Easton raised his eyes to her. “I’m not being dramatic. I’m trying to make you understand. There is nothing on any camera, anywhere, worth that. And I don’t know how I’d step off this mountain without you with me. I’m not sure how I’d live with myself,” Easton added softly. “Knowing I’d let it happen.”

“It’s not your job to protect me, Easton. I’m a big girl; I can make my own choices.”

His lips curved. “You can make your choices, and I’ll make mine. Hate to break it to you, but if you jump, I’m jumping after you. It’s the way I’m wired.”

“Fine, but all rescue attempts have to be made shirtless with your hair down.” She wiggled her toes to try to tickle him. Unable to keep the smile from his face, Easton removed her foot from beneath his arm and cupped her toes within his hands.

“Can you feel my fingers against your toes?” he asked. River nodded. “Even the little one?”

“Not as much as the others,” she admitted, “but I can feel it now. I might be hyperaware of it at this point.”

“Can you feel my fingernail digging in?”

“I mean…yeah but—ow!”

Easton smirked. “You’ll live.”

Wrinkling her nose at him, she glared as she pulled on her sock. Somehow in her annoyance at him, she’d become even more beautiful. He was going to marry her if she let him. Also if she didn’t kill him first.

“If my toe falls off, I’m blaming your adamantium claws.” River huffed, then she sighed and reached her fingers to his cheek, tugging his beard. “You know this is about more than a documentary for me, don’t you?”

“I’ve suspected it was more than only making a point to Hollywood, but you don’t talk about it.”

She was quiet for a while before answering. “Have you ever spent your life wanting something, but you can’t figure out what you’re missing? And you try and try, but nothing is ever quite right? That’s me. That’s been my life. And I feel like whatever it is I’m searching for, I’m going to find it up here. I’m already finding it up here. And I can’t quit halfway through. I can’t lose half the footage. I can’t fail, not when I’m this close.”

“This close to what?” Easton asked quietly.

“I don’t know. But I’m so close, I can taste it.”

He nodded. “Then try to keep those toes on. You’ll need them to summit.”