“You look really good with your hair down. Definitely keep walking around with your locks flowing in the breeze like this.”

Rolling his eyes at her, Easton still exhaled a breath. “You’re exhausting,” he decided. “I like it.”

“I know. It’s part of my charm.”

Decision made, Easton made short work of breaking down the rest of the camp they were taking with them while Ben finished taping Bree’s ribs to stabilize them. River hugged Jessie goodbye.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, but River shook her head.

“Don’t be. Just get down safe, okay?” Adding a limping Bree into the group hug, River held them both for a long moment. “I’ll get the best footage ever. I promise.”

“Of course you will.” Bree’s faith in River was impossible to deny. “I’m glad SH is going with you. I still think he should stay, but I’m glad he’s not totally bailing on you.”

River nodded. “Me too. I don’t think Easton would know how to bail on someone if his life depended on it.”

The compliment would have meant a lot more if that wasn’t exactly what Easton was doing. Easton strode over to her, and in front of the rest of the group, he took River’s face in his hands.

“Keep that radio on you,” he said in a rough, low voice. “I’ll call when I get to the pickup site and start back up. You can’t leave, River. Promise me. Don’t go anywhere you can’t keep your hand on the tent. The weather isn’t calling for a storm, but the wind is picking up. If visibility goes down too far, you could get lost. Promise me, or I can’t leave you here.”

“I promise.” River wrapped her hand behind his neck, going up on her tiptoes as much as her crampons would allow. “You can trust me, Easton.”

Resting his forehead to hers, Easton inhaled another deep breath. Then he kissed her, a quick, hard kiss. “I’m coming back, River. I’m not leaving you up here.”

Her smile was the breath in his lungs. “It never once occurred to me you would.”

• • •

Grown women weren’t scared of the dark. Or the not quite dark of being on a mountaintop near the North Pole.

But like a tree falling in the woods, if no one was there to witness River being a scaredy cat, it wasn’t actually happening, right?

“People make vampire movies out of situations like this,” River decided as she sat in her tent, staring out a tiny hole she’d unzipped in the flap.

Opening the flap fully wasn’t happening. With night came the cold, and this cold was beyond any she’d experienced so far.