Luxe Glamour (The Glamour Series Book 5) (20 page)

Sophia’s bottom lip trembled. She lifted her hand the slightest bit as though she considered petting Drummond, but instead she pulled her hand through her hair and tossed her locks over her shoulder. Her features changed. A mask. A hard mask of no emotion suddenly covered her fear, but I saw the fear that lingered in her eyes.

“Great,” Charlie said. “Now walk him over to Tessa and Trick.”

Drummond hobbled on his three legs to the exam table, keeping his weight off his cast. The distance was maybe four feet. Once he got to us he turned to Sophia. He jumped up onto her. His front two feet planted just above her waist.

“Ahh!” Sophia yelled. Her eyes widened and she pulled up her hands to her face to protect herself from Drummond.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” I said and hustled toward Drummond. “He’s a good boy. He won’t hurt you.”

Sophia’s breathing was erratic and her eyes were wild with terror. I took the lead and Drummond continued to wag his tail. A tiny whine came from his throat. He looked at me as though he couldn’t understand why Sophia wouldn’t love him. He’d given her all the doggie signs that he wanted to be friends.

“Good boy. Get down buddy. Good boy.” He dropped to three of his four paws, the fourth made a loud tap because of the plastic and the cast. I bent over and picked up Drummond. Sophia scurried over toward the cabinets and the sink behind Doc and away from the exam table. She placed both hands on the counter and faced away from the cameras so that they couldn’t see her face. My gaze flicked toward Charlie as I set Drummond onto the table and Tessa moved forward to examine him.

There was a wicked smile on Charlie’s face. I was pretty certain at least one of the cameras in the room had zoomed in on Sophia. Damn. I was pretty certain what the story line would be. I glanced at Sophia over my shoulder. She took long deep breaths. She turned back toward the exam table and moved to the other side of Doc.

“Okay,” Doc said. “Let’s see how Drummond is doing.” Tessa gave Sophia a smile. “The break was clean and he had no internal injuries. I know you felt bad. I’ve heard you talk about it, but you know what, Sophia?”

Sophia glanced at Tessa and shook her head.

“He is going to be 100%, okay? He’s going to have full use of that leg. A happy happy dog with a new home.” Tessa put her arm around Sophia and pulled her close. “Okay?”

Sophia nodded. Her lips trembled and her eyes shone. Her bottom lip started to quiver. “Okay,” she said, her voice wavering with emotion.

“Okay,” Tessa said. “Now let’s get this cast off Drummond.”

Good TV? Yeah. Hard to take? Definitely. I was pretty sure that Charlie Slam was going to make Sophia pay the entire time his camera’s rolled.

Sophia

“Okay, people, that’s it for today,” Charlie called from his video monitor. “Nice job, Sophia.”

I pulled a golden colored retriever mix puppy onto my lap. Five others squirmed around my thighs with their giant puppy paws. Their tiny little teeth nippy, but sweet.

I wasn’t scared. Not a bit. I’d spent the last four weeks, since the crew arrived, either in Puppyville or scooping poop. They’d gotten shots of me on the second day of filming cowering when Charlie scheduled me to walk a Great Dane. I heard that those shots, with my terrified face, were scheduled for the opening credits and the first episode.

“Trick, can I talk to you for a minute?” Charlie asked.

I pulled my gaze from Blaze, the puppy-momma who had just lain down to let her babies nurse. I caught Trick’s eye.

What did Charlie want? Trick’s and my “relationship” was meant to be a secret, but after some close calls and some prying eyes catching us making out in darkened doorways, I was pretty sure everyone on set knew about me and Trick. We hadn’t fooled Choo for even one day. He’d been on me the morning after my first night with Trick.

And Angie? She pretended not to know, at least with me. I didn’t know what she and Trick discussed because, well, Trick and I didn’t discuss it. Our “relationship.” The
us
of it all. That worked for me because I had no intention of becoming involved with Trick. 

I stood and wiped my palms over the back of my jeans. It was time to walk Estrella. She’d been staying with me at Trick’s. Neither Estrella nor I were staying where we were meant to stay. I’d given up residence in the Volunteer Bungalow to the film crew, and Estrella was being fostered at Trick’s house. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on at Trick’s place.

On my way out the front door of Puppyville, I passed Trick and Charlie and neither of them looked my way.

“Hey, Sophia!” I turned to the voice. Mary from administration, with her light brown hair and thick hips, hustled down the front steps and toward me.

My heart clenched. I knew. I knew what Mary wanted before she covered the ten feet that separated us, I knew before the words came from her mouth, I knew before she stopped in front of me wearing her Pawtown T-shirt and baggy khaki pants. 

“Hey, Sophia.” A soft smile pulled at the edges of her lips. She pressed her palms together in front of her chest. “Listen, there’s a family who’d like to come and meet Estrella.”

I kept a smile on my face, but my chest tightened. Estrella? A family for
my
Estrella? “Okay.” I nodded and my gaze slid in the direction of Trick’s bungalow, where Estrella waited for me and the walk we would take together.

I looked back at Mary. “This weekend?” A tiny hint of hope echoed in my voice, even I heard it. Pathetic. I was pathetic, of course. Estrella deserved her forever home and I wasn’t the person who could give it to her.

“Actually, they’re coming out this evening. Arriving around seven. Jill said she had time to give her a bath and a quick trim if you bring her by grooming this afternoon.”

“You mean this evening, like tonight?” My throat thickened around my words and heat clawed up the back of my throat. “But they won’t
take
her tonight, will they?”

“Well?” Mary pulled on her hands. “They could. But I think they want to do an overnight with her at the motel in town.” Mary backed away from me slowly. “Why don’t you take her for her walk and then take her over to grooming? Jill will be waiting. Okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.” A buzzing sound echoed in my ears and a numb feeling tingled through my mind.

“You can meet them if you want. They’ve got two little girls.”

My heart lifted a little. Girls. Two of them. Estrella would like that. She loved it when we had school kids as volunteers, or school tours of Pawtown. Mary hurried back toward the administration building. I turned toward Trick’s bungalow on the other side of Pawtown. My heart hurt. But I was being selfish. This might be the perfect family, the perfect home, the perfect fit for Estrella, and all I could think about was how I didn’t want her to go.

I couldn’t offer her a forever home. With my Q score still recovering all I could offer Estrella was a kennel, overnight boarding, and a few nights in Los Angeles with me a couple times a month. Not a good life for a dog. Not the kind of life that would make Estrella happy. Little girls with a yard? Yeah, that would be a good life, a great life for Estrella. So why did I feel so damned bad?

My phone beeped and I pulled it from my pocket. Of course. My twin had a sixth sense about when I was down and she always seemed to call at just those moments.

“Hey.”

“Well hello to you, too. You sound a little down.”

I pulled in a long breath. Ellen hadn’t done anything but have the misfortune of calling me when I was upset. Blasting her over the phone because of my own bad mood served no purpose but to relieve my own stress. “I’m sorry. I just … I got some news.”

Ellen paused as though my rational words were not what she expected. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Well I have some news that might cheer you up.”

I walked up the porch steps of Trick’s bungalow. “Give it a try.” I opened the door. Trick’s pack of squirming dogs writhed around my legs. I took another deep breath. I was getting used to these beasts wiggling and jumping when I entered his house. Each time I walked in my fear lessened and being alone with his pack became easier, but still, walking through a huddle of five dogs hadn’t yet become easy. Estrella sat patiently at the edge of the pack, her tail thumping the floor.

My heart broke.

My Estrella.

“Beverley called.”

“Beverley? My booking agent?”

“Well, her assistant. It seems she’s been trying to reach you.”

“No, she has
not
been trying to reach me because I haven’t gotten any calls.” I grabbed Estrella’s leash from the hook beside the front door. “I would have noticed a call from Beverley.”

“You’re right,” Ellen said. “But she’s been calling our landline and I haven’t been home.”

“Ellen,” I whined. “I asked you to check the messages.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. But why wouldn’t she just call your cell? Anyway, they have news for you.”

My heart stopped in my chest. “News? What kind of news?”

“She’s going to call you today. She says you’ll be thrilled.”

“Oh my God!” I bounced and the pack of dogs bounced around me. Domingo barked.

“Are those dogs I hear?” Ellen asked.

“Pawtown has got lots of dogs here.”

“Right, I know”—Ellen paused—“I guess I don’t
really
know. I just never expected you to be comfortable in a place like that.”

“I’m getting ready to walk one of them right now.”

“Shut up!” Ellen said. Shock filled her voice. “You’re not scared of them anymore?”

I walked over to Estrella and petted her head. “I’m getting better about it.” The cold edges of fear still fluttered around my belly on occasion. Especially when I saw a red collar pup coming toward me. Those dogs were biters. Some of them were convicted dog-killers. I kept away from that building at Pawtown. “I still get a little anxious sometimes.”

“Only a
little
anxious? That’s so much better. Then you’ll be excited to see Carl. He’s gotten so much bigger.”

A trail of melancholy tricked through my chest. Estrella’s big brown eyes stared at me and her tail continued to wag. If Ellen could have a dog, why couldn’t I? I sighed. Because unless Ellen was in class she was home studying. Once Ellen adopted Carl she’d reallocated her ten hours a day of study time to the condo. Lucky me. Actually, not long after she adopted Carl I’d left for Pawtown, so it was probably good that Ellen had Carl to keep her company.

Estrella sat on her hind feet and whined. “Okay. I have to go. I have to go right now. I’ll call you once I hear what’s going on with Beverley.” Ellen said bye and I disconnected the call. I snapped the green leash to Estrella’s collar and hustled her out the front door.

Please let there be an offer for me for Paris Fashion Week. Please let this damned penance at Pawtown have been enough to get my career restarted. Let all the poop I’d scooped be for a reason. Let these last months and all the humiliating pictures and YouTube videos have fixed my image problem so that I could work again.

My Twitter followers seemed happier, and most of them were again writing kind and supportive comments instead of the dog-killer comments that I’d been getting before my arrival at Pawtown. They adored me for being at Pawtown. Besides, I never killed a dog. Drummond was doing awesome. He was out of his cast and Mary had told me there was a couple coming by to see him next week.

But what about Estrella? The corners of my lips pulled down. I pressed my hand over her head. She trotted close to me and bumped my palm with her nose. Estrella was my buddy. A lump formed in my throat. We walked toward the outdoor doggie run. Like a storm cloud in the distance, Trick bore down on us. His face was creased and the easy smile I’d grown accustomed to wasn’t on his face. I stopped and waited for him.

“You look happy,” he growled, as though it were some kind of crime for me to smile.

“And you don’t. What’s the problem?” I kept walking and Trick fell into step beside me and Estrella.

“Seems my personal life is about to go public.”

“You mean us?” I opened the metal gate that led to the off-leash area. “No surprise there. We haven’t been very discreet.” I shut the gate and pushed in the latch. 

“Not exactly.” Trick placed his hands on his hips and surveyed the distance where the pine-tree-dotted landscape met the blue sky. “Seems Charlie wants to add a bit of drama to the show.”

I unhooked Estrella’s leash and she darted toward the far fence where a tennis ball laid waiting for a happy pup to play fetch.

“My fears about dogs aren’t enough drama for the show?”

“It would seem not, especially since you’re recovering quite nicely from your phobia.”

Estrella dropped the bright yellow ball at my feet and I scooped it up and threw it. The years of softball Daddy had forced me to play came in handy when I was playing with the dogs. Estrella took off and zipped across the patches of grass and sand.

“What’s he got planned? I’m surprised he even told you.” Charlie liked surprises—they were good for ratings. I’d found that out day one when I’d rounded a corner and had been greeted by the Great Dane named Bull. Charlie knew I was afraid of dogs. He used it to get a good shot for the show. I wanted to kill the bastard for scaring the hell out of me, but then the photo of my horrified face hit Twitter, thanks to Choo, and that was the day that my Q Score started to rebound.

“He didn’t tell me the exact surprise, he simply mentioned there was something coming that might be”—Trick paused and shook his head. He looked off into the distance—“unpleasant.”

I didn’t like the sound of this. What would be unpleasant for a former teenage heartthrob? There were so many possibilities. With Trick’s past it could be … a cool sweat covered my palms and I had a feeling I knew. Girls. Most likely girls. Lots of beautiful girls. Estrella grabbed the ball and bounded back toward us. So the fuck what? Trick wasn’t my guy. We weren’t dating. We were having casual sex. Fun sex. We were friends with benefits. So why exactly did this feeling in my belly make me feel as though I might vomit?