Free Fit for the Job by Darien Cox

chose to acknowledge it or not.
    “I know how screwed up this is,” Bodie said. “It’s murky waters for me, too. But I really think you can help Sassy. Not just with prying her from her room and getting her off her ass to exercise. But with getting her out of her own head for a while.”
    Jay sighed.
    “She wasn’t always like this,” Bodie said. “This behavior is very recent. The old Sassy was a normal kid, polite, funny, happy. And she’s still in there somewhere. I’d really like to get her back.”
    Jay drummed his fingers on his knees, silent. This went on for so long that Bodie grew uncomfortable, but finally Jay spoke. “All right, I’m willing to reconsider. But I have conditions. I want you to talk to Eben for me.”
    Bodie made a sour face. “About what? Eben is preparing for a major character role right now. Invading his headspace at the moment is not a good idea.”
    “Fuck Eben’s headspace,” Jay said. “He lied to me. If he wants me to train his complex, stubborn, highly difficult child, I have conditions. If he doesn’t like it, he can suck my left nut.”
    Bodie raised an eyebrow. Yep, he’d definitely been wrong in his initial creampuff assessment of Jay Capello. “Okay. What are your conditions?”
    “I want to take Sassy out of the house a few times a week.”
    Bodie winced and shook his head. “Can’t you ask for something else?”
    “No. I want to be able to take her out of the house. I need to be able to design her fitness plan. As I see fit.”
    “And if Eben says no?”
    “Then it’s a deal breaker. Let him hire someone who can figure out how to exercise a kid that can’t leave the house, won’t set foot in the gym, and identifies with Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now . And good luck to him.”
    Bodie scowled. He couldn’t really argue with that. “If Eben agrees,” he said to Jay, “and that’s a big if , he’s going to want me and likely Evelyn too, to accompany you wherever you go with Sassy.”
    Jay nodded. “I have no issue with that.”
    “And I want your word that if Sassy valves off, or tries to run away in the process, you won’t interfere if we have to subdue her.”
    “Agreed. Just don’t hurt her.”
    “I would never hurt her!” Bodie said, rising from his chair.
    Jay held his hands up. “Okay, okay. No offense intended.”
    “I don’t like having to deal with the kid’s emotional breakdowns, Jay. This job isn’t exactly fun for me at the moment,” he said, surprising himself by using such candor with this stranger.
    “Then why...” Jay hesitated, glancing at Bodie as though afraid to incur his rage.
    “Why what? Say what you were going to say.”
    “Why do you do this job if you hate it?”
    Bodie eased back into his chair. “Well, I’m hoping this madness will end soon, and Sassy will go back to being just a normal teenager. And I care about her. I was at her first birthday party, for Christ sakes. At least I’m family, she knows me. If I quit, Eben will just hire more strangers to do exactly what I’m doing. And as much as she professes to hate me right now, I feel like that would be even harder on her.”
    Jay stared at Bodie, an odd expression on his face.
    “What?” Bodie asked.
    Grinning shyly, Jay cast his eyes down. “Nothing.”
    Bodie scowled, leaning forward. “Use your words , Jay.”
    Jay looked up at him and chuckled. “I just...had you pegged wrong is all.”
    “And how did you have me pegged ?”
    Jay shrugged. “I don’t know.” He glanced at Bodie. “Silent badass, no feelings, cyborg type.”
    Bodie huffed, trying not to smile. While he liked the rapport forming between them, his instincts were at odds with themselves, and part of him felt the need to shut down and not let Jay in any closer. Jay made him feel funny, and not just in his loins. Until he sorted out just exactly what that funny feeling meant, he shouldn’t risk letting his drawbridge down. He’d trusted people completely in the past,