Sophie did. She definitely did. Harrison’s features might not be regular, and he might grumble and stomp like a giant atop a beanstalk, but he still managed to radiate virility. Even now, miles away, she could feel his magnetism.

“I can’t imagine why you’d want to annoy someone who looks at you like that,” Dawn added with a swooning sigh.

“That’s because you don’t know him,” Sophie said. “He only likes me because I annoy him. I mean, when he saw Bubbles for the first time, it was as if I’d just shown him the moment of his own death. But then I told him to crawl inside the pen and cuddle with her, and he was so outraged at the prospect that everything flipped over. He started laughing and joking, finally willing to give her—to give me—a try. The same thing happened today. It’s like he can’t move forward unless he reaches some kind of breaking point first.”

Sophie paused, aware how strange all this must seem to her sisters, but she didn’t know how else to explain it. “I know it’s weird, but I can’t get started on any real work with him until the wall comes down.”

“So you’re smashing through his walls?” Lila asked. “With what?”

She couldn’t help but grin at the disbelief in her sister’s voice. Sophie was hardly known for her ability to ride a wrecking ball through other people’s lives. “Well, I can’t smash them, obviously. I doubt I could even pick up a sledgehammer that big. But if I push him far enough, he does it for me.”

“Does that mean you pushed him today? Enough to get the wall down, anyway?” Dawn propped her chin in her hand and watched Sophie with a gleam in her eyes. “How?”

Sophie’s grin turned into a giggle. “I threatened to take away his puppy.”

It was a credit to both her sisters that she didn’t have to explain the joke. The idea that Sophie could physically wrest anything away from a six-foot tank of a man was preposterous in the extreme. The fact that they were talking about a two-pound Pomeranian puppy only made it that much funnier.

“But I can hardly do that every day. Especially not now that he knows what I’m doing. That’s why I’m asking for your input. I don’t have enough experience with men like Harrison Parks.” Or, if she was being perfectly honest, with men in general. “What else can I do that will send him over the edge?”