Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

I got that he loved her and that it was only platonically, but I was done.

“I wouldn’t ever do that,” I replied firmly. “Like I’ve said, years ago I couldn’t even think down that route because she was way too young. When there’s the age difference we have, even thinking or planning anything in that way makes you feel dirty, so I never did. I knew she was beautiful, I knew she was very special, and I loved her in my own way, but I wouldn’t have ever touched her or done anything about it, because - until she reached eighteen it was just wrong. I’m older than y’all, what if people had found out? I’d have been looked at like a dirty pervert by anyone who wasn’t family.” Levi nodded, realizing that this was true. “I’d also have felt like a dirty pervert for even considering anything like that with her.”

And this was true, she’d been a member of the family I loved and my little brother’s best friend and that was all I was willing to feel toward her.

“Then that asshole took her, and I worried about her constantly. I also kicked myself for not making a move or for never insisting she live with us so that I could keep her safe. I have a lot of anger toward myself because of that. But, she’s here, she’s safe, she’s staying safe, and she will never live that life again. I will treat her like a princess, I’ll show her how priceless she is, I’ll do anything and everything to make her smile every day…”

“Including growing a vagina from the sounds of things,” Levi snorted, looking way too smug about all of this suddenly. “I never had you pegged as a pussy or a chick flick cliché.”

“Fuck you,” I snapped.

“Well,” he clapped his hands together and then stood up. “I’ve got to go and pack,” he chuckled as he made his way to the door. Just as he opened it, he turned his head around and added, “And you have to go and break the news to her about her new living arrangements.”

It took a second for his words to sink in, but when they did, I panicked.

“Wait, what do you mean? She already knows!”

“No, she probably thinks I’ve talked you out of it.”

“You’re telling her!” Yeah, I was panicking. The way he was smiling made me think this could really go horribly wrong.

He didn’t answer my last demand. He didn’t actually need to. His laughter said it all.

Luna“…Taint!” Levi’s brother Tate said, looking pissed.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed hard as I was swallowing a mouthful of apple juice, resulting in some of it shooting up into my brain and feeling like it was flooding my ear canals.

He’d been telling me about his cousin Tom’s problems. They lived just under two hours away from Gonzales County and apparently Tom had recently had issues that had resulted in his now wife being kidnapped. It was part of an ongoing bunch of crap from the sounds of it.

Bombs, bullets, weird letters, a perverted sounding guy who was obsessed with that branch of Townsends… It sounded like the plot of a movie.

When Tate had gone with the family’s friend, Tony, to rescue Tom’s girlfriend, Sonya, Tate had a face full of camouflage and Sonya had thought he’d said his name was Taint.

He obviously still hated this name.

I was obviously going to call him it from now on.

“And she kept making Twilight references as well,” he sounded completely disgusted by this.

“Why?” I had to ask, I really did.

“Tony only had shiny eye make-up on hand apparently. So, when we did the camouflage on our faces, it might have…” he looked off to the side and winced, “sparkled slightly.”

Thankfully, this time when I laughed, I wasn’t drinking. It still felt like I had some juice sloshing around inside my head, but I didn’t care as I held my stomach and bent over wheezing.

“And don’t get me started on her driving. She made you look like a driving genius instead of an incompetent boob with no hand-eye coordination.”

“Hey!” I might have been able to argue in my defense, if I hadn’t at that exact moment knocked my apple juice off the table when I went to pick it up and then whacked my hand off the table when I went to catch it. Again, something that many people have done, except in my case the apple juice had fallen to my left, and I’d hit my left hand on the right side of the table– even crossing my arms to do this for some stupid reason. How I managed to hit the opposite side of the table, we’ll never know. I had a knack for doing the impossible.

“I rest my case!” the smug bastard smirked, crossing his arms. “And this is why we can’t have nice things.”