Page 41 of Whip’s Wisdom

I got home from my shift at the hospital and am carrying my books inside when my phone begins to ring. I hurry to unlock the door and put my stuff down. Pulling my phone out of my pocket I see it is my dad, speak of the devil.

“Hey daddy.”

“Hey baby girl. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing alright, just got home from the hospital. Got a shit load of stuff to do for school. What are you doing?”

“I just stopped at a rest area and thought I would give you a call to check in and see how you are doing. How are the kids?”

“Getting big, did you get the last bunch of pictures I sent you?”

“Yeah, I did. I miss them like crazy, they are getting huge. You’d never believe they were not even 5 pounds when they were born. That they are going to be one in a few months.”

“Yeah, are you going to be able to be home for their birthday? We’d love to see you since you won’t be home for the holidays.”

I hear him sigh into the phone as I walk into the kitchen of our home and look through everything to see what I want to make for dinner. Knox is bringing the triplets home for the club daycare when he is done with church.

“You know I want to baby girl, but I don’t think I will be able to. I’ve got a lot of places to go and a lot of stops to make.”

“Well where are you even heading? From the sounds of it you haven’t been to one of your chapters yet.”

“No, I wanted to head straight to California. I’ve been stopping along the way to see other clubs. Friends that I haven’t seen in awhile.”

“Well why couldn’t you have stopped at other Chaos chapters on the way to California. I mean it doesn’t seem right for you not to stop at the other places if you are stopping and staying at other clubs anyway.”

“It’s a surprise visit for Rooster, I don’t want word to get around that I am headed that way. But don’t worry, I’m being safe. You’ll send me lots of pictures of Thanksgiving and Christmas? I know I won’t be there, but I want to feel like I am.”

“Daddy, why can’t you just fly in for the holidays? It’s the first holiday without mama, we should all be together.”

“Baby girl, I know. But I can’t okay. I need to be away so I can focus on something other than the fact it is Thanksgiving or Christmas or even anyone’s birthday. It’s too much right now. She should be here for all this and it is not fair that she isn’t. I’m working through shit on the road baby girl and I need you to be okay with letting me do that.”

I sigh and look at the counter.

“I guess, but we will miss you. I mean we already miss you. It's been two months since you left. I hope that you didn’t leave because Sophie was being a bitch.”

“I didn’t and don’t fucking ever think that. I needed to leave. I have shit I have to work out for myself. I had always planned on leaving after Sophie had the babies. So don’t blame your sister. I can handle whatever she is going to throw my way. Have you guys decided where you’re doing Thanksgiving this year?”

“Well, the Untamed guys are doing it here. They understand that Knox has family in another club and that their president won’t be here. So their VP is going to make sure they stay in line. We are going to all go to Luca’s for Thanksgiving. The Chaos brothers are just doing their own things this year. They haven’t even really been able to bring themselves to do Friday dinners.”

“Well, I hope one day we can all do family dinners and group holidays again. It just won’t look the same since your mama used to take charge of all those things. Luca needs to get himself an ol’ lady.”

I chuckle, “You didn’t know Luca has been kind of sort of seeing Ruby from Daisy’s Ink?”

He laughs, “No he failed to mention that. I hope he’s not messing with one of your sister’s employees if it’s not serious.”

“From what I heard he hasn’t even slept with her yet and they have been getting to know each other since he ran into her when she started there. He also hasn’t been with anyone else since he met her. So I guess I would say that’s serious. He wants to wait until he gets his divorce from Tasha, now that he knows where she is. He had papers sent to her, so now he is just waiting on her to sign them.”

All of the sudden there is a knock at the door, which is weird because no one really comes here if Knox isn’t home and Knox has a key.

“Hey dad, I’ve got to go, someone is at the door.”

“Peyton, check the security feed before you answer that door and you keep me on speaker phone. I’m not getting off this phone until you know no one is a threat to you.”

I pull up the security feed at the front door and standing there is someone I do not know.

“It’s an older woman, maybe about your age or older I don’t know. She almost looks like she’s strung out or something. I don’t know how she got on the property. I’ll have to shoot a message to Knox.”

“Okay, well I’m staying on the phone.”