Lauren invited Scarlett up to Puffin Ridge for a ride on the sled. It would be her first time running with someone other than Shane in the basket, and no one deserved that honor more. Scarlett had been working hard toward the mysteries of Edward Dalton and Rose Ramsey, and Lauren wanted to make sure she was properly thanked.
Her guest came to the door bundled tightly in every possible article of winter wear and then some. She even wore hot pink snow pants, which made Lauren and Shane both laugh.
“Oh, I brought the mail your friend from the lower forty-eight sent up. It’s on the front seat of my car. Should I go grab it?” Scarlett asked as she stomped the snow from her regulation-standard bunny boots, making it clear she’d done her research when it came to this sport.
Lauren gave her friend a hug hello. “Sure. Can you set it on the table, then meet me around back? I’ll start prepping the sled.”
“Have fun out there,” Shane said as he settled into his recliner.
“Wait, you’re not coming with us?”
“Don’t need to. Besides, I’ll only get in the way.” He grimaced as he shifted in his chair and propped his cane on the arm.
“If you’re sure…”
He waved her off. “I’m sure. Go get ‘em, tiger.”
She laughed and shook her head. Shane needed a serious slang update, but she’d work on that later. Right now, the excitement of having her friend at the cabin and running her first full team—she decided not to count the unfortunate time she’d fallen from the sled—were more than enough to hold her focus.
“Here I am!” Scarlett sang as she skipped through the snow and made her way over to the dogs. “I can’t believe I’m here at Shane Ramsey’s and going to take a ride with his team.”
“Today,” Lauren said, hooking Fred on, “they’re my team.”
“You know what I mean!” Scarlett looked back toward the house. Shane’s silhouette was just visible through the large front window. “He seemed nice today. Are you two getting along better?”
Lauren felt heat rise to her cheeks and hoped her friend would attribute it to wind burn rather than embarrassment. “Yep. He’s really turned over a new leaf.”
Scarlett looked across the snowy valley. “Funny, I don’t see any leaves anywhere.”
“I love you to death, Scar, but maybe you should stop trying so hard to be funny.”
Scarlett stuck out her tongue and then immediately drew it back in. “Ack, that’s cold!”
Lauren finished securing the bungie cords and even added one of Shane’s pillows to the basket for her friend. “You ready?”
“Darling, I was born ready.”
They high-fived through their thick mittens.
Lauren couldn’t tell who was more excited. “Then hop in the basket, and let’s do this thing.”
She pulled up the snow hook and shouted to the team, “Hike, hike!” Holding tight to the handlebar, she ran behind the sled, helping as the dogs got up to speed. With a quick hop and a stumble, she managed to wrestle her way back on to the footboards.
Scarlett oohed, ahhed, and even raised her hands in the air as if she were on a rollercoaster ride. Lauren loved every second of it.
After three hours, when the dogs were tuckered out and the cold had seeped deep into both of the girls’ bones, Lauren directed them back toward the kennels so the two of them could get inside and get something hot in their stomachs.
“That was… ahh-mazing!” Scarlett cheered. “When can we do it again?”
Lauren laughed, thankful she had managed to make such a wonderful friend. “Soon, soon, I promise.”
“What I don’t get is how Shane ever gave this up. It’s like flying, you know. Light gliding across the heavenly plane.”
“Somebody’s been hitting the purple prose hard, I see. And you know Shane had to stop for a little while because of his injury.” She patted Fred on the head and told him what a good boy he was as she hooked him up to his house.
Scarlett helped tie up the other dogs, but Lauren still checked each latch, knowing how badly her friend would feel if a dog got loose because of her.
“But Lauren, how long has it been now?” Scarlett watched as the musher checked each dog, even those that hadn’t been run that afternoon. “You’ve been here for three months, right?”
“Yeah. So?” She finished with Zeke and stomped back through the snow toward the cabin.
“So… What if he never gets better?”
Lauren shook her head. “No, you don’t see how hard he works at his physical therapy. You don’t know how much he loves the sport.”
“But I love it, too, and I’m not out there running my own team. Sometimes life doesn’t give you what you want.”
“Scar, please. Shane is going to get better, and if you ask him nicely, he may even give you an autograph.”
Just like that, the mood lightened again as Scarlett asked, “Oooh, really? You think so?”
“There’s only one way to find out. Let’s go inside. I have a stew that’s been slow cooking all day, and it has our names on it.”
Still, Scarlett’s words nagged at Lauren. Was she really so optimistic about Shane’s recovery that she’d ignored certain signs?
No, impossible.
Shane was a fighter. Just like her. He would get better.
He had to.