Junkyard Dog(17)

“Ah, you do have a friend.”

“That I haven’t spoken to in four years.”

“Friends are overrated,” I say immediately.

“You always have a response.”

“Silence has never worked well for me. The day I’m speechless, call a doctor.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Tell me Moot isn’t his real name.”

“It’s Sasha. Apparently, it’s a guy name in certain parts of the world, but here in the greatest country on the planet, Sasha is a chick name. So he ended up going by Moot.”

“Why Moot?”

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you ask?”

“I’m a guy. I don’t ask questions.”

“You ask me questions.”

“Because you’re a woman and women like to think men are interested in their crap. Men know we aren’t.”

“Fascinating stuff.”

“Tell me about your kids’ dad.”

“What about him?”

“How did you hook up with the rich boy?”

“I worked in a doctor’s office, and he flirted with me. We went out a few times, and I decided to make him my wealthy sperm donor.”

“A f*cking fairytale.”

“Fairytales don’t work out for my family. We always end up with the frog that empties out our checking accounts or f*cks our best friends or is an all-around douche like Andrew.”

“Did you like Eddison at all?”

“Sure. In the beginning, but there’s something empty about him that turned me off.”

“He didn’t want kids, and you trapped him.”

“Don’t get all high and mighty with me, you big bully. I’ve seen you tell off an old, disabled woman.”

“A mean old disabled woman.”

“Still an old disabled woman.”

Hayes waves his hand around as if to erase any culpability. “You knew he didn’t want kids.”

“He said there were too many people in the world, and most were trash. I didn’t give a crap about his views. I’ve never been interested in romance. I like dating for the free meals and movies. Once things get too clingy, I bail. Romance and Wilburn don’t mix.”

“So you decided to pop out a kid with a guy you didn’t like.”

“I always wanted kids. At that point, I had a stable job and a decent apartment. I was ready to be a mom. Toby had solid genetics, and his family would provide for the kids’ education. I still wasn’t sure until he pissed me off one night. Then I decided I didn’t give a shit what he wanted.”

Hayes’s dark eyes light up. “Pissed you off how?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you. Giving you ammo to irritate me later seems dangerous.”

“Don’t be a *. Just tell me.”

Laughing at his hunger for gossip, I relent. “My brother Peat fell for a bad woman, and she treated him like shit. She beat on him, and he took it. Mostly because if he left, she'd faked suicide attempts to make him feel guilty. Then one day, she was wailing on him with a frying pan, and he lost his shit. Punched the bitch out. She called the cops, and he ended up serving three months for assault. Once he was out of prison, Peat avoided her. Moved to a new state and gave up his whole life, but he was free. Until he fell for another bad woman, who killed him when he tried to leave her. The bitch claimed self-defense and the prosecutor decided not to charge her. The f*cking whore shot him in the f*cking back, and the law believed her.”

I pause to control my temper from spiraling out of control. Every time I think of my little brother’s murder, I want to kill someone.

“Peat was covered in bruises, and she didn’t have a mark on her, but the prosecutor didn’t think she could get a conviction after Peat’s criminal past.”

I grip the table, wanting to shake the world until my brother got his f*cking justice.

“So I told that story to Toby one night at dinner, and he said, and I quote, ‘He sounds like a loser.’ I’d just told him my brother was murdered, and the pampered piece of shit responded in a f*cked up way. I decided if my feelings didn’t matter then Toby’s didn’t either.”

Hayes studies me, looking irritated. “The guy’s an *, so why not get a better man to father your children?”

“Are you deaf?” I grumble, and he smiles at my anger. “My family has bad mojo. Or shitty genetics or whatever. We can’t pick good partners. I’m unable to look at a bad man and see him for what he is. It’s why I don’t date. Toby wasn’t a good man, but he had what I wanted.”

“Fine. You’re cursed.”

“You don’t have to believe in the curse for it to be real.”

“You sound crazy. You know that, right?” he taunts.

“See, you think of the curse as a magical, paranormal type thing, but that’s not it. Some people are just doomed. They make bad choices. It’s like how addictive habits can run in a family. Maybe it really is genetic, or it might be environmental, but we always trust the wrong people. The only way to beat it is to be the *, rather than the victim.”

“Makes sense.

“If we can’t be the *, we have to be alone. If Peat stayed away from women, he’d be alive. Honey could have gone to college and gotten the career she wanted, but she kept falling for one loser after another. Now she’s married to one, and he’s locked her down with four kids.”