“Not worth the trade-off.” River wiggled her toes at him. They sat in comfortable silence until she added, “Seriously though, thanks for the help yesterday. Your pizza box holding skills are commendable. Almost as good as your climbing skills.”
“I suppose I don’t need to check your climbing skills if you’re already up here. That surface was slick, with not a lot of holds. I’m tempted to be impressed.”
Flashing him a grin, River popped another peanut in her mouth. “I’m tempted to take that as a compliment.”
“Not a lot of free soloing up on the Old Man though.”
River hadn’t heard that one before. “The Old Man?”
“It’s what we call Mount Veil.”
“Gotcha.” She tilted her head. “I love a compliment as much as the next girl, but why do my climbing skills matter to you?”
“Because it’ll be a lot easier getting you and your people up the mountain if I don’t have to carry you on my back.”
River blinked. “What’s that?”
“You didn’t know?” Easton asked, sounding as confused as she was. “I learned last night that you three are my clients for the expedition up Mount Veil.”
“All I knew was that after being given the runaround by that number you gave me, Jessie made arrangements with a local climbing company to take us out there.” River indicated the mountain range rising higher behind them. “You’re our guide?”
“So I’ve been informed.”
Pausing midchew, River considered that. “Hmm. Well, that makes things super awkward.”
“Does it?”
“No, not really, but I may have to reconsider asking you for a drink now since you’re officially on the payroll.”
Easton shook his head with a chuckle. “Are you sure you want to do this? Veil’s no joke. I can just as easily take you out to—”
To his credit, Easton didn’t finish that sentence.
“On a nature walk?” River looked at him challengingly.
“Someplace less difficult to access,” Easton countered. “Our nature isn’t a cakewalk. Plenty of wildlife and lots of chances to get into trouble.”
“That doesn’t sound like me at all.” River laughed softly, then leaned back on her palms. “Don’t worry. I’ve been climbing in the Rockies since I was a child, although nothing too technical. Bree and Jessie have some experience too. I’ve been training in earnest the last several years. I made a run at El Cap last spring.”
“You free soloed El Capitan?”
“That’s the goal, but no. I was part of a three-man team. We climbed the Nose with equipment.”
“There’s enough free-climbing on that route to make most pass. I am impressed.”
For some reason, the good opinion of this stranger on her climbing skills was a hundred times better than a stranger’s opinion of her acting skills. Maybe because acting was what she did. But climbing was who River was.
“Alpine climbing up here is different,” Easton warned her. “The windchill can be brutal, and most of Mount Veil is glaciated. Crevasses kill in these mountains faster than you can blink. You’re using a whole different set of skills to summit than in the lower forty-eight.”
“Yes, but since Moose Springs wants nothing to do with us, Mount Veil is the best option I’ve got. My movie is up there.” Twisting so she could face him, River took in Easton from head to toe. “You know, this might work.”
Instant suspicion filled his eyes. “What?”
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
“And yet I find myself worried.”
“Can the beard be trimmed a little?”
A flat look was his only answer. River bumped his shoulder companionably. “Easton Lockett. I would have connected the dots sooner, but all the emails have been from a Joshua L.”
“Dad’s my camp manager. He doesn’t go on climbs with us, but he puts together the client lists and arranges the supplies. Dad’s an old pro at all this.” Easton glanced at her. “I have some paperwork I need you to sign.”
“Umm…technically, I have paperwork for you.”
“Do I even want to ask?” Easton sighed.
“You’re going to need to sign a nondisclosure agreement, a medical directive in case something happens on the mountain, and a form that states you refuse to hold anyone associated with the film liable for any damage or death that may occur during filming.” River winked at him and added, “If Bree bops you over the head with a baseball, you’re welcome to press charges, but we try to limit that as much as possible. But the big one is the nondisclosure agreement.”
He wasn’t only hot and skilled and…well…hot. Easton was smart too. Smart enough to narrow his eyes.
“River. Why am I signing paperwork for you?”
Biting her lip to keep from giggling, River decided the look of slowly dawning horror on his face was better than beard stroking, tight shirts, or man buns could ever be. Leaning in, River whispered in his ear.
“Because you, handsome, are going to star in a documentary.”
Chapter 4
“Your girlfriend made the front page.”
From across their breakfast table, Ash tossed the local newspaper at him. On the front was a picture of a very familiar redhead and her team of hooligans, all three trying and failing miserably to hide the film equipment in their hands. Even in newspaper ink, River was gorgeous. Especially when facing down the newspaper photographer with a defiant glare that would make the bravest of men shrink back a few feet.
She looked even better climbing down a rock face, not that Easton had snuck a peek.
“‘World famous actress films documentary about Moose Springs,’” he read aloud. “Why am I looking at this?”
“Because you’re on page two. Tasha from the Moose Springs Daily Register had so many interesting things to say about you.”
A smirk crossed his twin’s face, making Easton internally groan.
“Great. Do I want to know?”
“Probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I’m a good sister like that.”
Elbows on the table, Ash leaned in, holding her coffee mug cradled between her hands as the smirk widened. This same table had sat in their family’s kitchen for three generations. The house had been updated over those years; the table had not. Three generations of cereal bowls, glass rings, and pot roast dinners. Three lifetimes of memories.
Easton had moved to a small house on the far side of the two-hundred-acre Lockett homestead after high school, needing his own space. And their family land certainly had that. Theirs was one of the largest personal properties within the town of Moose Springs, with some of the prettiest views of the surrounding countryside.
Unlike Easton, Ash had never moved out, and he doubted she ever would. Come hell or high water, there was nothing strong enough to make her leave her home. Which meant Easton was stuck drinking her sludge-like coffee in the mornings when he came to check on his family.
Usually a sleepy grunt was all Easton got from his sister or father, but this morning, his twin sister was beaming like the cat that got in the cream.
“Tasha wrote the truth. She says the town’s most skilled outdoorsman sold out and is showcasing our town in a tourism film. A film you also…and here’s where Tasha went for blood. You agreed to be a part of too.”
Sighing audibly this time, Easton reached for his coffee. “It wasn’t like that, Ash.”
“Oh, it gets better. Listen to this.”
Stealing the paper back from him despite his grab to keep it from her, Ash cleared her throat with dramatic exuberance.
“Tasha says, and I quote: ‘Along with hauling them up our hidden gem of a mountain, one of the best for climbing in the nation, Mr. Lockett is risking further commercialization of the oversaturated Moose Springs at a time when residents are still deeply
concerned about the luxury condominiums project spearheaded by socialite Lana Montgomery and the Montgomery Group. Rumors of subsequent plans for additional residential buildings adjacent to Moose Springs Resort…blah blah blah…’”
Ash took a long sip of her coffee. “She goes on for a while about how awful Lana is.”
“Again, we like Lana,” Easton felt compelled to remind his sister for the hundredth time.
“I can like her and still acknowledge the evil music that plays every time she enters the room. Appreciating the overthrow of our world by powerful women and leading the resistance to that particular overthrowing of my hometown aren’t mutually exclusive. Oh, here we go.” She lifted the paper higher. “‘With our own residents helping to assist people like Ms. Montgomery and the invading film crew, it is logical to extrapolate that Easton Lockett is personally responsible for the single-handed destruction of Moose Springs, and we all need to attack him with a pitchfork.’”
Leveling a look at her, Easton said, “It does not say that.”
“Okay, maybe not,” she conceded. “Tasha does talk about you though. Local mountaineering legend, which is total overselling, by the way. Yada yada going up Mount Veil. Then some climate change stuff and talking about the climbing season becoming less predictable.”
“She’s not wrong.”
“Tasha also quotes you as not being available for comment.”
“I didn’t know she was calling for that.” Shifting in discomfort beneath his sister’s knowing stare would only make him lose whatever ground he had to stand on.
He’d never successfully gotten anything past Ash in his life, so he didn’t know why he was bothering now.
“Are you and Tasha still a thing?”
“We were never a thing. Just a…”
“Thing.” Ash eyed him knowingly. “The other thing.”
Nope, he was not talking about that. Easton decided on deflection. “How was your date? The guy from Seward.”
“About what you’d expect. Almost everyone in Seward lives in the same apartment building. The vibe over there is too close for my comfort. I’m not sure it’ll last.”
“What was his name?”
With a shrug, she said, “I’ll tell you if it lasts. The article did add in a theory about temperature fluctuations increasing the risk of avalanches.”
Eyeing her at the random comment, this time it was Ash’s turn to shift uncomfortably.
“I’m only mentioning it,” she murmured, voice defensive.
They’d had more than one throwdown over the safety of his choice in occupation. This from a woman who happily flew helicopters in the worst weather imaginable and saw no issues with her own safety.
“I’m keeping my eye out for signs of trouble,” Easton said. “You need to stop worrying about this one.”
When Ash didn’t reply, Easton leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs as he tossed a piece of elk sausage in his mouth. The Locketts lived off the land as much as possible, although Easton had gotten in a bad habit of showing up at the Tourist Trap most days for lunch. If he had a heart attack from the delicious but greasy fare Graham was slinging, it would be Easton’s own fault.
“You break that chair, you’re making me a new one.”
Their father, Joshua Lockett, limped past to the coffeepot. Widowed two years earlier after Easton’s mother finally lost her battle with cancer, Joshua was the remaining parent in their lives. One whose presence registered like the force of nature he’d always been. There was nothing Joshua couldn’t do, build, or fix. When a man made a living from conquering mountains, it was hard to best him.
Joshua had taught Easton and Ash everything they knew about mountaineering, but Ash was happier in her helicopter, and after a bad leg injury, Joshua couldn’t keep the kind of pace required on a professional climb. If he resented a life of helping his daughter load and unload food and supply shipments for deliveries to more remote locations, he never said anything.
Locketts didn’t complain. They got the job done, whatever needed doing.
“No cane today, Dad?” Ash joined their father at the coffeepot. He paused midpour on his own cup, topping off the mug in Ash’s hand before adding what was left to his.
His sister could get away with things Easton never could. Asking their father about his cane was one of those things.
In the privacy of their own home, Joshua would use his cane on bad leg days. When winter came, most days were bad leg days. But in town or in front of others, he refused to let it show. Talking about the cane earned the kind of look that made most men—including Easton—want to disappear into the floor. But when Ash asked, she got a smile from their father.
“Feeling pretty good today, honey. Thanks.”
Serving himself up a plate of the eggs and sausage Easton had made for breakfast, Joshua joined them at the table.
He eyed the chair, then Easton. The critical look wasn’t what made Easton nervous. That was normal. It was the mischief in Joshua’s eye that Easton didn’t trust.
“What’s this I heard about you being in some movie?”
Easton dropped his head back. “I’m not in a movie. I’ll be standing next to some people taking footage of the mountains. At most, they might get a shot of my feet.”
Ash snorted. “You’re totally getting a major role. Dad, do you think he’ll remember us when he’s famous?”
Joshua took a bite of eggs. “Probably not.”
“Do you have to tell him everything?” Easton asked his twin. “Just once, it would be nice if you two weren’t in cahoots.”
“Makes up for all those years when you two kids were the ones in cahoots.” With a playful wink at Ash, Joshua took a sip of coffee. “So what role are you playing? First man to fall off a mountain on film?”
“He might be playing sexy mountaineer number two,” she added helpfully. “How have your ab workouts been?”
Ignoring their comments, Easton rose to his feet and went to the sink, washing off his plate before sticking it in the dishwasher. To take away their ammunition, he rolled up the newspaper and stuffed it into his back pocket. “This is me leaving to go to work.”
“Tell Spielberg we said hi, Son.”
Ash was still snickering as the door closed behind him.
The old Ford truck started when he turned the key. Not every day was he lucky enough to experience that pleasure. Equipment check day was sometimes a long and frustrating process, and showing up late never helped get things off to a good start.
Equipment check day was all about going through River and her crew’s equipment with a fine-tooth comb. Assuming even an experienced alpine climber had the right gear for a climb was risky. All it took was one thing to derail a trip. Mount Veil might not be a monster like Denali, but fifteen thousand feet was plenty tall enough to run into trouble.
Providing his clients with a detailed packing list was part of his guide service and the one they tended to go off course on the easiest. He hoped she’d had time to get together everything they needed. Easton had long since learned that a well-packed crew made a happy guide, and a happy guide got his clients to summit on time.
He had an hour before he was supposed to meet River and her team. Which meant he might have time to get a real, palatable cup of coffee before the equipment check.
As he turned off the single lane gravel access road leading from their property and onto the main highway into Moose Springs, Easton’s phone rang. This time, he didn’t ignore it.
“Easton, it’s Tasha.”
“Yep.”
Yep, meaning she totally screwed him. Dad and Ash might give him a ribbing, but there were plenty in Moose Springs who would take the article seriously. Increased tourism was a bane to everyone’s existence. This was the first time Easton had ever been accused of aiding and abetting, which stuck in his cr
aw something fierce.
Easton had spent his life protecting this town, and he didn’t like being on the defensive about his decisions.
As always, Tasha cheerfully ignored his flat tone. “Hey, if you’re not too busy, I was wondering if we could get together. I’d love a few comments about the climb you’re about to take.”
The woman was ballsy, which he’d always liked. Well, until her enjoyment of a takedown had left him at her mercy in front of the entire town. “Really, Tash? After gutting me like a fish on the front page?”
With a cluck of her tongue, she corrected him, “Technically, the gutting was on page two. And I did try to contact you. Not my fault you stopped taking my calls.”
Easton grunted. He’d stopped taking her calls because those calls were only for one thing. Call him old-fashioned, but Easton preferred an actual relationship with his…relationships.
“Come on. I’ll buy you a drink, and we can talk about it.”
Tasha was complicated. To say they’d dated would have been an overstatement. To say they didn’t was to leave out some very important details. But he liked her enough to keep getting tugged into her vicinity.
“I’m busy now,” he told her, annoyed at his own lingering regret. “I have a gear check with my team.”
“I’d love to see what—”
“Nope.”
“What about one question on—”
Easton barked out a laugh. The woman was relentless in the pursuit of a story, and he had to respect her ability to get the information she wanted. Which made it even more fun to tell her that he legally couldn’t say squat.
“I’ll meet you for coffee at Dirty Joe’s, but it’ll have to be quick. The climb is off the record because I signed an NDA yesterday.”
The silence over the phone told him she was spinning that bit of information over in her mind.
“What are they doing that requires an NDA?”
“It’s par for the course. There’s no story here, only some people taking photos of animals on Mount Veil because they can’t film in town. That’s it, Natasha.”
Enjoy the View Page 6