“Hey,” she said and released her hold on his hair. “What’s wrong? Harrison—are you okay? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost. Or, um, tasted one.”

A light laugh shook him. Even now, she was giving him a gift. Even now, she was lifting him up simply by being herself.

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her what he felt, to admit that he was so far from being okay, that his life’s happiness was now entirely in her hands, but he didn’t. That was one of her gifts too. With a smile that stitched the last piece of his heart into place, she took his hand and helped him up.

“Come on. We can scoot Bubbles over and snuggle in your secret clubhouse bed. I think I spied some Neruda on your bookshelf. I had no idea you were such a romantic.”

“He’s okay,” Harrison admitted with a blush.

Sophie lifted his hand to her mouth and placed a soft kiss in the palm of his hand. “You’re okay too, Harrison.”

He blushed deeper. He wasn’t willing to go that far just yet. But the one thing he did know for sure was that if Sophie was willing to stay in his life for good, he could be.

Chapter 18

“That’s weird. Are you expecting one of your sisters?” Harrison turned his truck into his drive, not bothering to lift his hand from where it sat on Sophie’s leg.

She liked the way it lay there—naturally and heavily, an extension of the man himself. He often held Bubbles that way, with that one hand curled possessively over the puppy’s fluffy coat. Sophie had always considered it more of Harrison’s way to comfort himself than to protect the animal, and she liked that hand on her thigh for the very same reason.

He could have stroked it too, if he’d wanted. In fact, she kind of hoped he would. She was ruined for all other normal human interactions. She wasn’t thinking about work or dinner or even the blue sedan parked in the drive that looked an awful lot like the one her mom drove. All she wanted was to go back to that quiet, perfect attic space where Harrison had finally let her in.

And she hadn’t been forced to push even once. He’d just opened the door and followed her up those stairs.

Harrison, however, had other things on his mind. “I thought you said you expressly forbade them from contacting you for anything less than a major medical emergency,” he said.

“I did, but that’s not going to stop either of them stopping by anytime they darn well please. They might even be compelled to bring my mom.”