Saving Their Trainer

by Nikki Dean

  Allie blinked at them both. “You guys really are serious, aren’t you? Is that why you went to the apartment today for me?”

  “No!” Bentley protested immediately, a little insulted that she thought he was only helping her out because he had ulterior motives. Which he did, but that wasn’t the only reason. “Of course not, Allie. I just wanted to help you because I like you. Not just because I’m attracted to you, but because you’re a cool chick and you honestly seem like you care about people. You’re a good person and you don’t deserve to be treated like Xander is treating you.”

  “Same here. Your asshole ex wasn’t listening to you, so I thought he’d listen to us a little better, because I know a lot of guys like that. And he did, so now we have your stuff, plus a few more things if I’m not mistaken,” Trevor said, side-eyeing Greg, who chuckled.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I only grabbed things I thought were Allie’s,” he halfway protested. None of them believed him with that shit-eating grin on his face, though. Mads didn’t question him or Abel about the relationship thing, making him wonder if Allie had told her about that night at the bar. He didn’t think she would, but it was interesting that she wasn’t questioning them.

  “OK, I think that’s enough relationship talk then, and let’s see what you guys brought,” Allie said. “The suspense is killing me. I would have given you a list or something if I’d known you were going.”

  “Yeah, but that would have ruined the surprise,” Greg teased her. “And no one wants that.” He picked up the first bag and plopped it down in front of her. She pulled the drawstrings open and sorted through her clothes, nodding as she went.

  “Thanks, guys. This pretty much covers the clothing essentials, and even some running shoes in the bottom. Who did this one?” she asked.

  Abel raised his hand. “And this,” he said, nudging the next bag over to her.

  She lifted an eyebrow and pulled it open to reveal a bunch of food from her fridge, including condiments and beer. All of her silverware was scattered among the containers. “You emptied the fridge so he wouldn’t have anything to eat?” she guessed with a smile.

  “Yep. Pantry too, and whatever he finds left, he’ll have to eat with his fingers.” Abel gave her a little shrug when she looked at him in amusement. “He should’ve thought about it before he was a dick to you.”

  “Open mine next,” Greg demanded, barely able to keep himself from laughing. “You’ll love it, really.”

  Her eyebrows going up, she set the bags of clothes and food aside, then pulled another trash bag up onto the couch with her. This one was full of Daisy’s stuff, including her bed, food and toys. Greg frowned in disappointment.

  “I did that one when I was done with your utilities,” Trevor said. “That’s just all of the dog stuff I found really fast. She’s almost out of food though, so we’ll have to get her some more.”

  “My utilities? What did you do to the utilities?” she asked slowly.

  He shrugged. “Oh, you know, just a few things. Disconnected the cable behind your wall outlet so the internet won’t work and he’ll have to call the service provider if he doesn’t know how to hook it back up himself, turned off the hot water from the faucets and stuff like that. All things I can fix once he leaves, but if all of the utilities are in your name, I figured he probably won’t pay you for it, so he shouldn’t get to use them by himself. I’d call and disconnect the power, if I were you.”

  “But first, look in the box,” Greg said again. Allie laughed at his enthusiasm and opened it, then blinked and frowned. She pulled out a towel in confusion.

  “Be careful with it, there are breakable things in there,” he warned. She slowly unfolded it to reveal a half-dozen light bulbs.

  “Did you take these out of all of the lamps?” she guessed with a smile. “That’s really funny.”

  “Keep going.”

  She pulled out several rolls of toilet paper next, four more towels and a few washcloths, the knobs from the stove, several shoelaces, a bunch of men’s socks, three mismatched flip flops and all of the bottles of soap that he’d found around the apartment. The router was at the bottom of the bag, and beneath that a few remotes and as many batteries and electronic charging cords as Greg had been able to find.

  “So he’ll be in the dark, without any socks, shoes, toilet paper, or food, and he can’t work because there’s no internet. Even if he manages to use his cell phone as a hotspot, he can’t charge it, so he’ll have to leave eventually. Guys, that’s brilliant.”

  Greg beamed. “I try.”

  She gently set everything aside and grabbed the last bag. Bentley felt bad, having only grabbed her toiletries instead of doing anything clever or funny like the other guys. Still, he’d organized the whole thing, so that had to count for something, right?

  “And all of my bathroom stuff is in here! I’ve been missing my shampoo, so thank you for grabbing it for me, Bentley. You guys are the best. How can I repay you for all of this? You rescued Daisy and all of our stuff, plus helped make my ex’s life hell for kicking me out. Buying you pizza suddenly doesn’t feel like enough.”

  “Easy,” Greg declared. “Put pineapple on it.”

  “What?” Allie stared at him.

  “I want pineapple on my pizza,” he reiterated. “And we’ll be even. Abel never lets me get pineapple.”

  “Because it’s fucking disgusting,” Abel said in an exasperated voice. “Fruit doesn’t belong on pizza.”

  “What about tomatoes, dumbass? That’s a fruit,” Greg shot back.

  “Tomatoes are a vegetable.”

  “Nope, they’re officially a fruit,” Allie said with a giggle. “And I like pineapple on my pizza too, so I’ll split that one with you, Greg.”

  “Yesss,” he hissed as he leaned over to high five her. She slapped his palm with an unrepentant grin at Abel, who rolled his eyes at both of them.

  “Better make it two pizzas then, because I like pineapple, too. But I like to dip mine in ranch sauce,” Bentley said. “And yeah, tomatoes are a vegetable. You’ll never convince me otherwise.” Even though he knew they weren’t.

  Abel leaned over to high five him with a nod.

  “Y'all are ridiculous,” Mads said with a laugh. “And with that, I’m going to leave you guys on your own. The bathroom’s over there, replace the beer if you drink all of mine, and I’ll see all of you in the morning. Or some of you, I guess. Or just you, Allie. This is weird. Anyway, I have a date with Rick to get ready for.”

  With that she gave them all a little wave and went into her room, shaking her head the whole way.

  “I think you guys scared her off,” Allie stage-whispered. “She doesn’t usually get ready to go this early.”

  Daisy whined.

  “Uh oh, do you need to go outside, girl? You want to go for a walk?” Allie crooned, picking up her leash. The dog gave a little hop, then wiggled around in a happy dance as Allie clipped the leash to her collar. “Let’s go, then. I can order the pizza from my phone, if you guys just tell me what else to get.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Bentley volunteered. “Or I can take Daisy if you want.” He regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth, hoping instead that she’d still come with him. He hadn’t ever spent any time with her outside of the gym, and was discovering that he liked it. A lot.

  “That’s OK, I can do it. I’ve missed her. You can come with us though, I know it’d be kinda weird to sit in someone else’s apartment that you don’t know.”

  He smiled and got to his feet. The other guys did too, all filing out of the door while Bentley held it open.

  “Thanks for offering to take her, that was nice of you. You’re sweet,” Allie said as she went by, brushing her hand along his arm. The brief contact left tingles in its wake, and his eyes met hers. “And thanks for holding the door.”

  Once outside, Daisy tried her best to run around in the green areas, pulling on the leash so hard Allie n
early had to let it go.

  “Daisy! No! You know better than this. Daisy, heel!”

  The four of them watched, amazed, as the eighty-pound dog stopped pulling and came back to Allie’s side, plopping her rump down in the grass beside Allie’s feet. Well, on Allie’s feet if they were being honest, but still. It counted.

  “That’s a good girl. You can’t go crazy like that or you’re going to hurt me. You’re a strong girl, remember?” Allie crooned to the dog as she knelt, pulling a treat from her pocket to hold in front of Daisy’s nose. “You want it? You want it? Of course you do.”

  She allowed the dog to swipe it up with her tongue. “Did you miss me, Daisy? I missed you.”

  Daisy leapt, knocking Allie over and tackling her in her enthusiasm to demonstrate how much she had, indeed, missed her favorite human. Her whole body wiggled back and forth as she wagged her tail hard, covering Allie’s face and arms with sloppy puppy kisses.

  Trevor knelt beside the dog and called her, then gently looped his fingers under her collar to hold her to the side while Allie got back up. He grinned when it was Allie’s turn to tackle the dog, sending them both rolling through the grass again. They wrestled for a minute while the guys looked on, bemused, until she finally got up and dusted herself off.

  “It’s too bad we don’t have a ball. Daisy’s favorite game is fetch, and I like to play with her to tire her out, or she gets crazy being cooped up inside. Did you happen to grab her folding crate from my place?”

  Trevor grimaced and shook his head. “I didn’t see anything like that, I’m sorry.”

  “That’s OK. She was behaving really well for a few weeks there at the end, so I had taken it down and slid it under the bed. It’s one of those wire ones that fold flat so I can take it places in my trunk. I’m sure she’ll be fine tonight, but I don’t want her to get into anything while I’m at work or class tomorrow, you know? Since it’s a new place, and all.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine, and if you’re that worried we can take her home with us,” Abel offered. “That way she can stay in the yard while no one is home.”

  Allie grimaced. “I appreciate the offer, but I think she’d be even crazier there. She wouldn’t know where she was, and I wouldn’t be there to help her get used to it all. No, I think we should stay here for tonight.”

  Abel was thankful that Greg didn’t push the issue and invite Allie to come to their place again. Once was enough. Twice was enthusiastic, at least. Three times was getting pretty creepy, and creepy was exactly what they wanted to avoid if they wanted a shot with her at all. Abel was pretty sure she’d think about it from the way she’d watched them kiss at the bar that night, the way she’d leaned toward them in fascination, even if she hadn’t been quite ready yet. But with the way she’d been glancing at them this afternoon, looking from him to Greg and back again, he had a hunch that she was thinking about it a lot more.

  Which is perfect, but nothing’s gonna happen until she can finally relax. That means we have to get Xander-the-asshat out of her life completely, for everyone’s sake, he thought. Out of her life, out of her apartment, and completely out of our way. She deserves to be happy.

  Which she would be when she could finally relax at home. Her own home. With her own stuff. There would be a whole month to convince her that moving in with him and Greg was a good idea not only for a relationship with them, but also for Daisy, who he had to admit, he liked more than he thought he would.

  “That’s fine, Allie. All joking around aside though, we are looking for a roommate, but it doesn’t have to be you or anything. We’ve been casually looking for a while now, but most people want to live closer to campus. It’s over off Loop 1, and in a quieter neighborhood. I totally understand if you want to live someplace closer to campus and the night life,” Abel said. “I think we’re just a little past that, honestly.”

  She looked up at him with a calculating gleam in her eye, and Abel could nearly hear her brain working. “That’s actually why I picked Camden Place, it seemed like it was pretty quiet. No big parties in the pool at all hours of the night, or college kids blaring music at 3:00 a.m. above my apartment. I pretty much took care of my partying in my undergrad years, I think.”

  “How long until you have your masters done?” Bentley asked, unwilling to be left out anymore. “Just a few more semesters, right?”

  “Yeah, this semester and next. I can’t wait.”

  “What are you planning to do after that?” Trevor asked.

  “Stick around here, I think. A few of my professors said they would write me letters of recommendation, so I’m going to try to get a job as a physical therapist at one of the sports medicine practices around here. The Wildcats are really popular, which means a lot of practices cut deals to work with them, and I like working with athletes. The challenges are interesting.”

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Trevor said. They all waited while Daisy did her business, then enthusiastically rubbed her side against Allie’s leg.

  “Are you all done? OK, we can go back in then. I promise I’ll get you a ball tomorrow and we can play, OK, girl?” Allie murmured as they began walking back toward Mads’ apartment.

  They went back in to find her phone ringing, and Mads stuck her head out of her bedroom door. “That thing has been going off nonstop since you went outside. I almost answered it, thinking it might be your parents or something, but I think it’s Xander.”

  “Oh, shit, I was going to take it with me to order pizza, then got distracted by Daisy. Sorry, guys.”

  “It’s probably better that you left it if Xander’s been calling,” Bentley murmured. “He probably just wants to bitch about the internet or something.”

  She picked up it up from the coffee table and flipped it over, revealing a picture of Danny Devito on the screen, with “No One” as the name.

  “Yep, that’s him all right. I should probably get it if he’s not stopping.” Right as she said that, the phone went silent and turned black, only to start ringing again a few seconds later. Allie sighed and answered the call.

  “What do you want, Xander?” she asked without bothering to say hello.

  They could hear him yelling into the phone nearly from across the room. Allie winced, then put it on speaker and tossed it back onto the coffee table.

  “I don’t know what your problem is, but I can’t even work now, thanks to your asshole friends! How am I supposed to telecommute without any internet?” He was in the midst of demanding. “I have a conference call in thirty minutes, and I can’t even find the fucking cord for my phone! They stole it, just like they broke in and stole everything else! That’s robbery, Allie!”

  “Um, I was told that you opened the door and let them in, and technically it’s not even your apartment anyway. So how are you going to claim they robbed it when they were only getting my stuff, which you have no right to keep? From my perspective, you were the one attempting to steal here, Xander.”

  “Fuck you, Allie. You know that wasn’t what I was doing. I just wanted you to come home so we could talk about this like adults,” he retorted angrily.

  “Xander, you pretty much decided how that conversation would go when you pulled your dick out of your pants and stuck it into that girl from the coffee shop.”

  “Come on, Allie, you know I didn’t mean it.”

  “Xander, I don’t know how you think you could accidentally fuck someone and cheat without meaning to, but honestly I’m glad you did it. It’s been over between us for a while, and I wish I’d paid more attention and told you to stop bringing your shit over a long time ago. Now get out of my apartment, please.”

  “Is that what this is about? You’re just pissed that I’m still here? Well, that’s what happens when you ask someone to move in with you, Allie. I wish you would-”

  “I never asked you to move in, Xander,” she cut him off. “You took care of that on your own when you just decided to put all of your shit into the storage unit, instead of kee
ping your old studio. In fact, I bet the storage place has Wi-Fi, so why don’t you go there for your conference call? Or that new coffee shop ‘Dark Roast’ has Wi-Fi and charging cables you can use.”

  “Allie, this would all be much easier if you could just tell your friends to fix whatever they fucked up and come home to talk to me like an adult. Seriously, we can work this out.”

  “No, Xander. I already told you.”

  Bentley leaned forward and hit the mute button. “Why not? Let’s all go over there, wait until he lets you in, then toss him out with all of his shit. If he keeps harassing you, we call the cops and tell them that his name isn’t on the lease and he’s threatening you after a bad breakup. Then call the leasing office and tell them what he’s trying to do and see if they’ll let you out of the lease early.”

  “But I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “Allie, you can stay with any of us,” Bentley said quietly, even though Xander couldn’t hear them. “Come check out my spare room, then look at Greg and Abel’s. Or one of us will stay at your place to make sure he doesn’t break in, and you can go apartment shopping today. Seriously, now is your chance to get this asshole out of there. We can take turns sleeping on your couch if you don’t feel safe, or I will by myself if they’re busy.”

  “Oh, no, we’re in,” Greg declared.

  “Honestly, me too. I have a one-bedroom with a study, so technically you could crash with me too, if you wanted to. I’m not scheduled to be on a rig for the next two weeks, so I’m free, and you could stay at my place by yourself after I leave,” Trevor said. “I think Bentley is right, and this is your best shot at getting him out of there now. I’ll say Daisy is mine if the leasing office has to come by. She likes me and we already have her stuff packed up.”