Page 26 of Puppy Love

It was what made this whole you-can’t-come-back-to-work-until-you-get-a-service-dog thing so cruel. Oscar knew what kind of a toll it would have on Harrison too.

“How’s he doing, by the way?” Oscar asked. “Enjoying retirement?”

Harrison measured out a length of three inches on the sock and made another cut. “No.”

“How are you doing?” was the next question. “Enjoying your leave of absence?”

“No,” he said again.

Oscar wasn’t put off by monosyllables. “How about Sophie? I hope she’s not a disappointment, at least.”

Harrison eyed his boss warily. The question might sound casual enough to an outsider, but everywhere he considered stepping was riddled with land mines.

She’s great, thanks. She somehow got me to allow her free rein to push and pull and make me generally uncomfortable in my own skin, but that should be fun, right?

I can’t stop thinking about her laugh, thanks. Or her smile. Or the fact that those two things have made me reconsider anything and everything I’ve ever known.

“She’s fine,” Harrison said, hedging. “Bubbles likes her.”

“I’m sure she does. The question is, doyoulike her?”

Of course he did. He had a Pomeranian puppy in his lap and he was doing crafts at his kitchen table before nine o’clock in the morning. If that wasn’t a clear sign of how far he’d fallen, he didn’t know what was.

When he didn’t answer, Oscar cleared his throat in a way that didn’t bode well for the conversation to follow. “Harrison?”

“She seems like a very capable dog trainer,” he said.

“That’s because sheisa very capable dog trainer. She’s also kind and generous and has overcome more pain and suffering than most of us see in a lifetime. I like you, Harrison, I really do, but if you hurt that girl in any way, I’ll make sure you regret it for the rest of your miserable life.”

Harrison’s head snapped up.

“I can, you know.” Oscar’s voice was calm, but his expression was one Harrison knew from experience meant it was better not to cross him. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but it needs to be said. So I’ll ask you one more time: How about Sophie?”

For the first time in Harrison’s life, he didn’t react poorly to being challenged. A few days ago, that question might have boiled every frustrated nerve, sent him off on a tangent that would have Sophie resolutely squaring up to him. Today, he could only find himself in complete agreement. Any asshole who broke that woman down deserved the worst the world had to offer.

Including him.

Especiallyhim.

“I don’t think you need to worry about her.” Harrison held up his finished product and sighed. “If she wasn’t enjoying herself before, I promise she will today. All right, Bubbles. Let’s see if this does the trick.”

Oscar didn’t say a word as Harrison stretched out the sock and slipped it over the puppy’s head. It went easily. There was so much fur on her, she could be decompressed to half her size. Gently guiding her limbs to fit through each of the holes he’d made was more difficult, especially since some of his measurements had been a little off, but the end result was about what he expected.

In other words, Bubbles was wearing a sock. One of his favorites too, the sweat-wicking kind he wore when he was out fighting fires for long stretches at a time.

“What the hell did you just do to that poor creature?” Oscar demanded.

“What do you mean? She loves it.” Harrison set Bubbles down on the table. The puppy wriggled once, scratched twice, and decided she’d never been so pleased in all her life. With a toss of her head, she began prancing along the table’s edge, just in case they hadn’t noticed her the first time. “Look at her—she’s preening.”

Oscar scratched his chin. “Well, I’ll be damned. She does like it.”

“Hello, boys.” A soft, feminine voice arose from behind them. “Sorry to barge in, but I rang the doorbell three times. No one answered.”

Harrison’s pulse leapt at the sound of Sophie’s arrival. It wasn’t a scared leap or an alarmed leap—it wasn’t even a wary one, whichshouldhave been his reaction given how far she’d managed to push him already.

No, this was the most dangerous kind of leap of all—attraction.

His heightened pulse didn’t lessen when he turned to find her standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He’d been more grateful than words could express when she’d showed up yesterday wearing sensible pants and a shirt with a Puppy Promise logo embroidered on the front. She’d still looked amazing, of course. The playful wisps of her short hair set off her pretty features, and the simplicity of her attire only enhanced her neat figure. But the uniform had helped.