“You know very well what I mean!” He ran a hand through his hair, sending it into attractive disorder. “She missed you, Sophie. You did the training all wrong, spent too much time at the house helping me. Somewhere along the way, she got the idea that you’re supposed to always be there. And now she blames me because you’re gone.”

His voice cracked at the end, but that was the only sign of any opening in his hard exterior. The rest of him was as unyielding and wall-like as ever, the harsh lines of his face unwelcoming, his stance squared and closed off.

Sophie knew, in an instant, that the moment was right for her to tear down the wall. Even though the argument from the other day was still fresh enough to hurt them both, her sisters had given her enough confidence to claw through those bricks and find her way back to him.

She knew how she could do it too. All she had to do was kiss that hard, stony wall of a man. Hug him. Hold him. Force him to understand that nothing he said or did would ever make her love him any less than she did right now. In other words, she could push.

And then she could keep doing it every day for the rest of her life.

But that wasn’t love. That was a prison sentence. If Harrison wanted to escape from that locked hold inside his heart, if he wanted to wake up from the long, deep sleep that held him in its spell, he was going to have to do it himself.

“Because fairy tales aren’t real,” she muttered aloud, unconcerned with how strange she must sound. “Because there’s no reason why the princess can’t pick up a sword and meet the dragon halfway.”

“What are you talking about?” Harrison asked. “What princess? I’m talking about my dog, Sophie. You broke her. I think it’s only fair that you fix her.”

Despite her better judgment, she gave him one last chance. Shifting her weight to one leg, she cocked her head and stared at him. “Are you sure it’s the dog who needs my help?” she asked.

It didn’t work. Harrison held her look, his gaze pulsating with intensity, but he didn’t yield. “She likes you,” he said. “She trusts you.”

“And I like her,” she retorted. “But that isn’t reason enough for me to come back. Good luck with your new service dog, Harrison. And on behalf of Puppy Promise, thank you for your business.”

Chapter 20

Harrison didn’t know what woke him up while the moon still hung heavily in the night sky, but he knew all the things it wasn’t.