All It Takes by J.H. Croix

Author:J.H. Croix [Croix, J.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J.H. Croix

Chapter Twenty-Four

Wes

After taking a shower, I walked out of the bathroom and glanced around my bedroom. My mother had helped me furnish this house before I moved in. It had simple modern furniture with clean lines. The bed was piled high with pillows and a lightweight down quilt. I tried to imagine the space through Tiffany’s eyes. Even though I lived as a bachelor, at least my place looked comfortable and clean.

I snorted to myself. I didn’t usually worry about what a woman might think of where I lived. I could honestly say I’d never even considered it. Before moving back to Willow Brook, I’d mostly lived in apartments. As a hotshot firefighter, my life was nomadic because I moved where the season took me. When I decided to come back home to help my mom, one benefit was that the hotshot crews here had a home base. Alaska was big geographically with an unfortunate number of wildfires, but that meant there were year-round crews.

I shook my head, adjusting the towel where I’d wrapped it around my waist, and crossed over to open my dresser. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a Henley shirt, basically a uniform for me in the colder weather. A few minutes later, I was dressed and scrubbing a towel through my hair.

I walked into the living room area to find Nilla sitting by the door. Her tail thumped on the floor, and I chuckled. She’d quickly learned that if she wanted to go out, all she needed to do was sit by the door. I crossed over, saying, “Good girl,” as I stroked her on the head. Opening the door, I let her out into the yard.

I watched from the windows as she trotted to the side by the trees where she had determined she should go to the bathroom. She did her business and frolicked in the snow for a few minutes before returning to the door and letting out a soft bark.

After I let her back in, I fed her before opening the refrigerator and pulling out the ingredients for dinner. Tiffany had said she would eat anything, so I’d decided to make a marinated salmon. My mom had given me some of her flash-frozen salmon from dipnetting last year. I was looking forward to that come summer. Ross would have a blast dipnetting. Dipnetting involved Alaskan resident-only fishing times where you could catch fresh wild salmon in nets as they swam upriver to spawn. Alaskans traveled in droves to the areas approved and stocked up on salmon for the winter.

Phoebe had texted she could pick Ross up because she was on her way into town for a grocery run and had Ross’s new friend with her. Although I had adjusted to my new circumstances of sharing guardianship of a child, the whole thing was still strange. The attorney sent over the finalized guardianship paperwork with a note clarifying that if either of us wanted to complete adoption paperwork, she would be happy to do that at any point.

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