Page 10 of One Last Chance

“I think six. Or eight.” Axel looked out the window. He really hadn’t expected the show to air so quickly. Should have given the whole thing a little more thought, perhaps, because . . . well, he braced himself for a phone call any day from a reporter looking to stir up ghosts.

Regrets.

“I can’t believe you spent a whole month with Oaken Fox. Looks like he’s an okay guy,” Levi said.

The sun had just slipped past the mountains. The entire sky turned to fire, the Denali range dark and forbidding, still white-capped, so deadly even in summer. Maybe more in summer, what with the queue of tourist climbers waiting to summit.

Moose had talked about parking the Air One chopper in the Copper Mountain airbase to help Dodge over at Sky King Ranch, ferry all the wannabes who tapped out down the mountain.

Air One Rescue had also assisted in a few callouts on the mountain. So that probably accounted for Moose’s ready appearance in the skies.

“He’s a decent guy,” Axel said now of Oaken. “He lived with us for a couple weeks. I helped him with some songs.”

“Now you’re a songwriter,” Levi said. “Wow—and you still don’t have a girlfriend?”

“Funny. And no. Women are trouble.”

“You need a dog,” Sully said. “Like Hondo.”

Axel grinned. “I do like Hondo. How is he?”

“Scaring the guests, chasing rabbits, and generally ruling over the Bowie Outpost.”

“You leave him alone, out there in the woods at the fishing camp?”

“No. He’s in town with Mal and Hud. Tangled with a badger and needed some stiches. I’ll pick him up in a few days.”

They hit the highway and drove north just a few miles to the town of Copper Mountain. A skeleton in the winter, the town came to life in the summer, the resorts, motels, bed and breakfasts, and hostels packed with tourists, hikers, climbers, fishermen, photographers, and all-around lower-forty-eighters who found themselves in over their heads here in the last frontier.

Levi passed the Welcome to Copper Mountain sign, then turned onto Main Street and drove past the Midnight Sun Saloon, the gravel lot packed with cars, grill smoke piping into the sky, seasoning the air with the smell of barbecue. The windows of the Last Frontier Bakery were dark, as was the Good News office and the timber-framed storefront of Bowie Mountain Gear.

Levi pulled up in front of Northstar Pizza, the twinkle lights bright around the outdoor patio, where a few people sat at yellow painted picnic tables.

“It’s nearly eleven. How late are you guys open?” Axel said, piling out.

“We changed it to midnight on Saturday nights during the summer. And even that feels early.” Levi shut the door. “I’ll see if they have any overorders.” He headed inside.

Axel lifted out his kayak and carried it over to his Yukon, tied his kayak to the roof with bungee straps, then retrieved his pack and threw it in the back.

He joined the guys at a picnic table. Frankly, he couldn’t imagine eating, his gut still roiling. Moose always went out for a shake after a callout. Axel preferred to wait until his gut stopped churning, pacing through all his choices in his mind, trying to throw out the regrets.

Yeah, he should stop circling. Today, no regrets.

A waitress came out, blonde, dressed in a pair of jeans and a black Northstar Pizza T-shirt, and plunked down a pitcher of water and four glasses. “Hey, guys.”

“Hey, Parker,” said Jude.

“It’s getting around that you guys rescued Cally and Adri on the Copper River tonight. At the falls, no less.”

Axel put her at about seventeen, so yeah, Cally’s age.

“Where’d you hear that?” Jude tore his attention off a table of locals sitting across the patio.

Axel glanced over.Oh.Shasta Starr sat among them, her gaze on them. She was pretty for sure—long dark hair, a smile that belonged in a magazine. But she had penchant for trouble, too, and that had semaphores waving him far, far away.

Thanks, but he wanted safe, quiet, and trouble free. Maybe he would get a dog. He looked back at Parker.

“Dad was here listening on the radio when Moose picked you guys up.”

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