What the Wolf Wants, Chapter 6 - Kayaks on the Arkansas River in Tulsa

A team-building kayak outing on the Arkansas River goes spectacularly sideways when a great blue heron triggers Toby's involuntary shift, producing a large wet wolf paddling for shore in a bright orange life vest with his beanie still inexplicably in place. What follows is the broadest physical comedy in the story — Viv inventing the "OSU Extension Canine Hydrotherapy Certification" in two seconds flat, Drew losing his phone and his entire "TESLA FIRE — NOT MY FAULT DOCUMENTATION" to the bottom of the river, and bourbon from a thermos Toby produced from somewhere in his flannel. But the chapter's real current runs beneath the laughter: on the walk back, Orsino looks at Vic with something that has moved past amusement into a different register, and Viv tells him something about Olivia's Tuesday walk that amounts to quiet, careful advice — show up without a letter, without the geology, just as yourself — because she has seen up close how Olivia flinches at metaphors built from her brother's language, and she cares too much about both of them to say nothing.