Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

“Are you afraid of needles? It’s okay if you are.” I was worried I had a fainter on my hands and my hands were already full of dog, keeping Pumpkin who wanted to roll off on the table.

Her face scrunched with a sarcastic response. “No.” Her head shook. “That’s ridiculous.”

I didn’t believe the weak refusal when she kept talking.

“Um, that’s a really big needle and you’re going to stick that where?”

My mind wandered a second before coming back realizing her eyelashes were fluttering dangerously close together.

“It usually is pretty big.” I slid the first needle in, and Precious blew out a shuddering breath. “Are you all right?” I was trying to not think about inappropriate things, but Winnie was swaying against the table and now was not the time for my dick and my brain to cross signals at work. Making sure she didn’t pass out was a priority to any flirtation I might be entertaining.

“Okay, yeah, I’m good.”

I doubted it, because her voice had gone up a note or two.

“Hey, did the lights go dim in here?” Winnie wobbled, and I reached for her, catching her in my arms before she fell.

“You’re fainting, Winnie.”

She mumbled something, but I was too late to warn her, and she was out cold before she finished whatever it was she wanted to say. I rested my cheek against hers, feeling the soft clammy skin that smelled of coffee and expensive shampoo. Yeah, she definitely didn’t like needles. I carried her over to a cha

ir and sat her down, calling for Sharon. This looked all kinds of bad with whimpering dogs and an unconscious girl snuggled against my coat.

The dogs started barking again when the door opened, and Sharon gasped. “What’s going on?”

“Can you take these guys to the boarding area while I get Winnie revived?”

“Is she all right?” Sharon tried to take her pulse from her wrist, but I moved Winnie in my arms, keeping her firmly in my grasp.

“She’s fine. Just a little woozy from the needles, I’m guessing. There’s always one.” Awkwardly, I laughed, and Sharon took the leashes, leaving me with a passed out pet-sitter and one stinky hound dog thumping his tail happily on the table.

Looking over, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell me she was a fainter, Pumpkin?”

The dog didn’t respond except to let out a massive dog fart on the table.

Chase Calloway’s career ending football injury gave him the out he needed.

Switching gears from being the star quarterback with a shot at the NFL to checking anal glands of furry senior patients wasn’t exactly the plan. However, it gave him the purrfect excuse to stop pursuing dreams that were never his.

Winnie Grey got exiled from her posh existence to the boondocks as pet-sitter extraordinaire.

It wasn’t her fault she stopped a shoplifter by pulling the fire alarm and got fired from her job. She can’t help that dog acupuncture makes her faint, but lucky for the city girl in exile, the town’s hottest veterinarian catches her, literally.