“Is all that why you’re wearing red today?” he asked with a whirl of his finger in the direction of her legs.

Her hand twitched in his and her cheeks broke out in twin pink circles, but she didn’t let go. It was as good a metaphor for this woman as anything. Tenacious, that was what she was. She had to be, to have stuck this thing out with him for this long.

“It was Dawn’s idea,” she said. “Which, since you’ve met her, I’m sure you can understand.”

He didn’t. Sophie’s sisters hadn’t seemed to be overly fond of red to him. In fact, the only thing he’d been able to glean during that painful session in their kitchen was that they were terrifying. “She seemed okay,” he said, hedging.

Her mouth fell open in a slight part. “Okay? Dawn? The one with the wavy hair and killer smile?”

He nodded.

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes narrowing in disbelief. “That was your takeaway? After forty-five minutes in her company? That she’s okay?”

He shrugged uncomfortably. “Why? Isn’t she?”

The stare only intensified. “She’s more than okay, Harrison. She’s gorgeous and she’s fun and everyone loves her. I mean that literally. Everyone. Wait—what did you think of Lila?”

“If I say she’s okay, are you going to go off on me again?”

A light giggle escaped her lips. “I’m sorry. I’m just not used to anyone—any man, that is—meeting Dawn and not instantly falling in love with her. Lila too. She’s the most beautiful person I know, both inside and out.”

Harrison could have easily corrected her on this score. The Vasquezes were a well-formed lot, it was true, but he didn’t see how anyone who’d spent five minutes in Sophie’s company could prefer her sisters. Sophie’s beauty was more subtle and delicate, yes, but it was all the more powerful because of it. Her feelings weren’t a maze or a puzzle that a man had to figure out—they were right there on the surface, easy to interpret and free for anyone who cared to pick them up.

Most important, she was kind. To him and to animals, to his father and to everyone who crossed her path. Maybe that was a commonplace thing where she came from, but to him, it was like reaching an oasis after twenty years of dry, desert living.