Page 68 of One Last Shot
Now he just kept rewinding today’s training through his brain. The team handled it well—even with today’s wind shear.
He’d been easy, no problem, in front of Boo, but the entire thing could have gone south—“Chocolate shake, I think.”
Tillie narrowed her eyes at him. “Really?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned back. “Maybe... a mocha shake?”
She laughed. “Right. We have fresh apple pie tonight.”
“You’re singing my song.”
“Fries,midnight chicken?”
“Let’s change it up.” He pointed to the stack of onion rings set in front of the bush pilots.
“Really?” She wore her hair back in a messy bun tonight, no makeup, her dark eyes twinkling. “Living on the wild side.”
He thought of his conversation with Boo, about her eating like a toddler. Well, sometimes he just wanted to throw caution to the wind.
“Yeah. And maybe... I dunno. You want to share them with me?”
Her eyes widened. “Um.”
Oh, he was an idiot. But his answer to Boo about asking Tillie out sort of stuck inside him, a gut response that clearly he shouldn’t have acted on.
“Sorry—”
“I have a break coming up. I’ll sit with you for five.”
He smiled.
She smiled back. “I’ll get that shake.”
He leaned back, setting his phone down. Maybe this was a stupid idea, this reality show. What if they did have a rescue that went south? The world would know—and frankly, it was bound to happen, right?
Yeah, this show could be his demise.
She returned with the shake. “O-rings will be out in a minute. Let me just check on my other table...”
He watched her walk away, his heart rate maybe a little too fast at the idea of her sitting down, actually having a conversation with him.
And then what? He’d ask her out?Just take a breath here, pal.
But then she came over, setting the onion rings in front of him. Taking off her apron, she wadded it into a ball and slid into the booth.
He shoved the plate toward her, then handed her the ketchup.
“Oh, I’m a mayonnaise girl,” she said andgrabbed the white container. Squirted it into a pile at one side of the plate. Grinned at him as she picked up a ring.
“I’ll bite,” he said and reached for his own ring. Dipped it into the mayo. “That’ll eat.”
“Right?” She laughed. “Learned it in Europe. Delicious.”
“Europe, huh? Did you go to school there?”
“Something like that.” She got up and grabbed a glass, filled it with water, then returned. “How’d you get into the rescue business?” She picked up another ring, dipped it.
“Navy. Then sort of got entangled in it by accident when I got home. But it’s been in my bones my whole life.” He watched her take another ring and sort of wanted to give her the entire plate. “Had a cousin who died after getting lost, and always sort of wondered if we could have found her before... well, before she died.”