Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

There was a moment of awkward silence during which I continued to eat, and Levi made dramatic snuffling noises through the tissues up his nose. Eventually, it was broken by Jer.

“We need someone to supervise site three, Rich,” he explained. “There have been some issues and the current supervisor doesn’t seem to know whether he’s meant to scratch his watch or wind his ass.”

Rich swore and scratched his chin. “I can’t do it, Jer,” he huffed. “I’m on site two for the same reason for the next two weeks.”

“I can’t do it,” Levi said, sounding like a man with a cold. That totally over the top nasal voice like their nostrils and sinuses are backed up to their rectums. “I have to look after Luna.”

“I’m not a baby,” I snapped. “I can even shower and go potty all by my own self!” I made sure to say the last bit in a toddler voice, totally adding in a good measure of sarcasm. This wasn’t missed by Levi who narrowed his eyes at me (around the Kleenex).

“I’ll look after her,” Noah said from the doorway, making us all jump, apart from Rich. Yup, we were awesome at being aware of our surroundings. It was even more ironic considering that Levi had just been saying he had to look after me.

“I’m not sure…” Levi started but was soon cut off by his dad.

“Great, so that’s sorted. Luna, you’ll move into Noah’s and Levi will head to site three.”

“I need a word with Noah,” Levi said, sounding pissed and glaring at his brother. I was too busy trying to swallow around the Cinnabon that had stuck in my throat at his dad’s announcement to think anything of it.

Seeing my predicament, Jer gently pulled me out of my chair and led me in the direction of the kitchen, closing the door behind him. At least, I assume it was because of my predicament that he did this. It could also have been to give his sons some privacy for whatever their problem was.

“Let’s go get a drink,” he suggested.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure that the drink would do me any good. I was pretty certain I was a second away from dying.

Almost as if he could read my mind, he added, “You’re still getting some oxygen around it, so you’re okay. And, I took one of those first aid courses, so if it gets worse, I’ll just do the squeezing thing and you’ll be fine.”

The squeezing thing? Holy shit, I was gonna die. I’d survived my dad’s bullshit, only to become the victim of cinnamon roll consumption.

What were the chances?

Probably the same as being called Rico Suave.

Or Clark Kent.

Or Harry Potter.

Or Percy Jackson.

Or Christian Grey.

Or Juan King.

Either way, it was just downright bad luck because from the day it got attention everyone would reply with, “No way!”

And now I’d be known as the Luna who died eating a cinnamon treat.

I’d rather be one of the other guys, at least they got a movie!5 NoahAs soon as the door closed behind Dad and Luna, I braced myself for Levi’s new inquisition.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he growled, pulling the Kleenex out of his nostrils and throwing them in the trash. “Didn’t we just finish talking about this?”

Sighing, I walked further into the room and sat down on the couch.

“Look, she’s been gone for a long time. Back then she was too young, way too young. But now?” I looked up at him and held his eyes as I said the words that I wasn’t going to be taking back, “Things have changed. I already told you that you needed to let it go.”

He waited, digesting what I’d said before he lost his shit. “Things have changed? Enlighten me how they’ve changed, Noah. From where I’m standing, nothing has changed at all. She’s still Luna. In fact, there’s an even bigger reason now for nothing to change. She’s been through hell for almost four years, man. Do you know she can’t be in the dark? She freaks if the room doesn’t have the lights on at night.”

I ground my teeth listening to him and made a mental note to make sure that the lights never went off in any room she was in. Fuck, I’d already hated her father for enough reasons, this just made me want to bathe him in acid.

“And the other day I asked her to get something out of a cupboard in the hallway. She opened the door and wouldn’t go in. He’s left her terrified of small spaces and the dark. She’s only told me so much about what happened to her, Noah. Can you imagine what she’s leaving out that’s made her as scared as she is of relatively small things?”

I didn’t want to imagine what those reasons were. I didn’t want her to have experienced anything bad in her life.