Moving on to the next pile, Easton had started to make mental note of what extra rope he needed to bring when an unknown vehicle pulled into the park beside them. He frowned until he recognized the driver, Dillon, and the two people climbing out of the back seat. Dillon rolled down the window.

“Hey, East.”

“New car?” he asked Dillon, the town’s most infamous rideshare driver.

“Yep, she’s a beauty all right.”

She was a Ford, so he was betting River wouldn’t agree. Sure enough, a quick glance to his client showed her hiding her smirk behind her coffee cup.

Several years earlier, a failed career in stock car racing had sent Dillon home to Moose Springs with his tail between his legs. Scruffy, young, and hungry, Dillon hadn’t found his way yet, but he had found an excuse to stay behind the wheel, even if not at the speed he was accustomed. Not all the resort guests zipped around in Ferraris or were driven in high-dollar coaches. Some rented normal cars or took rideshares around town and to their sightseeing destinations.

Dillon was nice, but you couldn’t pay Easton enough money to climb in a vehicle with him.

“I hope you people know how expensive rideshares are in this town.” Jessie paused for effect as he and Bree hauled their equipment out of the car’s back seat. “And there was a moose. I was filming a moose, River, and this one didn’t spook and try to trample anyone.” He hefted his camera. “If you want more than thirty seconds of wildlife on this thing, you have to let me film them.”

“There are a lot of moose,” Easton whispered to her out of the corner of his mouth. “Named the town after them.”

River coughed to hide her laugh.

“Is she the actress everyone is talking about?” Dillon asked.

“Director and producer,” Easton corrected the kid. For some reason, it annoyed him a little that Dillon seemed interested in River. Not that everyone didn’t already stare at her, and the younger man wasn’t a bad guy. It was just...annoying.

Easton stood and moved to the window, bracing a hand on the hood of Dillion’s sedan.

“They’re with me.”

Three words spoken pleasantly, but the right three words for this town. Dillon shrugged, shooting Easton an amused look. “Well, you all have a nice day. Remember my number if you want a ride again. I’ll be here all week.”

“What number was it again?” Bree started to ask, amenable to the suggestion, but Jessie started making cutting gestures across his throat. “I mean…no. We’re…no.”

Disappointed, Dillon drove away.

“A moose, River.” Jessie turned back to her, petulant and grumpy.

“I’ll find you another one.” Easton gave Jessie a companionable thump on the shoulder.

“Stop whining,” Bree told him, walking over to River. “We got plenty on the handheld alone. After we add in your footage, we’ll have more than enough. River, look at this.”

When she opened a handheld video camera, playing back the film, both women’s heads turned to the screen, utterly focused on what they were looking at.

Which left no one to care how bad Jessie felt. Except for Easton.

Jessie sucked in a deep breath, as if put upon terribly. “The only thing worth shutting down for was getting to eat something. Is there food here? No? Exactly.”

“Are you going to complain this much on the mountain?” Easton asked.

“Depends on them.” Jessie frowned, then he sighed again. “And my blood sugar.”

Checking the time on his phone, Easton said, “We’ll run through this and then get some dinner. My treat. The company can pay for all of us tonight. And you can park the car at my place. I don’t have extra rooms, but there’s a couch and you have your sleeping bags. Plus, there’s a shower.”

Normally, Easton would never have made the offer, but…well…he didn’t care for the idea of River sleeping in a car in the middle of a parking lot somewhere, even if it had been their own faults.

Jessie opened his mouth, then closed it again, unable to find anything in the offer to complain about. “Okay, that’s a good deal.”

Feeling her watching him, Easton glanced at River. When she winked at him, his hands stopped working. There was no other reason for the rope to slip out of his fingers.

A smirk touched Jessie’s lips. “Don’t do it, buddy. She’s chewed up and spit out tougher than you.”

Easton didn’t need the warning. He wasn’t surprised one bit by that piece of information.

“Oh!” Bree held up her phone, perking up. “How about this?”

“Looks good.” River took the phone and tilted it his way. “Hey, Easton?”

Her voice calling his name did something to him. Something Easton couldn’t begin to understand and didn’t want to…not yet. But when she said his name, he couldn’t help but look into her eyes. He’d drunk from glacier pools and never seen anything as blue. There were worse things than being chewed on for a while.

“Have you ever heard of the Tourist Trap?”

Worse things like taking them there.

• • •

As tiny diners went, this one smelled better than most.

“Nope. Nope nope nope. Out.”

River blinked, utterly unprepared for the reaction of the Tourist Trap’s cook when she and her crew walked in the door. Handsome enough to attract his own level of attention and large enough not to look diminutive next Easton—who was leaning against the bar to talk to him. The cook’s vigorous head shake took River aback.

“Excuse me?” she asked, looking between him and Easton.

Their guide had left the park before they had, the gear check completed and everyone signed off as safe to climb. The restaurant was packed, and finding parking had been a nightmare. The only reason they weren’t still outside circling the lot was she had noticed Easton’s truck behind the building in the employees-only section and parked next to him.

“It’s on the sign,” the cook said, pointing to the dry erase board behind him. Sure enough, it read ‘No film crews allowed.’ “I have the right to refuse service to anyone I deem a threat to my other customers.”

“Graham, don’t be a bully.”

Graham the mayor? No, it couldn’t be.

A short, slender woman with delicate glasses perched on her nose was seated on a stool at Easton’s side. She leaned over and said something to Graham, earning a loud and long-suffering sigh from the cook. Everyone was watching, making River’s blood boil.