Levi (Florida Panhandle #3)

Here's Wren Wilds's "Levi." It's the third novel in the Florida Panhandle series.

["DANTE
I'm in the driveway of the beach house at six a.m. because I don't trust perfection to hold overnight.
Gulf-front. Twenty million dollars. The listing that makes my name on this coast.
I open the door and the house smells like a rave. Spilled tequila. Staging destroyed. A stranger passed out on the sofa with his dirty boots on the cushions.
Brokers from three states arrive at ten.
I have four hours to get this man out and make it look like nothing ever happened here.
He has no idea who he's dealing with.
Turns out, neither do I.

LEVI
The label gives me thirty days to clean up my act.
Stay sober. Stay out of sight. Show up ready to headline the Panhandle Country Bash.
My manager hides me out in a beach house, where for the first time in eight years, nobody's watching.
Then a furious man in Italian shoes wakes me up, telling me I'm trespassing.
I've got a paid booking that says otherwise. I'm not going anywhere.
He looks me straight in the face and has no idea who I am.
I need to keep it that way."]

The hurt/comfort started strooong in this one. Some of it was the not-knowing-you're-hurting-the-other kinda of/comfort. Some of it wasn't quite so blind (though it wasn't malicious). And JUST as the sweetness and fluff was starting to really set in, the me-sobbing thing set in instead. For a while (me sobbing, Levi sobbing, sooo much more hurt/comfort). 

The first time Levi showed up at that bar? I nearly lost it. Really lost it the second time. He deserved to be wrapped up in that $600 cashmere throw more than anyone (and Shelia would blame Benji/Levi for spending $600 on a blanket before she ever blamed Levi--Shelia and Tex and Stormy (who wouldn't say anything; his eyes would so all the work) and probably even Mickey). 

Speaking of Benji...that ride-or-die really chose glitter and fringe and tears all the while being an absolute bad-ass. 

Levi and Dante didn't have a slow burn. They had burn-the-bridges-and-get-to-the-candle-lit-ashes later. All the while secretly feeling guilty about lighting the match. Then did things in secret to take care of the other and never mention it. They were both a hot mess. But they figured it out, eventually, over barbecue and sweet tea and Gulf sunsets. 

Trigger Warnings: homophobia, psychological trauma, trauma responses, fear reactions, anxiety, hyper-vigilance, emotional distress, grief, using alcohol/drugs as a way to escape, claustrophobia, child abuse, and more 

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