“Even a moose.” River shared a chuckle with the girl’s mother.

Without warning, Jacie hugged her. Until that moment, River hadn’t realized how badly she needed a hug. While the mother took pictures and they both thanked her, River used every single trick in the book to hold it together. Then she walked calmly to the bathroom, locked the stall door behind her, and burst into tears.

When someone asked if she was okay through the stall divider, River mumbled, “I’m fine. Bad breakup.”

“Oh, I’ve been there.” The stranger in the next stall told her over the sound of tinkling. “Have yourself a good cry and then go drink them away. I’ve never met a person who wasn’t two shots of tequila away from a bad memory. In fact…” A bottle appeared under the door. “Here. Start now.”

Startled, River scooted away from the uninvited hand in her stall. “Oh. Umm, I couldn’t.”

The bottle waggled at her. “It’s no bother, I have plenty. Drink him away, darling.”

When one is faced with the option of drinking the bathroom tequila or not drinking the bathroom tequila, one…well…shouldn’t. But screw it. She’d survived Mount Veil. She’d survived leaving Easton. She could survive anything.

As always, the freeways in LA were packed, so River had plenty of time to miss her mountain man as her rideshare driver drove her to the studio in Hollywood where her friends were already editing their documentary. When she reached the studio, River knocked before sticking her head in the door.

“Am I interrupting?” she asked playfully.

Only one of the two figures inside turned around from their laptops, but when Bree jumped up, coming over to her, Jessie at least pulled off his headset and waved his hand absently.

Bree hugged her tight. “River, there you are. Jessie and I had a bet on whether you would actually leave.”

“How are you feeling?” River asked, fighting through the sadness Bree’s comment caused.

“My ribs are still sore, but I’m tough.”

“That you are. How’s the whiner?”

“The whiner is currently busy editing your cluster of a documentary.” Jessie swiveled around in his seat. “Okay, we lost a lot of footage when we lost the second camera, but we had enough backed up that it isn’t too bad. The best stuff was on the handheld anyway. Check this out. It’s only an early mock-up, but I think it has potential.”

River sat in Bree’s vacated chair, taking Jessie’s headset as she watched his laptop.

At first, it was exactly what she’d wanted. Exactly what she’d expected from two people as amazing at their jobs as they were. But the longer she watched, the more River started to shift uncomfortably in her seat. Her jaw clenched as she finally hit pause.

“No.” Absolutely not.

Bree looked at her. “What’s wrong with it?”