Mad Gold (Providence Gold 2)

“Okay, okay,” Luna growled, re-entering the room. “We get it.”

Suffice it to say, she didn’t relieve me of her daughter as she made herself comfortable on a recliner five billion miles away from me.

“It’s just shit,” Ariana mumbled, squeaking the giraffe.

“Does this have anything to do with Parker?” Luna asked, finally seeing how uncomfortable I was and getting up to relieve me of the baby.

“Who’s Parker?” I was certain I’d heard the name in passing, but I didn’t think I’d met him yet.

“He’s the best friend of one of the cousins,” Luna told me as she put her daughter in her bassinet and then sat down. “He’s a doctor, and during a hospital visit where Sonya found out she was pregnant, it was decided that Ariana would make Parker’s life hell as payback for some comments he made.” I chanced a glance at the woman in question who was staring into space with a pissed off look on her face. “Anyway, fast forward and she’s been making good on that, however I think her feelings toward the good doctor may have changed slightly.”

“He went on his fifth date with the same woman,” Ari whispered, sounding close to tears.

“Does he know how you feel about him?” Luna asked as she walked over and hugged her.

“How do you know?” I asked because it seemed cruel as hell to actually text someone you were going on a date with a woman, let alone date number five.

“She tagged him in about thirty-three pictures on Facebook.”

“What were they doing during the date?” I asked curiously. If it was something like bungee jumping, then I could understand posting some photos. It all depended on the context.

“He was taking her out for dinner at the diner where they live and he got called into work,” she sniffled as she tapped on the screen of her phone before holding it up to show us. “This was what she posted.”

On the screen was a pretty blonde holding a salad as she sat in a car. When Ari swiped, the photo changed to her taking a mouthful of the salad. As she continued to swipe the photos changed to her pouting, doing the peace sign, lying with the seat reclining and her arm over her head while she looked off camera dramatically, then she was nibbling her fingernail, then she was hugging what looked like a sweater…

“Sweet Jesus,” Luna breathed. “Are those his shorts?”

“Yeah,” Ariana nodded forlornly. “He wears them to the gym.”

“Gross!” Luna gagged.

“How do you know that?” I asked at the same time.

“We’ve worked out together in the past,” Ari shrugged, still looking at the screen and swiping her thumb across it.

When she turned it around, I couldn’t help the burst of laughter that came out of me. In it, the woman was wearing a man’s sweater and was lying down in the back of the car. In the corner of the photo was a pair of dirty socks – obviously dirty socks – and the sole of them was touching her hair.

“Now that’s gross!” I chuckled. “Has he commented on them?”

Frowning, Ari went back through the photos. “She’s tagged him in every single one of them,” she pointed out. “Oh shit, in this one, he says he’s sorry, but he’s stuck with a patient and he’ll call her another time.”

“Was it on the same day?” Luna and I leaned forward to try to see the screen.

“Yup, and… oh shit,” she started giggling, her previously depressed state now forgotten. “She posted the first photo at twelve-fifteen. His comment came at seven-eighteen!”

Holy hell, she waited over seven hours for this guy?

Taking the phone from her sister-in-law’s hand, Luna flicked the screen with her thumb and then grunted. “Yeah, she posted right after it she was going home because her ‘date’ – and yes she used quotation marks – had been a dud. Apparently Parker’s a workaholic…”

“He’s a doctor!” Ari cut in. “He has to put his work first.”

“You know,” I spoke up, certain I had some useful advice for her. “If you get a vibrator, you could call it Parker.”

“Well now, that’s awful kind of you,” a deep voice sounded from behind us, making us all jump and scream.

Spinning around with my asshole in my throat, because at this point we’d gone well past it being my heart that had jumped into it, I saw a tall man standing beside a group of guys I didn’t recognize. Well, until I managed to swallow and shift my asshole out of where it was lodged. With every swallow, it shifted further down until it was near enough to its original location. This had given me time to notice some similarities with a family I did know– apparently, I was face to face with some of the Townsends cousins.

And Parker himself!

“Gotta go,” Ari squeaked, and then ran out the door leaving us with a wall of Townsend.