No one moved except to cluster closer. The marmot chirped in alarm, scuttling behind Easton’s feet. Then it proceeded to scold him for allowing such a thing to occur.
Easton refused to have any feelings on the matter. Nope. No feelings at all.
It took him a while to get them all going, and it really didn’t help when the marmot of dubious nomenclature decided to continue along, as if it were a given that it was now part of the group. Easton tried a few times to spook it away, thinking maybe the animal was sick and that was why it was acting strangely. But every attempt was met with a chittering lecture from the furball, so eventually Easton gave up and continued on his hike.
They filmed as they walked, and as he watched them work, Easton could tell that River was good at her job. She left her people alone to do what they were best at, but she was always watching who was filming what, and every so often, she’d redirect their attentions to a different, better shot.
At first, he was impressed. That feeling quickly changed as Easton realized the only one in this group he could depend on to think rationally was the marmot. The rest of them were determined to poke and prod into every single dangerous place they could find, hauling their cameras along with them. Ben should have helped, but the poor guy was utterly infatuated with Bree. Where she filmed, he followed.
“So, if I asked—” Ben tried as they took a break to rehydrate and grab a quick lunch.
“Nope.” Bree didn’t even look at him as she scrolled through the film on the handheld.
“Not even a—”
“Still a no.”
River said firmly, “Tough break, but this is a professional worksite. Let’s keep it that way, okay?”
Catching his eye, River had the audacity to wink at Easton. Whatever this was, he knew flirtation when it smacked him in the face. And like a marmot with a thus far undiagnosed emotional disorder, Easton had been on River’s heels since they met.
“I think she’s being a bit hypocritical,” he muttered to the marmot. It stared at him, beady black eyes unblinking in its rapt attention, until Easton was successfully weirded out. “Never mind.”
He’d set a route that would take them past one of his favorite places on this part of the mountain: a waterfall that rarely warmed up enough to do more than drip fresh water to the existing layer of ice. The result was a sheet of gleaming water frozen in place, and definitely worth the time and effort of reaching it.
“What do you think?” Easton asked River as they turned a bend in the rock.
“What do I think of—oh.” Jaw dropping, River stared in shock. He hadn’t told anyone where they were headed, and Ben was astute enough not to give the surprise away.
“Easton, this is gorgeous.”
Even the marmot seemed impressed. Easton was starting to feel good about his choices, up until the moment River breathed, “I’m going to climb it.”
“No.” No way. Bad idea.
“Is it frozen enough to be stable?”
“Define stable,” Easton hedged. “Technically, yes. But that’s not an easy climb, River.”
“I never assumed it was. That’s the fun. Why am I lugging around two ice axes if I’m not going to use them?”
Easton knew he was fighting a losing battle. Moving to the base of the ice waterfall, River never bothered to look at him as she argued her case. Instead, she stared up at the sheet of solid water, as if something had made the water freeze in midmotion.
“Don’t you ever get tired of saying no?” River asked.
Placing a hand against the ice, he could practically see her mind racing at all the different possibilities of ascent. Her team had already started shooting the waterfall from every angle, leaving Ben to try to follow both as they found new and interesting ways to almost lose their balance on the icy rocks.
“This was supposed to be for your shoot only,” Easton told her. “Do you have any idea the kind of skill it takes to do this?”
The expression of excitement on her face only grew.
No way. Out of the freaking question. Over Easton’s dead body.
“You don’t get to tell me no,” River told him as if reading his mind. “I’m aware of the dangers. But isn’t part of this documentary to show what’s really out here worth seeing? The things worth doing besides getting drunk at the Tourist Trap or snowboarding at the resort? Easton, look at this. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”
Actually, he was looking at something even more beautiful than the ice waterfall, which was why every single part of him was recoiling from the risk.
“Have you ever climbed ice like this?” he finally asked.
River shook her head.
“This isn’t like rock. The ice feels solid, but it’s like a piece of cold glass. Tap it too hard and it’ll shatter. The last thing you want is to be thirty feet up and the whole sheet goes.”
His warning was intended to dissuade her, but instead, River’s eyes brightened even more. For a long moment, Easton considered whether he wanted to throw down over an ice climb. Then with a sigh, he pulled out his ropes to start a belay system. “Fine, but if it goes, don’t blame me. I’m officially and legally warning you that you should not do this.”
“And I’m officially and legally telling you that I so don’t care. When am I ever going to have this chance again?” After double-checking their equipment, River turned to Easton. “Ready?”
He should have wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her close, and done anything else to convince her there were a lot of other ways to have fun than to do this.
Instead, Easton grunted, “Climb on.”
• • •
When she’d first seen the waterfall, all River could think about was how badly she wanted to climb it. And yes, it was dangerous. She hadn’t cared.
She also hadn’t thought through the realities of having Easton on the ground beneath her.
River was enough of an adrenaline junkie to enjoy the thrill of her racing heart. What she didn’t like was the understanding that if she messed up—or if the falls simply shattered there was no way Easton would be able to get out of the way.
With every placement of her axes, she couldn’t shake the image of razor-sharp shards of ice dropping down on him while he was tied to her.
“I never should have agreed to the belay,” River muttered.
Even as the words left her mouth, River’s ax slipped from the ice. She tried to catch herself with the other one, but she was already falling.
There was something about having an expert on the ground beneath her. Easton had known exactly how much line to feed out as she climbed that she’d never felt the pull of the rope connecting them. He weighed enough that she didn’t even pull him off his feet with the fall. At least, she didn’t think she had by how short her drop was before the rope caught her. Still, a fall was a fall, even when safely secured, and it stole her breath.
Body reacting on instinct, River’s legs came up, her feet bracing hard against the waterfall for balance.
This time, she froze, realizing what she’d done.
“River?” Easton called up to her. “You good?”
“I’m hoping I didn’t bring all this down on our heads. Remind me not to kick the super deadly sheet of ice again.”
“It wasn’t that hard. You’ve got this. Keep climbing.”
She started to go up again, doing her best not to repeat her mistake. Easton’s confidence in her had been reassuring, but River’s heart continued to race until she reached the top of the falls. Hauling herself over the edge, she turned and waved down to her crew where they filmed below.
Then, to her absolute horror, Easton unclipped from the belay rope and started to climb after her. Unlike River, there was no one to catch him if Easton fell. But he’d already committed to the climb, and yelling at him wasn’t going to help anythi
ng.
River had no choice but to watch him, every swing of his ice axes as fluid and effortless as the last, until he was below her on the falls.
“You’re trying to give me a heart attack,” River accused him when he was close enough to hear her.
Easton flashed her a grin so broad, even the beard couldn’t cover how much he was enjoying himself. Then, because he actually must be trying to make her keel over, he let go of one of his axes and twisted, dangling above the ground as he took in the view around them.
“Easton, I’m not above spanking you.”
“And here I thought you wanted to keep this professional.” Easton pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and snapped a picture while still dangling. Taking one more of her peering down at him, Easton then tucked his phone away and crested the falls like it was nothing. She was impressed—more than impressed—but somewhat annoyed too.
“You free-climbed that,” she growled at him.
“Yep.”
“After all the crap you gave me for wanting to climb this, you head on up like it’s nothing.”
Easton shrugged, then unexpectedly draped a heavy arm over her shoulders, pulling her tight to his side. Below them, the marmot scuttled around in a circle, frantic at being left behind.
“Hey, Easton?”
“Yeah?”
“Does the marmot seem off to you?”
“It’s totally bonkers.” They sat in silence for a moment, then he spoke. “Hey, River?”
“Hmm?”
“I like climbing with you.”
Resting her head on his shoulder, River was unable to help her smile. “Yeah. Me too.”
• • •
The day’s climb had taken the energy out of her.
Across the campfire from the rest of her party, River stayed seated cross-legged on the thin layer of snow, her weatherproof snow pants softening the chill. She could only imagine how cold it would be in the dead of winter, when this mountain would be untouchable. Her fingernails idly scratched at the ground next to her hip, an unconscious tic as she stared into the flames.
After the waterfall climb, they’d spent a significant amount of time interviewing River about what experiencing that climb had been like. Deciding to use her in the film hadn’t been River’s first choice, but they were limited with how many interviews they had. When it came to the experience of being on Mount Veil so far, River would have to do.
They’d made camp, this time setting up the dining tent so they would have a place to prep their food and eat it away from the snow. The scent of their campfire mingled in her nostrils with the heavy aroma of pine. She could have joined the three card players in the dining tent, but River was enjoying sitting beside the fire, relaxing and taking it all in.
“You realize what it says about you that you always choose to play the unicorn, right?” Jessie told Bree. “The unicorns are inevitably evil, no matter what you draw for abilities.”
With a snort, Bree laid down a card. “I’m increasing my light-footedness. And your insistence on only playing the magpies clearly delineates your need to prove your heroic qualities in a fake world, to counterbalance your less than heroic qualities in the real one.”
“I wasn’t skipping out on washing dishes,” Jessie burst out. “I wanted noodle cups for dinner. People eat noodle cups.”
“People who don’t want to take their turns cooking and cleaning up eat noodle cups.”
Easton interrupted them with a growl. “Hey, can you two cram it for a minute? I still don’t understand where my fluffy bunny comes in.”
The pair stopped arguing long enough to eyeball Easton. His cards were wedged in the fingers of one hand while he skimmed the worn sheet of rules held in the other. “Fluffy bunny is the warrior class, right?”
“You’re killing me here, man.” Jessie sighed with quickly lowering patience as Bree flipped the rule sheet over.
“You’re an assassin class,” Bree explained. “It’s totally different. Warrior classes don’t exist in this game.”
“Why not?”
“Because not every game should require the hero and heroine to smash the bad guys to bits.” Jessie sniffed. “UniMagP is all about finesse.”
“I’m a bunny.”
“You’re an assassin bunny,” he countered. “Which is the ultimate unknown. You can never trust a bunny.”
“Nope,” Bree agreed. “Try to draw a gravity card. Increased gravity increases weight, and you can squash what you hop on—”
River shared an amused look with Ben, who had taken a seat across the fire from her. “Do you think Easton’s going to get it?” she asked.
“I think he’s trying much harder than he normally would.” At her curious expression, Ben chuckled. “I’ve been with him on climbs where he didn’t say two words the whole trip, other than ‘clip on’ or ‘we’re stopping.’ He’s trying to get along with them.”
“Why’s that?”
Ben smiled at her. “Why do you think? I’m going to call it a night.”
Since everyone was busy, River decided it was a good time to sneak away from the campfire and get some time to herself. Taking the handheld with her, she slipped outside the circle of firelight. Since they were still in grizzly country, River didn’t go too far. When the camp’s fire had softened to a small orangey glow a hundred feet away, River found herself a smooth boulder to stretch out on. On her back, she held the camera above her face, pointed at the colors playing across the sky.
“Incredible,” she said softly to the viewers she hoped would one day see what she was seeing now. “The way the sky changes to these pinks and reds behind the cloud cover. As if an artist had painted a sunset, but a storm is rolling in, determined to drive that sunset away. Only it won’t, because up here, nothing can take this away. The beauty is too powerful.”
A noise pulled her attention, the quiet clearing of a throat to warn her of another human’s presence. Several feet away, Easton had paused beside a smaller boulder, waiting for her to notice him. His choice of leaning post was sturdy and strong, like he was.
“I thought you were scared to be alone in the woods with me.” River stayed on her back but twisted so the handheld was turned his way.
“I didn’t want to startle you.” Easton pushed off the boulder and crossed the rocky, snowy ground between them.
“You walk quiet, mountain man.”
Under the lower light, it was harder to make out his expression, but the warmth in his voice was familiar, matching the sparkle in his eyes.
“Nah, you’re so used to stomping around, you don’t know the difference.”
“Uh-oh, people,” River told her camera. “Easton’s teasing me. I might actually like it, but don’t tell him.”
“Do you have to film everything?”
“It is part of the process. We tried Claymation, but your beard kept falling off the miniature clay Easton.” She kept the camera on him as she patted the rock surface beside her. “Want to join me? I’ve got a boulder for two over here.”
He tapped a playful finger twice to the side of the camera, so River regretfully turned back to the sky above her.
“Back home, when the sky turned bright colors like this, it was usually after bad weather. Everything would turn this bruised yellowish-green color, then get really dark. We’d all take cover because it meant a tornado was coming through. A few got really close. Then afterward, the sky would look like this.”
Maybe the memories had taken her too deeply, because large, callused fingers slipped through her slimmer, softer ones. Once, she’d had calluses like those too, from long days and longer nights working horses and cattle with her family.
“How is it that I had to travel thousands of miles from home to find a place that reminds me so much of being back there?”
“Maybe you miss it,” East
on said. “When I miss home, seems like everything reminds me of where I wish I was.”
“Do you travel much?”
“Some. I’d like to travel more. Nepal, India, Tibet.”
“All places with the highest mountains in the world.” River turned to look at him and realized their faces were only inches apart. Suddenly, the sky above wasn’t nearly as interesting. “You should go.”
The way his expression changed, she knew he misunderstood her. Tightening her hold on his hand, River shook her head. “I meant to Nepal and everywhere else. To the tallest mountains. Don’t let anything stop you. There’s a big world out there. We shouldn’t have to stay locked in a box and only see part of it. Besides, after watching you climb that waterfall today, I couldn’t imagine anyone better for it.”
For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. The look in his eyes when he gazed at her certainly said he was considering it. Tugging on his hand to indicate she was more than okay with any decision he might be struggling with, River wiggled closer. He shifted up to brace his weight on one elbow, their threaded fingers between their chests.
“Hey, Easton! Adventuring biscuits have been consumed, man. Time to get UniMagP’ed up.”
“And that’s how you ruin a perfectly good moment.” River sighed, dropping her head back on the rock. “Thank you, Jessie.”
Easton sat up. “Don’t worry. Whatever this is, we have time to figure it out.” Leaning in, Easton added quietly, “It’s a long trip to the top.”
As he rose and disappeared toward the campfire, River turned back to the sky above her. She’d always lived her life for the endgame. The job, the career, the summit. But as she considered his words, River couldn’t help the curving of her lips.
Maybe this time, the best part would be getting there.
Chapter 10
River was born to be in front of a camera.
He’d never seen her in one of her roles, but Easton had a good idea of how much of a professional River was. When it was time for her shots at the end of the day’s climb, no matter how tired she was, she always helped her crew set up the equipment, find the right spot to film, and would only disappear in her tent for the briefest time to fix her hair for the scene. Then she would emerge with her acting face on, a calm and relaxed set to her features that could shift into whatever was required of her.
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