His eyes raked over me quickly. “Trust me, Doc Barnes will not mind it one bit if you show up in your jammies,” he said, a flirty smile spreading on his face.
Crap. “Let me get a hoodie,” I mumbled, dashing back to my room.
When I got back to the living room, Trey had the puppies packed in their carrier, ready for me. “Oh, I should have done that while I waited for you,” I said, feeling even more like the worst pet parent that had ever lived.
“G? Shoes on. Let’s go, sweetie,” he said, his hand touching my arm in a sweet way.
My gaze floated down to my feet. “Right, shoes,” I said, then slid on my flip flops.
Then Trey took my hand and helped me lock the door, carry the puppies, and drive me to his friendly neighborhood veterinarian.
Once we got there, a snazzy sports car pulled up beside us in the parking lot. The building was on the smaller side. I guess you didn’t need a lot of space to tend to house pets.
The door to the car opened and out emerged one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen. Trey laughed at me and said, “Put your eyeballs back in their sockets, G.”
“That’s Dr. Barnes?” I asked, still not able to blink.
“Yep, that’s him. You need help getting out?” he asked, undoing his seat belt, and then pushing the button on mine.
“Nope.”
“I’ll grab the dogs,” he said, then folded out of the car.
The good doctor walked up to Trey. They shook hands and slapped arms. I hurried myself out of the car, following them as they headed toward the walkway.
“This is Gigi. Gigi, this is the gentle Doc Barnes,” Trey said with a smile. Dr. Barnes shot me a smile. Wow. He was already handsome. But when he smiled? Killer. The kind of dreamy, sultry grin that belonged on screen.
“Hi, Dr. Barnes,” I said, suddenly feeling extremely self conscious.
“Gigi, nice to meet you,” he said, searching through his keys. “Let me open the place up, then we can take a look at the little critter.” Then he did just that.
Before I knew it, we were in an exam room. Trey was holding the boy puppy and the doctor grabbed some instruments while he asked questions.
“What exactly did he get into?”
“Uh, my tampons. A box of unused ones,” I said, pulling one out of my pocket to show him. “I brought a packaged one to show you in case you needed to know the brand or something.” Oh my gosh, what did I just say?
Trey snorted, chuckling with the puppy in his hands. “Sorry, G. Swear to God, I tried my hardest not to laugh,” he said, throwing his head back and really cutting loose.
I glared daggers at him. “Well how should I know? Maybe they’re made differently than other brands?”
Dr. Barnes spoke up, “Gigi, that was an extremely smart thing to do. Knowing what an animal has ingested or inhaled is very important,” he said, giving me a cool grin. “Don’t pay any attention to this guy. He’s been a pain in my ass since we were kids.”
“You’ve known each other for a long time?” I asked, curious about their connection.
“Mom and Dad didn’t give me much choice. I suggested leaving him at the hospital, but they insisted we bring him home.”
“Jackass. What would you have done without me?” Trey muttered, shaking his head.
“Probably gotten into a lot less trouble?” Dr. Barnes said in a dry, sarcastic tone.
Trey shrugged, holding the puppy up for the doctor to examine him. “Yeah, probably.”
Huh, this was an interesting turn of events. If I wasn’t currently so worried about that puppy, I would have loved to learn more about their family dynamic.
The doc checked the naughty dog over, then he got Trey to help keep the puppy’s jaws open so he could take a better look. Next, he used some long tweezers and very steadily removed a clump from the back of the puppy’s throat.
“Here’s the culprit,” the doctor said, setting down the instrument and taking another look down the dog’s throat. “I can’t see anything else. I’d like to get a couple of X-rays and keep him here for observation if that’s okay with you, Gigi?”