Page 4 of Knotted their Beauty

“I’m walking up to a hostel three blocks down from here. I’ll cover you for a night and then you can figure out your next move.”

Can I afford the twenty dollars to help her out? Not really, but I promised myself I wouldn’t look away from someone who needed help. This is how I want to atone for my family’s sins because I’m stained with them. I’ll skip a meal if I have to.

I have to do this, though.

“What do you want?” Paula asks softly.

“Company for the walk,” I grunt, already continuing my descent down the stairs. I won’t beg her to come with me. There’s only so much I’m willing to do, and my need to keep moving is riding me hard.

“Okay.” Paula hurries after me as my longer legs outpace her.

I begin to make a list of things to do, one of which includes looking for new jobs that include boarding. I’ll cook, clean, and do everything short of being someone’s fuck toy if it means better money and less stress.

Now, to hope something like that even exists.

Chapter

One

VES

“She’s not coming.”

I frown as I pour coffee into my thermos. “She’ll be here, Cali. I’m sure she’s just running behind.”

She better fucking be here.

I just paid her, handed the damn check over yesterday, and that idiot didn’t say one word about not showing up today. As a matter of fact, Morgan didn’t say shit to me, just dropped Cali off, took her paycheck, and practically ran down the hall toward the elevator.

Maybe that was my sign.

The bimbo doesn’t usually run out of my apartment like her ass is on fire, but she did yesterday, and I can’t help but think there might be one or two reasons for it.

“Morgan isn’t coming back, Daddy. I heard her on the phone with her mom.”

“Eavesdropping isn’t very polite,” I mumble as I give her my back, scowling until my face hurts because my daughter is probably right. “We’ve talked about that.”

“Well, maybe, but she told her mom you broke up.”

I cringe as I screw the lid on too tight, knowing damn well I’m not going to be able to get my thermos open once I’m at the office.

That’s one reason Morgan won’t be coming back.

She’s fucking delusional and fabricated some story about the two of us dating, and despite the number of times I’ve attempted to set her straight, that girl didn’t seem to get it. Until recently, anyway. As if living her own warped narrative wasn’t bad enough, two days ago, I got home from work late, so late I asked her to stay and put Cali to bed for me and when I walked into my apartment, that twenty-year old beta was naked as the day she was born, spread eagle and waiting for me in my den.

Needless to say, I lost my fucking shit.

Not only was my daughter in the room down the hall and could have walked in on that mess at literally any second, I’ve made it abundantly clear that nothing was ever going to happen between us. The last fucking thing I want is to come home from one of the longest days I’ve had in a while only to find some random vagina gaping at me from across the room. It was like staring into the Grand Canyon. Her legs were so wide I bet if they were still open when I started yelling, there would have been a goddamn echo.

Besides, I’m done with that kind of shit.

I’ve written off relationships, I don’t have time for no strings attached or a friends-with-benefits situation. I think the last time I had sex was when Cali was conceived, and I can’t even remember the last time I jerked off, that’s how little I think about that sort of thing. And while she is kind of pretty, Morgan is not my type, if I was inclined to have one. I don’t even know what my type would be at this point, I just know it isn’t someone twenty years younger than me, or a person who’s playing with a few cards short of a full deck.

I’ve been there before, I have no plans on going back.

Dating is out of the question, relationships even more so.

Kind of hard to get back in the game when the last partner I had ran me over with her goddamn car and tried to kidnap our daughter.