Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

Regardless of the weather, Ariana had to run first thing in the morning and that’s what she was doing at this moment, not looking where she was going and almost knocking me off my feet.

“Hey, eyes forward,” Levi snapped as he caught me when I flew backward.

Pulling her earbud out of her ear, she glared at Levi. That changed the instant she moved her eyes in my direction.

“Sorry, girl. I was in the zone,” she explained, jogging on the spot.

“How long have you been running for?” I had to ask.

She looked a hot mess!

Looking at her watch, she grimaced. “Uh, I’m not sure I want to say,” she looked back up at me and shook her head as she said. “I didn’t sleep well, so I decided I’d run it off.”

“Run what off?” Levi interrupted before I could ask the same question.

“Just stuff,” she stopped jogging and bent her leg up behind her and stretched instead. “I’m gonna head for a shower and then I’ll meet y’all up at the offices.” She switched out the legs and stretched the other one. “I’m so sweaty, shit the amount of boob sweat is insane,” she muttered, looking down at her chest and grimacing. Obviously, when someone says that, you also just have to look at the area in question. She was right, it looked almost like the Bat-Signal on her tank top around her boobage area. “Jesus, it’s like my tits are actually crying tears!”

“And on that note…” Levi reached out and grabbed my arm, dragging us around her.

“See ya in a bit!” she called cheerily at us as she jogged away, making me laugh.

“Run, Jennaaaaay,” Levi hollered, doing his best to imitate Forrest Gump but just sounding like a gimp.

“You know she does that just to mess with you, right?” I asked Levi who was still shuddering. “You also know that I’m pretty certain that Forrest didn’t even say that in the movie?” Just to make sure he was completely informed of this morning’s fuck-ups (so far), I finished with, “And that she probably didn’t hear you seeing as how she had her earphones in?”

“I don’t care,” he muttered. “It’s just wrong!”

The office buildings were a two-story wooden ranch-style house with a wraparound porch. It was absolutely gorgeous and even had a couple of bedroom suites in it for guests, and a living room with the most comfortable couches in the history of mankind. It really wasn’t a hardship working out of the building.

Just as we got to the steps leading up to the porch, the front door opened and none other than Noah held it open.

“What took you so long?” he asked Levi, but his eyes were on me the whole time. “Are you okay?”

His constant concern for me, albeit sweet, made me also want to throttle him– slowly. It caused a lot of emotional confusion for one, and also made me feel like I was a kid at the same time.

“She’s fine,” Levi answered for me as he closed the door behind us. “We bumped into Ariana. She’s just having a shower and will be here after it. I’m just gonna go and get a coffee,” he muttered, already heading the direction of the kitchen where the best coffee in the world was waiting. I’m not sure it had actually been voted on or had received the best coffee in the world accolade, but if it came down to it, it was a no contest win. Unsurprisingly, Levi didn’t even glance back at us. He had a one-track mind when it came to that stuff.

I couldn’t miss the chance not to use the ammunition that Ariana had so kindly provided me with against her other brother.

It would have been rude of me.

So, that was why I did what I did next and smiled brightly at Noah– a genuine smile this time. “Yeah, she said she had so much sweat under her boobs it was like her tits were actually crying tears. I thought it looked like the Bat-Signal on her chest, but hey ho! Titty tears sound equally cool.”

His grimace gave me more satisfaction than I was comfortable admitting to– at least out loud.

“So,” he mumbled, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck like that would help him get rid of the mental image I’d so kindly provided him with. “I wanted to ask you a favor.”

This was a first. Noah had never asked me for a favor before. For some unknown reason, a teeny part of me wanted to tell him to shove it up his ass, but the other part of me, the bigger part, couldn’t help but sit up like an excited puppy.

Ah, fuck my life.

I felt the same smile from before taking over my face again. “Ask away.”

There was silence as he stared at my mouth making me wonder if I’d missed a spot with my toothbrush this morning.