Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

Right now, I needed vanishing powers. How the hell did I get those?

“You look flushed, I told you not to go back to work so soon,” he continued, walking up to me and reached out to put his hand on my forehead.

That’s when I realized what he meant– work!

I’d started back yesterday after a lot of arguing. They’d agreed to allow me to do three hours a day and then I was to go home and rest. I felt like a baby and it pissed me off, but I’d agreed to it. Then again, I knew I wasn’t going to ‘rest,’ I was going to clean the house and spend time with Vlad who was even more protective of me now when it came to strangers.

With a sigh of relief, I gave him a smile and a shrug as I plopped down off the machine.

Desperate times, desperate measures.

I only had a week until this wire came off, and the appointment couldn’t come too soon!19 LunaExactly six days, twenty hours and nine minutes later…

I was free! The wires were finally off, I’d seen the dentist and I had not only oral freedom but a clean mouth. I had another appointment with a dental hygienist in four weeks for a deep clean, but now I could brush my teeth without getting it caught on a damn wire.

And it was awesome.

“Why don’t you look happier?” Levi asked as we walked toward his car.

Shrugging, I continued sulking as I got in and belted up, forgetting that the sun had been shining right on the leather interior, meaning the back of my legs fused themselves to the chair. It got a squeal out of me, but not the level of scream that Levi let out as he did it too. The weather was now Hades hot, a different level of hot altogether.

“He’ll be back tomorrow,” he reminded me, pulling out of the space and driving us home.

Noah, or turkey twat as I’d named him yesterday, had been called away to a site and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. He wasn’t here for me to kiss, and for some inexplicable reason, that really just hurt and pissed me off. I was being unreasonable, and I knew it. He couldn’t help it, but I was just feeling a bit sorry for myself.

“The ladies are waiting for you back at the house,” he said, talking about his sister and his cousins’ wives who had all come to visit. They were a blast and were just coming out of their own issues.

Noah had figured that it might help me get past any residual emotions attached to what I’d gone through, but honestly, I hadn’t suffered past a couple of nightmares. I was still scared of the dark, but they all made adjustments to help with it, so it wasn’t an issue. There were more lights around the land they lived on that came on when a certain level of light outside wasn’t available. There were also generators attached to every house and building with emergency lights that would come on if the power went out.

My brother was in the final stages of packing up for his move and it was all going ahead in just over a week. I was excited about him being closer after all of these years.

As we pulled up in front of the house, I saw the banner pinned over the porch. My jaw, which was still stiff and a bit sore after so many weeks of no freedom, dropped open.

It had originally said ‘Congratulations on your new job’ but someone had crossed out the word ‘your’ and added ‘blow’ in.

“You can still get a divorce, you know,” Levi muttered, staring at the sign in disgust. “I won’t disown you for it. In fact, I’d support you not wanting to be stuck with this family.”

Snorting, I got out and walked up to the door. Inside there were Funfetti cakes, Cinnabon, tacos, you name it.

There was also a shit ton of alcohol, something I’d never really had a lot of, but that I now wanted. So, I did.Three hours later…

“Okay, girl talk time,” Sonya said, pouring out another tequila shot. She was married to Noah’s cousin, Tom, and had just had a baby, so she wasn’t drinking with us but she was definitely pouring.

We’d discovered pretty much all of them waiting inside, kids included, and now I was still trying to remember names and who was who.

“Girl talk?” I’d never done this because Levi was my only close friend when I was a kid, and he hadn’t really wanted to go into this type of conversation with me, obviously.

The other men had left with the kids, but Levi and Tom had stayed behind to watch over us as we got to know each other and talk.

“Okay, on a scale like my pinky finger,” Sonya held up the finger in question. “To my entire forearm… how big is Noah?”