Luxe Glamour (The Glamour Series Book 5) (11 page)

I cleared my throat to try and interrupt the love-fest between Trick and Austin. “I’m nearly finished. One and two are done. Could you give me thirty more minutes to do the runs in three and four?”

“You’ve got plenty of time. I don’t think any of the residents of A Dog’s Life will be back for another forty-five minutes.”

Here at Pawtown every kennel building had its own special name, a play on famous films. Way too cutesy for me. I crossed my arms over my chest. My heart hammered and my breath was short, but there was no reason I had to tell Trick just how terrified I was of Austin. 

Trick walked closer. “Want us to stay? You could throw the ball to him.” 

I took two steps back and my shoulders brushed against the rough warm wall. “I’m sure he gets plenty of exercise with you. Besides I still have two kennels to complete.” I turned toward the door and rolled my bucket in front of me.

“How are you liking it so far?”

I turned back toward Trick. “Seriously?” Even though Trick was good-looking and he caused a thrill to rush through my body, that didn’t mean I was happy with him. Pawtown was half his, so any scapegoat work that I was assigned to do was because of him, too. Trick nodded.

“This job sucks.”

His head jerked back. An eyebrow cocked upward, like he was surprised by my bluntness. Fine, be surprised. My job did suck.

“I think I’m being punished for disliking dogs.”

The beast beside Trick lay down, as if to prove that I must be insane for disliking a creature so obedient and loyal.

The corner of Trick’s mouth curled up and he tilted his head to the side. “I’ll admit that you’re pretty much alone with that opinion here at Pawtown.”

My gaze went beyond him toward the main administration building where I checked in each morning before I started my poop scooping and kennel scrubbing. I heard the titters and saw the unkind knowing looks from the permanent staff. While most people might think I was only a pretty face, I wasn’t stupid. Besides, when you looked like me you got used to people not liking you for no reason other than your face.

“So how much poop do I need to scoop before I reach payback?”

He shifted his weight and the muscle in his jaw flickered. A smile formed on his face. “That would be the boss’s decision.”

“By boss you mean your sister?”

“The one and only.”

Again my gaze drifted beyond Trick’s gorgeous face. “Then I’ve got a whole lot of shit to shovel.”

A loud laugh broke from his lips. Warmth blossomed in my chest. I couldn’t help but smile. My predicament at Pawtown was funny, in a sad sort of way, and I might seriously laugh if it was happening to any other runway model but me.

“Probably the truth.”

“So accidentally hitting Drummond is how I got on your sister’s shitlist?”

Trick shook his head. “That’s part of it, but nobody here, at least, thinks you hitting Drummond was intentional.”

I winced at his words. Yep, there were people on my Twitter feed who thought I’d run down Drummond on purpose. I might not like dogs, because I was scared of them, but I wasn’t a sociopath. I didn’t torture puppies or hurt cats. When I was a kid, I’d cried when my goldfish died. “So there’s something other than hitting Drummond? What did I ever do to your sister?” 

Trick lifted his shoulder and tilted his head. 

“You used the ‘C’ word.”

“C word? I don’t ever use the C word.”

“Not
that
C word.” Trick took a couple steps closer and my gaze went from him to the dog still lying at his feet. “Don’t worry, Austin won’t jump at you again.”

Trick was closer now. Close enough for me to see the scruff on his face, close enough to feel the heat pulsing off his skin, close enough for me to smell his outdoorsy scent, close enough to see the fine golden hairs on his forearms and wonder if there was a trail the same color that led down his abs to his—

“You called Angie a
cripple
.” Trick interrupted my thoughts of running my hands over his chest and abs.

My gaze jerked from his T-shirt to meet his eyes. “What? When?”

“You don’t remember? Wow. You must have been a complete mess at the fundraiser.”

Cripple? I’d called Angie a cripple? My mind raced through the memories of that day at the Pawtown Fundraiser. Telling Ellen she couldn’t adopt her dog—which she’d adopted anyway. Trying to take the mongrel back to the adoption table. Threatening to move out of the condo. Racing away toward the car …

Oh, no. I pressed my fingertips to my mouth. My gaze met Trick’s. Heat flamed up my neck and into my cheeks. “I did say that.”

“Yeah, Angie wouldn’t get that one wrong.”

“I was mad about Ellen and the dog she wanted to adopt and I told her to take the puppy back to the …” My words drifted away. I wouldn’t say it again. My heart tightened. I was horrified.

“I’m so, so sorry.”

“I’m not the one in the wheelchair,” Trick said. His tone held an edge. “There’s someone else you need to apologize to.”

Damn. Not what I wanted to do. Apologies weren’t really my thing and especially not to women who disliked me. Trick was right. If I ever wanted to get off poop-scoop duty I had to apologize. Plus, even I knew it was the right thing to do.

Trick backed away from me and gathered the extra length of leash around his hand. “I’ll let you get back to it.” 

I nodded and rolled my bucket toward the door. A trickle of cold sweat dripped down my back. I pressed my hand to my forehead. Wow. I was hot. I was cold. I was …

“Hey, Sophia? Are you okay?”

Trick’s voice sounded so far away, as if he’d climbed into a well. I nodded and pressed my palm against the warm wall. Just a second. I just needed a second. My jaw locked. A loud ring started in my ears. The dirt, the sand, the pebbles, the sun. Were they having an earthquake? I reached out to wave to Trick, to let him know I was fine. I would be fine. I was a Legend, I would do what I had to do. Then the earth shifted and jolted beneath my feet. The next thing I knew I felt tiny pebbles biting into my hands.

Trick

“You said we should make her clean the kennels for a week.”

“Right.” Angie rolled her chair closer to the examination table in the vet clinic. “But I didn’t know it would be this hot every day.” Her gaze traveled over Sophia. Angie might not like Sophia, but my sister had a giant soft spot in her heart for wounded things. And, I could see in the crease of Angie’s brow, and the tight line of her lips, that soft spot even included runway models who had insulted her.

Angie rolled back from the examination table and lowered her voice. “I don’t think she’s eaten since she arrived. At least that’s what Thelma tells me. Her plates keep coming back full of food. Unless she’s got a secret stash of power bars in the volunteer bungalow, then she’s not eating.” Angie sighed and turned her chair back toward the Pawtown vet who had her stethoscope pressed to Sophia’s chest. “How’s she seem, Doc?”

“I mean, I’m a vet, but she looks good to me. Her heart is strong and stable. Her pupils are responsive. This glucose IV ought to do the trick. You think she’ll be pissed she’s in a doggy hospital and not a real one?’

“A what?” Sophia opened her eyes and glanced around the room. She pulled herself up onto her elbows and panic raced through her eyes.

“It’s okay. You’re okay. You were dehydrated and you passed out in the heat.” I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder. My fingers tingled. Sophia’s eyes landed on my hand. Shit. Did she feel that too? Not good. Definitely not good. I was trouble when I got involved with women like Sophia. I pulled my fingers away from her skin.

Sophia squinted. “Am I in the dog clinic?” Her eyes swept the room and her mouth dropped open. Her gaze went past me and to the rows of cages where our sick pups recuperated.

“What the hell?” Sophia swung her legs off the examination table and started to stand. Her legs wobbled and she reached out and grabbed for the air. I grasped her hand and put my arm around her waist.

Oranges and mint. She smelled of oranges and mint and she was way too close to me.

“Oh, hey, no!” Tessa, our vet, called. She walked from where she’d been whispering to Angie in the back of the room. “I don’t think you’re quite ready for that.”

I held her tight to keep her from falling. Her lips were so close to mine. My heart stopped. Breath stalled in my chest. It was as though … deja vu? As though she was built to be in my arms and that I was built to hold her in mine. I backed her to the examination table and sat her down.

Angie shot Tessa a look that I chose to ignore. Okay, so this attraction was obvious to me, to my sister, to Doc, but was it obvious to Sophia? My gaze caught hers and she intentionally looked away from me. Maybe, maybe not. That attraction was instantaneous. I felt it the moment I held her.

Angie pulled a power bar from the black leather bag that hung from her chair. “Eat this.”

“Food disgusts me right now.” Sophia held out her hand to stop Angie from handing her the power bar. “I can’t get the smell of dog pee off my hands no matter how hard I scrub.”

And she had been scrubbing. Her hands were red and raw.

“I can fix that!” Tessa dipped her hand into a cardboard box next to the exam table and plucked out two latex gloves. “Put these on. It’ll get rid of the smell from your hands.”

Sophia’s lips tightened and the emotion in her eyes flattened out. “This is what my life has become? Eating power bars in a vet clinic because I accidentally hit a dog with my car?” She pulled one glove onto each hand and reached out toward Angie.

“Not because you hit the dog.” Angie said. “Because you drove away. Shows an absence of compassion. A character flaw.” Angie held out the power bar but then released it into Sophia’s hand.

“You don’t like me much,” Sophia said. “Have you always been mean to pretty girls? Or is it something new?”

I jerked my head back. Where was the repentant woman who felt badly about using the C word to describe Angie? Now Sophia was picking a fight? My sister might be wheelchair bound, but I didn’t ever take her on. Angie was unable to walk, but she was mighty and fierce.

Angie rolled closer to the exam table. Sophia took a bite of the power bar. They eyed each other like two wary bitches ready to war. 

“My dislike for you has nothing to do with the way you look. Girls like you? Beautiful? Entitled? You’re a dime a dozen in Los Angeles. My dislike for you has everything to do with how you treat people and animals. You’ve got a meanness in you, Sophia Legend, and if you weren’t related to one of my best friends there is no way I’d let you within three miles of Pawtown.” Angie eyed the power bar that Sophia held in her hand. “And, by the way, thank you, thank you are the words you’re looking for.”

Sophia’s face remained hard but something broke in her eyes, as though Angie had reached through and plucked at Sophia’s heart.

“Thank you,” Sophia said.

“Come to my office once you’re finished here.”

I followed Angie out of the clinic and into the sunlight.

“Damn.”

Angie turned her wheelchair toward me. “She’s scared.”

“Scared? Of what? She’s like an anaconda. What’s she got to be scared about?’

Angie shook her head from side to side. “I don’t know, but she’s putting up a front because she’s scared of something and I intend to find out what. I’m cooking tonight. Tofu piccata. Come by around six. I’m asking Sophia to come too.”

“Wow, Miss Mean has decided to lighten up on the model.”

“I don’t pick on people who are afraid. You know that. There’s something going on with her. I’m going to give her a little benefit of the doubt. Besides, she did a bang-up job cleaning kennels. Never once complained. I figure passing out qualifies as enough penance.”

Angie started to roll across the walkway toward her office in the administration building. “Besides,” she called. “I’m not the one with the problem when it comes to Sophia.” She spun her chair around in a near wheelie. “Don’t think for a minute we didn’t all see how attracted you are to little Miss Runway in there.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied. I forced my face to remain flat with no expression. I had been an actor, I could pull this off.

“Ha! Nice try, buddy. I
taught
you that facial expression. Not buying what you’re trying to sell. Just watch yourself, baby brother. A girl like that is your weakness. Beautiful and scared. You could get yourself into all kinds of trouble.” Angie spun her chair around and wheeled toward her office

My heart thudded in my chest. My big sister knew me too damn well.

Sophia

The afternoon was better than my morning had been. No pee, no poop, and no passing out. Angie’s office I could handle. The place was cramped and small and horribly decorated … which meant it
wasn’t
decorated aside from hundreds of pictures of animals getting their forever homes. Plus two cat trees. One in front of each window in her office. Cats I could handle. Cats I could pet. I walked over and stroked a good-looking fella with grey and black stripes.

“So you
do
like animals. Just not dogs.” Angie wheeled into her office. Beside her a black and brown dog sat when she stopped her wheelchair. Angie closed her office door. “This is Delilah, she’s part of my pack. She’s well trained and she likes people.” Angie looked straight into my eyes. “She won’t hurt you.”

My heart thumped against my ribs. That was not nearly enough reassurance for me. A muzzle on that dog’s snout wasn’t enough reassurance for me. My gaze bounced from Delilah to Angie. Did she know? Had she figured out my secret? I’d hidden my fear pretty well. Until today. But I didn’t pass out because of Austin. I passed out because I hadn’t eaten in days and I’d been working my ass off.

“How long have you been afraid of dogs?”

“I’m not
afraid
of dogs.” My gaze trailed from Angie to Delilah. She ambled across the office and settled into a big lump on the dog bed. No matter how sweet or gentle or well trained Delilah appeared to be, she still had teeth, like every dog. Big, long, sharp, teeth that hurt when they sank into your flesh. “I just don’t
like
dogs.” I tilted my head and glanced toward the cat tree filled with felines. “I prefer cats.”