Alexei looks at her, his expression warming a fraction. “You like the fun part. You don’t know yet if you can do the rest every day.”
“I can.” She lifts her chin a little, like she needs him to believe her.
“Can you feed her every morning?” he asks.
“Yes.” She nods quickly, her fingers tightening around the leash.
“Walk her even if it rains?”
“Yes.” Quieter this time, but she doesn’t look away.
“Help clean up after her if she gets sick or has an accident?”
Ivy hesitates, her grip loosening just enough for the leash to slip in her hand. She glances down at Daisy, then back up at him, like she’s trying to decide if she can be brave enough to say yes again.
That hesitation tells me more than all her eagerness.
Alexei doesn’t push. He only waits.
Finally, she says, “Maybe.”
He brushes a curl back from her forehead. The touch is brief and gentle, making my chest tighten for no good reason.
“Then maybe we’re not ready today.”
Her eyes fill at once, though no tears fall. It’s obvious she loves him, trusts him, and knows when he means what he says.
I crouch beside Daisy and look at Ivy. “Hey now. This doesn’t have to be a no forever.”
She looks at me, hopeful and wounded all at once. “It doesn’t?”
I glance at Alexei before answering. “Dogs are a big promise. Your daddy’s right about that. But there are lots of ways to learn.”
Jules, leaning against the fence with his coffee now watery from melted ice, catches on immediately. “Volunteer lessons,” he says. “We offer those free with every dramatic sigh.”
Ivy wipes under one eye with the heel of her hand. “Volunteer lessons?”
I nod. “You could come visit. Help me walk dogs. Fill water bowls. Learn who likes what. Then when your daddy thinks you’re ready, you’ll already know a whole lot.”
She whirls to Alexei so fast that Daisy startles. “Please?”
He stands slowly, his eyes moving from his daughter to me to Jules and back again. I can almost see him running through the risk, routine, schedule, all of it.
“Once a week,” Ivy says, clasping her hands. “Please, Papa. I can help. I’ll be good.”
Jules murmurs, “She has weaponized manners. Respect.”
Alexei ignores him. Instead, he looks at me. “Would that be alright with you?”
The question surprises me more than it should. Men like him, at least the men I’ve seen with money and places at every board table in this city, tend to assume space will open for them because they arrived. But he asks.
“Of course,” I say. “We’d be happy to have her.”
He keeps his eyes on me, and for some reason, I feel like I’ve just been picked for a test I didn’t prepare for.
Then he nods once. “Very well. We’ll come back.”
Ivy lets out a squeal and throws her arms around Daisy’s neck so fast I have to help keep the old girl balanced. Daisy licks her cheek. Crisis averted for now.
