Page 97 of Puppy Love

Even though it was the last thing he felt like, he huffed out a laugh. It seemed like the least he could do. They were nearing the eight-hour mark for their search. Even though everyone else’s optimism had flagged, she remained determinedly positive, all smiles and encouragement and rah-rah promises.

“Thank you.” He accepted the water and took a few deep gulps. “But I’d like to stay out here as long as possible.”

“I’m sure you do, but my sisters want to talk to you, so you might as well take fifteen. Apparently, Lila has a theory she’d like to share with you.”

“She has a theory?” He blinked. “Like…of relativity?”

“Something like that.” Sophie’s smile faltered. Clasping her hands in front of her, she became unnaturally focused on a hangnail on her thumb. “Lila’s supersmart when it comes to animal behavior, so she’s worth listening to. I told her what you said yesterday, about how Bubbles misses me, and she thinks you could be right. She says the puppy might be out looking for me.”

He twisted his head to get a better look at Sophie. She was exhausted, obviously, with bags under her eyes and her hair an odd mixture of puffed-out spikes and sweat-dampened curls. She’d also shed her heavy sweatshirt for a faded AC/DC T-shirt of his that was tied in a knot at the waist.

To make matters worse, she was limping from a fall into a gopher hole. Of the two of them, she was the one who most needed a break.

Not that she’d take one. He’d never seen anyone so good at field morale, pushing when it was needed, pampering when it wasn’t, indefatigable from start to finish. They could use a woman like her at the fire sites.

He could use a woman like her in his life.

“She thinks Bubbles went in search of you?” he asked.

“I mean, it’spossible.” She examined the hangnail with renewed interest. “Lila’s in the kitchen making a few calls to animal control. She asked me to come get you so she can ask you a few questions.”

The mention of animal control got him moving. In his experience, that was who you called to scrape up the roadkill from the side of the highway in winter, the people who put dangerous animals down and fought cougars that wandered a little too close to town. Not exactly the people he wanted to talk to about his lost puppy.

The walk back to the house was slow because of Sophie’s limp, but neither one of them attempted to fill the minutes with small talk. Harrison appreciated it more than Sophie could possibly know. It was enough to have her beside him, to hear the soft sounds of her breathing and the steady crunch of her footsteps. He’d said terrible things to her, had blamed her for a situation that was well beyond her power to correct, but that hadn’t stopped her from coming to his aid.

“Sophie, I—” he began, but she yanked open the back door and pushed him through it before he could finish.

“Not now,” she said in a tone that was firm but kind. “You can tell me later. After we have her safe.”

What if we never have her safe?

He couldn’t voice the question aloud. It was caught, sharp and barbed, in his throat. Besides, he stepped into the kitchen to find himself facing not just Sophie’s oldest sister, but Dawn too. Both of them were standing near the sink with their arms crossed, their conversation low pitched and ominous.

It became all the more ominous when they stopped the moment they saw him standing there.

“Ah, there you are,” Lila said unhelpfully.

“Take a seat,” Dawn added as she pulled out a chair at the rough-scrubbed table covered with its nicks and scratches. For all that his house had been taken over lately, no one had managed to get a tablecloth over it. It sat there, ugly and stark, for everyone to see.

He might have run then, escaped with what was left of his energy, but Sophie stood by the back door, her hip resting against the kitchen counter. He was trapped on all sides by Vasquez women.

Strange that it should feel so comforting. Strange that he welcomed the cushioning, enveloping embrace of them.

“Why does this feel like you’re about to give me bad news?” he asked, looking from one face to another. The sisters probably didn’t realize it, but they were almost identical when they wore those serious expressions. They each had their own unique smile, but this earnest intensity was worn in the same flat press of their lips, the same dark eyes that appeared both troubled and concerned at the same time.

It was probably the shared tragedy of Sophie’s youth that had done it. They’d learned to share their grief. They’d figured out how to tackle the harsh realities of the world together.

Oh, how he envied them that. To face another tragedy alone was more than he could bear.

“What did animal control say?” he asked, his voice sharp. “They found her? She’s dead, isn’t she? You just don’t want to tell me.”

“We haven’t heard anything bad, Harrison, I promise.” Lila’s voice was kind but firm. “And you’ll be the first to know if we do. Do you love my sister?”

“What?”

Harrison took a wide step back, eager to put as much distance between himself and that question as possible, but it didn’t work. Sophie appeared just as startled as he was. She’d jumped away from the counter and was standing stock-still in the middle of the doorway. Instead of retreat, he only managed to ram his body into hers, which wasnotthe place he wanted to go right now. Touching her, even by mistake, reminded him of how soft she was, how yielding, how warm.

In other words, of how much he loved her.