“I told you I needed help.” Sophie cast her most-pleading look up at Lila’s face. The one good thing about having overprotective sisters was that they were highly susceptible to begging. “Please? I know you didn’t like Harrison, but he’s really quite sweet once you get to know him. And he’s already agreed to this alternative approach. In fact, I think he’s enjoying it.”

Lila’s brow came up. “What about the puppy?”

“You should have been there today, Lil.” Sophie was unable to keep the enthusiasm out of her voice as she leaned over the table, waving her fork all the while. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It takes her one time to learn something, two to make it routine. I mean, she could barely keep her eyes open by the end of the day, but she wouldn’t even lie down until she’d been given permission.”

“If the dog’s so obedient, why do you need us?” Lila asked.

“I told you already. Because the man isn’t.”

Dawn cracked a laugh, her eyes crinkling around the edges. “The ones worth having rarely are. What did he do?”

Sophie paused, stabbing at her lettuce in an attempt to stall. It wasn’t that she was afraid to tell her sisters about her conversation with Harrison, but it felt…disloyal somehow. He was clearly a man who protected his private life—who protected himself—at all costs. Opening up to her, even that tiny bit, must have been painful for him.

She wouldn’t betray that. Not now that she knew he respected her.

“Let’s just say that he doesn’t play well with others,” Sophie said. At the shared look of alarm that passed between her sisters, she rushed to add, “Not in a bad way. Just in a closed-off way. It’s like he’s got this wall up and he refuses to let anyone past it. But if I push him just enough…”

She paused, struggling to find the right words.

“You can sneak past the wall?” Dawn ventured.

“Not sneak past it,” Sophie said. “Demolish it entirely. He was super awkward with you guys at the house yesterday, right?”

“He said all of three words to me,” Lila said.

“I managed six, but that was only because I was trying really hard,” Dawn said. “He definitely perked up when you walked in though.”

Sophie nodded and did her best not to blush, but Dawn wasn’t done putting her on the spot.

“He’s not a handsome man,” she said, tapping a french fry in ketchup. “Not in the classical sense, anyway. But the second he saw you, I couldn’t help but think that he’s a hell of an attractive one, if you know what I mean.”