Going For Gold (Providence Gold 4)

“You might want to move and change your names,” she suggested.

Taking a step closer to her, Archer raised her chin with the tip of his finger. “Are you ok? You look tired, Bonnie.”

Blowing out a breath, she moved away from him. “Yeah, just got a lot going on. Y’all need a ride home?”

Not missing a beat, Archer nodded. “Yeah, that would be great.”

Just then, the voice I wanted to hear spoke up behind me. “I’m headed that way if you want me to take them instead, honey?”

Turning around, I saw Charlotte standing there with her backpack on her shoulder. With my attention not on my niece or my sister now, I saw the dark circles under her eyes. I didn’t like that she was tired or that she might not be feeling well, and my focus shifted from just needing to spend some time with her and fixing whatever it was that I’d done, to helping her get better.

Fortunately, my brother fixed the situation – for once. “I’ll go with Bonnie, you go with Charlotte.”

Not wanting to give her time to change her mind, I grabbed her hand and tugged her away from them.

Digging her heels in as much as she could, Charlotte tried to stop me. “Wait…”

Closing the distance between us in two steps, I wrapped my free arm around her waist and looked down into her big purple-blue eyes.

When we’d met, I’d thought she was beautiful, and I’d known she was special, but then we’d become friends and I’d assumed that was all we were ever going to be. But things change, feelings change, and I wanted us to be more than just friends.

I wasn’t sure if this overwhelming need I was feeling to look after her right now was associated with it, but I needed her to be ok with me.

Leaning down so that our faces were only inches apart, I whispered, “Baby, I know you’re pissed at me, and I think I know why – but I’m not certain I know why, so I might be wrong on that – but I need to spend time with you. Not speaking to you or seeing you for the last three days has been hell, and I just want to…”

“Uh, Levi,” she interrupted, but her expression was definitely softer than it had been before. “I was just going to say that my car’s parked over there,” she pointed behind us at her small blue piece of shit car.

How I’d missed the blue banger I didn’t know – well, I did, and the reason for my distraction was standing right in front of me.

“Ah, so it is.”

I went to start walking toward it, but her next words stopped me mid-step. “But I’ve missed you as well, so maybe we can go somewhere to talk?” She spoke so softly that I wasn’t sure if I’d misheard her, but I didn’t care if I had.

I wasn’t going to push her into anything, but I was going to start moving our relationship in a new direction. After months of bucket list items that either had me almost needing therapy, or trying to figure out what the hell kind of life she’d let that she didn’t even have her ears pierced, I was going to introduce her to a whole new area of life experiences.

A relationship with a Townsend.

CharlotteDriving while you’re distracted – it’s never recommended. So, how distracting is it driving with a guy who basically ticked all your boxes? The answer was very. I didn’t even know I had boxes to tick, if I was honest. Yeah, I could tell you if a guy was hot or not, I’m not that basic, but to be able to list attributes that made up my perfect man? Eh, not so much. Sheltered life, sheltered mind and all that.

The first time I’d seen Levi, I’d been a bit intimidated by him and Tate. They were both tall and good looking, but they’d also been upset, angry, and stressed because of what had happened to Lily, so when they’d turned to look at me I’d taken a step back. It had only taken me all of two minutes to realize that they were good guys, and better than most, for me to drop my defenses.

Strange, right? How can you meet someone, judge them incorrectly on sight, but see straight through them in a matter of minutes? I still wasn’t sure that I could answer that, but they had a way about them that you just knew they were great guys. Sure, they could still be dicks without meaning to be, but they went out of their way for people and I loved that about the family.

And I had a six-foot-three inch tall hunk of brooding Townsend currently sitting beside me in my crappy, tiny little car. Freaking distracting! If they put this in a driving test and you didn’t crash, they should give you a special license – one made out of gold. Hell, maybe even a trophy to glue to the front of the car so that people could see what a great driver you were.