Page 14 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

“Oh my god, did my baby just win an Oscar?”

Right then, I couldn’t have loved my mum more. When we were teenagers, we had been horrified about how excited she got about everything, but as an adult I appreciated it for what it was: love. I smiled and leaned forward to listen to Mandie explain what the hell the TikTok awards were in comparison to the Oscars.

“You knowyou don’t have to do that.”

We’d had dinner and I was in the kitchen, washing the dishes, when Dad walked in.

“The dishes? Could you have made that ruling when we were kids?” I flicked bubbles at him. “Because I remember doing a whole lot of this back then.”

“Not the dishes.” He pulled out a tea towel from the cupboards and started drying off the dishes. “I mean redirecting everyone’s attention onto your sister.”

Mum and Mandie were still talking about the event outside.

“Got me out of talking about Towel Guy, didn’t it?”

Dad’s eyes met mine when I handed him a freshly washed plate. He took it with a gentle smile, drying it thoroughly before putting it away.

“If Towel… The bloke’s name is Rhys, right? I can’t bloody call him Towel Guy. If he’s not the right one for you, love, then you’ll get no argument from me. I want someone who appreciates my daughter for the amazing woman she is.”

I turned around then, because sometimes it felt like my dad was like a warm fire on a winter’s night. He just warmed you right up, from head to toe.

“Like you do Mum?” I glanced over my shoulder, looking at the two of them through the glass sliding door. “I’m not sure they make guys like you anymore, Dad.”

“Course they do.” When I turned back, he pulled me close, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “They’re out there, love. Don’t lose hope. The right guy? He could be waiting just around the corner.”

“Hopefully not literally around the corner, as that would be creepy and weird,” I told him.

“Katie.”

He put his hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes, waiting me out, but I pulled away and turned back to the washing up.

“I’m not going to put up with another guy treating me like shit, Dad. I can promise…” I started scrubbing the fry pan really, really hard right then. “That there will be no more Daves in my future, but…” I pulled the pan out of the water and inspected it before handing it to him to dry. “I need to spend a bit of time with myself to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m sick of dating, sick of putting myself out there.” I thought of my last time on the dating apps and winced. “I want to put me first for once.”

“Any bloke worth his salt would do exactly that.” He held up a hand when I sucked in a breath to answer. “Not saying you need to get back into the dating scene, just that if the right guy comes along when you’re ready, he should be putting you first every damn day. If he doesn’t…”

He smacked one fist into the other hand with a theatrical air, which just had me grinning.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Any time, sweetheart.”

“I’m justgonna tell Rhys I gave you his number,” Mandie said when we got back to our place. “That, or I’m gonna block him, because damn, this guy is persistent. I need to ask Drew what he put in that damn smoothie. Like an aphrodisiac or something?”

“Show me.”

Before she could react, I plucked her phone from her hand, intending to tap out a quick thanks, but no thanks message to Rhys. Of course, that’s when I saw the many, many messages.

Does your sister like flowers? What kind? I know most girls think roses are boring, so how about gerberas?

I blinked, not expecting this kind of puppyish energy from the big, muscly stranger I collided with.

What’s her star sign? Is she a Taurus? She looks like she would be.

I was, but hey, no girl likes to be told she looks like a bull.

Like she has curves for days and I would walk over broken glass to rest my head on her thighs and feed her bonbons or something.

God, I could just imagine him doing that, which had me smiling involuntarily.

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