“Can I keep you forever?” Scarlett asked with a laugh before taking a big bite of the salmon Lauren had prepared for their dinner that night.
Scarlett’s eyes grew wide as the flavors hit her tongue. “I mean it,” she gushed, using her hand to cover her mouth so she could talk and eat at the same time. “I am keeping you, whether you like it or not.”
“Sure, you can keep me, but I kind of need a job,” Lauren answered with a huge smile.
“What’s so wrong with being my stay-at-home roommate? I almost never get to eat like this unless I visit my parents in the lower forty-eight.”
Lauren rolled her eyes but secretly loved that Scarlett already found her indispensable. She hadn’t managed that with Shane in more than a month, but somehow, it had taken less than a day with her new roomie. Isn’t this the way things were supposed to be?
“You know…” Scarlett dragged a spoonful of aioli across her salmon filet, slathering the entire surface as she chattered on. “I’m sure we could find you something at the library.”
“Me? A librarian?” Lauren’s voice squeaked with excitement at this idea. “That would be super cool.”
“Not exactly.” Scarlett took a quick sip of water before continuing. “I mean, you need a master’s degree in library sciences for that, but you said you studied English, right?”
Lauren nodded, eager to hear more.
Scarlett bobbed her head as if in agreement with herself. “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll manage something. Or, maybe I could introduce you around U of A, see if any of the professors need a research assistant.”
“Why are you so amazing?”
Scarlett flushed. “Me? No. Actually, you’re the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in years.”
“I am?”
Scarlett nodded so vigorously that she choked on her rice pilaf. She banged on her chest, coughed, and then continued eating. Lauren wished she could eat the way her new friend did and remain stick thin. Lauren had never been a stick and, these days, she was downright Amazonian with all the extra muscle she’d put on running Shane’s dogs.
Scarlett took a few long gulps of water before explaining. “So I grew up in Texas, a tiny town world famous for its apples. Anyway, I’d always known I wanted to be a librarian, so I went where they had a job for me.”
“To Loussac?” Lauren said, recalling their first meeting over the microfiche.
“To Loussac. And right away, I knew I’d found my home. I fell in love with everything about this place—the nature, the people, the history, and especially the Iditarod.”
Lauren shook her head in awe. “How old are you, Scar? You can’t be much older than me, and I’m just twenty-five.”
Scarlett waggled four fingers at Lauren. “I’ll be thirty next year. But, anyway, that’s not the point. The point, is I fell in love with dog racing every bit as much as I’ve always loved my books. I read about it, studied it, watched it, but I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I could actually maybe do it for myself. That is, until you came along.”
Lauren laughed in disbelief. “What did I do?”
“You were just you, Lauren, and that was enough. You came to the library that day, coming to the sport with no background, working for one of the most infamous men in the business, and when you told me you did it all on a whim? You blew my mind a little.”
“I did?”
“You did. I’ve always planned and plotted my life so carefully, done the things you’re supposed to do, not necessarily the things I wanted to do. But then, I thought, she’s doing it, so why can’t you do it, too?”
Lauren glanced around the small apartment which housed a noticeable absence of dogs.
“Oh no. Not yet. A tiger can’t change its stripes overnight, but I did put in for a sabbatical, so that maybe next season, I can…” She blushed and set her fork down beside the empty place. “I can be a musher, too. You inspired me to follow my dreams, and that makes you my favorite person in basically the whole wide world.”
“I’m not part of that world anymore. Shane fired me. Well, I kind of quit, kind of got fired. Point is, it’s not what I’m doing any longer.”
“But your father…” Scarlett blushed and the color overtook her entire face. “It’s who you are,” she finished.
Lauren sighed. “I’m starting to wonder if I really knew my father at all. He kept such a big part of himself hidden from me, and I’m no closer to learning why he quit or why he kept this huge secret for so many years.”
Scarlett carried their plates to the sink and began to scrub at the dishes. “Well, tell you what. As much as I love having you stay home and cook for me, come to the library with me tomorrow. I’ll set you up with some more research materials, and you can have the whole day to learn more about your family’s history. The answers are out there. You just have to keep looking, and I’ll help, too.”
“Scarlett, that’s so nice. Thank you.”
“Hey, no need to thank me. It’s what friends do. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Lauren said, returning the fist bump Scarlett offered. So this is what it felt like to be wanted, accepted, and appreciated. None of these were things she’d felt while living with Shane—at least, not for longer than a few moments at a time.
Being here with Scarlett was right. She’d made a friend for life. The rest would come in time.