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“I’m getting a beer,” Carter said. “Who else?”
Several hands went up. Mac, his father and uncle, Grayson too.
“I’ll help you,” Grayson said.
“Good, because I was going to tell you to,” he said.
The two of them grabbed the beers in the fridge. “No Avery today?”
He wanted to growl. “If you got here earlier, you’d know she went to see her mother for a few days.”
“I won’t ask why you didn’t go. You never take time off.”
“Really,” he said. “You probably work more than me, but you don’t let anyone know that because you’re doing it from home.”
His brother was out to prove to the world that this side of the Bonds could be white collar workers and make a name for themselves too.
Carter couldn’t have cared less most of the time, but it bothered Grayson more.
Or maybe it bothered his brother longer than it did Carter.
He knew where he came from and was content and accepting of it.
He didn’t have to prove anything to anyone.
Yet he wanted to prove to Avery that he could be the man for her and wondered if everyone was right. That maybe he did need to take some time away from his business to do that.
30
A Nice Guy
“Hi, Payton, I’m Dr. Keegan. It’s nice to meet you and Jimmy.”
Payton reached her hand out to shake, Jimmy the lab sitting on the floor shivering and not happy to be here, Avery could see.
“Thanks for getting us in so quickly,” Payton said. “I’m so glad you’re on the island. The thought of having to get an appointment on the mainland and then bringing Jimmy on the ferry sick. He’s hard to pick up, but he’s my baby. I’m not sure what is wrong with him.”
“Tell me what is going on,” she said, getting down on the ground and looking Jimmy over. She could see in his eyes he wasn’t well.
“He’s had diarrhea since last night. He’s thrown up a few times too. I’ve been making sure he’s drinking and he is, but when he ate this morning, he threw it up and then had diarrhea again. I’m not sure what is wrong.”
“Poor guy,” she said, feeling around the chocolate lab’s belly. The dog wasn’t wincing and she didn’t feel anything. She listened to his heart rate and it was steady, not fast. Not slow either. The shivering seemed more from nerves than anything because once she started to pet Jimmy and let him know she was a friend, he relaxed.
“I know he’s hungry. He’s always begging for food and getting into things. I tried to give him some treats a few hours after he got sick on his dog food. He didn’t throw up, but he had diarrhea almost immediately after.”
“If he didn’t throw it up, then I can rule out a blockage. How many treats did you give him?”
Payton looked a little guilty. “Maybe six good-sized bones. He’s hungry and I feel bad.”
“I understand, but dogs are like humans. If you’ve got a bellyache or have these symptoms, feeding it right away isn’t always the best course of action. Or you need to be prepared for these results. You said he gets into things—do you know if he did or not recently?”
“I was out Christmas shopping yesterday and when I got home I noticed that he’d gotten into the bowl of candy I had on the table.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “What was in it?”
“Chocolate bars. Not the big ones. Just mini ones. I found empty wrappers everywhere. I mean, how did he manage to get the wrappers off?”
“Dogs are smarter than we think. And chocolate isn’t good for dogs. Too much can poison or kill them.”
