But they couldn’t spend the next sixty years hiding away from the world. Slipping past Harrison’s walls and into his heart was everything she’d imagined it would be, but she couldn’t live there.

“Well, I can’t,” Harrison said. “I want to—you have no idea how much—but I can’t.”

He sounded so beaten, so small, that her heart stopped.

“Don’t look at me like that, Sophie,” he said, his voice breaking. “You knew who I was going into this. I told you. I warned you.”

That was true. He had warned her, listed his flaws like he was reading off the worst job application known to mankind. But what he’d forgotten to include, what he couldn’t even see, was all that was great inside of him.

So she did it for him.

“You’re brave,” she said, ticking off one finger. “Scary brave, and in this weird kind of way where you won’t even acknowledge it. Honestly, I don’t know if you can. But most people don’t just give up everything and spend months at a time fighting huge, dangerous forest fires. That’s not a normal state of being.”

“Sophie, don’t—”

“You’re kind.” She ticked off another. “Oh, I know you try your best to hide it, but not even a magician could get the whole of your heart tucked away. You’re kind to animals, to your friends, to me. Jessica upheld your original story, you know. She told me that you were so tough on her, you made her cry during training…but then she also told me that you made sure she was the one who got to keep fighting fires after her boyfriend left her. I’m sorry, Harrison, but that was a kind thing to do.”

“It wasn’t like that—”

“You’re generous.” She bit her lip and flushed at the memory of their lovemaking mere hours before. “And I don’t just mean in bed, though that’s definitely true. I mean as a person. As a human being. As someone who opened his home to me without a word of protest—and right when I needed it most.”

“You have to stop.” Harrison’s hands came crashing down, clutching at her upper arms in desperation. “I know I gave you permission to push me, but I’m rescinding it now. No more. Not another word.”

“Harrison, you can’t—”

His hold on her didn’t lessen, his eyes as hard as granite. “I can and I did. No more pushing, no more playing. The game is over.”

“You’re not thinking clearly right now,” she said. “You’re upset, and you’re feeling hurt, and that’s okay, but—”