Eventually, Graham had to open the diner. He offered to take Easton with him, but Easton chose instead to stay where he was. Easton didn’t know what he wanted or what to do, but he knew the Tourist Trap only held strangers, not answers.

Staring at the phone in his hand, he tried to decide if he should call her. The break had been clean, like ripping a bandage off a wound. Maybe that was what River needed from him? Or maybe she was sitting somewhere, thousands of miles away, wondering why he never bothered to text or call.

When a car rolled up his drive, Easton frowned. He recognized the sticker on the windshield identifying it as a rental car, but he wasn’t expecting anyone. Definitely not expecting Jessie to park and get out of the car, laptop in hand.

Rising to his feet, Easton met his previous client in the driveway.

Jessie gave him a rueful look. “Wow, you’ve looked better.”

“Long night,” he grunted as they shook hands, then Jessie pulled him in for a brief hug.

“River took up all your time when we were here. I never got a chance to thank you for getting me off that mountain.”

Easton blinked, not at all expecting the hug or the comment.

Jessie added, “I figured you’d be here, smelling like booze. Damn, you had it bad for her. It’s almost embarrassing, man.”

Easton snorted. “You flew all this way to tell me that?”

“Nope. I came here to show you something.” Jessie walked over to the porch and sat, opening his laptop. “This is all our hard work. It’s not done. We still have a lot to do, but I think you can tell what we’re getting at here. There are two versions of this. One is the Moose Springs focused story, which is good. River’s great at what she does, and Bree’s audio was phenomenal. The tourism board will love it.”

“But?”

“But this is better.”

Then Jessie turned the laptop Easton’s way. He sat down and watched. Maybe he shouldn’t have. With every scene, Jessie reached deeper into his chest, finding the remaining shreds of his heart to pull out with brutally effective fingertips.

Still, he had to smile. Watching River and Bree hook arms and laugh together at how horrifying his barn was. Watching Jessie up in a tree, yelling shrilly because of a bear. Ben’s constant grin, no matter how hard the day’s climb. Even watching the marmot shuffling off after saying goodbye to Easton, turning back to look longingly over its furry shoulder every few feet to overly dramatic breakup music. River whispering into the camera, alone on the mountaintop, about how much she cared about her friends.

Despite losing so much of their footage on the mountainside, what they had put together was…powerful. It might have been the best film he’d ever seen.