"Who Raven or Viola?"
"Well, both," I said with a laugh, "but I meant Viola. She came here all the time, spent countless hours at the shelter. As much as I love being with Raven and the others...I just can't."
Tolliver nodded. "You wish you could take them all home."
My eyes went to his in surprise. "Yes."
"It would be hard to leave."
Eyes filling, throat closing up, I managed a nod. "It is. I hate leaving them."
Tolliver simply nodded again and after another minute, we stood to take Raven back to her cage. After giving her one last stroke, I moved to the next cage, handing Tolliver two tiny yorkies, a bonded pair, while I brought out a golden labradoodle.
Tolliver lifted a brow, gesturing with his chin to the music coming from my phone's speaker. "Is this Taylor Swift?"
"Yeah, a string cover," I said. "I'm impressed."
"I have good musical taste, Kent."
"Apparently. Viola says the shelter animals love—oh shoot. I forgot."
"What?"
Pulling up my phone's FaceTime app, I explained, "Viola likes to see the animals. I can't believe it slipped my mind."
"Well, these guys can be distracting," he said, petting the two yorkies.
I knew he was talking about the dogs, but watching Tolliver love on them was doing something strange to my heart.
Luckily, Viola picked up, bringing me back from the brink, as she said, "Freya! Finally! It's been so long since I've heard from you. I was starting to wonder if you were alive."
"Still here," I said. "How's college?"
"Summer classes are a pain. But I'm hanging in there. How about you?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Tolliver laughed, saying, "She sounds like Elle."
Viola's brows went up. "Who was that?" she asked.
I shrugged. "My maid for the week."
"Your what?"
Instead of answering, I just flipped the camera on my phone. "Say hi, Tolliver."
"Hey," he said, lifting one of the little dogs in his hands as if he was waving. "What's up, Viola?"
"Um, hi," she said. "And you're at the shelter?"
"Yeah," I said.
"And you brought your maid with you?"
"I did."
Tolliver nuzzled first one then the other yorkie, both of whom gave him tons of kisses, and he laughed again. "Glad she did. This place and these guys are awesome."
"Mmm," Viola murmured, "Freya, turn me back around will you? And let's talk somewhere a little more private?"
