“’Cause he owes me a favor.”
“My dad knows lots of people. Is it Uncle Hawk, Dad?”
“Nope—it’s Hank. Remember, he came with us a couple of weeks ago when we went to the Pancake House with grandpa?”
“The one that looked like Santa Claus?”
Animal chuckled. “That’s the one.”
“He’s nice,” Lucy said to Olivia.
Olivia smiled. “Should I trust him with my car?”
Lucy’s head bobbed. “Yes!”
“Then, I will.” She glanced over at Animal. “Let me know how much the tow will be.”
“I told you not to worry about it,” he replied.
“Even so, please let me know.”
Animal lifted up his chin and kept his eyes on the road ahead of them.
Olivia pivoted in her seat and looked over at Lucy. “You did an excellent job with your book report. I was very impressed and so was Mrs. White. Do you like to read a bit more now?”
“Yes. I liked the book. The dog was funny. Can we get a dog, Dad?”
“You gonna take care of it?” Animal looked in the rearview mirror at Lucy. Olivia saw his mouth twitch as if he were fighting a smile.
“Yeah, I will. Please, Dad?”
Animal threw a sidelong glance at Olivia. “You started this,” he said, merriment lacing his voice.
“Guilty as charged.” She giggled.
“When I get you alone, I’m gonna smack that sweet ass of yours real good for this,” he whispered.
“I’ll have to remember to do bad things more often if that’s the punishment I get,” she murmured.
One corner of his mouth hitched up into a smug grin, and he swept his fingers over her hand.
“Are you whispering about my dog?” Lucy asked.
Olivia inched closer to the passenger window and stared straight ahead. She’d let Animal answer this one.
“Sorta. I’m thinking a dog may make a great addition to our family.”
Lucy laughed and clapped her hands. “Can we get him tomorrow?”
“Let’s wait until school lets out so you have more time to be with him. If we get a puppy now, he’ll be home alone too much. You wouldn’t want that, right?”
She shook her head. “No. Ms. Mooney, how many more days until school is over?”
“A little over two months. Let’s see,” Olivia closed her eyes as she figured out the dates. “Sixty-seven days, but there are some half days in there and spring break.”
“That’s a long time.” Her voice sounded … sad.
“It’ll go by real fast because you have field day, the talent show, the school fair, and a couple of school trips. Mrs. White said that one of your class trips is to the candy factory. I heard they give a sucker to each kid. What’s your favorite flavor?” Olivia said.