Page 58 of Puppy Love

He didn’t say the next one out loud. He didn’t need to.Because the only reason anyone would be willing to dedicate that much time and energy to someone like me is to pay off a debt.

All the pieces suddenly clicked into place—why Sophie pushed so hard, why she was willing to give so much of herself to him, why she was so determinedly, irrationally cheerful about it all.

It wasn’t forhisbenefit. It was for Oscar’s.

And the worst part was he couldn’t even be upset about it. Since the moment Sophie had walked into his life, he’d known he didn’t deserve her. He wasn’t warm. He wasn’t welcoming. He wasn’t even all that amusing.

In truth, he was just a job. A fun job, maybe, and an occasionally pleasurable one, but still just a job.

Finally—finally—things were starting to make sense.

“Okay,” he said.

She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “What do you mean, okay?”

“I mean, okay. Thank you for the piece of backstory. It explains a lot about this situation. But we should probably keep going if we want to get to the campground sometime today.”

Her gaze didn’t grow any less suspicious. “That’s all you have to say? That you want to keep walking?”

Yes, if only because he didn’t trust what would come out of his mouth if he opened it again. With a tight nod, he turned and continued down the path.

Their sunny walk through the wilderness suddenly felt like a death march. Nothing lasted forever. Nothing stayed the same. Harrison had known it for almost as long as he’d known his own name. Even his Aunt Caroline had left by the time he’d turned twelve.

Now, history was repeating itself with a vengeance. Sophie was only on loan to him for as long as it took to complete the puppy training, and then she too would walk away without a backward glance. It should have made him happy to be back on this oh-so-familiar ground, to see the end before it blindsided him, but it didn’t.

Just once, it would have been nice to see what happened if someone stayed.

Just once, it would have been nice to know he was worth sticking around for.

Chapter 14

“Fish are, of course, the best way to win the contest, but you have to actually be able to catch them. Can you catch them?”

“Me?” Sophie glanced around, even though it had only been her and a fearfully capable woman named Jessica standing at the river’s edge for the past few minutes. “Um. I don’t know. Is it hard to do?”

Jessica grinned. She’d been doing a lot of that since she was paired with Sophie for the infamous cooking challenge. Sophie wasn’t sure she cared for it—her outdoor capabilities weren’tthatbad—but at least the other woman didn’t seem to hold her lack of skills against her. “It can be. Did you happen to bring your own rod and tackle?”

Sophie sighed. “I’m assuming that’s not a fun euphemism for a date, is it?”

Jessica shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. And even if you didn’t bringthatkind of rod and tackle, there are plenty of extras to go around. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this is something of a boy’s trip.”

Oh, she’d noticed all right. Derek hadn’t been lying when he’d said that a few of the men brought their significant others on this trip, but the ratio skewed decidedly male. And not just the ordinary kind of male—these guys were intensely masculine, flannel-clad outdoorsmen.

She didn’t mean that in a bad way. Harrison was an attractive man, there was no doubt about that, but the amount of scratchy-bearded overgrowth and well-sculpted swagger out here was nothing short of miraculous.

Dawn would have loved it.

Unfortunately, Sophie was less prepared. She could appreciate Harrison hoisting firewood with the best of them, but as for the rest… Well. She was both unequipped in terms of outdoor gearandseverely underdressed for adventure. Jessica had been introduced to her as one of the summer volunteer firefighters, a fact that was not only evident in the ease with which she pitched tents and carried a backpack the size of a large child, but also in her clothes. The curly-haired redhead could have been a walking advertisement for an outdoor catalog. Cargo pants that were mostly pockets, a vest that she’d been informed doubled as a floatation device, and a pair of rugged hiking boots were just the start of what she had to offer.

Sophie, by comparison, wore a pair of worn jeans and one of her dad’s old dress shirts tied in a knot at the waist. Her Converse shoes, which had seemed like a good idea at the time, were already muddy up to the ankles and making her feet ache.

“Sorry,” she said, looking down at those shoes with an apology. “What you see is pretty much what you get. This isn’t my usual scene.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Jessica said. “It’s not mine either.”

Sophie swept a doubtful look over her new friend, what with her dangling compass and water pouch strapped to her waist. “Whatisyour usual scene?” she asked. “Foraging on Mars?”

Jessica shook her head, her curls bouncing playfully. “I’m a kindergarten teacher. You can usually find me knee deep in finger paint and parent-teacher conferences.”