A small whimper, almost humanlike, emitted from the tiny open crack.

Derek’s eyes lit up. “Harrison, you wily bastard—that’s not nothing. That’s a woman. You’re hiding a woman on the other side of that door.”

Aware that he could do nothing but give in, Harrison heaved a sigh. “You’re only half-correct. She’s female, but she’s no woman.”

“What the—?” Derek began, but he didn’t have a chance to finish. The moment Harrison nudged the door open an extra inch, Bubbles shoved her way through, her tongue lolling with pleasure at having vanquished all the obstacles in her path and made it to her master.

“What the hell is that?” Derek asked, blinking down at the Bubbles.

Harrison scooped the puppy up and held her out for inspection. “This is my service dog.”

“Why is it dressed in a Barbie sweater?”

Harrison pulled Bubbles closer to his body. He might think the puppy looked ridiculous, but he wasn’t about to stand here and listen to Derek denigrate her appearance—not when the yellow sweater made her happy.

“She gets cold,” he said, scratching Bubbles under her chin. “And we’ve had some problems with alternate heating options, so we’re making do with what we’ve got.”

“Is this some kind of joke?” Derek made a big show of looking around the front porch. “Is your dad going to pop out with a camera and make me a YouTube star?”

Harrison couldn’t help but smile. This was exactly what he’d been afraid of happening, what he’d tried to warn Sophie about to no avail. If his best and oldest friend found the idea of this little dog impossible to swallow, then Harrison had no idea how the rest of the guys were going to take it.

Wrong. He did know. That was the problem.

“My dad feels the same way about this puppy as you,” he said. “But I’m stuck with her, I’m afraid. Oscar’s orders.”

Derek opened his mouth to say more, but the crunch of tires on gravel drew their attention. Harrison almost groaned aloud to see Sophie’s tiny green Fiat pull up the drive. A few hours ago, nothing would have made him happier than to see her ignoring her own orders to take the weekend off, especially since the small fire he’d made in the grate hadn’t caused a complete and utter reversal of Bubbles’s training.

A few hours ago, however, he hadn’t been staring at Derek’s sorry mug. Introducing him to Bubbles was one thing. Introducing him to Sophie was an entirely different beast.