Page 89 of Puppy Love

“Did you argue about something?”

“We argued about lots of things. That’s the whole point of Harrison.” She glanced at the clock sitting on the mantelpiece. “Oh, geez. Is it eight o’clock already? I still need to shower and change before I head over to the DNR office for the air force training.”

All three women stared at her as though she’d spoken a foreign language.

“That clock isn’t wrong, is it?” She cast a worried look at her watch, but it showed the same time. “Okay, phew. I should have just enough time if I hurry.”

“Uh, Soph?”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Darling, are you sure you don’t want a few minutes with the heating pad first?”

“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked. “Why is everyone looking at me like that?”

The women shared another one of those worrisome looks before Dawn stepped forward. “You’re going to Deer Park? Now?”

“Um, yes? It’s Monday, which means Oscar is bringing in a whole bunch of people for wildfire training today. I know I look terrible, but I doubt Harrison will notice.” Sophie shrugged with a nonchalance she was far from feeling. She’d hoped that having a weekend apart would help ease the sting of his final words, but it hadn’t worked. All the ice cream and brandy in the world wouldn’t change the fact that Harrison had ripped her heart out of her chest, stomped it into the dirt, and then walked away.

I could have taken all of it—except for the walking away.

“Actually, he probably will notice, but I don’t care. I hope he thinks I look like garbage. I feel like garbage.Hemade me feel like garbage. The least he can do now is face the steaming heap he created.”

Lila opened her mouth to protest again, but Sophie forestalled her with a glare.

“Well, Dawn?” she asked, her tone falsely bright. “You’re the expert when it comes to this sort of thing—is it cutoff jean shorts? A see-through tank top? Pasties with tassels on them? What does one wear to work with a man who destroyed all one’s chances of happiness?”

“One could always ask one’s sister to go to work in her stead,” Dawn suggested gently.

Sophie set her face, remembering all the things Harrison had said about her—that her strength came from the safety net her family provided, that her bravery had never beenreallytested. “No, thank you.”

“We wouldn’t mind,” Lila said. “If you’re not up to the task of facing him, it’s just as easy for one of us to finish up. In fact, I think it’s in our employee handbook.”

“It’s true.” Dawn cleared her throat with a false sense of authority. “After sleeping with the client, dog trainers are allowed a two-week leave of absence, at which time one of her sisters solemnly promises to finish the job, no questions asked.”

“No, thank you,” Sophie said once again. She didn’t know how to make them realize that their kindness, though to be expected, was only making her feel worse. It proved how right Harrison had been, how easy her life was compared to his. How could someone like her possibly understand what it cost him to open up? How could she know anything about real strength?

Everything she had, she owed to the people in this room. Everything she was, was built on the promise that their love for her would never falter.

“It’s nice of you to offer, guys, but I was aware of the difficulties when I took this job. I made the decision to get involved with Harrison knowing the risks.”

“Oscar will understand,” Lila said.

“No one will think any less of you for staying home to nurse your broken heart,” Dawn added.

“Youmight not think less of me for it,” Sophie allowed, “butIwill. It’s going to be awful, and I’ll probably cry before the day is over, but I have to do it. Not for Harrison or even for Oscar, but for me.”

To her surprise, Dawn laughed—her familiar chuckle full of music, her dangling silver earrings shaking around her neck. “Well, crap. I can’t argue with that. Lila?”

Her oldest sister offered a prim smile. “Icouldargue it, but I’m not going to. I know better than to go up against Sophie in battle. She wins every time. She always has.”

Dawn heaved a mock sigh. “She does, doesn’t she? The tenacious wretch. I’d hate her if I didn’t love her so much.”

“Wait—I do? I am? You really mean it?” Sophie looked back and forth between her sisters, waiting for the catch. “You aren’t just calling me a tenacious wretch to be nice?”

She couldn’t tell which of her sisters laughed the most at that, but she did know that the sound out it far outstripped their earlier sympathy. It always had. During her darkest moments and in the midst of her bleakest fears, Lila and Dawn had always managed to make her laugh.

Just thinking about it caused tears to spring to her eyes—not forherplight, but for Harrison’s. When his world had taken the same path as hers, no one had made him laugh. No one had showed him love.