Chapter 34
Rhys
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?”
“He invented over five hundred different tricks.”
“He…” She grinned. “I get it. Skateboarding is your hyper focus.”
“Was,” I replied. “Back in the day, I was sure I’d be the next skateboarding great. God knows I put in enough hours practising it. Trouble is, I turned out to be no Hawk. No nothing, really.”
“Oh, wow.”
Suddenly she looked incredibly serious, and that wouldn’t do. I shrugged and shot her a winning grin.
“It’s no biggie. Millions of dollars of sponsorship deals and skating in competitions all over the world wouldn’t really have suited me.” I looked around, seeing the cars passing by, the beach getting closer with every step. “My head would’ve gotten too big and I would’ve sold out, become a complete arsehole, spending my fortune on blow and hookers.”
“That is an oddly specific prediction,” she replied.
“I am but a simple man. I like the gym, the same neighbourhood I grew up in, hanging out with the guys I knew at school, and I like you.” That was just blurted out. I blinked, pretty sure this wasn’t the right time for confessions. “And here we are at the cafe. Black coffee or are you one of those girls that drinks those milky sweet things with all the cream and toppings?”
“Chocolate mocha with cream,” she said.
“Ugh, that’s a dessert, not a drink.” I looked down at Bronson. “Look after our girl and I’ll get you a pup cup.”
The bugger barked at me, making clear neither part of that statement was negotiable.
Walking away from Katie sucked. Half of me expected to turn around and to see her and Bronson gone like some kind of fever dream. I stared out the window as I waited to get served, watching her rub at the dog’s chest, Bronson staring at her like she hung the moon.
I reckon I knew exactly how he felt.
I didn’t want to look away, couldn’t, not while she laughed at his clumsy attempts to keep her giving him chest scratches. Not even when the barista spoke to me.
“What can I get you?” I had to put the order in, get my girl her coffee and my dog his pup cup, and yet I had to drag my eyes away to meet the barista’s. He smiled expectantly, no doubt wondering what the hell was going on, right before I rattled off our order.
“Here we go,” I said, carrying out the drink tray. “Frou frou coffee for the lady.” Katie snorted as she took the drink from me. “Has Bronson been a good boy? Does he deserve a pup cup?”
The dog started to dance on his back legs, making clear that he thought he really, really did.
“Of course, he does,” Katie said, right as I got him to sit and then put the pup cup down for him.
“Damn, boy,” I said, watching the dog lap the milk up in a series of frenzied licks. “I’m not sure you even tasted that.”
“I think he wants mine now.”
Katie was forced to lift her coffee higher as Bronson came to sit very still in front of her, eyes trained on her takeaway cup.
“C’mon, boy, it’s beach time.”
His rumpled ears pricked up, and he lunged on the lead, knowing what that meant now.
“Wow…”
Katie stopped when we reached the sands. Her eyes were on the sunset, tracking the way the colours shifted in the sky, whereas I couldn’t help but stare at her. Her little pink painted toe nails, wiggling in the now soft, cool sand. Her lips parting as she smiled, then took a sip. The way the colours of the sunset were reflected in her eyes, right as they refocused on me.
“Wow indeed,” I said, making clear it wasn’t the sky that had my attention. Her cheeks flushed the same pretty pink as the clouds, right as Bronson started to tug at his lead. “Ready to go, boy?”
“You let him off the lead?” I didn’t love that note of fear in Katie’s voice and when I looked up, she was frowning.
“Only when we’ve got the beach to ourselves,” I said. Bronson pulled against the lead’s constraints, obviously making it harder for me to undo the clasp. “And not at first. I did some exercises at home and at the local park, testing his recall.” Her eyebrow cocked up as I used proper dog training terminology. Yeah, I did my research. “He knows better than to go too far and doesn’t get himself in trouble. Take a look.”
Bronson went flying off the lead as soon as it was unclipped, going barrelling towards the surf. Katie let out an involuntary giggle as he chased the seagulls. I was concerned about his prey drive, but the seagulls weren’t about to let some mutt bring them down. They flew up into the sky, hovering there lazily on the air current as he barked furiously at them. Not for long, because a small wave rolled in. He ran into that, snapping at the waves, right before it went out again. Then the dog looked over his shoulder as if to say to Katie, ‘Look, Mum, I’ve got this.’
“He’s…” She lifted her free hand and then let it fall. “He’s a different dog. I knew getting him out of the shelter would help, but… I didn’t expect this. Rhys.” I loved the sound of my name in her mouth. “You’ve done an amazing job.”
“We’ve done an amazing job.” It was tempting to take credit for everything, and while I looked after Bronson the most, it was Garrett’s room he slept in every night, Rhett he sat beside at breakfast, eating all the crusts of toast the man fed him absently as he read the newspaper. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time together, but the group chat we’d always used was a great place to share what was working. “But we wouldn’t have gotten very far without all you did in the shelter.” I moved closer, hooking my arm around her waist and tucking her body in against mine. “We’re a pretty good team.” My fingers teased the ends of her hair. “Imagine what we could achieve if we all put our minds to it?”
A little gasp, barely discernible over the hush of the sea, it was what made clear that Katie was thinking about it.
“What was that?” I asked, watching her blush deepen. She tried to pull away, but I held her fast. “I was talking about the dog.” I moved so the sun was at my back and I could see her face more clearly. “What were you thinking about?”