He almost dropped the puppy in his surprise. He also almost dropped the puppy when a logging truck whisked past, stirring up cold air and a whirl of dust.

But he didn’t drop her. From the looks of it, he wasn’t going to let that poor animal out of his sight for months.

“What did you just say?”

“Bullshit,” she echoed, louder this time. “Every single person out there today would have come for your sake. Derek and Jessica and all the DNR crew. Oscar and that weird, skinny kid with his pants on backward. My sisters. My mother. Your mother.”

He paused at the mention of his long-lost parent, but Sophie wasn’t buying it. Not now. Not after he’d reluctantly, begrudgingly, oh-so-wholeheartedly professed his love for her in front of his sisters. He might like to pretend that he was a closed book and that no one was allowed to touch the pain he buried deep inside, but she knew better.

He was a marshmallow. He always had been.

“They like you,” she said. “They respect you. The only problem is that you refuse to let any of them in long enough to do something about it. Yes, I know—people leave and people make mistakes and people let you down. So what? Open the door anyway. Step out from behind that wall and see what it feels like to have other people take care of you for a while. I think you might get used to it. In fact, I think you might actually like it.”

Mentioning the wall had the effect of shutting him down. She could see it happening, was watching the transformation with her very own eyes. His eyes went stony. His mouth became a hard line. His shoulders came up.

And then, without a single word, it stopped.

“Okay.”

She stopped as well, too startled by his sudden capitulation to do more than blink at him. “Okay?”

“Okay.” A smile moved across his face. It was the real one—the devastating one. “I like the sound of that, but only if you promise to keep me company in there.”

“Wait—what? That actually worked?”

Harrison tucked Bubbles under one arm and took the final step toward her. He was as exhausted as she was, drained both physically and emotionally, and it showed in every weathered line of his face. The shadow of his beard hinted of dark deeds, and his bull-like stance was as powerful as always, but none of that mattered. No matter how many times she searched his eyes, she didn’t see any sign of the wall. Once again, she’d managed to get him to tear it down.

But this time, he’d taken it down it for good.

“I still think you’re going to push me and poke me and make my life generally uncomfortable,” he said.

“That’s because I am.”