“This isn’t like rock. The ice feels solid, but it’s like a piece of cold glass. Tap it too hard and it’ll shatter. The last thing you want is to be thirty feet up and the whole sheet goes.”

His warning was intended to dissuade her, but instead, River’s eyes brightened even more. For a long moment, Easton considered whether he wanted to throw down over an ice climb. Then with a sigh, he pulled out his ropes to start a belay system. “Fine, but if it goes, don’t blame me. I’m officially and legally warning you that you should not do this.”

“And I’m officially and legally telling you that I so don’t care. When am I ever going to have this chance again?” After double-checking their equipment, River turned to Easton. “Ready?”

He should have wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her close, and done anything else to convince her there were a lot of other ways to have fun than to do this.

Instead, Easton grunted, “Climb on.”

• • •

When she’d first seen the waterfall, all River could think about was how badly she wanted to climb it. And yes, it was dangerous. She hadn’t cared.

She also hadn’t thought through the realities of having Easton on the ground beneath her.

River was enough of an adrenaline junkie to enjoy the thrill of her racing heart. What she didn’t like was the understanding that if she messed up—or if the falls simply shattered there was no way Easton would be able to get out of the way.

With every placement of her axes, she couldn’t shake the image of razor-sharp shards of ice dropping down on him while he was tied to her.

“I never should have agreed to the belay,” River muttered.

Even as the words left her mouth, River’s ax slipped from the ice. She tried to catch herself with the other one, but she was already falling.

There was something about having an expert on the ground beneath her. Easton had known exactly how much line to feed out as she climbed that she’d never felt the pull of the rope connecting them. He weighed enough that she didn’t even pull him off his feet with the fall. At least, she didn’t think she had by how short her drop was before the rope caught her. Still, a fall was a fall, even when safely secured, and it stole her breath.

Body reacting on instinct, River’s legs came up, her feet bracing hard against the waterfall for balance.

This time, she froze, realizing what she’d done.

“River?” Easton called up to her. “You good?”

“I’m hoping I didn’t bring all this down on our heads. Remind me not to kick the super deadly sheet of ice again.”

“It wasn’t that hard. You’ve got this. Keep climbing.”