Thankfully, Lana had asked for backup, in the form of canine moral support. That support was currently heading her way, waiting for a break in the traffic before hurrying across the street.

“Sorry we’re late.” Zoey hustled over to meet Lana in front of the coffee shop. “Someone was being a total diva about hats this morning.”

Okay, Lana was wrong. Caffeine was great, but puppies in sock hats were even better.

The leash in Zoey’s hand was clipped to the collar of the most adorable creature in existence. Jake, Graham’s floppy-eared border collie, had been blind since birth. The diner owner had found him abandoned as a puppy beside the Tourist Trap dumpster years ago, and an incensed Graham had spent the time in between then and now compensating for that act of human indifference by being the best fur father a guy could be. Never would a day pass where Jake was denied food, attention, designer sweaters in the winter, or sunblock for his wet nose in the summer.

Except for his favorite pajamas, Lana had never seen Jake wearing the same outfit twice.

“He didn’t like a hat on his ears? I thought he’d be used to them by now.” Lana leaned over, letting Jake sniff her fingers before running them through his silky coat. He wriggled his entire body with happiness, pressing against her legs as his tail thumped the side of her kneecap.

“Oh, Jake’s fine no matter what we put on him. It’s Graham who’s a nightmare. He’s convinced that you’re going to judge Jake’s clothing, and he would not shut up about cummerbunds. Seriously, who has a cummerbund for their dog? Who has multiple cummerbunds for their dog?”

Jake wasn’t wearing a cummerbund, but he was wearing a festive green-and-red-plaid sweater with a coordinating knit sock cap.

“A man with discerning taste, love.” Lana straightened, giving Zoey an impulsive hug. “Or a serial killer. We’re still not sure about him.”

“You never should have let him take me home the night we met,” Zoey sighed.

“Maybe, but it all worked out for the positive.” Lana hooked her arm companionably through Zoey’s as they headed into the coffee shop. “Besides, Rick dresses up his hedgehog. A fondness for accessorizing their fur babies might be one of the more adorable local quirks.”

“You’re in a good mood today.”

“I wasn’t aware I was ever in a mood other than good,” Lana countered. “Perhaps I need to work on being my better self.”

“No, they see only good mood Lana. I see real mood Lana, and real mood Lana is in a good mood. Is it a guy?” Lana didn’t reply, so Zoey elbowed her ribs. “It’s totally a guy.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yep, it’s a guy.”

They’d started having breakfast or coffee together a couple of times a week before Zoey’s shifts at the resort. Seating was never available at Dirty Joe’s, but there was a nice bench outside if one was willing to sit in the lightly falling snow.

Lana was more than happy to do so.

Jake was perfectly capable of walking into the coffee shop with them, but Lana scooped him up as if he were a little dog. She couldn’t carry him around one armed like Graham could, but Jake was on the smaller side as border collies went, and Lana was strong. She snuggled Jake as they ordered their coffees.

“I’m amazed he actually has working legs, considering how everyone always babies him.” Even as she said it, Zoey was sneaking Jake bits of biscotti.

Lana dropped a kiss to Jake’s cute little snout. “I don’t baby you at all, do I?”

Nose-to-nose, it was much easier to dodge being licked in the face than dodge the eyes watching them. So Lana did what Lana always did…she met those eyes with as much fearlessness as she had at her shaky fingertips.

“It’s a beautiful day, ladies and gentlemen. Is everyone in the holiday spirit?” Nothing, zero, zip. “Say good morning to the nice people, Jake. Good morning!”

Obedient as ever, Jake promptly barked twice, tail wagging so hard, it thumped her back in the best kind of brutal massage a person could ask for. Now that broke the icy glares, because no one could resist him.

Lana watched Zoey carefully add her cream and sweeteners just so, and when the drink passed the point of food and reached an artform, they retreated to a bench a little bit away from the coffee shop’s entrance.

Grateful for the warmth of her jacket and the fleece lining in her boots—Montgomerys never wore fur—Lana sipped her drink, watching Jake sniff around the bench, secure in his position between her and Zoey.

“Thank you for letting me have Jake today.”

“Thank you for watching Jake today,” Zoey said. “There’s been another Harold sighting.”

Harold was the much-despised Alaskan Food Safety and Sanitation inspector working Moose Springs. Lana had never met the man personally, but from what she’d heard, he was a particularly noxious and petty type of person. The kind to not look the other way when a cute border collie was sleeping next to the grill cook. His reign of terror had started a “Harold watch” through the town, with most businesses choosing to close for the day just to annoy him when they knew he was coming. Oh, Harold would get to them eventually, but the townsfolk made him work for it.

Usually, Graham was the first one to shut down on Harold sighting days.

“Graham has a supply delivery,” Zoey continued, “so he can’t close up. And Ash has a packed day. She’s transporting some people from Anchorage to here, then making a supply run up north. She won’t be back until tomorrow, and you know how Graham gets if he goes a night without Jake.”

“Adorably overprotective?”

“I was going to say ‘pain in the ass,’ but yours is nicer.” Zoey took the first sip of her coffee. There was a pause as she considered it, then a small sigh. “Close enough, I guess.”

“I hate to say it,” Lana told her, “but you’re going to always be disappointed unless you lower your standards a little. Compromise isn’t the worst thing in the world.”

“When it comes to coffee, it is,” Zoey said serenely, adjusting her glasses on her nose.

Zoey’s eyes had dropped to Lana’s fingers, where she kept them around her coffee cup.

“The shaking is worse today.” Zoey reached over and took Lana’s hand in hers. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve never felt better. It’s the cold.”

“Why don’t you go somewhere warmer for a few days?” Zoey sighed longingly. “I know I wouldn’t mind a few weeks on a beach in the Caribbean.”

“And miss out on Moose Springs during the holidays? Nonsense.” Lana jutted her chin at a pair of teens across the street trying to drive away a moose standing too close to their car, waving their arms and yelling in frustration. “They’re practically dripping with the Christmas spirit.”

Zoey giggled, then cursed as she spilled her drink. “Ugh, why do I keep doing that?”

“Perhaps you’re oversexed, overworked, and far too happy for your own good.” Lana was pleased to see the blush spread over Zoey’s face.

“I think I might propose.”

“To Graham?” This time, Lana was the one to nearly spill her drink.

“Don’t tell me you’re too old-fashioned to be the one to propose.”

“I think if I proposed marriage to someone without a billion-dollar trust fund, the family would be privately horrified. Most of them anyway.”

“And publicly?”

Lana exhaled a soft laugh. “Publicly, we would put on our serene faces and refuse to comment. As one does.”

“You know what I wish? I wish you could have a serene face that didn’t require anything but you being happy.”

Yes. Lana would enjoy that too.

Zoey scooted over and leaned her head on Lana’s shoulder. “I like having you here. Being around you is the best part of Moose Springs.”

It probably wasn’t true, not with how utterly happy Zoey was in this new life she’d created so easily for herself. But Lana soaked in her friend’s words, thinking this morning, she’d be pleased to pretend otherwise.

They finished their drinks, then Zoey passed over the leash. “I’m supposed to tell you half a dozen things you already know about his daily needs.”

“But I already know them, so you won’t waste our time.”

“Exactly.” Adjusting her glasses again, something that had become a habit more than a necessity, Zoey raised an eyebrow. “Are you ready to catch a moose tonight?”

“I was born ready.”

With a fist bump of solidarity, Zoey headed off for her car. After she disappeared down the road toward the resort, Lana turned toward her companion.

“What do you think, Jake? Will we catch the moose? Or get trampled to bits?”

Jake was an honest dog, so he whined and stuffed his nose beneath her leg. Patting his head in reassurance, Lana sighed.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.”

* * *

The day Lana turned twelve, she fell in love for the first time. Young love was always fleeting, especially when waiting outside her mother’s office while she finished a phone call. The only other person in the waiting area was the assistant’s thirteen-year-old son. For those twenty-three minutes between sitting down with her worn copy of Pride and Prejudice and trailing her mother out the door, he was the most fascinating creature she’d ever met. Shy and uncomfortable as always, Lana wouldn’t have said a word, peering at him from behind her pages with surreptitious glances, but he had been bored and chatty, and he liked to read too.

To Lana, for those twenty-three minutes, that boy was everything.

Then, before Lana left with her mother, he’d given her a copy of the book he’d brought along too. Among all the other things Montgomerys didn’t do, Montgomerys didn’t accept gifts, except from family on Christmas and birthdays. But since it was her birthday—and she’d stuffed the book inside her sweater to hide it from view—Lana kept it. The Two Towers hadn’t even made sense when she hadn’t read the first book in the trilogy, but she’d hugged that book from the boy she’d briefly loved. And every time she picked up a story about adventures in far-off places, she’d felt a warmth of remembrance.