“You’re here because Oscar asked you to be,” he said, his voice flat.

“Yes.”

“Because you’d do anything for him.”

“Yes.”

“Because he saved your life.”

“Yes.”

He didn’t say the next one out loud. He didn’t need to. Because the only reason anyone would be willing to dedicate that much time and energy to someone like me is to pay off a debt.

All the pieces suddenly clicked into place—why Sophie pushed so hard, why she was willing to give so much of herself to him, why she was so determinedly, irrationally cheerful about it all.

It wasn’t for his benefit. It was for Oscar’s.

And the worst part was he couldn’t even be upset about it. Since the moment Sophie had walked into his life, he’d known he didn’t deserve her. He wasn’t warm. He wasn’t welcoming. He wasn’t even all that amusing.

In truth, he was just a job. A fun job, maybe, and an occasionally pleasurable one, but still just a job.

Finally—finally—things were starting to make sense.

“Okay,” he said.

She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “What do you mean, okay?”

“I mean, okay. Thank you for the piece of backstory. It explains a lot about this situation. But we should probably keep going if we want to get to the campground sometime today.”

Her gaze didn’t grow any less suspicious. “That’s all you have to say? That you want to keep walking?”

Yes, if only because he didn’t trust what would come out of his mouth if he opened it again. With a tight nod, he turned and continued down the path.

Their sunny walk through the wilderness suddenly felt like a death march. Nothing lasted forever. Nothing stayed the same. Harrison had known it for almost as long as he’d known his own name. Even his Aunt Caroline had left by the time he’d turned twelve.

Now, history was repeating itself with a vengeance. Sophie was only on loan to him for as long as it took to complete the puppy training, and then she too would walk away without a backward glance. It should have made him happy to be back on this oh-so-familiar ground, to see the end before it blindsided him, but it didn’t.

Just once, it would have been nice to see what happened if someone stayed.

Just once, it would have been nice to know he was worth sticking around for.

Chapter 14

“Fish are, of course, the best way to win the contest, but you have to actually be able to catch them. Can you catch them?”

“Me?” Sophie glanced around, even though it had only been her and a fearfully capable woman named Jessica standing at the river’s edge for the past few minutes. “Um. I don’t know. Is it hard to do?”