Page 103 of One Last Chance

“Close. Axel.”

“Right. Lugnut?”

Axel laughed. “What are you doing here?”

“Back to see the bros. Hud roped me into doing a demonstration.” His shirt emblem read Highland K-9.

Axel noticed it. “What’s Highland K-9?”

“It’s a K-9 SAR school in Montana. We’re located right outside Glacier National Park, and we train dogs to track the lost and missing. Orlando here is a former avalanche SAR dog. I’m going to take him into the park for a few days and do some training.”

“You should talk to Moose. He started an SAR team—Air One Rescue.”

“Right. I heard about that from Hud. Dodge runs a chopper for Air One?”

“Yeah.”

Jericho had dropped his hand to Orlando’s head, glanced at Flynn. “You have the look.”

“What look?”

“You can pet him.” He looked at Orlando. “Down.”

Orlando lay down and Flynn crouched in front of him. “Hey there, Orlando.” She put her hand on his paw, and he raised his eyebrows but didn’t move.

“I heard about the accident on the mountain a couple days ago. You okay?”

She looked up to watch Axel’s response. He’d said little about the accident even when she’d asked, although he’d slept in yesterday and had spent the day at home, icing his shoulder. He still moved as if he ached. Maybe she just didn’t want to know.

Except, the three hours from radio silence to the chopper’s touchdown at Sky King Ranch had taken everything out of her.

She could hardly breathe with his answer.

“I’m great. You know—living the dream.”

Jericho laughed. “Right. I remember you. Weren’t you the one who went cliff-jumping into the Jubilee River?”

Axel gave him a thin-lipped smile. “Yep. Great to see you, man.”

Flynn stood up, eyed Axel. There went that hooded look again.

He glanced at her as they walked away. “Really, I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem fine. I . . . You want to tell me what happened up there?”

“Not really.”

Oh.

He slid his hand into hers, however, held it, and the strength of it seemed to fill her veins. Yes, something had definitely shifted between them.

They stopped at booths, looking at paintings and photographs, and he pointed out a couple landmarks. “That’s the real Moose Tooth,” he said of a picture of a jutting granite peak. They sampled honey and some homemade granola from Gigi’s, and never once did he release her hand.

They stopped by the booth outside the gift shop, and she found more jade necklaces like the one she wore, the one Axel had given her—the sparrow. And other shapes—turtles and hearts and teardrops and an eternity symbol. She picked up the artist’s card. “It’s from a local art colony,” said the vendor when she inquired.

She stopped at a place that made soaps and got a lotion sample. “What is this smell?” A woman in tie-dye and dreadlocks handed her an ingredients card. “Cedar and pine, with a little lavender. All natural.”

She rubbed her hands with it, then put it on her neck. Axel leaned in. “I like it.”

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