“I thought we met on the side of the road.”
“That story doesn’t paint either of us in the best of lights.”
“I’m going to tell everyone you thought I was a hooker,” River teased him.
“That day was the best day of my life.” Easton’s rumbling voice was like soothing fingertips across her soul. “I didn’t even know it.”
“You’re not actually hitting on me right now.”
“If not now, then when?”
Then he kissed her, because if they were going to have to wait in the freezing cold, they might as well make the most of it.
• • •
The night took its toll. One look at his client, and Easton knew immediately River’s trip was over.
The amount of energy she had expended getting him to camp had depleted what was left of her reserves. The cold had taken what they didn’t have to spare. She’d stayed awake with him all night, but she was having a hard time remaining that way. Even when the sound of the rescue helicopter’s blades whipping through the air finally cut through the soft cry of the wind, she barely stirred.
In this location, there was nowhere to safely land, so Ben radioed to Easton to come to them if he could.
“Come on,” he murmured, gathering her up to his chest. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What’s happening?” she mumbled.
“I’m getting you home.”
“About time you earn your keep. Don’t forget my camera.” No. Anything but that. “Or the marmot.”
Even now, she made him laugh.
She probably could have walked, but it was easier for Easton to simply scoop her up into his arms, carrying River toward the National Park Service helicopter hovering beyond camp. Ben was with them, the first one to climb down the ladder to help. “Bad string of luck,” he said. “We’ll get them all up next time.”
“Thanks for coming back,” Easton replied with a grunt.
“Not gonna leave you behind a second time, boss.” Ben took River from Easton’s hold. “Not if I can help it.”
As he watched Ben hook River up to a harness, lifting her to safety, Easton knew he had made the right choice helping her summit. Some things were worth fighting for.
And for him, River had always been worth the risk.
Chapter 18
The nursing staff at the Moose Springs Medical Clinic couldn’t have kept Easton away from River if they’d tried. And boy, were they trying.
“I need to see her.”
“Ms. Lane is still resting.” Duncan, Easton’s nurse, paused in his work to make a tick mark on the hospital room’s white board, the way he did every time Easton asked. “Which is what you should be doing.”
Duncan hit Easton with a look that he was sure normally worked well on other patients. But no matter how good Duncan was at his job, Easton had no intention of sitting there, waiting for people who didn’t know her to decide if it was okay for her to have visitors.
“Listen to him, Son.” From the recliner in the corner of the room, Joshua never once looked up from his magazine.
“I don’t want River to wake up alone.” Easton pushed aside one of the many blankets they’d used to warm him up, frowning at the IV in his hand.
“Why do they always pair me with the difficult patients?” Duncan grabbed the IV fluid bag attached to Easton’s bed. “You’re going to spurt everywhere if you pull that out.”
This time, Duncan’s look was enough to make Easton pause…at least until the other man hung his fluids on a mobile IV stand.
“I didn’t tell you this.” Duncan talked as he worked to get a blanket wrapped around Easton’s shoulders. “She’s going to be fine, but Ms. Lane’s being treated for exhaustion and frostbite on her foot.”
Easton grimaced. “How bad of frostbite?”
“Let’s hope you don’t have a foot fetish. You, in contrast, needed some fluids, some warming up, and—for the hundredth time—some rest. Which you won’t get worrying about her, so we’re going over to her room. You’re a lucky guy, but even lucky guys can crack their skulls open if they collapse in a hospital hallway. Unless you want to see what a second concussion on top of a first can do, then you’ll start listening to me.”
“Her friends are with my sister,” Easton said, tired of repeating himself. “Which means she’s all alone.”
Solitude was something Easton had been lucky enough not to experience. When the National Park Service airlifted River and Easton to the small building that served as the Moose Springs hospital, not only had Easton’s family been waiting for him, but Graham and Zoey had been there too. Despite his reluctance at being separated from River, he’d understood the physicians’ need to evaluate them both. And even if he hadn’t, Ash and Joshua would have personally dragged him into imaging, where they ran test after test on him to make sure he wasn’t bleeding internally—cranial or otherwise—from his fall.
Duncan disappeared into the hallway outside his room, then returned, pushing a wheelchair.
“Nope.” No way. Never in a million years.
“Wheelchair or nothing.”
“I think he’s got you there, Son.”
“Dad, you’re really not helping.”
The magazine lowered enough for Joshua to aim a smug look at him. “It sucks being in love, doesn’t it?”
Refusing to respond to that, Easton dropped down in the wheelchair.
“She really dragged you down a mountainside?” Duncan whistled in appreciation as they left the room. “I can barely push you down the hall.”
Annoyed beyond belief, Easton said lightly. “I’m happy to walk.”
“Not worth my job.” Turning at the end of the hallway, Duncan paused at the first room on the right. “Okay, lover boy. Here she is.”
Duncan pushed Easton inside the hospital room, then closed the door to give them privacy.
The lights had been turned down low, leaving only the soft illumination of the machines monitoring River’s vitals and one strip of lighting behind the hospital bed. Without layers of thick protective clothing, River looked so small in the hospital bed that had felt so confining to Easton. Since River’s back was turned to him, Easton rolled to the far side of the hospital bed so he could see her face.
Easton ran a thumb gently over her arm, grateful to be able to touch her again.
“That tickles.” With a sleepy noise, she leaned into his hand.
He’d missed her voice so much in the few hours they’d been separated. He’d missed the feel of her beneath his hands even more. The tight band of pressure squeezing his heart into his feet finally loosened now that he could see her for himself.
River opened one heavy-lidded eye.
“What’s wrong? You have Easton face.” Both eyes popped open as she took him in. “And why are you in a wheelchair?”
Easton twisted in his wheelchair and grabbed a regular chair from behind him. He shifted from the wheelchair to the other chair, then he draped his arm around her waist, the way he had when they slept on the mountain.
“I hate to disappoint you,” he murmured, “but I was born with Easton face. Ash tried to scrape it off a few times, but it kind of stuck.”
She snuggled up to him as well as the IV in her hand would allow. “So that’s why you covered it with a beard.”
“I’m actually very attractive,” he promised her. “It’s not fair to the other men.”
“I bet it isn’t.” Her fingertips touched his arm. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Running his hand over her hair, Easton gave in and slid his arm beneath her head. He couldn’t help himself. He needed to hold her. “I’m fine. I just wanted to see you.”
“I’m okay.” River buried her nose against the inside of his elbow. “Are Jessie and Bree—”
“They’ll live. Bree had two
broken ribs. They treated Jessie for dehydration and sent everyone home to rest at my place a couple of hours ago. Right now, everyone’s worried about you.”
“I’m definitely feeling less than spectacular,” she admitted. “The Old Man tried to take us down, didn’t he?”
Easton brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. “The Old Man has nothing on you. River, did they talk to you about your toe?”
A flash of pain crossed her features. “I was kind of hoping that part would magically go away. Maybe we can talk about something else?”
“At least it isn’t your nipples.”
Her snicker was a balm to his soul. Since they’d come this far and she had her fingers wrapped around his heart and his wrist, Easton allowed himself a question he’d wanted the answer to since they’d left the mountain.
“River? What’s your real name?”
Her words were soft, almost inaudible. “What makes you think River Lane isn’t my real name?”
Easton’s voice softened too. “Only a hunch. Or maybe I remember you saying you didn’t want to die on the top of a mountain, thousands of miles from home with a man who didn’t even know your name.”
Those perfect blue eyes wouldn’t look at him. At least they wouldn’t look until he rested his chin on the edge of the guard rail, face inches from her own.
“Jamie Danielle. My last name really is Lane. My daddy calls me JD, like a boy. He always wanted a son, but he ended up with four daughters instead.”
“Poor guy was overrun.”
“Tell me about it,” River agreed. “I haven’t seen him or my mother in two years. I used to be so busy, I just couldn’t find the time. Now I have the time…”
“And you’re afraid to tell him why,” Easton finished for her.
River sighed. “They always supported me. Never complained, always said they were proud to have a daughter who worked as hard as I did to make something of myself. I didn’t know how to tell them I failed. Kind of like this documentary.”
“You think you failed?”
“I couldn’t film Moose Springs so I made a documentary about why someone shouldn’t climb Mount Veil. I pretty much sucked at this entire project, start to finish.”
Pressing his lips to the inside of her wrist this time, Easton couldn’t help but disagree. “You showed the truth of what being here and being on the Old Man is like. It’s up to whoever watches to decide if they’re willing to take the risk.” When she didn’t look convinced, Easton added quietly, “What happened up there was real, River. You can plan all you want, but when the mountain decides it’s going to win, there’s nothing you can do but fight to survive. You fought for both of us. You saved my life, and I’m grateful for it.”
A slight smile curved her lips. “I owed you.”
“No, but I’m thinking I might owe you when you get out of here. Buy you dinner at the very least.”
“I’ll take you up on that. Did you lose anything?” She held up her hands and wiggled her fingers at him. “All ten fingers and toes accounted for?”
Easton shook his head. “The only thing I lost was my pride. Scoot over.”
“There’s not enough room,” River protested.
“Nah, it’s fine.”
“You’re a beast-sized person. There’s definitely no room.”
Even as she argued playfully with him, River moved over, making a spot for Easton. And yes, there really wasn’t room, but that didn’t matter, not when he turned on his side, drawing her in flush to his body. She snuggled in, pressing her face to his neck.
“So this is what it’s like.” At her askance look, Easton explained, “Holding you without fifteen feet of jackets between us.” The IVs weren’t ideal for cuddling, and his pulled at his hand when he moved wrong, but being able to feel the soft skin of her arm along his was worth it.
River grinned at him. At least he assumed she grinned at him, because he could feel her lips curving against the skin of his throat. But like Easton, she seemed far too happy to be close to actually look up at him.
She felt good. Far better than a guy like him deserved.
“So, Jamie, huh?” He tried her name to see how it fit.
River sighed dramatically. “No, please don’t. I’m legally changed to River now, for better or for worse. I’ve married myself into this personality.”
Easton didn’t care what he called her, as long as she was tucked in his arms like this.
“What’s a girl got to do to get a ‘we survived, yay’ kiss?”
Easton nuzzled her neck, pressing a soft kiss to her pulse point. “Like that?”
“Not quite.”
“There?” Another kiss to her earlobe, then behind her ear.
“Hmm, that’s better. But not yet.”
Settling in, Easton tangled his hand in her hair, gazing into her eyes. She was so beautiful, even more so when she pulled him to her. Drawing her deep into his arms, Easton rolled so the weight of his body didn’t press down upon her. Lost in her, Easton didn’t realize they had company until a delicate female cough at the doorway was followed by a deeper, masculine snort.
“I take it this isn’t a good time?” Graham asked cheekily.
Graham and Zoey stood inside the doorway, twin expressions of curiosity on their faces.
When Easton groaned, his best friend chuckled. “We’re getting you back for all those times you interrupted us, buddy. Hey, Zoey, East has a girlfriend.”
“I know,” Zoey played along. “And she’s really pretty. Maybe too pretty for him. Do we know what he looks like under the beard?”
Graham flopped down in Easton’s wheelchair, making himself comfortable. “The real questions is, does she know what he looks like under the beard?”
“Would you two get out?” Easton glared at them. “We’re fine—”
“Clearly,” Graham spoke up, grinning broadly.
“—so please leave us alone. River needs rest.”
“Do I?” River arched an eyebrow.
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” Zoey’s eyes sparkled behind her glasses.
“There’s three of them now.” Easton grunted, dropping his head back onto the stiff hospital pillow. “It was bad enough when it was only him.”
River needed rest, but as she smiled at the playful banter, it occurred to Easton that there was something she needed more than rest. Sometimes family was the one you were born into. Sometimes family was the people you kept close, the people who mattered. Keeping her tucked to his chest, he turned to the family he had chosen.
“Want to hear about our first date?” he asked them. “A marmot fell in love with me.”
For a man who needed the people he cared about to be safe and happy, River’s soft laugh against his neck was everything.
• • •
River really didn’t want to lose her pinky toe. So far, the process of saving it hadn’t been pleasant.
The first step had been rewarming her partially frozen toe, during which River had been blissfully asleep. The next part was a series of wraps, topical creams, and cleaning off dying skin that River refused to watch. It was enough knowing what was happening. She didn’t need to see it. The physician in charge of her case promised the increasing pain of the process was a good sign. The more nerve endings and blood flow restored to her toes, the better.
Easton had offered to stay with her, but some things a person didn’t want witnesses to.
River’s nurse was cleaning her foot when a voice spoke up from the door. “That’s disgusting.”
River had been staring intently at the wall, but she turned her head.
Bree stepped into the room, giving her a once-over. “You look terrible.”
River waited for Bree to cross the room, hugging her. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I fee
l like you’re going to break my already broken ribs. Don’t squeeze so hard.”
“How are you? How’s Jessie?”
Pulling a stool to the side of River’s bed, Bree watched River’s foot in fascination. “Better than you. Your toe is—”
“Nope, nope, nope. Do not tell me. I don’t want to know.”
Bree chuckled. “Trust me, I should be taking stock footage on this. It’s a hundred times worse than the torture barn.”
“Nothing is worse than the torture barn,” River disagreed, relaxing back against her pillows. The nurse finished with her foot, rewrapped it, and gave her a dose of painkillers in a small cup before leaving. Despite being in a significant amount of pain from the procedure, River set the cup aside.
“I’d be popping those and chasing them with hard liquor if I were you,” Bree said. “That looked like it hurt.”
“It’s weird, but I like the pain. If I can feel it, I know my foot is going to be fine. Hey, how’s Easton? I think he’s been putting on the tough guy front for me.”
“Oh, that man is a nightmare. It’s not a front; he’s really that tough. His sister is worse. Since Easton’s been busy driving the hospital staff up the wall over you, she decided to ‘take charge’ of us.” Bree made air quotes with her fingers. “I have never felt so micromanaged in my life. If she hadn’t rescued me off a mountain or kept stuffing us full of scrambled eggs and coffee, I might hate her.”
“You love her.”
“Probably.” Bree made a playful face. “The Locketts are lovable people. Strange, pushy, and occasionally off-putting, but lovable.”
There was something River couldn’t quite put her finger on about Bree. Her friend sounded relaxed, but so much time with her had taught River the tension in Bree’s shoulders was too tight. Her fingernails kept drumming against the railing of the hospital bed. Bree was determinedly not looking at anything but River, when she normally watched everything around her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
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