Page 61 of Puppy Love

Harrison didn’t say a word, but before Sophie could do more than blink, Derek had dropped his throwing arm and was grumbling good-naturedly about his defeat. “Fine. I’ll go, and I’ll take your stupid puppy for a walk too. You win this round, Parks, but I don’t give up that easily.”

Sophie looked back and forth between the men, wondering what had passed between them in that brief moment. From what she could tell, Harrison looked much the same as he always did—a little more relaxed than usual, in fact—but he had still managed to convey to the other man that his stake had been claimed.

She, for one, didn’t mind being that stake. No one had ever tried to claim her before. She kind of liked it.

“Keep Bubbles away from fire, and don’t give her any table scraps,” Harrison ordered. “I’m not kidding, Derek.”

Derek nodded once. “Aye, aye, captain.”

“I mean it. Put her on a leash and hold it like your life depends on it.”

“Doesmy life depend on it?” he asked with a playful air.

Harrison’s only response was a gruff “Yes.”

As was the case when Harrison had told her to sweep the back hallway at the church, Sophie knew that Derek would follow those orders to the letter. Some things in this world were too powerful to deny, and Harrison Parks issuing commands in his rumbling, authoritative voice was one of them.

Of course, her awe at Harrison’s authority didn’t last long. She did her best to hold on to it as he began the task of unbuckling Bubbles from her pouch. She tried even harder when he told Bubbles that her look of utter despair wouldn’t move him from his intentions.

She gave up altogether when he handed the puppy to Derek as one handing over the Holy Grail.

“It’s like taking a kid to daycare,” he said, careful not to meet Sophie’s eye. “She’ll cry for the first few minutes, but it’s all for show. I know it looks and sounds like it, but her heart won’t actually break in two.”

“How’s she doing so far?” she asked as soon as her giggles subsided and Derek disappeared from view, Bubbles tucked firmly under one arm. Although she knew there had to be a dozen or so men and women wandering around, they appeared to be alone. “I heard you give the order not to light any fires until dusk.”

“I’m not taking any chances,” he said in a voice of grim determination.

“That was smart. We can make sure you two are good and snuggled before it gets going.”

Harrison showed a marked tendency to twitch at the prospect of beinggood and snuggled, so she quickly changed the subject.

“You brought your own rod and tackle, I see,” she said.

“What?”

She nodded down at his hand. “Your rod and tackle—for fishing. Not, according to Jessica, a euphemism for something fun.”

Suddenly, she could understand how Derek could have interpreted a brief Harrison expression as an order to turn tail and run as fast as his legs would take him. That cloudy look signaled an incoming storm of the cataclysmic variety.

Fortunately for her, she didn’t mind getting a little wet. Or, you know,a lotwet.

“You don’t have to look at me like that,” she said. “I said itwasn’ta euphemism for something fun, if you know what I mean.”

“I know damn well what you mean,” he said. “Just promise me you will never refer to a man’s junk as his rod and tackle again.”

She laughed, more pleased than she could say that he was still willing to fight her. Telling him about her history with Oscar had carried a risk; there was a good chance that he, like everyone else in her life, would start treating her like she was breakable, delicate.

But he hadn’t. Even with all of Harrison’s flaws, the one thing he’d never done was handle her delicately. He’d never treated her as anything other than a hot-blooded woman capable of standing up for herself.

Which, for the first time in her life, was exactly what she felt like.

“His frank and beans then,” she suggested.

His lips began their telltale twitch. “No.”

“Pillar and stones?”

“You stole that from George R. R. Martin.”