Luxe Glamour (The Glamour Series Book 5) by Maggie Marr Page B

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