“The sheets,” Dawn said. “That’s it. You say you washed them yesterday?”

He nodded. “I had to. They were killing me.”

“No, they weren’t.” Lila’s tone was matter-of-fact, but her gentle smile eased some of the sting of them. “But Bubbles wouldn’t have known that. I was right.”

He looked a question at her.

“Her job is to protect you, remember?” Lila asked. “And she’s done nothing over the past six weeks but learn how to do that. She knows the way you smell. She knows the beat of your heart. She knows what you need long before you do.”

He finished the rest for her. “She knew that if I wiped the last of Sophie away, I’d never be whole again. She knew she had to go get her for me.”

If he’d thought having sheets that smelled like Sophie was painful, then it was obviously because he’d never felt anything like this before. That little dog was so much smarter—so much better—than him. Instead of accepting the way things were, instead of sitting around and steeping in her own misery, she’d gotten up off her tiny puppy ass and set out to change her fate. To change his fate.

She’d saved his life. Again.

“But where would she have gone?” he asked, transferring his gaze from one sister’s face to the next. “Where would she expect to find Sophie?”

Lila snapped her fingers. “The kennel.”

“It’s a heck of a walk, but she could make it,” Dawn said. “She’d do it for Harrison. That puppy of Sophie’s is nothing if not determined.”

“I know,” Harrison said as he reached for his keys. He wasn’t wasting another second. “It’s the thing I love about both of them.”

Chapter 22

They found Bubbles straggling along the side of the highway a few miles outside of Spokane.

From the look of her, all matted fur and lolling tongue, the journey hadn’t been an easy one. Those short, stubby legs required constant motion in order to gain any ground at all, and anxiety at being away from Harrison made her more frantic than usual.

Still, Sophie had never seen such a beautiful creature.

“Bubbles, you precious little monster!” she cried as she jumped out of Harrison’s truck before it had come to a complete halt. The momentum of her leap threw her to the ground, but she brushed herself off and ran to the puppy’s side. “Do you have any idea how worried we were? Do you know how many people are crawling over the fields right now in search of your tiny puppy remains?”

From the feeble wag of the animal’s tail as she realized who was accosting her on the dirty side of a highway, Sophie was guessing she knew. She was also guessing she didn’t care.

“Harrison, do you have the—?”