Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

“Aw, you’re always so sweet,” she said to the lying shit bag. “I’m okay, thank you. It was a blast finally riding again.”

“I’ll bet,” he replied, walking slightly closer to us. “We’ve missed you around here something fierce.” That bit might not be a lie, but the middle finger he was discretely flashing me at the side of his leg said it all.

“Cockblocker,” I mouthed, my eyes narrowed on him.

His smug smile quickly dropped when I used the napkin still in my hand to wipe inside Bogey’s jowls and then threw it at his head. Fortunately for me, and very, very unfortunately for him, it hit him on the corner of his mouth making him freak out and run to the lake and wash his face.

It may have been an overreaction when he gargled with the water, but who could say.

“That wasn’t nice,” Luna hissed at me.

“He’s not nice!” I replied, sounding only slightly childish. Okay, I sounded fucking petulant, but for the love of all things holy– the guy got an A+ in being an asshole. Literally! On two of his report cards, his teachers had even said something to that effect, and the only reason it wasn’t on all of them was because my parents wised onto it and made sure to have monthly meetings with his teachers. They were worried that if it made it onto his transcripts, he’d never get into college and leave their house. They didn’t actually say the last bit, but we all knew they were thinking it.

Rolling her eyes at me, she looked back over to Archer who was now walking toward us and glaring.

“I was just going to add when I was so rudely interrupted,” he growled, his eyes focused on me. “You might want to think about getting Luna home.”

I wouldn’t have jumped up the way that I did if he hadn’t tugged his earlobe, using the signal we’d come up with if there was an emergency or problem.

“Yeah, good idea.” I started picking things up and putting them back in the basket with Luna helping me.

Passing it over to Archer to put on the ATV, I moved Luna quickly over to her horse and lifted her up onto the saddle.

All the way home I gave her reassuring smiles as we followed behind Archer and Bogey. Inside I could feel the acid eating away at my stomach, though, as I went through every scenario I could.

I had a feeling that this involved Luna’s father.

Time was up!9 LunaI didn’t have much experience with men. That was a depressing thought given how old I was. A twenty-one-year-old virgin. Gross! Well, maybe not to some, but to me it was.

Growing up with an addict as a mother and an asshole addict for a father, I hadn’t really been able to focus on boys. Add on Levi’s close position in my life, and no boy would even come near me.

Then I’d been dragged away from that safety by Dad, and any man who’d come near me had made me panic. I wouldn’t put it past my father to have sold me, or certain parts of me, even before I knew what he was up to. Plus, all the men who knew my dad were dirty and gross.

Now, I was back surrounded by the Townsend family and all of that had changed. The close proximity was curing me of so many psychological issues that hadn’t really stood out to me as actual issues until I’d been removed from my father’s toxic bullshit. Enclosed spaces and the dark were still an issue, and I would never admit it, but I was afraid to be alone in case he took me again.

I had also noticed that I looked to the men I trusted whenever a new male came around, watching for their physical and emotional reactions to the person so I could decide on my own. If they were calm and greeted them in a relaxed and trusting way, I was more relaxed too. So far, the other possibility hadn’t reared its head because everyone who worked here or came around was meant to, so I had no idea what I’d do if the opposite happened.

And finally, I was blatantly feeling attraction to a male– a specific male. That had been something that happened as soon as I’d seen him again, but at no point since had I frozen or been scared of something happening between us. Obviously, I was worried about my lack of experience, but other than that, nope not one problem to be seen.

I was currently standing in the man in question’s kitchen while he stood outside talking to Archer. Looking around, I took in the space. Noah’s house was modern but had a slightly country style look, too.

He’d mixed the older building with a nice clean modern finish. The outside had elements of wood paneling mixed with a slightly off-white brick and plaster build. There were big windows and sliding glass doors that were modern, but that suited the classic aspects. They were designed to keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They also canceled out a majority of the noise which I thought was pretty damn cool.