Puppy Love Read online

  At the mention of her sister’s name, Sophie’s chin lifted a good inch. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not like that. Bubbles had a rocky start in life, yes, but she can do the job. I know she can.” She hesitated before bringing her chin up even more. “And so can I.”

  His expression softened. “Of course you can, kiddo. Lila’s just looking out for you, that’s all. We both are.”

  Any desire she might have had to abandon this project died at once. It was the kiddo that did it, the reminder that the history she and Oscar shared was forged in blood a long time ago.

  Literally. Once upon a time, this man had leeched the marrow from his bones for her. Once upon a time, he’d undergone extreme pain and hospitalization so she could have another chance at life. It had been eleven years since the bone marrow transplant took successfully and her leukemia went into remission, but that didn’t mean Sophie had forgotten.

  She’d never forget. She couldn’t. No one in her life—family, friend, or foe—would let her.

  “Bubbles is a lot tougher than she looks,” she said as she raised her eyes to Oscar’s. “Please let me do this for you, Oscar. For you and for Harrison.”

  And, she didn’t need to add, for me.

  “I don’t know…” Oscar began.

  “I’ll find a way to make it work,” she said. “That’s a promise. Even if I have to beg him to come back on my knees. Even if I have to make him yell at me every day for six weeks to do it.”

  Oscar rolled his shoulders in a gesture of capitulation. With that one small move, Sophie knew she was getting another chance.

  Her life was filled with second chances. She sometimes wondered what she’d done to deserve so much.

  “He’s rough, but he’s not that rough. I doubt he’ll yell at you for the whole six weeks.” Oscar grinned and added, “Four at the very most.”

  Chapter 3

  Oscar must have worked fast.

  Sophie arrived home from Deer Park to find a house full of people. In addition to her two sisters, who were holding court over a pot of tea in the kitchen, Harrison sat hulking in one corner, looking like a man undergoing extreme torture.

  “You know it’s going to be a good date when the guy leads with something like that.” Dawn winked at Sophie as she stepped into the room. “We broke at least three laws that night. Four if you count some of the really prudish ones in Kentucky. Speaking of, look who’s finally returned to the fold. Hello, Soph. You have a visitor.”

  At the mention of her name, Harrison sprang to his feet, almost knocking over the wooden chair in the process. He was surprisingly swift for a man of his size, but that might have been because she’d never seen anyone look so delighted to see her.

  “Oh, thank God,” he said. “I’ve been here for forty-five minutes already.”

  Right. That wasn’t delight so much as it was a deep, profound relief. And who could blame him? Dawn and Lila together in one room were a lot for any man to handle, let alone one who clearly didn’t enjoy the social niceties.

  “Forty-five minutes?” Sophie asked with a quick check at the clock. “Oscar couldn’t have possibly had time to call you. I was still with him at that point.”

  “What the hell does this have to do with Oscar?” Harrison demanded. Then, as if aware that he was addressing a room of three women rather than a firing squad, he took a deep breath and added, “I, uh, came to apologize. For earlier. About the puppy.”

  Sophie hadn’t had a chance to apprise Dawn of the day’s events, but one look at her sister’s face and it was obvious she was up to speed. With that kind of giddy glee lighting her from within, Dawn obviously thought this whole thing was hilarious. Lila mostly looked worried.

  Neither of those reactions was surprising. Lila had always carried herself with a serene grace that matched her status as the eldest in the family. It also matched her tailored clothes and the topknot she wound her almost waist-length hair into. Dawn wore her own dark locks—a gift, along with the sisters’ deep-brown eyes and light-brown skin, from the Vasquez side of their family—in a tousled bob that made the most of her natural waves. Her wide, sunny face was sprinkled with freckles and a smile to match. Lila’s demeanor was one men could admire; Dawn’s one they couldn’t help but be charmed by.

  It was only Sophie who lagged behind. She’d done the best she could to distinguish herself from her sisters, her short, boyish figure offset by a pixie cut that made the most of her delicate features, but it was no use. When the three of them stood side by side, she inevitably faded into the background.

  Or, rather, she used to fade into the background. From the way Harrison was looking at her, like she was his walking savior, she couldn’t help but feel a warm glow start to take over.

  “There’s nothing to apologize for,” she said with what she hoped was breezy unconcern. “It was a slight misunderstanding, that’s all. I should have warned you ahead of time that your animal had already been selected for you.”

  “About that…” Lila began, but Sophie turned to her with an imploring look. Lila might technically be the one in charge of Puppy Promise, the service-dog training organization that provided the Vasquez sisters with their life’s purpose, but Sophie needed this. Bubbles needed this.

  Lila had been uncomfortable with the idea of using a puppy mill dog from the start, since the poor thing had obviously been subjected to more than one cruelty in her short life, but Sophie had no doubts on that score. Five minutes in that animal’s company had been more than enough to convince her that she was worth taking on.

  With some animals—some people—you just knew.

  “I realize Bubbles isn’t much to look at, but she’s smart and eager to learn. All she needs is a chance to prove herself.”

  Harrison didn’t say anything. He kept watching her in that intense, panicked way, as if he couldn’t make up his mind whether to sit down again or run screaming from the room.

  Please don’t run screaming from the room, she wanted to beg him. Please don’t run screaming from me.

  “What do you say we make ourselves scarce, Lil?” Dawn asked, a deep dimple appearing in her right cheek. “Scott has that new litter of blue heelers he wanted us to come take a look at.”

  “But we don’t need any—”

  “They’re very promising. I bet they’ll get snatched up quickly. We’ll need to act fast if we want to make an offer.”

  “But—”

  Dawn took one glance at Sophie’s face and put on her sternest expression. “Now, Lila.”

  It took Lila a good ten seconds to pick up on the subtext and agree to give Sophie and Harrison some space. Harrison was much quicker on the uptake.

  “A blue heeler?” he asked. “Are they good at—what did you call it—scent detection?”

  “Yes, they are,” Sophie said. In fact, given Harrison’s obvious preference for dogs with size to recommend them, a blue heeler would be a perfect fit. Their noses were more than adequate to pick up on the subtle changes in human saliva that occurred when blood sugars rose or fell, and the larger dog would be able to keep up with him as he plunged through forest undergrowth.

  In any other situation, she’d have allowed the client’s preferences to outweigh her own. In this situation, however, she was taking a stand.

  Bubbles could do this. Sophie had done her research, looked into other fire workers with needs similar to Harrison’s, and hand selected an animal based on a careful study of his medical and professional records. This wasn’t some idea she’d come up with on the fly.

  “I’ve already talked to Oscar about this, and he agrees with me.” She crossed her arms and did her best imitation of a woman who inspired awe and confidence in others. “It’s Bubbles, or you don’t go back to the field.”

  As it turned out, admitting to a man that she’d run tattling to his boss wasn’t an ideal way to win him over. Instead of submitting to her autocratic decree, Harrison’s stance became even more rigid.

  Sophie’s
natural inclination was to turn to her sisters for help, but she pushed the urge down as far as it would go. To admit defeat now would only foster Lila’s belief that they should have passed on this case. Sophie’d be back on basic training, once again spending her days teaching puppies how to sit and where to pee.

  All things that needed to be done, of course, but those were the easy tasks, the safe ones. The kinds of things a fluffy, skittish ball of fur might be expected to tackle.

  “If you’re willing to try again, I’ll bring Bubbles out to the side yard so you two can get to know one another. But you have to promise not to reject her this time. She didn’t like it.” Almost as an afterthought, she added, “And neither did I.”

  “Well done, Soph!” Dawn cheered from the doorway. Before Lila could say anything to undermine Sophie’s swell of confidence, Dawn bustled them both out of the kitchen.

  It was a strange location for an impasse. The house Sophie shared with her sisters was as dainty and feminine as Harrison was rough and masculine. Everywhere the eye landed were massive doilies and vintage finds, with dried flowers next to the sink and artfully arranged silver teaspoons hanging on the wall. Only the kennel through the back door gave any indication that this was as much a place of business as it was a home. Harrison wasn’t so tall that his head brushed the ceiling or anything, but he did have a way of filling the space in a way that felt both unfamiliar and unsettling.

  It’s not just his size, Sophie thought. It’s him. Whatever else might be said about this man, he was certainly a presence. Being in the same room with him seemed to kindle an awareness in every part of her—a tingling awareness that started in her toes and worked upward from there. It was almost as though her limbs were awakening from a long, numbing sleep, and she wasn’t sure they were ready to support her weight just yet.

  “So you really do know Oscar,” Harrison said by way of breaking their strange stalemate.

  “Oh. Um.” Sophie blinked. She’d assumed, when Oscar had asked them to take on this case, that he would have told Harrison all about their personal history. That he hadn’t—and most likely wouldn’t unless Sophie gave him permission to—said a lot about him. “Yes, actually. He and I go a long way back. He asked me to take your case as a kind of favor.”

  A look of strange relief swept over Harrison’s face. His shoulders actually sagged a little. “Then that explains why you put up with me for as long as you did. What did he say about me?”

  “Um.”

  “You don’t have to hold back on my account. He won’t have said anything I haven’t heard a hundred times already, believe me.”

  As if the sudden turn of conversation wasn’t strange enough, Harrison paused and pulled out a chair for her. It was her chair, obviously, and he was offering it in her house, but the gallantry of the gesture was still forefront in her mind.

  She didn’t sit though. She was already so dwarfed by this man.

  “Please,” he said, his voice rough. “One of the things Oscar should have told you first is that my bark is a lot worse than my bite.”

  With that, Sophie relented. She didn’t know if it was the reference to canines that did it, or the fact that he sounded so forlorn, but she took the proffered seat and watched as he lowered himself into the opposite chair. Even in a seated position, he still dwarfed her. Those powerful thighs, the broad shoulders hunched as if ready to pounce—there was no other way she could feel in his presence.

  Before she could think of a tactful way to disclose her earlier conversation with Oscar, Harrison lifted one massive hand and started ticking off fingers instead.

  “I don’t take orders well. I don’t know how to interact with others in a way that doesn’t make them uncomfortable. I’d rather cut off my own foot than admit to a weakness.” He paused and considered the matter before turning a look of inquiry her way. “Let’s see…which one am I missing?”

  Heat rose to the surface of her skin. Sophie didn’t believe any of those things, not when he’d made such a generous and obviously painful effort to return here and apologize of his own volition, but she could see how someone meeting him for the first time might get that impression. Those deep lines, that unsmiling expression… He just looked so hard.

  Harrison took one look at her flaming face and swore. “Dammit. He didn’t sugarcoat it, did he? Did he tell you how half the volunteer firefighters I train end up quitting after less than a week or that some of them take one look at me and don’t even last the day?”

  Sophie had no idea how to answer that question, so she didn’t try. Dawn would have been able to turn it to a joke, but her sister wasn’t here. She’d scurried off so Sophie could have at least one opportunity to prove herself.

  “The week,” Harrison repeated carefully, “or the day?”

  She began tracing the outline of a red wine ring on the table. “Do people really quit after one day?”

  “Your sister took my measure this morning after knowing me for thirty seconds,” he said. “What do you think?”

  Yes, people probably did quit that fast. But people also took one look at her and assumed she had no more courage than a mouse, so what did they know?

  “I’m not going to quit, Mr. Parks,” she said. “Oscar asked me to help you, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. You’re not the only one with flaws, you know.”

  When he didn’t say anything, she held up her hand and started ticking off her own fingers.

  “I’m the baby of the family, and it shows. I’m dependent on my sisters for almost everything. I’ve never gone anywhere or done anything on my own.” She paused. This next one was going to be the toughest to get out.

  As if sensing that, Harrison cleared his throat. “Anything else?”

  She shifted in her seat. “I’m a little intimidated by you, to be honest.” She met his gaze and was surprised to find that he was regarding her with alarm. “But it won’t get in the way of the job, I promise. Bubbles is an amazing puppy, and I’ve got a whole training plan worked out for the next six weeks. I realize that neither one of us is what you were expecting when you signed on for a service dog, but I want to do this.”

  I can do this.

  “Please, Mr. Parks?” she asked, her voice wavering. Whatever bravery his confession had conjured in her was quickly waning under his continued scrutiny. “You might not think much of me yet, but I have a tendency to grow on people, I swear. I’m like a friendly goiter.”

  “Harrison,” he said.

  “What?”

  He sat up, no longer hunched as if ready to pounce. “If we’re going to be working together, I insist you call me Harrison.”

  Her first feeling was one of relief—she’d actually done it. She’d gotten through to him. He was going through with the plan and without Oscar being the one pulling the strings.

  Her second feeling was more difficult to pin down. This small victory was just the start of the process. If even one-tenth of the things Oscar had said about Harrison were true, there were countless skirmishes ahead.

  Strangely enough, she wasn’t scared by the prospect. She’d already engaged him in one battle and come out victorious. The idea of waging another campaign—a lengthy one this time—made her chest swell.

  She’d waited twenty-six years for an opportunity like this.

  She stuck her hand out, determined to make their partnership official. It was a good ten seconds before Harrison put her out of her misery, but the end result was worth it. His palm was callused and hard, his skin surprisingly cool for a man of his size. His grip was also much gentler than she expected. She assumed he’d have one of those hypermasculine handshakes, the kind that wrenched her arm out of its socket and nearly crushed the bones of her fingers, but as his palm lingered against hers, it felt more like he was holding her hand than striking a deal.

  But his next words were all business, gruff and pointed.

  “I guess you’d better bring me this damn dog already,” he said.

  She was unab
le to keep the surprise from showing on her face.

  He saw it, of course, and directed a wry, twisted grimace inward. “I warned you. Believe me when I say it’s for the best that we get this thing started. The sooner she learns how to tolerate me and save my life, the sooner I can get back to work.” He paused a beat and added, “And the sooner you can get back to a life without me in it.”

  * * *

  They both hated him.

  Harrison sat on the front lawn of the Vasquez sisters’ home, staring at a puppy that weighed about as much as a pineapple. Sophie had left the two of them alone with instructions for him to spend some quality time getting to know his new best friend.

  How he was supposed to do that, she hadn’t said. She’d just unleashed the animal and promised to return to check on them in ten minutes.

  She couldn’t get away from me fast enough, he thought grimly. And he had no one to blame for it but himself. As usual, he’d let his frustrations get the better of him, shown his true colors before he could realize the effect it might have on the innocent woman standing no more than a few feet away from him.

  Frustration was, unfortunately, his nemesis. No matter how many times he tried to act like a normal person, he always got buried under his own tongue. He tried to control himself, he really did, but the second that mounting feeling of helplessness took over, all bets were off.

  And so, it seemed, was Sophie.

  “Okay, Bubbles,” he said, trying out the dog’s name. Those perky syllables felt strange on his tongue, but they were no stranger than the golden-haired puffball eyeing him with a mixture of interest and caution. “I understand you’ve got a nose like no other. Show me what you can do with it.”

  Bubbles just blinked at him.

  “Okay, I hear you. New experiences can be scary—so can new people.” He thumbed a finger back toward the house. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m just as terrified of Sophie as she is of me. Probably more.”