I’ve Got a Crush on You Summary, Characters and Themes

I’ve Got a Crush on You by Lauren Blakely is a contemporary romantic comedy built around second chances, workplace complications, dogs, career ambitions, and two people who discover that a supposedly temporary attraction has much more staying power than either expected. 

Chloe Rivers is rebuilding her professional life after a disastrous marriage and an equally disastrous job, while Sawyer Dumont is trying to create a fresh start after betrayal ended his engagement. Their accidental reunion turns an impulsive night together into a complicated partnership where attraction, ambition, trust, and fear must all be confronted before either can move forward. It’s the 2nd book of the Darling Springs series. 

Summary

Chloe Rivers is fired from Fitzburger Events after a disastrous balloon display turns Darling Springs’s spring festival into a public embarrassment. She knows her former husband, August, caused the problem and manipulated the records so she would take the blame, but his father, Phineas Fitzburger, refuses to believe her and dismisses her anyway.

The loss is especially damaging because Chloe has been relying on the job while trying to establish herself as a professional dog trainer. Refusing to spend the evening feeling sorry for herself, she attends an extravagant birthday party for Bagel, the dog of her celebrity client Florence Faye, hoping she might meet useful contacts.

At the party, Chloe notices Sawyer Dumont, an attractive but noticeably serious man who has been dragged there by his sister Juliet. Sawyer is dealing with his own bad day because he has just completed the sale of the house he once shared with Katya, the woman he planned to marry before discovering that she was having an affair.

Chloe and Sawyer quickly connect through humor, teasing, and their shared need to forget their problems for one evening. Their flirtation becomes even stronger after a large Mastiff knocks Chloe into a lake, leaving Sawyer to help her out, find her a towel, and drive her to a nearby hotel where she can change.

When Chloe discovers she has nothing dry to wear, Sawyer buys her clothes from the hotel gift shop. The gesture is practical rather than showy, but it gives Chloe an early glimpse of the way Sawyer pays attention to problems and quietly tries to solve them.

Their attraction becomes impossible to ignore, and Chloe invites Sawyer upstairs. Although she takes sensible precautions by photographing his identification before being alone with him, she deliberately avoids learning much about him because she wants their encounter to remain uncomplicated.

They spend the night together and discover that their connection includes far more than physical attraction. Between intimacy and room service, they joke, compete over food, and eventually tell each other about the painful events they were trying to escape.

Chloe explains how her impulsive marriage to August ended badly and how he later sabotaged her professionally. Sawyer reveals how Katya’s affair destroyed his engagement and left him questioning his ability to trust another person.

The following morning, Chloe leaves before Sawyer wakes. She deletes the photograph of his identification, writes him a kind note, and decides their night should remain exactly what they agreed it would be: a temporary escape between strangers.

A month later, Chloe’s professional fortunes have improved dramatically. Veronica Angel, owner of the Mastiff that knocked her into the lake, hires Chloe to correct the dog’s behavior and is so satisfied that she recommends Chloe to other clients.

With her dog-training business growing, Chloe rents a small training area inside Dog Tails, a newly reopened dog-daycare facility in Darling Springs. She is also offered the chance to compete for a job training dogs for a Webflix production coming to town.

On Chloe’s first proper day at Dog Tails, she discovers that its new owner is Sawyer. He is equally shocked, but his reaction is shaped by the damage Katya’s betrayal left behind.

Because Chloe photographed his identification, Sawyer absurdly convinces himself that she researched him, learned about his Darling Springs business, and deliberately arranged their reunion. Chloe is furious and points out that his accusations reveal his own trust problems rather than anything about her behavior.

Sawyer soon recognizes that he was wrong and apologizes without trying to excuse himself. Chloe accepts the apology cautiously, and they establish professional boundaries while agreeing that both could benefit if the Webflix production chooses Chloe as its trainer and Dog Tails as a filming location.

Working together proves unexpectedly natural. Chloe brings knowledge of dogs, clients, and the local community, while Sawyer contributes business experience, organization, and an ability to understand what producers need from a commercial partner.

Their attraction remains a constant problem. Painting Chloe’s training space together, sharing business meetings that feel suspiciously like dates, exchanging treats, and repeatedly helping one another make it increasingly difficult to maintain the idea that they are simply coworkers.

Sawyer also quietly repairs Chloe’s unreliable car doors, an act that matters deeply to her because he notices a practical difficulty and fixes it without making her feel inadequate. When the Webflix interview arrives, he supports Chloe rather than taking over, while Chloe demonstrates her training methods using her dog, Captain.

Their joint presentation succeeds. Chloe is hired as a dog-training consultant, and Dog Tails is selected as a filming location, giving both of them the professional opportunity they hoped for.

The celebration leads to another kiss and another night together. Yet Chloe becomes frightened afterward because her relationship with August taught her how dangerous it can feel when romance and work occupy the same space.

She asks Sawyer to leave even though she actually wants him to stay. Sawyer interprets her decision as rejection, and both respond by retreating into professionalism, creating a stiff workplace atmosphere that neither enjoys.

Their distance changes when Chloe accidentally discovers Sawyer’s greatest secret. The rigid, responsible businessman regularly performs karaoke under the name Sam Silversmith, dressing differently and allowing himself to become a much freer version of the man everyone sees at work.

Rather than mocking him, Chloe loves this unexpected part of his personality. Sawyer explains that performing gives him a place where he can abandon responsibility for a while, and sharing this private side of himself with Chloe creates a new level of trust between them.

When Chloe’s mother, Karen, urgently needs a replacement singer for a community fundraiser, Chloe persuades Sawyer to perform. The commitment requires him not only to sing but also to learn a dance with Chloe, forcing the pair into even closer contact.

Sawyer’s attempts to maintain emotional distance become increasingly pointless. Dance lessons, shared work, evenings together, jealousy, dog-training emergencies, and Chloe’s acceptance of every side of him gradually transform their attraction into something more stable.

Sawyer helps Chloe with clients and protects her privacy, while Chloe becomes one of the few people who understands both the serious businessman and the playful performer. Their relationship quietly resumes, but this time their time together includes ordinary domestic moments as well as physical chemistry.

Chloe begins spending time at Sawyer’s new house, a place that had previously felt more like an empty property than a home. Sawyer exercises Captain, remembers Chloe’s favorite foods, cooks breakfast for her, leaves her flowers, and makes it clear that her professional success is something he wants to support rather than compete with.

Chloe slowly realizes how different this relationship is from her marriage to August. Sawyer does not diminish her work, expect her to revolve around his ambitions, or make her responsible for his ego.

Sawyer reaches a similar realization. What began as attraction has grown through shared meals, car repairs, dogs, business problems, dancing, private jokes, work projects, and moments of trust, and he accepts that he is falling in love with Chloe.

Their growing relationship also encourages Sawyer to make another personal commitment by adopting an older rescue dog, whom he names Mister Dog. Watching him carefully prepare for the animal strengthens Chloe’s feelings because she sees the same patience and responsibility in the way he cares for both animals and people.

Chloe recognizes that she is falling in love as well. The couple nevertheless continues to avoid fully defining the relationship, partly because both are still allowing their previous betrayals to influence the present.

The greatest disruption arrives when August appears at a Dog Tails event with Hallie, a trainer who previously competed against Chloe for the Webflix position. August attempts to benefit from the professional network Chloe and Sawyer have created and then insults Chloe by suggesting that she advances through relationships with useful men.

Sawyer’s anger gets the better of him. He causes August to fall into a pool, setting off a chain reaction in which the Webflix dog star Jubilee also jumps into the water while people nearby record the entire spectacle.

Although Jubilee enjoys herself and no real harm is done, Sawyer becomes convinced that he has allowed his personal feelings to damage his business responsibilities. His old fear that love creates professional disorder immediately returns.

During the tense conversation that follows, Sawyer says he needs perspective. Chloe, already afraid that romance and work cannot coexist safely, assumes he is ending their relationship even though Sawyer actually begins by telling her that he is not.

Chloe interrupts him, insists they were never truly together, and leaves. Sawyer allows her to go because he believes some temporary space may be sensible, leaving both miserable over a breakup that neither of them actually intended.

Professionally, the feared disaster becomes a success. The video of Jubilee jumping into the pool becomes popular, Webflix sees new promotional possibilities, and Alexandra wants to expand the production’s collaboration with both Dog Tails and Chloe.

The good news forces Sawyer to confront the fact that his fears created the real problem rather than preventing one. Chloe reaches a similar conclusion after Ripley and Bridget make her examine the conversation carefully and acknowledge that Sawyer never actually ended their relationship.

Both finally recognize the influence of their pasts. Chloe has been expecting Sawyer to repeat August’s failures, while Sawyer has been expecting Chloe to betray or abandon him because Katya did.

Sawyer’s father helps him understand that professionalism does not require emotional isolation and that making mistakes does not make him a failed leader. Sawyer finally says aloud that he loves Chloe and decides that avoiding vulnerability is no longer worth the cost.

At the fundraiser, Chloe performs on piano while Sawyer joins her for their planned song and dance. He then surprises her by openly becoming Sam Silversmith in front of the community, removing the barrier he once maintained between his public and private selves.

With the support of his Dog Tails employees, Sawyer performs “I’ve Got a Crush on You” for Chloe and publicly tells her that he loves her. Captain arrives carrying a rose, and Chloe responds by kissing Sawyer and telling him that she loves him too.

Afterward, they finally discuss the misunderstanding instead of allowing fear to speak for them. Sawyer explains why the pool incident frightened him, while Chloe admits that she assumed rejection before giving him the chance to explain himself.

They agree to face future difficulties together, and Sawyer asks Chloe to become his girlfriend openly rather than continuing an undefined relationship. Chloe accepts, giving their connection the commitment both had previously been too afraid to request.

Their professional lives continue to prosper as the Webflix partnership expands and Dog Tails becomes increasingly successful. Sawyer also stops hiding his musical identity, while Chloe becomes an enthusiastic supporter of his performances.

Eventually Sawyer asks Chloe and Captain to move into his house with him and Mister Dog. Chloe agrees, completing the transformation of Sawyer’s previously empty home into a shared life built around two people, two dogs, meaningful work, and the willingness to trust again.

Characters

Chloe Rivers

Chloe is the emotional and professional center of I’ve Got a Crush on You, and much of her development comes from learning to separate legitimate caution from fear created by her past. Her failed marriage to August has damaged both her finances and her faith in her own judgment, leaving her determined to protect the dog-training career she is building.

Her most noticeable quality is her energy. Chloe is funny, spontaneous, socially confident, sexually direct, and willing to turn embarrassing situations into jokes, yet that outward boldness coexists with significant insecurity when emotional commitment is involved.

Her professional development is equally important. Being falsely blamed and fired initially places her in a vulnerable position, but she responds by investing seriously in dog training and gradually proves that she has the knowledge, patience, and adaptability required to succeed.

Chloe’s relationship with dogs also reveals her temperament. Her approach depends on understanding behavior rather than punishing it, and that instinct often mirrors the emotional lesson she must eventually apply to people: behavior usually has a reason, and assumptions are less useful than communication.

Her greatest weakness is anticipatory fear. Because August mixed romance with professional betrayal, Chloe often assumes that protecting her career requires keeping emotional relationships separate from work, even when the person in front of her behaves nothing like her former husband.

Her growth becomes clear when she accepts that avoiding vulnerability is itself a choice with consequences. By admitting her love for Sawyer and taking responsibility for her part in their misunderstanding, Chloe stops allowing an old relationship to control the possibilities of a new one.

Sawyer Dumont

Sawyer functions as Chloe’s romantic counterpart and the other central figure in I’ve Got a Crush on You. He initially presents himself as disciplined, practical, ambitious, and somewhat severe, but the book gradually reveals that his seriousness is partly genuine and partly a defense mechanism.

Katya’s affair damaged Sawyer’s ability to trust his own emotional judgment. When Chloe unexpectedly appears at Dog Tails, his immediate suspicion that she intentionally tracked him down shows how thoroughly betrayal has conditioned him to expect hidden motives.

His mistake is significant because Sawyer is otherwise thoughtful and highly observant. He notices Chloe’s broken car doors, remembers her favorite foods, supports her business ambitions, handles practical difficulties without making a performance of his generosity, and repeatedly demonstrates affection through action.

The contrast between Sawyer Dumont and Sam Silversmith is central to understanding him. Karaoke allows Sawyer to express the playful, theatrical, impulsive side that his obsession with control and professionalism normally suppresses.

His relationship with Chloe gradually removes the need for such rigid separation. She does not merely tolerate the performer hidden beneath the businessman; she actively celebrates him, making Sawyer feel that he can be responsible without becoming emotionally restricted.

Sawyer’s central flaw is his belief that control can protect him from emotional injury. His development requires accepting that good leadership, romantic commitment, ambition, humor, sexuality, and vulnerability do not have to occupy separate parts of his life.

August

August represents the damaging influence of Chloe’s past and provides a strong contrast with Sawyer. His marriage to Chloe began impulsively, but its consequences remain serious because his later behavior leaves her questioning both her professional security and her ability to choose trustworthy partners.

His decision to manipulate project records and allow Chloe to take responsibility for the balloon disaster shows a willingness to protect himself at her expense. This is more damaging than an ordinary failed relationship because it combines emotional betrayal with a direct attack on her livelihood.

August also demonstrates entitlement when he later tries to use Chloe’s growing connection with Webflix for his own advantage. Instead of acknowledging that she has succeeded independently, he attempts to insert himself into the professional opportunities she created.

His insinuation that Chloe advances because of the men around her exposes the insecurity beneath his confidence. He repeatedly minimizes her competence because recognizing it would require acknowledging how badly he treated someone who did not need him in order to succeed.

Katya

Katya is largely absent from the present action, yet her influence on Sawyer is substantial. Her affair shortly before their wedding transforms his understanding of trust and leaves him suspicious of emotional dependence.

Her later suggestion that Sawyer contributed to the breakdown because she felt lonely makes the wound more complicated. Sawyer does not only fear being betrayed again; he worries that he might fail a partner without realizing it.

This helps explain why he takes Chloe’s happiness and ambitions so seriously. He pays attention because he never wants to discover afterward that somebody beside him felt ignored, even though his effort to avoid repeating the past sometimes turns into excessive self-monitoring.

Katya therefore functions less as an active antagonist than as the memory Sawyer must stop allowing to define new relationships. His development depends on recognizing that Chloe’s behavior should be judged on its own terms rather than through expectations created by Katya.

Ripley

Ripley is one of Chloe’s closest friends and an important source of emotional grounding. She gives Chloe space to complain and express anger while still refusing to encourage choices that would damage Chloe’s professional future.

Her strongest quality is practical loyalty. When Sawyer wrongly accuses Chloe of pursuing him, Ripley is immediately prepared to defend her, but she also reminds Chloe that surrendering valuable training space out of anger would only hurt Chloe herself.

Later, Ripley becomes especially important during Chloe’s misunderstanding with Sawyer. Instead of automatically validating Chloe’s belief that she was rejected, she helps reconstruct what Sawyer actually said and exposes the difference between observable facts and Chloe’s fear-driven interpretation.

Her friendship is valuable because it contains both support and resistance. Ripley cares enough about Chloe to challenge her rather than simply agreeing with whatever version of events feels most comforting.

Bridget

Bridget shares Ripley’s role as part of Chloe’s trusted emotional circle. She provides encouragement during Chloe’s romantic adventures but also participates in the practical safety precautions surrounding Chloe’s first night with Sawyer.

Her importance becomes clearer when Chloe’s relationship grows more serious. Bridget helps create a friendship environment where Chloe can admit uncertainty without being mocked for changing her mind about casual relationships, workplace romance, or love.

Alongside Ripley, she refuses to let Chloe turn fear into certainty after the pool incident. Her presence reinforces the book’s portrayal of friendship as a source of accountability as well as comfort.

Juliet

Juliet is Sawyer’s sister and an early force behind his connection with Chloe. She recognizes that Sawyer has become emotionally closed after the failure of his engagement and refuses to let him spend all his time hiding inside work.

Her matchmaking at Bagel’s party is playful but purposeful. By introducing Sawyer and Chloe and making their availability obvious, she creates the opportunity Sawyer would probably never have created for himself.

Juliet also represents Sawyer’s family support system. Her willingness to tease him is balanced by genuine concern, suggesting that the people closest to Sawyer already understand that his severe self-discipline is not the whole of his personality.

Banks

Banks serves as Sawyer’s friend, confidant, and informal reality check. Sawyer often explains his concerns to him during runs, allowing Banks to recognize feelings that Sawyer himself keeps attempting to rationalize away.

Banks sees particularly clearly that Sawyer’s attachment to Chloe has moved beyond physical attraction. When Sawyer begins speaking about Captain as though the dog already occupies a place in his life, Banks identifies the domestic future Sawyer is imagining before Sawyer is ready to admit it.

His advice about adopting a rescue dog is also meaningful. Banks encourages Sawyer to choose the life he genuinely wants instead of structuring every decision around avoiding another emotional loss.

Karen

Karen, Chloe’s mother, is theatrical, energetic, persuasive, and deeply involved in community life. Her tendency to treat performance emergencies as major crises creates humor, but she is also a meaningful influence on Chloe’s confidence.

When Chloe prepares for the Webflix opportunity, Karen encourages her not simply to describe her abilities but to demonstrate them. That advice helps Chloe approach the meeting as an active audition rather than a passive interview.

Karen’s eventual acceptance of Angelo’s proposal also provides a secondary example of love requiring timing rather than perfection. Her relationship shows that commitment can arrive after hesitation without becoming less genuine.

Angelo

Angelo is Chloe’s father and a stabilizing presence connected to dance, performance, and family. His instruction becomes especially important when Sawyer must learn the waltz for the fundraiser.

Rather than encouraging Sawyer to obsess over technical precision, Angelo tells him to focus on dancing with his partner. The lesson applies beyond choreography because Sawyer’s larger problem is also his tendency to think so much about rules and consequences that he forgets to participate naturally in his own life.

Angelo’s repeated proposals to Karen add humor while also demonstrating persistence without bitterness. When she finally accepts, their relationship becomes another example of people reaching commitment in their own time.

Florence Faye

Florence is Chloe’s celebrity client and one of the people indirectly responsible for changing the direction of her life. Her extravagant celebration for Bagel creates the setting where Chloe and Sawyer first meet.

Although Chloe initially attends hoping to network, Florence insists she enjoy herself rather than treating every social event as a business opportunity. Ironically, that forced break from professional calculation eventually produces both an important romantic connection and a chain of career opportunities.

Florence also establishes Chloe’s credibility as a trainer. Her trust in Chloe helps open doors to other high-profile clients who later become important to Chloe’s growing business.

Veronica Angel

Veronica first becomes important because Shortcake accidentally knocks Chloe into the lake. What begins as a comic accident eventually becomes a major professional opportunity when Veronica hires Chloe to train the unruly Mastiff.

Her satisfaction with Chloe’s work generates valuable referrals and helps transform dog training from a side business into a sustainable career. Veronica therefore occupies an important position in Chloe’s transition from uncertainty to professional independence.

Later, Veronica’s problem involving Shortcake and Javier also gives Chloe and Sawyer an opportunity to work together in a more personal setting. Her immediate recognition of their chemistry shows how obvious their attachment has become to everyone except the two people still trying to define it.

Shortcake

Shortcake is the large Mastiff whose uncontrolled enthusiasm knocks Chloe into the lake. Although an animal, the dog has a surprisingly important role because this accident helps move Chloe and Sawyer from flirtation into spending the rest of the evening together.

Shortcake later becomes evidence of Chloe’s professional ability. By successfully improving the dog’s behavior and understanding the insecurity behind his reactions to Javier, Chloe demonstrates that effective training depends on interpretation, patience, and positive reinforcement.

The dog therefore operates as more than comic disruption. Shortcake repeatedly creates situations that expose hidden emotional or professional possibilities.

Captain

Captain is Chloe’s dog and one of her closest companions. He is central to her identity as a trainer and frequently serves as proof of her skill, particularly during the Webflix audition.

Captain also functions as an informal judge of Sawyer’s place in Chloe’s life. Sawyer’s affection for him grows naturally, and his willingness to walk, train, and care for Captain makes his relationship with Chloe increasingly resemble a shared domestic life.

When Sawyer begins imagining Captain in his home and fenced yard, the dog becomes a marker of commitment that Sawyer has not yet expressed verbally. Captain carrying a rose during Sawyer’s declaration of love completes that symbolic role.

Mister Dog

Mister Dog is the older rescue animal Sawyer eventually adopts. His arrival marks a significant stage in Sawyer’s emotional recovery because adopting him means choosing lasting responsibility and companionship rather than continuing to live as though attachment itself is dangerous.

Sawyer’s careful preparation for the older dog’s needs reveals his gentleness. He does not choose a dog for appearance or novelty; he responds to an animal that has experienced loss and needs a secure new home.

Mister Dog also helps complete the domestic image formed around Sawyer, Chloe, Captain, and their shared future. By the end, the two dogs are not accessories to the romance but members of the family the couple has chosen to build.

Zuri

Zuri manages the reopened Darling Springs Dog Tails location and provides Chloe with an affordable place from which to operate her training business. Her decision gives Chloe the practical foundation she needs at a critical stage of professional growth.

She also helps normalize Chloe’s presence at Dog Tails after Sawyer’s disastrous accusation. By treating Chloe’s pastries and workplace contribution as obviously genuine, Zuri unintentionally forces Sawyer to recognize how unreasonable his assumptions were.

Zuri represents the cooperative workplace culture that Sawyer gradually learns to appreciate. Dog Tails succeeds not merely because of Sawyer’s management but because capable people around him contribute their own judgment and warmth.

Mayor Linus Wong

Mayor Linus Wong acts as a bridge between Darling Springs and the Webflix production. His announcement about the production creates the opportunity that eventually changes both Chloe’s and Sawyer’s businesses.

He also provides access without deciding the outcome for them. Chloe still has to demonstrate her skills, and Sawyer still has to present Dog Tails as a practical filming location.

Linus therefore supports the story’s emphasis on opportunity meeting preparation. Connections can open a door, but Chloe and Sawyer must prove that they belong on the other side of it.

Alexandra Bourbon

Alexandra is the Webflix producer whose decisions carry major professional consequences for Chloe and Sawyer. Her difficult-to-read demeanor makes their initial pitch stressful because neither can tell whether their presentation has succeeded.

She judges them primarily by results. Chloe’s training ability and Sawyer’s logistical planning earn her confidence, while August’s attempt to gain access through opportunism does not.

Her reaction to the viral pool incident also challenges Sawyer’s rigid assumptions about professional failure. What he interprets as a catastrophe becomes a commercial opportunity, proving that competent leadership sometimes requires adaptation rather than absolute control.

Jubilee

Jubilee is the celebrity dog associated with the Webflix production. Her carefully managed image initially makes her seem like an animal who must remain pristine and controlled at all times.

The pool incident reveals something much simpler beneath that polished presentation: Jubilee enjoys chasing tennis balls and swimming like an ordinary dog. Her spontaneous happiness transforms Sawyer’s feared professional disaster into a viral success.

Jubilee therefore contributes to one of the story’s recurring ideas about hidden identities. Like Sawyer, she is expected to maintain a particular image, yet breaking that image unexpectedly creates joy and opportunity.

Hallie

Hallie initially appears as Chloe’s professional competitor for the Webflix training position. Her presence outside the producer meeting intensifies Chloe’s insecurity because she seems more experienced and equally prepared.

Later, Hallie’s decision to accompany August in another attempt to gain Webflix business positions her as a contrast to Chloe. Chloe earns her place through successful work and relationships built over time, while Hallie’s later strategy is connected to somebody trying to insert himself into an opportunity created by others.

She is not developed as a major villain, but her presence increases the competitive pressure surrounding Chloe’s growing career.

Phineas Fitzburger

Phineas is August’s father and Chloe’s former employer. His refusal to believe Chloe’s account of the balloon disaster demonstrates the unfair power structure she faces at the beginning of the story.

By trusting the version of events that protects his son, Phineas participates in Chloe’s professional mistreatment even if he is not personally responsible for the sabotage. His decision forces Chloe away from an unstable workplace and unintentionally pushes her toward building something independently.

Esmeralda

Esmeralda is the bartender who notices the chemistry between Chloe and Sawyer during one of their supposed business meetings. Her observations add humor because the pair continue attempting to describe their connection as something less intimate than it obviously appears to outsiders.

She functions as a social observer who reflects back what Chloe and Sawyer are refusing to acknowledge. Their attraction has become visible long before they are prepared to define it.

Saffron Morgan

Saffron Morgan is one of Chloe’s high-profile clients and helps demonstrate the growing credibility of Chloe’s training business. Her presence at Dog Tails shows that Chloe is increasingly trusted by people whose privacy and pets require professional handling.

Saffron’s participation in the local fundraiser also connects Chloe’s business life with the broader Darling Springs community. She helps show how Chloe’s expanding professional identity is becoming integrated into the town rather than existing as an isolated ambition.

Ava Hartley

Ava Hartley is another celebrity client whose arrival reinforces Chloe’s growing professional reputation. Sawyer’s response to Ava and the other high-profile visitors also reveals his ability to maintain discretion and manage staff expectations.

Her role is relatively small, but she helps establish that Chloe’s success is not based on one lucky client. Multiple people are willing to trust her skills and recommend her services.

Poorna

Poorna is the director involved in the Webflix filming at Dog Tails. Her approval of Chloe’s work during the shoot gives Chloe professional validation at a moment when she is still establishing herself in a demanding new environment.

When the dogs perform successfully and production finishes efficiently, Poorna’s response confirms that Chloe can deliver under real filming conditions rather than merely impressing people during an interview.

Poorna also notices Sawyer’s feelings for Chloe, reinforcing the increasingly obvious gap between the couple’s attempts at discretion and the way they behave around one another.

Noah

Noah is connected to the community fundraiser and becomes unexpectedly important when an accident leaves him unable to perform the closing song. His injury creates the opening that pushes Sawyer’s private singing life into the public world of Darling Springs.

Although Noah himself has limited development, the consequences of his accident become significant. Without his absence, Chloe might never have had the reason to persuade Sawyer to sing publicly, and Sawyer might have continued separating Sam Silversmith from the rest of his identity.

Ian

Ian is a skilled British dancer whose interactions with Chloe expose Sawyer’s jealousy. Sawyer has spent significant time insisting that his relationship with Chloe is casual or professionally dangerous, but watching another man touch her makes those claims increasingly impossible to maintain.

Ian therefore operates mainly as a catalyst. He does not seriously threaten Chloe and Sawyer’s relationship, but his presence forces Sawyer to confront how emotionally invested he has become.

Javier

Javier is Veronica’s new boyfriend and the source of Shortcake’s insecurity. The dog’s behavior around him gives Chloe an opportunity to explain that disruptive behavior can come from fear of replacement rather than simple disobedience.

His role is brief but thematically useful. The situation reflects the human relationships around it, where insecurity can also produce irrational reactions unless the underlying fear is understood.

Dottie

Dottie is a comic supporting figure associated with the Horny House. Chloe turns to her when an impulsive evening with Sawyer creates an immediate practical problem, and Dottie’s presence contributes to the story’s uninhibited romantic-comedy tone.

She exists mainly to keep an awkward situation funny rather than emotionally heavy. Her involvement also matches Chloe’s tendency to solve problems directly once she decides what she wants.

Bagel

Bagel is Florence Faye’s dog and the reason the elaborate party where Chloe meets Sawyer takes place. The celebration surrounding Bagel provides the unlikely environment in which two people having terrible days encounter each other.

Although Bagel has little direct influence afterward, the dog occupies an important position in the chain of coincidences that launches the central relationship.

Sawyer’s Father

Sawyer’s father initially exists in Sawyer’s mind as a symbol of discipline, professional expectations, and high standards. Sawyer assumes that his father disapproved of his decision to leave management consulting and worries that personal mistakes prove he has failed those standards.

Their later conversation reveals how inaccurate that interpretation is. His father explains that difficult questions were intended to help Sawyer examine his choices, not to prevent him from making them.

Most importantly, he gives Sawyer permission to abandon the idea that competence requires perfection. By encouraging him to treat relationship problems as problems capable adults can solve, he helps Sawyer accept both his love for Chloe and the fact that vulnerability does not erase professional credibility.

Themes

Trust After Betrayal

Trust in I’ve Got a Crush on You is presented as something that cannot be restored simply because a new person behaves well. Chloe and Sawyer both carry emotional habits formed by previous partners, and those habits repeatedly influence situations that have little to do with August or Katya.

Sawyer’s first reaction to finding Chloe at Dog Tails demonstrates how betrayal can distort interpretation. Instead of beginning with the most ordinary explanation, he constructs an elaborate theory in which Chloe secretly researched and followed him because Katya’s behavior has trained him to look for deception.

Chloe’s fear operates differently but produces similar results. August taught her that romantic and professional dependence can become dangerous, so she repeatedly treats emotional distance from Sawyer as a form of career protection.

Neither character is unreasonable for remembering what happened to them. Their problem begins when memory becomes prediction and they start treating a new person as though past behavior has already repeated itself.

The pool misunderstanding brings this pattern to its clearest point. Sawyer assumes one impulsive mistake may destroy everything professionally, while Chloe assumes his hesitation must mean romantic abandonment.

Their eventual reconciliation requires more than declarations of love. Both have to recognize that trust involves allowing another person to explain themselves before fear supplies an answer, making communication the practical expression of the trust they are trying to rebuild.

Vulnerability and the Need for Control

Sawyer’s devotion to control appears respectable because it is attached to responsibility, professionalism, and ambition. Yet the story gradually shows that control can become a method of emotional avoidance when every unpredictable feeling is treated as a threat.

His carefully separated identities make this conflict visible. Sawyer the businessman is disciplined and controlled, while Sam Silversmith sings, performs, dresses differently, and enjoys being watched without carrying the same burden of expectation.

The problem is not that one identity is false. Both are genuine parts of Sawyer, but keeping them separate allows him to avoid the vulnerability of letting the people closest to him see the whole person.

Chloe challenges this division because she enjoys his serious qualities without demanding that he remain serious. Her excitement about Sam Silversmith makes Sawyer realize that revealing a less controlled part of himself does not automatically reduce people’s respect for him.

Chloe has her own form of control. She repeatedly tries to define intimacy as temporary because a one-night encounter creates fewer emotional variables than an acknowledged relationship.

Both ultimately discover that control cannot eliminate emotional risk. What it can eliminate is the possibility of being fully known, and their relationship only becomes stable when they accept uncertainty as part of choosing another person.

Professional Ambition and Romantic Partnership

Chloe’s career is never treated as an obstacle that must be sacrificed for romance. Her desire to build a successful dog-training business remains central throughout the story, making the quality of Sawyer’s support especially important.

August provides the negative model. His behavior damages Chloe professionally, manipulates responsibility, and eventually reduces her achievements by suggesting they result from access to useful men rather than her own abilities.

Sawyer offers a very different partnership. When they pitch Webflix together, he deliberately avoids taking control of Chloe’s opportunity, using his business experience to strengthen her presentation rather than replacing her voice.

This distinction matters because Chloe’s fear of workplace romance is not irrational. She has already experienced what happens when professional security becomes vulnerable to a partner’s selfishness.

The story therefore does not resolve the conflict by claiming that work and romance never create complications. Chloe and Sawyer experience jealousy, secrecy, misunderstandings, and moments when personal emotions affect professional decisions.

What changes is their willingness to treat those problems as manageable rather than fatal. A healthy partnership is shown not as the absence of competing ambitions but as a relationship in which each person’s success is taken seriously and neither must become smaller for the other to feel secure.

Identity, Home, and Belonging

The idea of home changes significantly for both central characters. Sawyer arrives in Darling Springs believing that a new town, a new business location, and a new house will allow him to leave his old life behind, but his carefully furnished house initially feels impersonal and empty.

Physical relocation cannot create belonging by itself. The house begins to feel different only after Chloe and Captain enter it, Sawyer adopts Mister Dog, and ordinary routines start accumulating inside the space.

A similar process occurs with Sawyer’s identity. Sam Silversmith begins as a secret version of himself reserved for strangers because anonymity allows him to experience freedom without exposing that freedom to people whose opinions matter.

By publicly performing at the fundraiser, Sawyer stops treating belonging as something that requires carefully managing which version of himself everyone is permitted to see. His family, coworkers, friends, musical life, relationship, and business can finally exist in the same world.

Chloe experiences belonging through professional confidence as well. Darling Springs changes from the place where she is publicly embarrassed and unfairly fired into the community where she builds a business, earns respect, contributes to local events, and forms a shared life.

The final image of Chloe, Sawyer, Captain, and Mister Dog turns home into something relational rather than architectural. Belonging comes from being accepted fully, choosing to remain present, and building everyday life with people and animals who make that choice mutual.