Page 120 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

My mouth opened as I sucked in a breath, ready to refute the charges laid against us, but my brain stopped me. What she was saying, it was just paraphrasing our own words back to us. We had been real with her from the start, made clear that the lives we lived restricted the amount of time we could spend with a girl. Thinking we were so smart, we’d come up with this plan. Together, we’d worked hard to make sure someone was always there for Katie, but… In that moment, I understood exactly why her parents weren’t on board with us.

One third of my heart, one third of my time? It made sense when we came up with the idea, but now? It was a whole lot dumber than my big plans to go pro skateboarding. My mind raced, thinking about the talks we were currently in about the gym, about everything, when she opened her door. Bronson and my girl spilled out, walking across the car park and towards the ramps.

“What’s going on?” Garrett snapped as he joined me. “What did you do?”

“What did we do,” I corrected, then trailed after Katie, running up one ramp, only to jump down beside her. She looked up then smiled when my arm went around her waist, tugging her closer. A kiss, then another, each one was a promise I made silently to find a way through this.

Chapter60

Rhett

Something was wrong, and I needed to fix it, now.

“Maybe we should…”

Garrett’s voice trailed away as I strode past him, closing the gap between us and Katie. She was standing there, nestled into Rhys’ chest, but when I appeared beside them, she looked up. That’s when I saw the tears. My shoulders tensed, my hands forming fists without thought. I wanted to tear apart whatever was hurting her, but the slight smile she shot me disarmed me completely. Tension bled out of my body as I cupped her face in my hands.

“What went wrong?” Fuck, I was being too blunt again, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. How the hell did I fudge around the issue, skirting it until some predetermined moment when it was OK to ask? “Katie, if we messed up?—”

“It’s our jobs.” Rhys shook his head, then pulled her closer. Those long, soothing strokes down her back, I wanted to be the one doing that. Anything but stand here and listen to this. “What parent is going to be OK with a guy or guys who can’t be trusted to turn up to the date he organised?”

“That’s it?”

It seemed like a small thing, and yet so immeasurably huge at the same time. I wanted to refute the charge, prove that I was reliable as fuck, and I was, at work. Always there on time for my shift, prepared to go the extra mile, fill in for teammates when one of the guys was sick. Fires were unpredictable, so I couldn’t afford to be.

“I mean, yeah.” I hated the self-effacing way Katie said that, the way she turned back towards Rhys, like he was the only one who could comfort her. “I tried to make them see…” She shrugged. “You guys work hard and save people?—”

“Not me.”

Rhys smiled down at her, but there was an edge to it I didn’t normally see.

“You help people feel better about themselves,” she said. “That’s what you did for me.”

But it wasn’t enough. I nearly took a step backwards then, an instinctive need to put distance between myself and a threat riding me hard. I didn’t get to where I was paying attention to that though.

“I…” My mouth was moving as my brain was trying to come up with solutions. “Is that the main problem, because I can…” I saw Charlie, Knox, and Noah then. They’d managed to find a way to make things work with Millie. Surely I could do the same. “I can talk to the guys at work, the married ones, and find out what they do. There’s gotta be a way forward.”

“Helen’s been telling me I need to start putting up boundaries with our unit manager.” Garrett scratched the back of his neck. “I was trying to be a team player, but I think I just ended up becoming the department doormat.” He shook his head. “I’ll talk to her, talk to our union rep about how to navigate this better.”

“Does that help?” Katie was like an ember rising up in the air and floating free, ready to set someone else alight, but I couldn’t let her go. “If we find a solution, keep on talking?—”

“That’s one hundred percent more than any other guy has bothered to do.” Katie shrugged. “I’m in uncharted territory here, so in theory, yes? We need to communicate clearly, like adults.” Her mouth turned down at the corners. “Be responsible. Gross.”

“But not tonight.” Garrett stepped in closer, ready to turn Katie’s head his way, when Bronson started barking. A couple of kids came rolling up, eyeing us and then the skatepark.

“Cool dog,” one said, approaching Bronson with his hand outstretched. The dog took a step backwards. “Is he friendly?”

“He is when he feels confident.” Katie pulled away to go and stand beside Bronson. “What do you think, boy? Can they give you a pat?”

The kids ended up dropping their skateboards on the ground, asking a million questions about the dog while giving him a pat. The two of them, they were in their element, and that had me looking at my best friends. Garrett watched everything that took place with hungry eyes and Rhys, he nodded, then ambled over.

“Nice board.” He picked up one and checked the line of it, then spun the wheels.

“You skate?” one of the older teenagers asked, looking Rhys up and down.

“Used to. Lend me your board?”

The kid shoved the skateboard into his hands, the lot of them watching sceptically as Rhys set it down. Eyebrows shot up as he started to roll forward. With an ease I rarely saw, he upped the speed, then approached the ramp at a speed that seemed way too fast. The board’s wheels lost contact with the concrete in what appeared to be a controlled movement, because Rhys spun it around, hitting the ground and then rolling back with a grin.

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