Page 46 of One Last Shot

Oaken raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“She seems to like you.”

“Hardly. She barelytalks to me.”

“But she watches you. And today when she hooked you up on belay, she gave you a smile. And a ‘good job.’” Moose glanced at Oaken. “She’s just guarded.”

“I know.” Oaken stared out at the river. “Such a great place here.”

“Yep.” A beat. “I inherited it.”

Oaken turned back to Moose. “Really?”

“Yep. A guy I rescued, early days. Before Air One was started. He and I got to be friends. He gave me the money for the start-up and then gave me the place when he moved to the lower forty-eight. Died a year ago, and I got the title.”

“You always want to do this—run a rescue op?”

“Nope. I wanted to play hockey.” He checked the steaks. “Just sort of fell into it.” He lowered the lid. “You always want to play music?”

Oaken laughed. “Nope. Sort of fell into it.” He drew in a breath. “But I like it here. Maybe I should ditch the music, join the team for real.”

Quiet beside him. He finally looked at Moose. “What?”

Moose’s expression was serious. “Is that what God is telling you to do?”

Oaken’s eyes widened. “Uh . . . I’m . . . I don’t—God and I aren’t actually talking.”

“You mean you’re not talking to God. Because God never stops talking to us.”

He gave a harsh chuckle. “Yeah, that’s true.” He shook his head. “I can’t seem to get out of his sights.”

Moose raised an eyebrow.

“It’s just . . . aw. Nothing.”

Silence.

“I just feel sometimes that maybe God is stalking me.”

“You’ve heard of the Good Shepherd, running after his lost sheep, right?”

“Yeah, except... well, I’m not sure he’s interestedin rescuing me as much as...” And suddenly he couldn’t even say it, his throat tight. He lifted a shoulder, looked back out at the river.

“You think God is against you.”

He looked away. “He has his reasons.”

“Or you have your reasons for not believing he could be on your side.”

Oaken’s mouth tightened.

“Sometimes when we’re trying to rescue someone, they get so panicked they do stupid things. Like jump on us, or even grab the litter before it’s ready for them. And it only makes the situation worse. And then we have to untangle them, or even get rough with them—especially if it’s a water rescue—so we can actually rescue them.”

“I’m not sure God needs to get rough with me to rescue me.”

Moose made a sound. “He did with me. It got really rough before I figured out that I didn’t have to fight so hard to rescue myself.”

Oaken looked at him.