Knowing her, something would happen that would give her a perfectly logical reason to leave the safety of the tent, or worse, the camp. He’d mentally berated himself the entire descent, switching off with Ben as they kept a helping arm around Bree’s waist. As they descended, Easton found himself missing the furball. Bad breakup or not, at least the marmot understood him. It would have been chafing at the pace too.

The weather was good, so they pushed past their previous campsite and kept going to the spot Easton had prearranged for Ash to meet them. As soon as they reached the flat outcropping—flat enough to safely land a helicopter—Easton and Ben worked to set up a temporary camp.

As he did, Easton watched the cloud cover get thicker around the mountainside.

When the call came in, Ash sounded worried. “Easton, your people are going to have to hang tight. At these temps, I can’t fly through all that soup without icing up.”

“Call the park department to come get us.”

“I already did,” Ashtyn told him. “They’re up to their eyeballs in a mess. You’re lucky. Denali’s been taking the brunt of the bad weather. Give me a few hours for this to clear out, and I’ll be there. It’s time to get you all off this mountain.”

When Easton didn’t answer, Ash’s answering silence spoke volumes. Finally, she groaned. “Seriously? It’s the actress, isn’t it?”

“We’ll talk about it when I get home. River’s still up there. We’re summiting, then coming back.”

Ash had a few less than complimentary things to say about Easton’s judgment where River was concerned, then she hung up on him, leaving Easton with no one on the other line to argue with. Instead, he turned on Ben, who made the mistake of approaching him right then.

“I’m surrounded by stubborn women,” Easton decided.

Ben scratched the back of his neck. “Umm…yeah. Sure, boss. Is one of them coming to get us?”

“Ash’s rotors will ice up. We have to wait.” At the expression on Ben’s face, Easton pointed a finger at him. “Make a rotor joke about my sister, and I will literally throw you off this mountain.”

Clearly amused, Ben stepped back to give Easton room. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Hey, relax. We’re good here. Bree’s passed out in a painkiller coma, and Jessie’s getting some sleep.”

Finally, something that might help. Easton turned to Ben. “Do you have this handled?”

“Good as gold.”

Heartened at the positive news, Easton shouldered his pack.

“Wait. You’re not headed back up there right now, are you?” Ben shouldn’t have asked, because it was clear that was exactly what Easton was doing. “Are you sure that’s smart?”

“I left a client alone.” At the most dangerous place on the mountain besides the summit.