The three of us are sitting in the kitchen, and I know now is the time to talk to them about sex, but first thing’s first.

“Cell phones!” I reach my hand out to the girls, and they both stare back at me as if I’m speaking a foreign language.

“Dad, you can’t do that!” Rianna argues. “I didn’t even do anything wrong.”

“Yes, you did. Having a boy in your room without asking and doing God only knows what late at night is not okay with me. You’re both grounded for a week.”

“A week!”

“Yes, a week. Now give me your phones.” They don’t budge. “Fine, I’ll just call the cell phone company and have them shut off, permanently.” Reluctantly, they both hand over their electronics.

My skin crawls as I consider how to start the actual conversation I need to have with them. These are my little girls, I can’t imagine them ever being intimate, nor do I want to. So, I do what any rational father would do. I chicken out, leaving them alone.

I head into my bedroom to try to figure out what the fuck I’m going to do with them, and grab my phone.

“What’s up?” Chandler answers on the first ring.

“Oh, man, where do I begin?”

“That bad?” he asks, referring to Maisy. I texted him from the school and filled him on what had happened.

“Yup, she got suspended for three days, and I grounded them both for a week.”

“Damn, you’re a hard-ass.”

“She’s lucky the parents aren’t pressing charges.”

“True, you wanna meet for a drink and chill out?”

I look at the clock, it’s a quarter past seven, and I know the girls will avoid me for the rest of the night, so why the hell not. “Sure, where at?”

“Pasqual’s?”

“Okay, I’ll head there now.” We hang up, and I grab a twenty from my wallet before heading out of my room. The girls aren’t in the kitchen any longer, so I go into the basement, and they both look at me from the couch with hate written all over their faces. Well, they can hate me all they want.

“I have a meeting tonight, but here’s some cash if you want to order dinner.”

“We don’t have phones, Dad!” Rianna says in a condescending tone.

“There’s a house phone and plenty of delivery menus on the fridge. No boys, you got it?”

Rianna rolls her eyes, and I wish I knew where our relationship took such a wrong turn. After Georgia left, we were so close. We couldn’t breathe if we weren’t together. Recently, it seems we can’t breathe when we are together, and I have no clue what changed things. But I guess that is part of raising a girl, a teenage girl.

“Okay,” Maisy answers. It’s the best I’m going to get, so I leave them in peace and head to meet Chandler. Neither of them bothers to say bye. I know as angry as the girls are at me, they are still way better off than I was at their age.

I was doomed before I even had a chance, which makes me think about Georgia. When I met her, I was convinced she was going to be the one to save me. She made me feel alive. The woman was so goddamn beautiful and vibrant that she distracted me at a fight and I almost got knocked out.

But I recovered—like I always do—and ended the fight so I could meet her. A month later, she was pregnant with Rianna. We were only eighteen, and the rest is history. She finally gave me a purpose. Looking back on things, I know the girls are what kept us together for as long as we were. Well, for as long as Georgia could handle it before leaving.

Our relationship wasn’t all bad, as fucked up as it was, we had some really good times. I loved her unconditionally, drinking and all. I just wish she’d loved me the same way and that I wasn’t second to her drinking. I’m not too blind to my own faults. I may have loved her with every breath I took, but I still put her second to my fighting, which made me just as bad as she was, or worse. Since it took her leaving to get me to stop fighting.

When I walk into Pasqual’s, Chandler already has a table in the bar area. I wave to the hostess as I go to greet him.

“What up, bitch?”

I chuckle and give him a friendly handshake. “Not much, what’d I miss today?”

He looks off, pondering my question, and then says, “Veronica gave me an amazing blow job in the conference room.”

“What the fuck? We just hired her.”

“I know, isn’t she hot?”

“You gotta stop banging all of our receptionists.”

“I didn’t bang her,” he says as the waitress brings the drinks he already ordered for us.

“Close enough.” As she sets a third drink down across from me, I know Mia will be joining us shortly.

Shit, why didn’t I ask if she was going to be here?

When she was in college out of state, I never had to worry about it, but now that she’s back in Boston, I guess it’s going to be a problem. She’s gonna hate to see me.

“You didn’t want to bang her, did you?”

“Who?” I look up at him, pulling my eyes away from the third drink.

“Veronica, dumbass.”

“No! So, did you bang her?”

“She sucked me off and then laid me back on the table and rode me, I didn’t ask her to. Technically, I didn’t bang her, she banged me.”

I take in a huge sip of my whiskey and can barely swallow it before Mia walks through the door, drawing all my attention—and that of every other man—toward her. I don’t look at them staring, though. I already know it will just piss me off and likely land me in a fight I don’t need.

“Mia!” Chandler hollers and waves her over to us. She smiles until she sees me, and that look changes.

Goddamn it!

As she walks to us, I swear it’s as if she’s floating. Her long, light brown hair bounces with each step, and her plump tits move in sync with her. I swallow, willing my cock to stay down. It was already pulsating during the interview today.

“Hey, Mia,” I say quietly, sounding and feeling a lot like a pussy.

“What’s up, sis?” Chandler stands and gives her a hug before they both take a seat. She doesn’t even offer me a handshake.

“How are you guys?” she asks, and I nod, feeling like a bobble head.

“I’m good, Roan . . . not so much. His girls are a mess. I know he said he doesn’t need your help, but after today, I really think you should help him out.”

“I can’t help him,” she says firmly and presses her hand against her chest. Her fingers against her skin remind me of how good they felt around my cock.

God, what I’d do to feel them again.

“Sure you can. Tell her what happened, Roan,” Chandler says. The waitress walks by, and I order another drink along with a round of shots. There is no way I’m getting through the night sober. Hell, I could use more than a shot right now, but I’ll take what I can get.