Page 23 of Puppy Love

“Yes, well. I’m not most people.”

“No, Sophie Vasquez.” His voice dropped so low that her name sounded almost like a caress. “I think we can safely agree on that.”

She had no time to follow up on this promising turn of events. At that exact moment, Bubbles decided she’d had enough of playing second string to the pair of them. With another of her small, plaintive barks, she demanded that she be pet, made much over, and otherwise coddled as befitted a lady of her stature. And Harrison, proving himself a pushover of the highest order, gave right in.

As much as Sophie appreciated the picture made by a large, attractive man and his tiny canine overlord, there was still quite a bit of work to do if she was going to make a success of this.

Clearing her throat, she cast a look at Harrison’s bare feet and officially started the day. “If you want to hand her over, I’ll set up the morning training while you get dressed,” she said. “Did you two eat?”

He blinked at the sudden shift in the conversation but accepted it with a shrug. “Only half of us. Bubbles has been fed, but I didn’t have time, not with the fire situation.”

“Then I suggest you do that first.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.” His stance indicated that the topic wasn’t open to negotiation.

And so it begins.

“I have no doubt that you are, but you need to make sure your blood sugar level is as normal as possible before we get started,” she said, her voice clipped. “We have to establish a consistent and stable baseline, or she’ll get confused later on.”

“But I—” he began before stopping himself with a nod. “Okay. You’re the expert. You’re in charge.”

Sophie was so startled by that—me, the expert; me, in charge—that she almost dropped the puppy being placed in her arms. She might have done it too, but Harrison handed over his precious burden with so much trust that she didn’t dare let go. Now that she’d accepted the challenge he’d offered, she was beginning to realize the enormity of it.

He hadn’t just given her his puppy to hold; he’d given her his entire life. His career, his future, his happiness—all of it now depended on her.

She gulped as she watched him turn on his heel and trot easily down the stairs. He paused just long enough to cast a glance over his shoulder, a slightly mocking lift to one of his heavy brows.

“You coming?” he asked.

She nodded, unwilling—and unable—to commit the folly of speech. She was on her way, all right. She was in this now.

She had to push. She had to fight.

But most important, she had to win.

Chapter 6

“I need you to tell me everything you know about driving a man crazy.”

Sophie slid into the vinyl booth of her favorite diner, pleased but not surprised to find a generous slice of cherry pie with a scoop of ice cream melting into an ocean around it. If she knew her sisters, they’d already asked the waitress to bring her a Cobb salad afterward. For now, dessert came first.

Childhood habits were hard to break that way. When every day’s survival was questionable, eating pie before vegetables was just common sense.

“Why, Sophie, you beautiful little hussy. I thought you’d never ask.” Dawn swiped a bite of pie and licked her fork clean. “Step one is all about the wardrobe. What you want to do in the early days is expose just one body part at a time. Pick something that’s normally innocent, say, a shoulder—”

“No, no. Not the sexy kind of crazy. The other kind. The annoyed kind.”

“Why did you look at me when you said that?” Lila demanded. Unlike Dawn, she would never presume to eat from someone else’s plate. Her own dishes were arrayed in front of her in a perfectly square pattern—fruit, vegetable, protein, carbs. “I don’t annoy men. Men love me.”

Dawn snorted.

“It’s true!” Lila protested. “I don’t always love them back, that’s all. I have high standards.”

Neither one of them could argue with that. Nor, Sophie reflected, would they want to. Lila deserved her high standards. Not only was she the best-looking of the sisters, her thirty years worn like a diamond tiara, but she was the smartest too. She had a master’s degree in animal behavior—a valuable tool for training dogs…and, Sophie hoped, for training men.

“This is serious, you guys,” Sophie said. “Harrison and Bubbles and I had a very productive day. I know how I’m going to make a success of them.”

“And the answer isn’t hard work and the tried-and-true practices of dog training we’ve been instilling in you for years?” Lila asked.