Page 40 of Hard Wood Daddy

And the words tighten my chest.

Not Francesca. Not the model.

Tess has been lying, right from the start. For a split second, I start to run through everything that’s happening, my traitorous mind wondering if she’s been setting me up. If maybe she’s with those Turds after all, trying to take my land.

But then Tess looks down at her shoes, hair hanging in her face. “I can explain.”

And the sound of her voice breaks through my doubts.

I know her. She doesn’t have to explain a thing, because I know who she is. Francesca or not, she’s my Tess, my perfect girl, and if she lied then she has a reason.

”I was running away.” She whispers to the ground and my heart falls to my feet. I crouch next to her, tugging her hands into mine, but she keeps her eyes away. “It was a coincidence I ended up at the entrance to the camp that day. But, I was desperate.” She looks at me with a flutter, then at Lindsay. “And you seemed nice. Safe.”

“I don’t know if there might be some fraud at hand,” Lindsay says gently, worriedly. “I really like you, Tess, but I don’t know if you should be here.”

Protectiveness unfurls in my chest. “She stays. She’s where she belongs.”

Tess shoots me a sharp look, with tears in her eyes, and push to my feet, locking my fingers onto her shoulders. She hasnothing to apologize for. I should be the one apologizing, for not being there to protect her all the times she needed me.

Lindsay’s eyes soften looking at us. There’s approval in her face, and with that look, I know I can trust her. She’s not one of them. “I’m not sure if she can stay as an employee of the college, though. It opens us up to some weird issues.”

“She stays,” I repeat with a grit of my teeth. Tess is shaking a little under my hands. I lean down so I can see her eyes and she can see mine, the way we do when we are love making. “This is your home. You will never leave here.”

Lindsay drops her head into her hands on a long sigh, looking exhausted. “Please tell me you’re over eighteen, Tess. At least give me that.”

“Yes.” Tess nods, the mist still gathering in her eyes. “I’m really sorry. I—”

“Because whatever happens, the college is going to have my ass for not having signed waivers from a semi-nude model. But at least if I can tell them you’re legally able to consent, I might escape criminal charges.”

“She said she’s over eighteen,” I growl.

Lindsay’s lips press together as she turns her hands up in a gesture of doubt. “I hate to point this out, but she has been known to lie.” I grit my teeth. “I have enough to worry about with this program already. I already don’t know where I’ll be this time next year, if I’ll even have a job, and now this?”

“That’s not her fault.”

“No, it’s yours.” Lindsay’s voice is like a whip cracking.

I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen Lindsay genuinely pissed off. It doesn’t suit her, she doesn’t do it very well, but it stings that she’s directing it at me.

And I deserve it. I sign the lease, she gets to stay. I don’t, she has to go.

It’s that simple.

I want to do it, but those two Turds have just proven one thing: I’m right to be suspicious. Because people do take advantage.

Chapter 9

Tess

Rutger takes me back to his cabin. “Stay in here,” he says. “You’ll be safe.”

“Safe from what?” I ask, following him back to the front door. Frida follows me, winding in and out between my ankles.

He seems too distracted to answer my question.

“Gotta figure out the taxes. Right now,” he mutters. “Gotta make sure I’m doing everything right.” He stops, turns to me, and cups my cheeks in his hands. “No matter what happens, you’re home with me. You know that, right?”

Bewildered, I nod. “Yes. I know. You have no idea how much of a relief that is, but I don’t understand. What taxes—”

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