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Virgil studied her.

Jodie waited him out.

Finally he said, “Money matters. Water costs more when you gotta truck it in to supplement. Fuel damn sure costs more. Anybody tells you to turn money down in a year like this is either a rich sumbitch or outta their mind.”

“Well, I must not be a rich sumbitch or outta my mind because I totally get that.”

She caught the ghost of a smile as he nodded.

“It wouldn’t have changed anything, but you still could’ve told us, Virgil.”

Virgil gave her another look. “The Bureau said they were handling notification.”

“And you just left it to them?”

His jaw tightened. “Told you, wasn’t my announcement to make.”

She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Dammit. That was reasonable.

“You knew Willow would be furious.”

Virgil snorted. “Willow’s furious when the sun comes up.”

Jodie bit the inside of her cheek. Okay. That was funny, and not entirely wrong.

Virgil noticed her trying not to laugh. His mouth twitched.

Huh. There might actually be a sense of humor buried under all that irritation.

A truck came through Hank’s open gate, followed by a white government SUV. Virgil pushed away from the fence. “Looks like your meeting’s here.” He started walking.

Jodie fell into step beside him.

Harold apologized for being late before he’d even reached the tables.

The woman with him introduced herself as Dana Mathison from the field office, and ten minutes later maps of Virgil’s property were spread across the folding table while half the people around it tried not to talk over one another.

Harold tapped the marked holding area. “Until we have observer access settled, nobody from the volunteer groups enters the property. We have aircraft operations, temporary holding, contractor vehicles, livestock moving through there. I know that’s frustrating, but I’m not putting people on private land without defined boundaries. We’ll see what we can do about setting you up a mile away.”

“A mile away?” Willow shouted. “So we’re supposed to trust you to run the gather where nobody can see it?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what it amounts to.”

Virgil made an impatient sound.

Willow rounded on him. “Don’t.”

He held up both hands, palms facing out. “Wasn’t planning to say anything.”

“That would be a refreshing change.”

“Willow,” Jodie said.

Willow glared at her.

Jodie pulled a legal pad toward her. “What if everybody signs a waiver? We give you the vehicle list in advance, check in when we arrive and leave, and nobody leaves the designated area without permission.”