Page 10 of All It Takes

“Absolutely. Alice is a veterinarian.”

He eyed me skeptically before nodding his approval. “That’s cool.” He looked over at Nilla, who thumped her tail on the floor.

A short while later, Ross was in the back seat with Nilla, and Tiffany was in the passenger seat beside me as I drove toward Alice and Jonah’s house. “You work with Jonah, right?” she prompted.

“Yup. Alice’s grandmother Bea is a friend of my mom’s too.”

“If you haven’t been to their place, it’s on one of the glacier lakes. It’s a tiny lake, but it’s beautiful,” Tiffany added.

“Is it frozen?” Ross’s voice reached us from the back seat.

Tiffany turned in her seat, glancing over her shoulder. She rested her arm on the edge of the seat as she angled to look at Ross. “It is frozen. Come summer, we can take Nilla there and she can go swimming with Alice’s dog.”

After we dropped Nilla off, I caught myself stealing glances at Tiffany again and again while we drove to Anchorage. I kept absorbing little details about her. The tiny freckles on her cheeks, the way the wind tousled her hair when she asked to crack the windows even though it was cold out. When Ross started asking curious questions about the mountains and the glaciers, Tiffany provided him with a running commentary. She promised to take him to the town’s transfer station for the “best eagle viewing,” and he was thrilled.

Once we arrived at the pet store, Tiffany glanced down at Ross. “Okay, have at it. Should we make it a race?”

Ross blinked up at her, a furrow forming between his brows. “A race?”

She waggled her eyebrows with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “That’s right. I get a cart, you get a cart, and…” Her eyes slid to me, and I tried to ignore the sizzle of electricity crackling in the air between us. “Wes might go for it. We have ten minutes to see how much we can get.”

A look of glee entered Ross’s eyes as he smiled up at her. “Yes!”

Before I had a chance to offer any feedback on this plan, they were grabbing carts and dashing through the store. I snagged a cart, jogging alongside Tiffany. “You’re crazy,” I offered.

She grinned at me. “No, I’m not. He needs some fun, and this is a thing the store does. You have ten minutes, and it’s only a hundred bucks for whatever you get, not counting the food. You’re in charge of the food.”

I hustled over to the food section, stocking up quickly on treats and food. When I turned out of the aisle, Tiffany and Ross were neck and neck in a race for the checkout.

Tiffany threw her hands up in the air, letting her cart roll forward as they reached the registers. When I caught up and looked toward Ross, I understood exactly why she did that. It was fun, and he needed something silly. His smile was wide and the sort of numb look in his eyes had disappeared.

I stopped behind them. “Who is the official winner?”

The guy at the register grinned as he glanced over at us, thumbing toward Ross. “Maybe by a foot.”

Tiffany lifted her hand, slapping it to Ross’s palm. “Rock on, dude. Maybe we should sign you up for track when it starts.”

“Track?” Ross prompted as the guy began ringing us up.

“Running. Did you do any sports before?” she asked.

“Soccer,” he offered.

“Do you want to play soccer this spring?” I asked.

When Ross glanced uncertainly back and forth between us, my heart gave a painful squeeze that was becoming familiar. Even though we had both known his parents, we didn’t know him that well, and we weren’t familiar with his childhood.

“Okay,” he said with a quick dip of his chin.

Tiffany slid her arm around his narrow shoulders, her palm curling over his upper arm and sliding up and down in a comforting gesture. Somehow, we were in charge of this kid. Ready or not.

After we loaded everything in the car and piled back into my SUV, Tiffany suggested we get lunch. A few minutes later, we were seated at a table at a burger place. Her knee brushed against mine. A layer of denim and the fleece from her leggings was between us, and I was still acutely aware of the subtle touch.

Her eyes caught mine, and it was all I could do not to lean over and kiss her. Her mouth was—well, I paid way too much attention to the plumpness of her bottom lip, the way her lips curled at the corners when she began to smile, and the way she had a habit of biting the corner of her lip, just two teeth denting the plush surface.

I forced myself to look away. I glanced out the window of the café, commenting, “It’s clouding up. Looks like snow.”

Tiffany chatted with Ross, asking him questions about his favorite classes as she explained he would start school next week in Willow Brook. When we walked out after lunch, she took a deep breath and glanced at Ross. “It smells like snow.”

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