Page 54 of One Last Shot

Boo flashed her penlight into Amber’s eyes. “We have good pupil reaction. And her blood pressure is stable. Let’s get her on the ATV.”

A sound came from Amber then, and her boyfriend stepped in, grabbed her hand. “I want to go with her.”

“Sure thing,” Moose said and clamped him on the shoulder.

It wasn’t until after they moved her to the ATV that Oaken did the math.

“I guess we’re walking out,” said Axel.

“Naw, you guys wait here. I’ll come back for you,” Moose said.

Oaken watched as Boo climbed into the four-person Polaris, her hands on the litter. She looked up and met his gaze a moment before they pulled out.

He lifted his hand, then gave her a thumbs-up.

And got a nod, along with another smile.

Yeah, he’d count this as a win in his book.

The next morning, not so much.

“You’re kidding me, right? You went on a callout and didn’t tell us?” Huxley stood in the main area of Air OneRescue, holding a cup of coffee, her hair back in a handkerchief, her green eyes on fire. Behind her, Beto tried to make himself invisible.

Outside, a light rain had started to fall, the sky dour despite the morning hour.

“Listen, Huxley, it was nearly midnight before we got to the site, and it took three-plus hours to haul her out. You would have hated the lighting, and the fact is, with so many state troopers on scene, you wouldn’t have gotten a good shot. Besides, all I did was hold a flashlight.”

Huxley narrowed her eyes at him, her jaw tight. She took a sip of her coffee. Looked past him to where Moose sat in his office, typing on his computer. The rest of the crew, except Boo, hadn’t arrived yet. But Oaken had been buzzing with adrenaline and hitched a ride with Moose this morning.

It had nothing at all to do with seeing Boo. Nothing.

“I’m going to talk to Moose. This is almost breach of contract. You do this again and the show is over. You’ll owe the production company the cost of filming to date. And believe me, we’ll collect. And forget about the 50K for Maggie’s Miracle.”

He stared at her as she marched past him and headed into Moose’s office. Shut the door.

“She’s like Tinker Bell—small but fierce.”

He turned. Boo had come out of the workout room, a towel around her neck, holding a water bottle.

He pinched his mouth and nodded, trying to hide a crazy smile.

So, she couldn’t sleep either apparently.

He picked up his bag of clean workout clothes and headed into the locker room. Changed and then emerged. Huxley was still in with Moose. Beto had helped himself to a cup of coffee, now sat at the table staring at his phone.

Oaken headed back to the weight room.

Boo was on the bike, pedaling hard, her earbuds in. She took one out and set it on the tray in frontof her. “You good?”

He walked over to the treadmill, climbed aboard and turned it on.

A line of mirrors along one wall near the weight set reflected back a vision of his tired self. But weirdly, despite only three hours of sleep, a buzz of energy sluiced his veins.

“How’s the woman we rescued?”

“She roused on the way to the hospital. Once we got there, she gave a statement to the police. Apparently, she was ahead of her boyfriend on the trail and spotted a bear. It was eating what she thought looked like a body.”

He looked over at her, his pace in warm-up. “An animal?”

---