Page 44 of Naughty Songbird

“Goddamn, you better. This is important.” Within the car’s dark interior, I saw him adjusting the front of his pants.

A smile kicked up the corner of my lips knowing I affected him as much as he did me. However, questions ate away at me the further we drove from the Vegas strip.

Where was he taking me?

The well-known casinos and hotels became nothing more than twinkling lights on the night horizon, growing smaller in the rearview mirrors. Eventually Levi steered toward residential streets and slowed down as we passed through neighborhoods.

My heart hammered in my chest when he pulled into the driveway of a substantial two-story house. There were lights on inside, as if the occupants were waiting for guests despite the late hour.

Levi shut off the rumbling engine, and silence filled the suddenly cramped interior of the car. He sucked in an audible deep breath before reaching over the center console to grab my hand.

“If you don’t want to go inside, we’ll leave. Just say the word, and I’ll turn us around and go back to Los Angeles tonight,” he said. Though something in his tone was optimistically cautious.

“Where are we?” I asked, even though I had an inkling.

“This is my family’s house.” He turned his head, looking at me through the darkness. “I’d like you to meet them, Diana.”

Twenty-Six

“Yes,” I wholeheartedly agreed.

I didn’t know why, but the idea of meeting Levi’s family warmed the scabrous, bleeding corner of my heart. Maybe it was the elated smile on his face, or a longing for a family I’d forgotten about suddenly reawakening.

He opened the car door for me, and the entire walk up the long driveway, new questions invaded my mind.

What was his family like? Would they like me? Did they know about our relationship?

Levi lifted his hand to ring the doorbell, but mine shot out and stopped him. His head whipped down to me, and his brow arched.

“Wait, what are we telling them? You know… about me and you and why I’m here,” I blurted.

A brief chuckle slipped past his lips, and he pressed his finger into the doorbell. Noise exploded inside the house, and he answered, “Easy. You’re my girlfriend.”

Then the door flung open.

“Ah!” a petite woman with a plump frame and short brown curls screamed. Her hands waved at the side of her face, and her brown eyes glittered. Then she lunged, flinging her arms around Levi’s shoulders. “My boy is home!”

He fell back a step but wrapped his arms around her, chuckling, “Good to see you too, Mom.”

“John, our son is home!” Levi’s mother reared back and shouted into the house. Without waiting for a response, she angled back to her son, pinching his cheeks and assessing his frame. “Are you getting enough to eat? You look thin.”

Quick footsteps trampled down the stairs, matching the erratic rate of my heart. From around the corner of the front foyer, a young girl with long golden-brown pigtails rushed toward the front door.

“Levi!” The girl ran into her mother’s backside, pushing and shoving to get her out of the way.

“I’m eating enough, Mom. I just work a lot,” he reassured before looking over his mother’s shoulder.

“Levi. Levi. Levi!” the young girl chanted.

“Ginny!” Levi swept past his mother and scooped the girl into a spinning, bone-crushing hug.

The family resemblance between him and his younger sister was undeniable. Aside from hair color, they were nearly identical, as if their mother made a female copy of Levi fifteen years after him.

As Levi got distracted by his reunion with his sister, his mother finally noticed me standing on the patio. Her head swung up to me, and a practiced smile fell onto her face.

“Oh, dear, and who might you be…” His mother began raising her palm for a handshake, but it slowly curled into a trembling pointed finger.

A flash of nerves crackled under my tightening skin.

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