“I probably could have handled that situation better. Instead of—how I did.”
“Nah, if you’d handled it any other way, I wouldn’t respect you anymore,” he said into my hair, making me laugh.
I looked up and said, “You are messed up.”
“I know.”
He gave me one more hug before leading me down the hall.
“Aww,you have the same playpen for them here?” I asked unnecessarily as the puppies were currently playing in the same type of encloser we had bought.
“Well, they need to be safe when they’re here. Puppies can get into all kinds of trouble. As you well know,” he said, winking at me.
“Yeah, these guys have probably been on more emergency visits than the average dog,” I said, feeling guilty again for the two late night visits we’d taken to the vet.
Trey laughed and said, “I don’t think Dr. Barnes minds one bit.”
“Your brother has been very kind and—accommodating to us.”
“Like I said, he doesn’t mind you calling him up in the middle of the night.” Trey’s eyebrows raised and I giggled at him.
The puppies were being cute and started whining to be let out. So we each grabbed one and played with them and the many squeezy, chew toys that their uncle Trey had bought them.
The music wasup fairly loud, so it was a bit of a surprise when I turned around and Beau was there. “Oh my gosh, you scared me,” I said, my hand going straight to my heart as it pounded out in fright. “Why didn’t you knock?”
He frowned up at me. “I knocked about eighty times. But apparently you and—Motley Crue?—couldn’t hear me.”
“It’s good cleaning music,” I said while I continued putting Trey’s newly washed dishes into his very sanitized cupboard.
Beau’s frown turned into more of a scowl. “The question remains, though, Geneviève, what the heck have you been doing for three hours? I didn’t know a mea- culpa took this long.”
“Well, it does when Trey hasn’t unpacked his stuff.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
I glared down at him. “I was helping out a friend.” Then I pointed to a stack of flattened boxes on the floor.
“It’s getting late. Come home.” His hands skimmed up my legs before settling on my waist. “It looks like you could use a shower,” he said, his voice rough and naughty.
I nodded as heat spread through my body. My hands rested on Beau’s shoulders and he lifted me down from the chair I stood on. “I could use a hot shower.”
“You like my hot showers.” He planted his lips on mine and kissed me deeply. It would be all too easy to leave now and go home with Beau. But if there was one thing I never did, it was to leave a job half-finished.
“I did the bathroom,” Trey’s voice sounded from behind us. I broke the kiss with Beau and turned my head toward Trey.
He was even more sweaty than I was. We’d worked hard the last few hours and Beau was right, we definitely needed showers.
“Now, when you say you did the bathroom, do mean you actually took the items out of the boxes and put them in the drawers? Or did you just stuff the boxes inside the cabinet?” I spoke to Trey as though he were an untrustworthy, petulant child.
“It’s fine,” he said, hands on his hips as he glared at me sternly.
“Uh huh, so when I come in there and look in ten minutes, what exactly am I going to find?”
He rolled his eyes and looked up to the ceiling. “You’re killing me, kid!” he shouted much louder than the music, then he turned around and trudged back down the hall.
“You sure you two worked things out?” Beau asked, giving me a skeptical look.
“Yeah. You were right about the banana bread,” I said, placing a light kiss on his lips. “Thanks. You’re going to hate me, but I really want to at least finish his kitchen. I don’t know how he’s been managing all this time.”
A small smile played at his lips. “I’ll help.”
“Aww, will you? You’re such a good friend, Beau.” I gazed up at him with admiring eyes.
“Anything that gets you in the shower faster will be worth it.”