Page 99 of Puppy Love

But of course she dared. She always had.

“He makes out with it sometimes when he’s feeling lonely,” she said, a gurgle of laughter at the back of her throat. “I don’t know how hot and heavy those sessions get, but he might have taken things a touch too far. Maybe Bubbles was traumatized.”

“Goddammit, Sophie!” He jolted out of his seat, pushing the wooden legs across the floor with a screech. “For the last time, Idon’tmake out with my pillow—and even if I were in the habit of defiling inanimate objects, I wouldn’t do it while my puppy was watching.”

“Oh?” she asked, head tilted. “When would you do it? In the shower? That makes sense. That’s where I like to—”

He took two long strides to stand before her, attempting to make his glare as menacing and outraged as it had ever been, but it was no use. He couldn’t look at her and feel anything but love. He couldn’t be near her and think of anything but joy.

“Since the day you entered my life, I haven’t known a moment’s peace,” he grumbled, though his voice was soft. “You’re the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning and the last memory I have before I fall asleep at night. I picture you when I’m in bed and when I’m working out and when I’m driving my truck. I can’t hear the wind without picking up the sound of your laughter in it. I can’t look at Bubbles without seeing your face smiling up at mine. There’s a good chance I’ll never be able to shake you. Not for a single second. Not for as long as I live.”

She hadn’t blinked even once during his tirade. Perfectly still, she held his stare, matching it with an increasingly resolute one of her own.

“You’re everywhere inside me, Sophie,” he said, his voice cracking. “You’re everywhere inside this house. I did everything I could to scrub you away, but even though I washed my sheets three times, I swear I can still smell you in them.”

“That’s it.”

Harrison had forgotten that they weren’t alone in the kitchen, that his audience included Sophie’s sisters. To be perfectly honest, he didn’t really care. He’d hid his emotions for so many years, buried any sentiment that might cause his father to decide that he too would rather live his life without Harrison in it.

He was done with that. He was angry at his parents, scared for Bubbles, annoyed with Oscar, and unsure about the future. Above all else, he loved Sophie Vasquez with everything he had.

And he didn’t care who the fuck knew it.

“The sheets,” Dawn said. “That’s it. You say you washed them yesterday?”

He nodded. “I had to. They were killing me.”

“No, they weren’t.” Lila’s tone was matter-of-fact, but her gentle smile eased some of the sting of them. “But Bubbles wouldn’t have known that. I was right.”

He looked a question at her.

“Her job is to protect you, remember?” Lila asked. “And she’s done nothing over the past six weeks but learn how to do that. She knows the way you smell. She knows the beat of your heart. She knows what you need long before you do.”

He finished the rest for her. “She knew that if I wiped the last of Sophie away, I’d never be whole again. She knew she had to go get her for me.”

If he’d thought having sheets that smelled like Sophie was painful, then it was obviously because he’d never felt anything like this before. That little dog was so much smarter—so much better—than him. Instead of accepting the way things were, instead of sitting around and steeping in her own misery, she’d gotten up off her tiny puppy ass and set out to change her fate. To changehisfate.

She’d saved his life. Again.

“But where would she have gone?” he asked, transferring his gaze from one sister’s face to the next. “Where would she expect to find Sophie?”

Lila snapped her fingers. “The kennel.”

“It’s a heck of a walk, but she could make it,” Dawn said. “She’d do it for Harrison. That puppy of Sophie’s is nothing if not determined.”

“I know,” Harrison said as he reached for his keys. He wasn’t wasting another second. “It’s the thing I love about both of them.”

Chapter 22

They found Bubbles straggling along the side of the highway a few miles outside of Spokane.

From the look of her, all matted fur and lolling tongue, the journey hadn’t been an easy one. Those short, stubby legs required constant motion in order to gain any ground at all, and anxiety at being away from Harrison made her more frantic than usual.

Still, Sophie had never seen such a beautiful creature.

“Bubbles, you precious little monster!” she cried as she jumped out of Harrison’s truck before it had come to a complete halt. The momentum of her leap threw her to the ground, but she brushed herself off and ran to the puppy’s side. “Do you have any idea how worried we were? Do you know how many people are crawling over the fields right now in search of your tiny puppy remains?”

From the feeble wag of the animal’s tail as she realized who was accosting her on the dirty side of a highway, Sophie was guessing she knew. She was also guessing she didn’t care.