He was startled into another one of those laughs that felt so foreign. “Don’t worry. I learned that lesson already. Size and stability aren’t for me. Instead, I get…” He glanced down at Bubbles and tried to think of the least offensive way to phrase it.

It was more difficult than he thought.

“You get intelligence and devotion,” Sophie supplied for him. The note of steel was back in her voice, daring him to argue. “You get a beautiful little nugget who will risk her life to keep you safe.”

“A beautiful little nugget,” he echoed doubtfully.

Nuggets and raisins.

This was going to be so much worse than he’d thought.

Chapter 4

Nothing in the instructions told him how he was supposed to transport Bubbles home.

Bags of food, water dishes, leashes, harnesses, even a minuscule red training vest he side-eyed harder than he’d ever side-eyed anything in his life were there in abundance. But there was no crate or any sort of pad he could set on the floor.

“Are you supposed to ride in the back?” he asked, casting a doubtful glance at the bed of his rusted pickup truck. Even without all the tools and fire equipment back there, he doubted the puppy would be very comfortable. For all he knew, the wind would blow her away like a tumbleweed. “I’ll probably get in trouble for this, but I guess you’re sitting next to me. Don’t tell Sophie, okay? She might yell at me again, and I don’t like it when she yells at me.”

Bubbles blinked up at him. Harrison took it as agreement.

Throughout his life, he’d heard every kind of insult and every kind of criticism that could be leveled at a man for whom talking to people was a curse. None of it stacked up to Sophie gently questioning his ability to own a dog. Caring for a puppy was something normal people did every day. Puppies provided love, affection, all those things you were supposed to feel when something small and precious wriggled its way into your life.

In other words, all those things that he’d always lacked. Which was fine, in the general way of things. Love and affection had never been his strong points, and he knew it.

But the fact that Sophie knew it and on less than a day’s acquaintance…

“I’m not going to buckle you in, but you have to promise to sit perfectly still,” he commanded. He set Bubbles down on the cracked vinyl seat and slid in next to her. Since it seemed as good a time as any to try out those training commands, he gave her a stern look and said, “Stay.”