“Um, how about you lower them down and we’ll load the carts?” She glanced Ava’s way. “Since you’re in heels, can you do leash duty again for a few minutes?”

“Sure. Just don’t ask me to hold that snack bag too. He certainly isn’t afraid to test authority.” When Morgan gave her a guilty-as-charged look, she added, “And chase perfectly innocent cats.”

Olivia clamped her lower lip to hold back her laughter. “They’ll get used to each other. Promise.” She was willing to bet Ava was as smitten with her newly adopted cat as she was with Morgan.

With the kids pitching in, the supplies were unloaded and stacked in the back room behind the dog kennels in just minutes, and then Megan and Tess herded the middle schoolers back to the front to start the tour.

After taking Morgan off Ava’s hands again, Olivia joined Gabe and Patrick, who were off to the side talking about one of the kids’ service project options. Samson was sprawled against the back wall, as comfortable as if he owned the place, reminding Olivia that he’d been coming here with Gabe since well before she had started.

“Assuming the rain holds off,” Gabe was saying to Patrick. “And without hand tools, we’ll stick with raking and pulling weeds where we’re going to carve out the trail.”

“Are you talking about the trail?” Olivia asked. “You’re just going to start and hope for the best?”

For the last week and a half, Gabe and Yun had been in negotiations—first with Dr. Washington, and for nearly a week with the owner of the jewelry store. Since Ava was acting as a dual agent on the sale, Olivia had been worried about the pressure her sister was under to make the sale happen. So far, though, she hadn’t been showing signs of any real strain.

“Sort of.” Looking a bit like he was holding something back, Gabe gave Patrick a nod and promised to catch up with him later. “Can you take a quick walk while your students get the tour?”

“Sure.” Olivia slipped her free hand into Gabe’s as they headed out the back door. With a sigh of reluctance, Samson took his time rising to his feet, then trotted happily out after them, at first single file behind Morgan who was confined by the leash.

She leaned in to Gabe as Morgan’s attention was caught by a robin hopping about on the ground, and she needed to urge him along. Samson, who remained leashless as always, hung by Gabe’s side when something wasn’t calling his attention to give it a quick sniff.