The frown was almost automatic as Dei’s foot came up, but for all the momentum that Zed had built up, he was stopped gently enough. Lottie might have had to yell at her favorite brother if he hurt her goat. Or yelled at her goat for hurting her favorite brother. Either way, she was glad there was a halting of said goat by said brother.
Pocketing both cookies, Friendship headed for the goat, intending to grab his horns and haul him away before he could get it into his head to back up and try again. That’s all she’d need, a wrestling match between the two of them. Somehow, someway, Lottie just knew a chicken would get squished in the process. But just as she was reaching for Zed, Deimos said the most amazing thing.
He said the vehicle on the trailer was for her.
He brought it for her.
Lottie stopped dead, looked at the Thing, looked at Dei, then looked at the Thing again. Then there was a high pitched squeal that was loud enough to make the goat start in surprise and Lottie was moving. She really, really needed to hug something. She needed to hug something a lot.
Scrambling up over the truck to get past Zed, she bypassed her brother altogether to clamber up on to the trailer. Once there, Lottie spread her arms as wide as she could, and flung herself half across the hood of the VW. “Omigod it’s so awesome! And it’s mine!”