Page 67 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

Happy looked good on Katie.

She didn’t realise it, but she was glowing well before she started working out. That smile, the spring in her step, and especially those swollen lips. They told me things had gone very well for her and Rhett today.

And now it was my turn.

“So we can take my car up to the beach or we can walk.”

Bronson’s ears perked up at that last word, and then he let out a couple of sharp barks. Turns out the little guy loved exercise almost as much as I did.

“Walking it is,” Katie said, giving the dog a pat.

I wasn’t jealous of Rhett, but sometimes I envied the way Katie and Bronson got on. Part of me wanted her smiling at me, reaching up to…

Anyway.

“Alright, we’ll grab a coffee at the little cafe on the way,” I said.

“And you won’t kick over the sign this time?” she asked.

“Not unless you want me to. Did you want this guy’s lead or…?” I offered her the nylon rope.

“I’m not sure if I’ve got the strength to hold him back right now.”

Her hands rose and fell limply.

“I got you,” I said.

Bronson strained against the lead, but I wasn’t going anywhere, not until I had my arm wrapped around Katie’s waist. She stiffened for just a second, making me rethink what I was doing, but with a long breath out, she relaxed again. Part of me was dying to know what was going on in that head of hers, but as I tucked her into my side, I found I was content with just this. The sun was slowly setting, turning the sky to beautiful shades of purple, orange, and red, the last almost the same colour as her hair. Bronson’s tail was wagging furiously as he led the way, and I knew exactly how he felt.

That the three of us were in sync, each one of us feeling the cool evening breeze on our faces, blowing the shit of the day away.

Which reminded me…

“So you went to the brewery and kissed my housemate,” I said, shooting her an impish smile. Each time I mentioned it, her eyes went wide, as if she was expecting me to be pissed. Nah. I was just glad it’d all worked out. Rhett was a good guy, if intense. I’d tossed around sending him some dating tips via text on their drive down there, but it looked like he’d made it work. I’d be proud of him if I wasn’t so intrigued about how it went. “What did the two of you end up talking about that led to that?”

“Want to work out how to replicate the results?”

My mouth fell open at Katie’s cheeky response.

“No, I mean yes.” She watched me splutter with an amused look. “OK, how the hell did that happen? Dudley Do Right is usually all business. Like did he tell you all about fire engines?”

“Yes.”

She was giving me nothing, and her smirk made clear she knew exactly what she was doing.

“OK, have mercy. How the hell did that work? Like he has a career in creating those meditation tracks people listen to when they can’t sleep. It’s an appliance not an engine, Rhys…”

I mimicked snoring, only to hear her cackle, but in the end, she shrugged.

“I like hearing people talk about their passions. To be fair, he listened to me infodump about dogs.”

Huh.

I’d played a whole lot of scenarios in my head, trying to find a way to get Katie to let me in, but this was not part of that. My mind raced, trying to think about a topic I knew a lot about.

“Tony Hawk completed the first 900 degree turn on a skateboard,” I said. “Well, the first one that was actually caught on film.”

“What?”

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