Page 50 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

“This was your bloody idea,” I growled at him.

“High pitched,” Garrett hissed. “He started wagging his tail a little bit until you got all grumpy.”

“Say something in a cute voice.” Rhys nodded to the space under the bed. “Tell the dog he’s a good boy.”

“Bronson…” I faltered, my voice cracking as I tried to imitate Garrett’s tone. “Bronson, you’re a very good boy!” The other two started to cackle, but the dog shifted his head slightly to put me in his sights. “You’ve done it tough, mate, but you’re safe now. Warm house, all the pats you could want.”

“And a Scotch fillet steak.” Rhys rustled in his bag and pulled out a paper wrapped bundle. “Along with the juiciest bone the butcher could find.”

“Just come out and have a big drink of water,” Garrett pleaded in an incongruous voice, as if that was the most exciting idea in the world. “C’mon, boy. You can do it. You can…”

It was working. The dog moved suddenly, scrambling out from under the bed and heading towards the bowl. I felt a hot rush of pleasure, grinning for the first time in days, only to find that we weren’t the reason he emerged.

“Hello, boy!” Katie stood at the doorway, obviously having let herself in. “I hear you haven’t been drinking? C’mon, let’s get you a nice, fresh bowl of water.”

Fuck, she was here. She said she’d come around, but that didn’t change the fact that it felt like a gut punch, seeing her inside my house again. After the other night, I half expected never to lay eyes on Katie again. When I scrambled to my feet, so did the others, all of us following her down into the kitchen.

“Um… hey, Katie.” I scratched at the back of my neck, searching for words and not finding them. “Thanks for coming by.”

“You called her…?” Garrett hissed, but he didn’t wait for an answer. Katie started rumbling through his kitchen cupboards, so he moved in and opened the plastic drawer. “Looking for a bowl?”

“Perfect,” she said, taking it from him and then filling it up. Bronson started to dance around her feet, as if the sweetest of nectar was being poured into the bowl. Like I hadn’t been trying to tempt him with tap water all day. He lapped it up gustily the minute she set the bowl down, and I let out a long sigh. Tension I hadn’t even felt leached from my body, right as I shook my head.

“I gave him water.” I was pleading for her to understand. “I emptied the old water and refilled it, then when that didn’t work, I slid a shallow dish under the bed filled with water. He just edged away from me. I tried leaving the room, in case I was the thing he was scared of, but when I came back, the bowls were at the same level. I marked them.”

Katie smiled then.

“I was supposed to be here.” Garrett kneeled down beside Bronson, and the dog leaned into his legs. “Every bloody person on staff is away sick at the moment and I had to go to work.”

“I made sure Bronson didn’t go anywhere today.” Rhys held up his hands. “Rhett called into work to see if he could work from home.”

“I know how long humans can go without water, but I wasn’t sure about dogs,” I said. “I looked online, and they said that they can last seventy two hours, but after twenty four you risk serious organ damage and?—”

“And you did the right thing,” she said. “All of you.” I frowned as she winced, then hobbled over to a chair in the living room. I was there, pulling it out for her, my hands resting on the back of her chair for a second. My fingers itched with the need to touch her. “It looks like Bronson is finding it harder to adjust than we thought.”

The dog himself lifted his head from the bowl, his muzzle dripping. He trotted over and then rested his head on her lap. The way she stiffened, that clawed at me.

“You’re injured,” I said, scanning her for signs of why. “What happened? Did someone hurt you?”

“Just Mandie.” She rumpled the dog’s ears and his eyes fell closed a little, his tail wagging back and forth. I looked up and met the other guys’ eyes, wondering what the hell that meant. “She took me at my word and pushed me hard in the gym yesterday.”

“Delayed onset muscle soreness.” Rhys said that with a smirk. “You must be in a world of pain.”

“Not right now.” She caressed the dog’s face. Anyone could see the drastic transformation in the animal. Bronson loved Katie with his entire doggy heart, and I couldn’t help but sympathise with him. If I had the choice between Katie or me, I wouldn’t be choosing me either. “But what are we going to do with you, boy?”

She didn’t use a high-pitched voice like we had, just one filled with love and affection. The dog knew that, letting out a huff of breath.

“I can’t take you home.” His tail wagged furiously, somehow able to glean some of her meaning. “This is where you live now, and you need to stop scaring the shit out of everyone by not eating or drinking.”

“Maybe…” I shook my head as she looked up to meet my eyes. “Maybe you could help him with the adjustment process? We could pay you?—”

“I can’t accept money for helping you guys with Bronson.” Her forehead creased. “Half of me expected you would have returned him to the shelter by now.”

“That’s not how shit works here.” Rhys drew up a chair beside him and Bronson went very still, giving him the side-eye as Garrett retrieved the meat Rhys had bought. He had a chopping board out and was slicing the meat into thin strips within seconds. “No man left behind, hey buddy?”

Bronson watched Rhys’ hand as he drew closer, every muscle pulled tight, but when he reached out and gave the dog’s flank a scratch, Bronson tolerated it.

“We’ll get through to him,” I promised her, just to see the look of relief in her eyes. “Look.”

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