Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

I probably also should have recognized Noah’s voice.

However, when I opened my eyes and saw him crouched down beside me looking concerned, all I could say was, “Which way did the poltergeist guerrilla go?”6 Luna“I’ll stay with Ariana,” I repeated, looking at the woman in question pleadingly.

“Not happening,” Noah said for the hundredth time, walking over with an ice pack in his hand.

He’d broken the news about my new living arrangements while we were waiting for the results of my latest x-ray. I’d heard it being said before, but Levi was meant to have a bitch’s back so I’d thought he would smother it and I’d stay somewhere else. Anywhere else!

Thankfully, my foot wasn’t bad, just a teeny fracture and a lot of bruising. I now had the world’s most stupid looking boot on my foot and I desperately needed to cut my toenails because upon impact, two had broken off at angles and were like sharp weapons.

Levi, the betraying bitch, had made sure I was okay and then growled something about ‘the rules’ at Noah before leaving.

“We’ve already moved your stuff over here,” Noah’s mom Erica said as she placed my gimpy booted foot on a cushion. “Plus, Ariana isn’t the best when it comes to people being in pain or needing help getting dressed,” she explained, probably trying to make me feel better. When she saw my look of horror at the thought of Noah having to help me get dressed, she quickly pressed on. “So, who’s hungry? Tacos? Fajitas?” We all obviously answered with tacos, and then she truly distracted me. “I’ll make you a Funfetti cake too, honey. I’ve put a couple of boxes of it in the cupboard because I knew it was your favorite. And when you’re in pain, you need comfort food, right?” I couldn’t believe she remembered. “I’ve got plain, pink, blue and green icing with the Funfetti sprinkles to go on top. Which would you like?” When I didn’t answer, she looked around the group of people in the room and made the choice for me. “Pink,” she nodded, and then walked toward the kitchen, tugging Tate and Archer with her to help out. She wouldn’t have tugged Ariana, she burned everything.

I stayed silent while I fought the urge to cry. It was something so silly– a box of cake mix with sprinkles perfectly dispersed throughout, but they held such happy memories for me. When I first met Levi, she’d been making a Funfetti cake. I’d never had it before, but once I’d had my first mouthful, she’d seen how much I enjoyed it and had made them for me for every birthday and special occasion afterward.

Over the last couple of years, I’d regularly thought about the cakes and teared up when I saw the boxes on the shelves on the rare occasions that my dad took me into a store with him. There was no point in a cake for any occasion though, seeing as how he didn’t even know when my birthday was.

And pink frosting on top of that rainbow dotted cake? I was totally kicking more tables.

“Don’t you dare,” Noah whispered in my ear.

How he knew what I was thinking, I didn’t know. He’d once told me never to play poker, but that was because I was kick ass at it and always beat everyone. Of course, he didn’t want to lose!

And he couldn’t stop me from kicking tables for cake. No, not just cake, the cake – a cake with rainbow sprinkles throughout it.

Then a thought hit me.

“Do we have any Cinnabon left?”

Now that was a cake. Funfetti mixed with Cinnabon.

“Sorry,” Tate stuck his head around the corner and smiled at me evilly. “I didn’t realize they were yours.”

I did my best to look unaffected by this world ending news, refusing to give him the satisfaction.

I would make him suffer. Not now, obviously, but soon.

Noah“Shout if you need anything, okay?”

I felt nervous as hell leaving her to sleep in the room next to mine. Sure, it only had a wall between the rooms, but I had so many what ifs going through my mind that my hands were sweaty with the anxiety.

“I will,” she slurred, only just conscious as she snuggled down further on the bed.

After dinner, she’d had two helpings of cake followed by a painkiller that the doctor had given her at the hospital. Doc had called in another favor and she’d been seen under a different name and treated like a VIP at the hospital.

I was relieved that it wasn’t a major break, but she was still in pain and wearing a weird boot on her little foot. Thankfully, Doc said she only had to wear it for a week and then she could move onto a bandage. It was only a small fracture, and they didn’t cast them– which seemed dumb to me. It was a fracture!