“Well.” Lila was the first to break the silence that followed Harrison’s sudden departure. “Oscar wasn’t exaggerating about him, was he?”

When Sophie didn’t respond, her eyes still fixed on the gentle sway of the door as if waiting for Harrison to reappear, Lila softened her voice. “That was a pretty nasty scene I walked into. You okay, Soph?”

It was exactly like her sister to ask that question. Given the way things had turned out, Lila could have dumped any number of reproaches on Sophie’s head, including the fact that she hadn’t wanted Sophie to take on this case in the first place, but of course, she didn’t. She never would.

Money meant nothing when compared to Sophie’s happiness. Work was secondary to making sure Sophie was taken care of.

Which was why Sophie shook her head. She wasn’t okay, not by a long shot. She felt humiliated and ashamed and, well, small—but more than that, she felt a strong compulsion to meet Harrison Parks on neutral territory once again. At first, he’d looked at her the way everyone always did, but then, when she’d pushed back, there’d been a spark in his eyes she desperately wanted to see again.

“I’m a little rattled, to be honest,” Sophie said. “He’s not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”

“No,” Lila agreed. “Some men are just like that, I’m afraid.”

It was on the tip of Sophie’s tongue to ask what Lila meant, but she stopped herself just in time. She already knew what Lila was thinking, because it was the same thing she’d thought when Harrison Parks had first knocked on the door.

This is a man who doesn’t like to be told what to do. This is a man to be wary of.

But Lila hadn’t seen that smile. Lila hadn’t been there when he’d quaked at the mere thought of touching such a precious, golden-haired lump as Bubbles. Lila hadn’t felt the surge of exhilaration that had come from confronting him…and winning.

“And he wasn’t necessarily wrong,” Lila added. Her hand touched Sophie’s shoulder. “I did warn you that Bubbles might not make a good service dog, sweetie. Not every puppy is cut out for this kind of work.”

Sophie glanced down at the animal under consideration, a pang of mingled frustration and disappointment filling her gut. Okay, so Bubbles wasn’t the most impressive puppy to come under their care—she was small and soft and had lingering issues from the trauma of the puppy mill—but that didn’t make her useless.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lila continued softly. “There will be other cases. One unhappy customer won’t make or break us. I’ll call Oscar and get everything straightened out.”