Page 24 of One Last Shot
Closing the garage door behind him, he took the path to the side door of his home, went inside, set the containers down, took off his boots, and then walked, wool-sock footed, intothe kitchen.
Added the containers to others already in the refrigerator. He should probably tell Axel that the chicken was up for grabs.
Silence, except for the hum of the refrigerator, told him that his roommate-slash-brother had turned in for the night. So much bundled up inside his brother, so much he’d carried home from the accident in Kodiak. Someday, Moose would unlock all of that, but for now, Axel did his job and stayed out of trouble, so Moose let him wrestle with his demons on his own.
They both did, really.
He walked over to the window, hands in his pockets. Just a sliver of waxing moon in the sky, the stars like eyes, watching. He drew in a breath at the memory of his words to Boo.“I need to get creative here, Boo. I have a fundraising event in the fall, but right now we need cash flow.”
Maybe he shouldn’t have said all that, but he’d done a little digging about her when Dodge asked him to hire her. Had seen enough social media to know what his ask could do to her. He hadn’t known about the show, however.
Yeah, Boo was tough. She could handle this.
Honestly, he’d thought she’d turn him down.
But they did need the money. Because Alaska SAR did need Air One.
And maybe he needed Air One too.
He turned and headed upstairs to the master. The other bedroom, a mini-master, remained empty, Axel having taken up residence in the downstairs bedroom, turning the other into his office.
Such a big house. It needed . . . more.
Family, maybe. A wife. Kids.
Yeah, right. The last thing he wanted was something happening to him and leaving behind a widow and fatherless kids. Mostly, he didn’t want to let anything slow him down, make him think twice about risking his life for a stranger.
He flicked on his light and it spilled across thepictures on his bureau. His mom and dad, and Axel, fishing. A picture of him and a couple buddies in his squadron standing in front of his Rescue Hawk.
And Aren, of course. He picked up her picture. Sixteen, and she sat with him and Axel around a campfire, squished between them, holding up a marshmallow, laughing. He’d dug up the picture from an online tribute and downloaded it. Kept it on his bureau because, well, reasons.
After a moment, he set it down and headed to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, then stripped down and donned pajamas.
Climbing into bed, he grabbed his tablet and pulled up an online newspaper, just to unwind. But his eyes went cross-eyed, so he turned off the light.
Then he lay there, Boo’s words in his head.“You like her.”
Yeah. Yeah, he did.
But that’s where it ended.
He rolled over, slammed his fist into his pillow, and reached for sleep.
No, no, no, absolutely not, never.
Oaken stood outside the ICU unit, holding a cup of coffee, watching the sun arch over the Alaska Range, his body buzzing after just a few winks in the seedy hotel across the street. He’d had too many nightmares of things crawling on him, so he’d gotten up, showered, and returned to the ICU lobby.
He couldn’t leave. Not until Seraphina Grizz and her two kids arrived.
Not until he knew Mike had made it through the night.
And not until he could get his brain around Reynolds’s offer last night.
He closed his eyes, the conversation on replayin his head.
“You did an amazing job out there.”
He hadn’t expected Reynolds and Huxley to show up at the hospital, the show the very last thing on his brain as he’d watched Mike nearly die twice in the chopper.