Page 28 of Puppy Love

That last bit was directed at Harrison, who echoed her with a monotone, “For fun?”

“Sure. If you belong to any clubs, play any sports, that sort of thing, I can easily work them into the rotation. It’ll be good for Bubbles to get a feel for her routine.”

He continued staring at her, more fixated on her mouth than was good for him. He hadn’t played a team sport since a brief flirtation with basketball in high school, and he’d never belonged to a club of any sort unless you counted grocery store memberships. As for parks and libraries, she had to be kidding. He was a grown-ass man with a demeanor that scared children. Not exactly who they wanted showing up at story time without an actual kid in tow.

It took Oscar’s crack of laughter to snap him out of his daze. “You’re out of luck there, Sophie. I can’t remember the last time Harrison went anywhere he wasn’t required to. His idea of fun is to practice digging ditches in the backyard.”

“I can tell,” Sophie said. Her eyes moved up and down his body, lingering on his shoulders and torso with something akin to admiration. Then again, she could also be focusing on the fact that he looked like a man whose idea of fun was…well, digging ditches in the backyard.

“It’s no different than going to a gym,” he said in his defense. In fact, it was substantially better. No man-made machine could emulate the full-body experience of digging in the earth for eight hours straight.

“Except for the part where you have to interact with other people at a gym,” Oscar pointed out. “It’s a good thing this dog-training stuff takes so much time. I was starting to worry about how Harrison would fill the days without work, but I can see you have it covered. Speaking of, I think I’ll go hunt down Wallace at the bowling alley and say hello.”

Harrison had been wishing Oscar to the devil for the past half an hour, but at the hint of departure, a perverse urge to beg him to stay kicked in. Oscar couldn’t leave Harrison alone here with Sophie. It wasn’t right—not after that lengthy speech about doing her no harm. Couldn’t he see that it was only a matter of time before Harrison did something catastrophic?

He might storm. He might rage. He might pitch caution out the window and Sophie into his arms.

“Don’t work him too hard, eh?” Oscar added. “Just look at what he did to that poor dog. I think he’s cracking under the strain already.”

Ha.That showed what Oscar knew. Cracking was an ongoing process, and Harrison was obviously already there.

“Don’t say it,” he warned as soon as Oscar swung out the back door—whistling, of all damn things.

“Say what?” Sophie asked. “I think Bubbles looks nice.”

She was the picture of innocence, standing there with her exposed shoulder and a look of disinterest, but Harrison wasn’t fooled. She was practically vibrating with suppressed laughter. There was something infectious about it. Already, he could feel the bands around his chest loosening.

“I didn’t want to start a fire without your permission,” he said.

“That was wise.”

“And she wouldn’t stop shivering.”

“The poor honey. Their coats aren’t very thick, despite how soft and fluffy they are.”

“And it’s not like I have tiny dog sweaters lying around the house.”

“We’ll start with a knitting circle, I think.” Reaching into her canvas bag, Sophie extracted a notepad and started jotting things down. “That way you can expand her wardrobe however you want.”

“I’m sorry—what did you just say?”

“Once we have that down, we’ll add a trivia night. There’s also family dinner and book club, which might be fun. Oh, I know! Beer choir. And definitely dodgeball practice—you’ll like that one.”

“Those sound like made up things. Why are you listing made up things?”

“For socialization, obviously.”

He held up his hands as if warding off something evil—which, in a way, was exactly what he was doing. “I don’t need socializing. I don’t care what Oscar said—I’m fine the way I am. You’d be surprised how satisfying it is to dig and refill those ditches.”

Her laughter rang through the kitchen like a dinner bell. “Not for you, Harrison. For Bubbles.”

Ah, yes. The puppy. Puppies needed socialization. He knew that. The only problem was that men—at leastthisman—definitely did not.

He cast a doubtful look at the puppy. “You think Bubbles wants to go to aknitting circle?”

“I think Bubbles will do whatever you tell her to. That’s the benefit of working with a sweet girl like her.”

This was getting out of hand. “No,” he said, his voice firm. He crossed his arms and let his power stance do the talking. “Let’s do the other thing you said first. About the training grounds. And the office.”