As he stepped back, Archer and Levi looked at each other nervously. “Do we release her on three?” Archer asked him, looking around where we were, like he was looking for an exit.
When he’d brought her in, Parker had put her in one of the private examination rooms, so it was a small enclosed space we were standing in. Basically, this meant they were going to have to run for their lives out the door and far away from the building because if she decided to get revenge, they didn’t have much space to avoid her in.
“Uhm…” Levi hummed, copying what his brother had just done and looking around us. “I think last time we let go of the legs on two, and the top on three.”
“Why do you get to run away first?”
“Because I’m the one closest to her ass. Do you know how sick this is?” Levi asked, leaning away from the area in question.
Shaking my head, I walked around the arguing brothers and the woman who was silently fuming, and stood in front of them. “Both of you release her on three,” I ordered. Not giving them a chance to argue about it, I started counting. “One… two…three.”
As they let go, I slid the baby into her aunt’s arms, trying not to laugh when they tripped over each other as they ran out the door, leaving Parker alone in the room with us.
“Ari…” he began, but she wasn’t in the mood to hear whatever he had to say.
Keeping her eyes on Rebel, she said in a cute tone, “I really wouldn’t if I was you. I know where all of you live, and you’ve got to fall asleep at some point, so don’t give me a reason to focus all of my anger on causing you pain instead of spreading it equally across the three of you.” Then she added, “I’ll have to see how I feel later.”
And, not looking at him once, she turned and walked out, stopping only to pick up the set of car keys on the floor.
Looking over my shoulder at Parker, I was surprised to see him smiling at the empty doorway. “Damn, she’s a firecracker, isn’t she?”
He sounded almost proud when he said it, which confused me. “You could say that. And that’s a good thing?”
Looking at me now, he grinned widely. “Yes, it is. Can you imagine living with someone who was boring? No, she’s absolutely perfect.” Not knowing what to say, I just nodded in agreement with him, hoping that he survived whatever it was he had planned for the two of them.
As he walked toward the doorway, he said over his shoulder, “And those were the keys to Levi’s truck. With the mood she’s in, I can’t wait to see what she does to it.”
Now that snapped me out of my funk!
Chapter Four
Levi
So it would be an understatement to say that the trip to the hospital to see Charlotte hadn’t gone as I’d expected. I hadn’t gotten to speak to her, I hadn’t been able to make sure we were ok, my sister was pissed off at us now, my truck was missing, and I had a sinking feeling that it was my pissed off sister who had the vehicle.
“Do we call the police?” Archer asked, looking at the compact car which was now parked in the space my truck had been in.
Scratching my chin – and making a mental note to put some beard oil on my beard after my shower tonight – I mulled it over. “Probably best not to piss her off even more by getting her arrested,” I muttered. “We’ll have to call Mom or Dad and see if they can come get us.”
He was silent for a second, and then mumbled, “I’m not sure I want to go home. She’s mean when she’s pissed.”
“Who’s pissed,” a voice asked behind us, making us both jump until we realized who it was. Actually, that was until Archer realized who it was, and turned quickly to look at her.
“Hey, Bonnie,” he said softly. Smooth!
“Hey,” she replied, and then looked at me. “Who’s pissed at you?”
Here’s the thing about Townsend men – we have a knack of pissing women off without meaning to. In fact, most of the time we don’t even know how we did it, which is where it becomes a problem.
And standing in front of us, ignoring Archer, was the perfect example. Mind you, there was another perfect example inside the hospital right now, but I think I knew what I’d done to her, so that might not count.
“Ariana,” I explained, shoving my hands in my pockets and rocking back on the heels of my boots. “We held her so that Parker could give her a tetanus shot, and now she’s got my truck.”
Her wince didn’t put my mind at ease. Ariana had been terrified of needles since she was a baby. Every time she needed a vaccination, we’d all had to go to help hold her down for it. On the occasions when she’d needed stitches, the doctors had tried to get us to leave, and had then begged us to come back when they’d gotten a taste of her phobia.
I remembered her running past us one time, with her gown open at the back showing everyone her booty. We had to chase her around the ER for thirty-five minutes just to get five stitches above her right butt cheek.
I can’t remember how she’d injured herself to begin with, but I remembered having to run with my hands over my eyes because I didn’t want to see her ass again.
I’d ended up almost knocking myself out on a pillar, Tate had sprained his wrist, Archer bruised his shin on a table, Noah ended up knocking over a magazine rack and almost breaking his neck when his foot got stuck in the wire frame, and Dad went home with bruises all over his arms where she’d bitten him. Stories like that traveled, and Bonnie had obviously heard them.
“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 sp
oke 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.
Charlotte
Driving 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.
Needing to break the silence, I went with the first question that hit me. “So… how’s the weather just now?”
The sharp rapping of big raindrops on the window and the screeching of the wipers, meant that the answer to that question was obvious. With a wince, I shuffled around in my seat, wishing I could rewind the last two minutes.
“Really?” he asked incredulously. “You want to discuss the weather?”
He had a point.
“I’m nervous. You’re sitting there all…” I waved my hand at him, not taking my eyes off the road. “And I’m sitting thinking that if I had a knife I could cut the tension in this car. Like slice it finely like a sushi chef.”
Nervous rambling, it makes verbal vomit come out of all of us.
As the silence stretched on, I began to drum my hands on the wheel. It probably wasn’t the best idea seeing as how the car was almost being held together with tape and there was every possibility that the wheel could pop off it was that bad, but if that happened with any luck I’d be thrown from the vehicle when we crashed, and could run off into the woods to live off the land and disappear forever. Nary a Levi or a Townsend in sight to remind me of this moment. Maybe that’s what the fortune chick meant?
I could live in hope.
Focusing even more on the road, I almost missed the turning onto the land where the Townsend’s houses were. It wasn’t a ranch or a commune and it wasn’t a housing development. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what they even called it, so I just called it Townsend Central.
Jerking the wheel, I took the turn onto the road that led through it, wincing when we hit a pothole and then another one a short distance away from it.
“Shit, they were meant to be fixing this,” he sighed, reaching up the grab the weird handle above his head.
On the next pothole, there was a thud, and when I turned to look at him, he was staring at the handle - except now he was holding it in front of his face, when it had been attached to the vehicle only seconds before.
Did I really need to point out my car was a piece of shit to him? No, but I did anyway, making sure to phrase it as positively as possible. “This car’s old. In fact, I think it’s mainly running on a wing and a prayer right now. Just as well it was only the weird handle and not a door or the engine, right?”
Unfortunately, at that moment, we passed by his parent's house and the security lights turned on, lighting up the inside of the car. This meant that I could clearly see him gaping at me out of the corner of my eye, but decided to just carry on like I hadn’t until we got to his house.
Pulling up, I pressed on the brakes, wincing when a metallic screech followed it. It liked to do that in wet weather… and dry weather… basically it made noises in all weather, I don’t think it was picky about what exactly was going on with it.
Cutting the engine, I turned to look at him, smiling widely and waiting for him to move. I knew we needed to talk, but after that drive I felt like I had someone playing on drums inside my chest. It probably wasn’t best to conduct a normal, rational, mature conversation when that was going on, right? That was my excuse anyway.
The confidence that I’d had when I’d said we needed to talk was gone, and in its place was the Charlotte who just wanted to go home, sit on the couch, and eat chips. Or maybe ice cream. Ok, I’d go home and eat whatever I could get my hands on, and if it meant crossing food groups, I was ok with that.
Hoping he’d changed his mind too, I waited. Eventually he closed his mouth, and his expression shifted as he looked at me. “Mm, no, we’re still talking. Let’s go.”
And proving that he already knew me well, he plucked the keys from the ignition and got out of the car, leaving me no option but to follow behind him.
Awesome!
* * *
Ten minutes later…
Things I’d rather be doing than drying off while I waited to have the conversation with Levi Townsend.
Plucking the hair out of my legs with tweezers, one by one.
Condition each strand of my hair individually.
Getting the Declaration of Independence tattooed over my back.
Learning how to crochet.
Learning how to crochet plucked leg hair into blankets for fairies.
Walking through snake-infested water trying to find fairies.
Giving someone an enema.
Cleaning out an infected wound with a fairy sized swab.
“Swear to God, Charlotte, if you don’t come out and sit down, I’m coming in there,” Levi called through the closed door of the bathroom, pulling me away from my listing.
Throwing down the towel, I pulled on the sweater he’d passed me when we’d gotten through the door, seeing as how we were both drenched from the five second run from the car to the house.
I expected him to be sitting down and waiting for me, so when I came face to face with his chest, I jumped and an embarrassing squeak came out.
Pressing a hand to my chest, I tipped my head back to glare up at him. “Must you do that?”
He knew what I meant. He had a habit of appearing – yes, appearing – when I least expected it. I’d even looked up those kids shoes that squeak when you take a step, but they didn’t come in ‘big ass, hairy man feet’ size.
Rolling his eyes, he bent over and pressed his shoulder into my stomach, then lifted back up again with me now over it.
“Let’s go,” he muttered, walking us down the hallway and back through to the living room.
Some women might have been offended by this, but not me. Straightening my body as much as I could with my arms out wide, I started singing the chorus of the Foo Fighter’s Learn To Fly. When life gives you lemons, you have to make the most of it.
I was just heading into one of the verses when he bent down and gently dropped me on the couch, and then stood back up with his hands on his hips.
“You’re such a dork.”
Yes, yes I was, but that had been fun. That’s not to say that I wasn’t still nervous and anxious, but when you get th
e chance to do something like that why not take it? What do you really have to lose? I’d spent years being suffocated by my parents, not even making decisions about my own life, so enjoying my freedom was a big deal. If that enjoyment came in the form of me being a dork and singing, why the hell not. Not that he’d said the words as an insult considering that his lips were twitching, and if I could carry him he’d probably do something similar.
That’s why I shrugged, not taking even a little bit of offense at what he’d said. “Yup, I am, but if you ever decide to do that again, just to say – I’m totally onboard with it.”
For the first time in what felt like months even though it had only been days, he laughed in front of me, the deep husky noise making goose bumps pop up on my arms. “I’ll make sure I carry you as often as I can.”
We’d had a lighthearted friendship since day one, and I hated how tense I’d felt around him on the way here, so these words lifted the elephant-sized weight off my shoulders. I could take a lot in life, but not having the easy that I had naturally with Levi? No.
“Will you also help me tape the weird handle thing in my car back on before I go home?”
The smile dropped from his face, and this time he glared down at me. “Hell no, I will not do that,” he growled, leaning down. “I’ll do you a big favor, though, and take it to the junkyard to be scrapped. It’s a fucking death trap, and you know it.”
He’s right, I did know that, but still. “I need that car, it’s how I get to work. I don’t quite think that getting those shoes with wheels in the soles would get me there quickly and safely, do you?” Although, it had to be said that I’d always wanted a pair.
“I’ll give you my old truck,” he suggested, moving to sit down next to me on the couch. “I only kept it for emergencies, so it’s not like I’ll miss it.”
“Unless there’s an emergency,” I pointed out.
Shifting so that he was now facing me with one leg on the couch pressed against mine, he rubbed a hand over his beard. “We’ve got work ones that I can use if there’s an emergency and I need a different vehicle, so that’s a moot point.”
Going For Gold: Providence Gold Series Book Four Page 4