[To be fair, this friendship is probably more Mabel forcing herself on the woman and the woman not having any reason (yet) to try and get rid of her.

She falls back in line beside him, still grinning ear to ear and nodding her head in reply.]

Peko is one of my best friends - [Small but important correction there] - and she's been looking for you and really hoping you would show up! So she's going to be really happy that you're finally here, and I'm just really relieved and glad! So I guess I got a little excited, sorry, hee hee.