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He glanced over, his teeth flashing in the dark as he actually smiled. I wanted to scold him for that too and had to bite my tongue.

“You’re on the verge of hypothermia if you’re not already hypothermic,” I muttered, as we kept making our way through the deep snow, along the path Harriet and Travis had created. “We’re going to have a conversation.”

“Aren’t we having one now?” he tried to quip, although his teeth were chattering.

“Lincoln!”

“We’ll talk when we get back,” he added.

It wasn’t too long, although it felt like forever, before we reached the main trail. Kendall was there, along with Jude, who met Lincoln’s gaze with one brow arched high. “Doing a little test run for hypothermia?” he quipped.

“Something like that,” Lincoln returned.

“Let’s get you home, man. Nothing broken?” he added as we all began moving.

“No, but I’m going to have some nasty bruises. I slipped.”

“Yeah, on that section of the trail we always tell everyone to be careful on,” Jude said, his tone dry.

“That’s the one,” he agreed.

Kendall flanked my other side, while Jude made sure to steady Lincoln’s footsteps along the way. At one point, Lincoln moved to shake him off, and Jude simply commented, “Don’t even try. You’re not that steady on your feet. You know you’d be an ass to me about this.”

“Fine,” Lincoln muttered.

It seemed like the entire group rendezvoused with us through the last stretch of the trail. I felt beyond relieved and was fighting back the urge to burst into tears all over again. I just kept telling myself Lincoln was okay. We would get him warm.

“He can’t die of hypothermia now, right?” I murmured under my breath to Kendall at one point.

“Oh no, definitely not,” she assured me. “We just need to get him warm, fast.”

“Shower?” I asked.

“We need to check when we get him inside. Usually it’s best to increase the body temperature gradually,” Jude said.

“I’m fine,” Lincoln announced, although the chatter of his teeth gave him away again.

Once we got inside, Tommy and Maggie were there. Tommy eyed Lincoln, his dark hair standing straight up as he peered up at his uncle. “You’re a dumbass.”

I saw Maggie open her mouth to correct his language before she closed it quickly. Her eyes had a sheen of tears in them as she approached Lincoln and pulled him into a fierce hug. “We need to get you warmed up.”

“I know,” he said. “I just want to take a hot shower.”

Haven insisted on checking Lincoln’s temperature to make sure he didn’t need to warm up more gradually. Once he was satisfied and after we peeled out of our winter gear, I all but yanked Lincoln down the hallway to my suite. When we got through the door, tears were hot in my eyes all over again. “We need to get you in the shower,” I said, my voice thick.

Lincoln was quiet, but went along with me practically shoving him into the bathroom. When I saw how clammy his skin was and the bluish tinge of his lips, I took a shaky breath and turned the hot water up all the way. “Lincoln, you scared me.”

“I scared me,” he admitted. “I’ve walked that trail a million times. Well, maybe not a million, but a lot.”

I kept forcing myself to breathe. Once he was in the shower, hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I was chilled as well from being outside in the dark in December in Alaska. I quickly stripped out of my own clothes and stepped in with him. He was just standing there, letting the hot, steamy water rain down over him.

“Are you warming up?” I asked.

He turned, his eyes opening. “Of course. I’m already warm. I wasn’t hypothermic,” he insisted, and his teeth were no longer chattering.

I forced myself to take a slow breath. “You scared me.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I really am. Next time I have a nightmare and I need to go outside, I will not walk that far. I promise.”