Page 10 of Nanny for the Athletes

“That’s us,” Christian admitted. “We have a road game against the Steelers this weekend, so we’re headed to the airport. Hence the suit.”

Hank, Heidi, and Pickles went sprinting past us along the fence, wagging their tails happily.

“You’re taking your dogs with you to the airport?”

“We’re stopping by the regular boarder before that,” he replied. “But your kennel was on the way, so we swung by here first.”

“You should leave them here!” I said. “Board them with me instead.”

Christian ran a hand through his dark hair, which fell back into place perfectly. “I don’t know. We’re already booked with the other boarder…”

“You said you don’t like that boarder,” I insisted. “I have a lot more room for the dogs to play here. One second, let me grab you a print out of all the services we offer.”

I hurried up to my house with Princess right next to me. I had spent much of last night working on a flier that listed all the extra services I offered, and had a copy printed out. It wasn’t the final draft, but it was good enough to show Christian.

If I can snag their business today…

I hurried through the door and into my kitchen, then stopped in my tracks. In the dining room straight ahead, Braden was nude. Well, nottotallynude—he was wearing a pair of boxer-briefs and nothing else. But the underwear was tight enough that I could see the long outline of his junk, a sight which took my breath away as much as seeing the lines and ridges of a body covered with corded muscle. His thighs were like powerful tree trunks.

When he saw me, he flinched. “Shit, sorry!” There was a suit bag hanging off one of the dining room chairs, which he grabbed and used to cover himself. “I was changing into this.”

I tore my eyes away from him and pointed. “The bathroom is over there!”

“Yeah, I saw that, but…” He smiled awkwardly. “There’s a bunch of dog food in there. So I thought I would change in here real quick.”

Crap. The dog food bags. “I forgot I put those in there. I’ve been trying to clean this place, so I’ve been shuffling everything around…”

My cheeks felt hot, and I was about to die of embarrassment. So I grabbed the services sheet off the dining room table and hurried back outside.

“Here are our services,” I told Christian. “With all the rates and whatnot. Sorry that the formatting is screwy; I’m still working out all the bugs in Photoshop.”

“You all right?” Christian asked. “You seem flustered.”

“Braden was, uh, changing clothes in the middle of the dining room.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” He sighed. “Hey, I’m really sorry about that. He didn’t mean anything by it, I swear. He’s a lot like Pickles: he’s kind of clueless sometimes. If you felt threatened…”

“No!” I quickly said. “It wasn’t anything like that. He was totally innocent. I just wasn’t expecting to see a nude football player when I opened my door.”

Braden came outside with his suit on, which was charcoal gray. “Fuck! I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”

“It’s fine, really,” I insisted. Making a big deal about it was worse than the actual event. “Like I was saying, that’s our list of services.” An idea came to me, and I seized on it. “And I’m running a special deal today only. Your first boarding is completely free.”

Braden perked up like a dog who had spotted a cat. “I like free.”

“We will of course pay for the boarding,” Christian said, glaring at his teammate.

“Hey, woah, relax Chrissy. I was going to insist on paying. I like this place.”

Christian turned to the dogs in the field, who were now wrestling happily. “I think they like it here, too.”

“Youthink?”Braden asked. “Buddy, it’s as clear as a glass of Brita-filtered water. They fuckingloveit here. Pickles usually whines when we take him to the other kennel, but he’s so happy here that he’s not even paying attention to me.”

“All right,” Christian agreed. “We’ll board them for four nights, and pick them up Monday morning.”

“Great! Wait here while I print out the intake forms.”

I practically skipped back inside.I’ve got my first two big customers. Take that, Trip!

---