Going For Gold: Providence Gold Series Book Four

by Moore, Mary B.

  “You might think so, but it kind of isn’t. Plus, your trucks are up here,” I held my hand as high over my head as I could, “and I’m all the way down here. I’d need to take a running jump to get into it.” I wasn’t exaggerating either.

  Thinking it over, and more than likely remembering me struggling with his truck, he just shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. I’ll give you a ride home tonight and take you to work in the morning, and we’ll get the vehicle situation sorted out tomorrow.”

  Groaning, I let my head drop back. “I’m not taking your truck, and you’re not taking my car.” When he didn’t automatically agree, I decided changing the subject was the safest thing to do. “So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked, raising my head back up to look at him, seeing him looking off to the side.

  Looking back at me, he just nodded his head slowly. “It’s time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “I want to know why you’re doing your bucket list and living like each day is your last one. I want to know why you can’t relax when we’re walking around the store. I want to know why you jump whenever your phone rings. I want to know why you won’t talk about your family. And I want you to open your eyes and realize that this isn’t your last breath or your last day, and to let me in.”

  Shit!

  I wanted to go back to the conversation about the vehicles now, but with how determined he looked, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was getting out of this without telling him the story.

  Damn it, Charlotte, why did you have to go and ask such a stupid question.

  Chapter Five

  Levi

  I hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, but I can’t say that I regretted it now.

  We’d been tiptoeing around this for months, and if she thought I hadn’t picked up on what I’d just asked her, she was wrong. I saw everything she did and noticed every time she thought of something that upset her. I knew her likes and dislikes, what made her tick, and I also knew that she had a lot going on inside her brain that would most likely suffocate her if she didn’t let it out. I wanted to take some of that burden for her, shoulder it so that she didn’t have to struggle under its weight.

  I wanted her to let me in.

  All I could do now, though, was pray that she wanted to let me in. So, I sat there holding my breath and waited, not looking away from her. I watched as what I’d said sank in, and I watched as she more than likely weighed up the pros and cons of telling me. Patience wasn’t something I was known for, but I drew on every ounce that I had.

  Finally, she reached her decision. I’d imagined a lot of possible scenarios when I’d thought about what could be going on in her life, but what she told me… I doubt anyone would have imagined that.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later…

  “So, your dad had an affair with a young receptionist, and you were the result?” I clarified, pacing back and forth in front of her.

  “Apparently.”

  “And you’re like a genius, or something?”

  Shifting on the couch, she pulled her knees up in front of her, resting her head on top of them as she watched me. “No, I’m not. I was educated at a fast pace and had to work my ass off.”

  Stopping to look at her, I asked a question about something that hadn’t been covered during her story, almost choking the words out. “Did they abuse you?”

  Shaking her head slowly, she looked up at me sadly. “No, it was never like that, but they ignored me. If I disappointed them, they acted like I didn’t exist, totally cutting me out of conversations and not even asking the chef to set a place for me at the table.”

  I wasn’t an expert on definitions and all the things that could constitute abuse, but that seemed to count to me. “I’m so sorry, Lottie.” I meant it to sound empathetic, but it came out croaky and weak.

  Who the hell does that to their child? After what happened to Luna, I wasn’t blind to the level of asshole parents could get to. She’d been physically abused her whole life unless her brother Madix was around. And now Charlotte… what the fuck was wrong with people?

  “I like that,” she whispered. Seeing my confusion, she explained, “Lottie. No one’s ever given me a name like that.”

  Moving over to sit next to her on the couch, I tried to be ok just being near her, but it wasn’t enough. Reaching over, I lifted her up and placed her on my lap, needing to hold her and understanding why my brothers did this with their wives.

  “From this moment, your life is changing. I don’t give a shit about all the hocus pocus that woman told you was going to happen. I’m going to make sure that nothing ever touches you again, and that only good shit happens.”

  Her response was whispered softly, but I heard it and the sad tone she said it all in, regardless. “You can’t promise that, Levi, no one can.”

  Watch me – I was a Townsend. Think what you want, but we were the most tenacious family out. When we set our minds to something, we did it… well, within reason. Obviously my childhood dreams of becoming an Olympian athlete hadn’t amounted to much, but something like this? Yeah, I could make that happen.

  First, I needed to make sure I had the full story straight. You can’t help to fix things for people if you don’t know how deeply they’re broken, right? “So, they were basically paying people off?”

  “That’s what they said.”

  “And your boyfriend and best friend were fucking each other?” It was a crude way to put it, but come the hell on – he’d been snorting drugs off her. Call me old-fashioned, but that wasn’t what I’d class as ‘love making’.

  “Yup, after he’d tried to get me to do stuff in the library, I guess he needed an outlet,” she snickered, not sounding all that upset about it which confused me.

  What he’d tried to get her to do pissed me off and grossed me out at the same time. He had to know she was innocent and not the type of person who’d do something like that. Then a thought occurred to me. “Do you think your parents were paying them off, too?”

  Fiddling with the hem of the sweatshirt I’d given her, she took her time answering. “I don’t know for sure, but part of me thinks they might have been. They both come from families that aren’t hurting financially, but money talks, right? Even if they had money from their parents, I doubt they’d have said no if mine offered to pay them, too.”

  “And drug habits are expensive,” I pointed out, wondering if that’s why he’d behaved like he had in the library. “Do any of them ever get in touch?”

  “I haven’t heard from Amber since I got here, but Eric still sends me emails to my old email address. I changed my phone number and email when I got here so they don’t have those, but the last time I checked the old one there were about ten from him.”

  “And what does he say in them?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t really read them,” she shrugged, sounding tired.

  Like I said – in all of my musings about what her story might be, not once had I thought anything like this. Did it mean that I’d changed my mind? No, I was more determined now to make sure she knew her real value, but I also realized I needed to take things slowly with her, too. It was easy for me to make a decision and act on it, but she needed to feel secure and get the shit out of her head that the hokey pokey chick had told her about her future.

  I knew she trusted me as well, but after what her friends and family had done to her, I also needed to make sure that it was a deep trust and that she knew I’d never hurt her. I’d rather wax my beard off than do that.

  Things were going to change, and I knew just how to do it.

  “So, this bucket list… what have you always wanted to do,” I asked, and then added, “that you didn’t find online?”

  Living life to the max was the best way to live it if you asked me, but finding things to do from online searches wasn’t the way forward. Sure, it gave you ideas, and you got to have fun, but life should be full of all the things you want to do, not what
someone else had decided to do.

  Charlotte tilted her head back to look at me and thought it over. “I’ve always wanted to ride a horse.”

  Well, that wasn’t a problem – and I knew just the horse.

  * * *

  Two days later…

  “This is Night Rider,” I introduced Lottie to Archer’s horse, wondering if I’d done the right thing when I saw how much bigger than her he was.

  Maybe we had a donkey? My cousin Cole had one of those tiny horse – would that be better for her?

  Slowly reaching up, she touched his cheek with the tip of her finger, her whole body freezing when he twitched. “He’s beautiful. Why did you name him after the TV show?”

  Leaning against the side of his stall, I watched as Archer brought through the saddle and shit they needed. “It’s night as in the time of day when it gets dark,” he explained, brushing down the horse’s back.

  Seeing how closely she was watching what he was doing, I suggested, “Why don’t you teach Lottie what to do, Archer?”

  “I’d love that,” she whispered, smiling when Night Rider nudged her shoulder with his nose.

  My brother was the quietest out of all of us, the one who thought more than he spoke, and who appeared hard but was really a gooey mess inside with females. So it didn’t surprise me when he held out the brush to her and said, “I think he likes that idea. Let me lead him out of the stall to that open spot over there, and we’ll get him saddled.”

  I stood to the side watching as they brushed his back and Archer explained about the importance of making sure that there was nothing in his hair to irritate his back with the saddle on it, and then took her through the different stages of putting the saddle on a horse.

  Once it was done, he moved next to me as she led Night Rider around getting used to how he walked, and letting him get used to her, too. I didn’t know that ‘bonding time’ was a thing with horses but it made sense, and if it kept her from being thrown off, maybe they should spend a month doing it.

  When she was further away from us, I leaned over and whispered, “Do you think he’s too big for her? Maybe I should get Cole’s tiny pony?”

  “He’s almost seventeen hands,” he replied, crossing his arms in front of him. “That makes him just above average. How tall is Charlotte?”

  “About a foot shorter than me, give or take an inch.” It was definitely taking an inch, seeing as how she was five-feet-two inches tall, but hey.

  “She’ll be fine.”

  Just then Night Rider stopped and shook out his mane, letting out what sounded like an angry grunt at the same time that made me freak the hell out - internally, where I didn’t look like a dick doing it.

  When he didn’t rear up or run off with her trailing behind him, I let out a breath. “Jesus.”

  “You know,” he mused, “if you’d taken an interest in horses, you wouldn’t be shitting your pants right now.”

  Yeah, because that would make it better. “She’s a tiny little speck standing next to an equine beast,” I hissed. “If that was Bonnie, you’d be doing the exact same thing.”

  Shooting me a glare, he looked back at what was going on. “I think she’s ready to ride him now.”

  And for the next two hours, I lamented the fact that I hadn’t brought a change of boxers with me. I also chewed down my thumbnail to the point that it was bleeding. I may even have considered the merits of those little flasks of whisky people sometimes carry in their pockets. I loved to watch her smiling as she bounced on the saddle, but every muscle in my body was frozen, ready to run if she looked like she was going to fall.

  Then there was the way her tits bounced each time… it was a small distraction that made me uncomfortable in my pants, and I had to make numerous adjustments because of it.

  The moment Archer taught her to trot and then told her to speed up slightly as they rode around the ring next to the stables, was hell – pure hell. Each bounce… the way her hips moved, her tits shuddered, it was like the weirdest form of porn ever.

  And just when I thought I was going to have to take a five-minute break, far away from where they were, Archer called out the words that solved my problem.

  “Ok, I think you’re done for today. Next week we’ll take him out on the fields and really let him run.”

  The fuck you say!

  Charlotte

  I loved riding, I loved Night Rider, and I loved that Levi had set this up for me today. I’d expected him to look at me like I was crazy when I’d told him I wanted to try it, but instead he’d made it happen.

  There was only one thing I didn’t like – the pain. I didn’t realize it when I was in the saddle, but riding a horse causes a lot of pain when you get off again.

  The insides of my legs felt like they were bruised, my boobs felt like they’d taken a beating, and every muscle was screaming at me for help. And we had to walk back across the fields to where Levi’s truck was parked. It hadn’t seemed that far when we’d walked to the stables from his house, but the walk back seemed like it was miles away. Just thinking about it made my mind and vagina whimper, and every step almost ended up with those whimpers being audible ones.

  True to his word, he’d replaced his truck for my old banger the night he’d said he was going to, even though he’d been sneaky about it.

  He’d driven me home that night saying that with the weather it was safer that in his truck, and the next morning his ‘old’ truck was parked in the space at my apartment, and the keys had been put in my mailbox.

  Initially I was pissed, but when he explained that he’d taken a quick look at it and the vehicle had actually definitely been a death trap, that feeling had faded slightly. Apparently my tires were bald, the engine was overheating, the wiring had something going on with it too which was why the little warning lights were always on, the exhaust had holes in it, there was rust eating through the floor under the brake pedal… it literally was a death trap like he’d said. I also didn’t have the money to get it fixed or buy a new one, so until I did, I was stuck driving his old truck.

  This now left me with the herculean task of getting into the vehicle every day, though. Or at least it should have. The first day I’d had it, Levi had picked me up from work and told me that one of the guys he knew was attaching some sort of step on it, and that he’d get it back to me later.

  I had every reason to be dubious about how nice he was being, but here’s something I’d realized the first time I’d met the Townsend family – they were genuine people. Sure, they were crazy and they had their faults, but deep down they were just amazing people who cared. I’d had moments where I’d thought they were too good to be true, but the more time I spent around them, the more I realized the truth about them.

  And this left me with a conundrum. I was planning for the ‘what if’, the worst scenario possible because of that damned reading. Could I have a relationship with someone? Would he even want one with me, or was it just friendship?

  And I also had my second bucket list notebook full of sexual things that I wanted to try, had no experience at all, and Levi had a penis – one that I’d taken quick looks at through his pants from time to time. I couldn’t help it, it just happened.

  This left me in a predicament, because I wasn’t sure what I could do. The thought of any other guy touching me or helping me work through the second bucket list made me gag, but Levi? Hell yes. Not today, though, and not with how bruised my poor vagina felt after taking a pounding from the saddle.

  “Swear to God,” I groaned, widening my legs slightly. “I feel like I’ve been hit in the crotch by a rhino. Why does it hurt so much?”

  Snorting, Levi slowed down, then threw his arm around me and gently pulled me into his side. “I’ve only gone horseback riding a couple of times, but I remember it feeling like that, too. Those saddles are torture on the bone ranger,” he chuckled as he gestured at his crotch. I could only imagine what bouncing in the saddle did to a guy’s dick and balls. “We’ll
run you a bath when we get back and throw some Epsom salts in.”

  Maybe if I wasn’t in so much pain, I wouldn’t have asked what I did next. “Will that fix my vagina?”

  Bursting out laughing, he went to reply, but a voice calling out our names stopped him. “Hey, you guys! Whatcha been doi… Holy shit, are you ok, Charlotte?”

  Looking up, I watched as Ariana made her way toward us. Whereas I’d been waddling and walking like a penguin, she almost glided as she walked. Lucky bitch!

  “Just took Lottie riding on Night Rider,” Levi told her, raising his voice slightly to cover the distance still between us all. “She’s feeling the aftereffects.”

  When she reached us, she made a sympathetic face. “I remember that feeling. It’s like you’ve had a hundred kicks to the cooch, and every muscle in your body is trying to break free.”

  “Something like that,” I mumbled, ignoring the snickering coming from Levi.

  “You got Epsom salts or those muscle soaking things y’all had when we were kids?”

  “Just headed to do that now,” he nodded, and then swept me up off my feet. “I’m going to carry her the rest of the way.”

  I wanted to argue, but it really did hurt. So, instead I buried my face in his chest and offered up a token, “I can walk, it’s ok really.” Which was a lie. A big, fat rhino horn to the cooter sized lie.

  I wasn’t a wimp, and I had a good pain tolerance, but Jesus Christ, this was pushing the limits. Plus, I got to snuggle into Levi for a couple of minutes, and he smelled good – not like a horse and bruised vagina like I did.

  Moving so that his mouth was next to my ear, he whispered, “Little liar.”

  Every hair on my body stood up, and a little shiver made its way through me just from him doing that one little thing. Swear to God, if my vagina wasn’t the mess that it was, I would have had an orgasm from that one little action from him. He could say whatever he wanted from now on, so long as he did it like that. It was that awesome.