Dawn cast a wide smile over them all. “There now. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Are you going to stand there glaring the whole time, Sophie, or are you going sit down too?”

She gulped. “I’ll stand, thanks. I feel like I should be on my feet for this.”

To be perfectly honest, Harrison would have preferred her in his arms for this, but he wasn’t going to push Sophie into any kind of declaration she wasn’t ready for. It was enough that she knew what was in his heart.

Lila cleared her throat. Of the three sisters, she was the most naturally authoritative—and it was a skill she obviously had no qualms pulling out whenever she felt the impulse. “Now, Harrison. Would you say that Sophie’s presence in your life is integral to your happiness?”

“Yes, of course it is. She’s everything to me.”

An indistinguishable sound escaped from between Sophie’s lips.

“Excellent.” Despite her sister’s growing discomfort, Lila continued her interrogation without so much as a blink. “Would you say that you’ve been particularly adept at hiding these emotions? Particularly from your puppy?”

“From Bubbles?” His chest squeezed at the thought of that tiny bit of fluff—the one creature in his life he thought he hadn’t driven away. “Unfortunately, no. I’ve been miserable since the moment I said those awful things to Sophie, and the puppy knew it. I told you, Sophie, remember? I begged you to fix her.”

“I remember,” Sophie said, her voice low.

“Then, yesterday after we left the DNR, she kept licking my face and hands over and over again. She wouldn’t leave my side even to go to the bathroom. I tested my blood sugar eight extra times yesterday, thinking she was trying to alert me, but it was always normal.”

“And what were you doing last night that might have set her off?” Lila asked. “Anything out of the ordinary?”

He thought back to the evening before, trying to remember everything he’d said and done that Bubbles could have misconstrued as his determination to give up on life. He’d spent several hours digging his never-ending ditches, yes, and had eaten his sad, plain chicken breast for one while standing over the sink, but those were hardly signs of a man on the brink. A man who desperately wanted his woman back, yes, but that part went without saying.

“I don’t think so. It was pretty routine, as far as life goes.”

“His pillow,” Sophie offered.

Lila cocked her head. “What’s that?”

“Ask him about his pillow.”

“What?” Harrison turned to the woman standing next to him—the light in his heart, the joy of his life, the missing piece of his soul. She looked the picture of innocence, but Harrison wasn’t fooled for a second. Behind those wide, gorgeous eyes lurked the worst thing that had ever happened to him.