
And how would he resolve the problem in one day’s time?
A cold prickle of premonition tripped down her spine. If something was going to be different tomorrow, that meant something had to happen to make it different.
What could that be?
Avery thought it over. Angus and Win would marry tonight, which meant tomorrow would be the beginning of Walker’s forty days to marry before his deadline was up. Was he simply waiting for his “turn”?
That didn’t seem right. He’d been promised, which meant he needed to break a promise, and Avery couldn’t see Walker ever doing that. He was a man who valued honor above all else.
She, on the other hand, valued love, she thought, watching the tiny bison calf wobble through its first tentative steps. Love was more important than anything else. It healed wounds, held families together—held the universe together, if you asked.
Could it hold her and Walker together, too?
She wasn’t sure. Could one day really resolve a problem that had existed for a year? Could her happiness be so close?
She’d learned long ago not to rely on things going her way. What made her think this time would be different?
She watched Ruth care for her baby and decided this time would be different because she and Walker were meant for each other and meant for this place, too, both of them glorying in the natural setting they found themselves in, the friends they spent their days with and the activities that filled their hours. Only Walker’s old promise kept them apart.
“You know a lot about bison,” Jess said when the crew members had gotten all the footage of Champ they wanted. “And you’re lucky to have someone like Walker.” She followed Avery to the chicken house as the rest of the crew headed for the bunkhouse.
“I don’t have him yet.”
“Don’t you think you’ll have him soon? He’s got to marry next,” Jess pointed out as Avery unlatched the door to the chicken coop and the birds flocked around her.
Jess dutifully filmed the interaction, but they both knew there was plenty of footage of Avery doing her chores and this would never appear on television.
“I’m not one to count my chickens before they hatch,” Avery said wryly.
“Ha, ha.” Jess lowered the camera. “Do you think Boone would find me a husband if I asked him? I wouldn’t mind sticking around when the show is over.”
Avery nearly laughed. It had been months since she’d allowed herself to think of anything that might happen when the show was over. “You want a tiny house and a husband of your own?”
“Maybe.” Jess shrugged. “You all seem happy.”
“Boone has talked about expanding Base Camp when the year is done.” She’d never really pictured it, though. “If
