"Me too," Viola said.
"Shhh," I hissed, "he's coming back. And he's not my boyfriend."
They exchanged a look, but Tolliver was getting back into the car, so there was no time to argue. He looked from me to them and back again.
"So, we all set?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said then looked to Lottie in the rearview mirror. "What's with all the books?"
"I just got back from a book conference," she said happily.
"Another one?"
Lottie nodded. "It was amazing. I wish you could've been there."
"I'm jealous," Viola said while I started driving again. "Of the books, not the fact that you had to be around all those people."
She faked a shiver—or maybe it wasn't fake.
Viola wasn't a big fan of people.
"They were book lovers," Lottie said with a shrug. "So it wasn't too bad."
"If you say so."
"Did you leave any books for anyone else?" I joked.
"Ha ha," Lottie said. "You wouldn't believe how many the other people had. They were pulling these carts full of them. Hey, speaking of which, Tolliver said Elle liked the books we recommended."
I glanced at him. That must've been what they were talking about before. "Oh yeah?"
Tolliver nodded. "She even signed up for her own library card."
"That's awesome," Lottie said, clapping her hands. "I hope she loves it. The library is my happy place."
Viola threw her a smile. "Have you been back?"
"Of course. How's the animal shelter doing?"
"Good, Paris said adoption rates are up, and they had a couple more families offer to foster."
I smiled back at her. "They did? That's wonderful."
"Yeah, my parents are thinking about it," Tolliver put in.
"They are?"
He nodded. "I brought them the form. Like I said, Eli falls in love with every dog he meets."
Viola sent him a smile and said, "Sounds like my kind of kid."
"He hasn't stopped asking me about it since I told him about our trip to the shelter. Pretty sure he wants to volunteer. Even though, he's not old enough yet. I wouldn't mind signing up either, although like Freya, I think it would be hard to leave them."
I was pretty sure from the look I saw on Viola's face that Tolliver had just gained another fan.
"It is," Viola said. "Dogs are?—"
"So much better than people," Lottie and I said at the same time.
