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  “Why do you look so worried?” Liam asked Evangeline.

  “I’m not.”

  “Sorry, Evangeline. You’ve got a groove between your eyebrows as deep as the Grand Canyon. How come?”

  Evangeline’s nostrils flared, and she looked around the room for a moment. Finally, she met his gaze. “I also believe the deck will need to be shoveled, Liam.”

  Liam cursed silently, and hated that she wouldn’t answer his question. “Can’t you just wave your hand and make the snow disappear?” he asked.

  Evangeline shook her head. “It’s something that you must do.”

  “Why?”

  Evangeline rolled her eyes. “Please don’t question and argue, Liam. Just do it tomorrow, okay? You must now live as a human, and a human male would shovel the deck.”

  When an angel from the Inner Circle told him to shut up, he tended to listen. Evangeline had the ear of the Creator, the Archangel Michael, and Mother Nature. If he pissed her off, he was certain that all she would need to do was give a nod to the trifecta that ran Heaven and Earth and he would have a one-way ticket to Hell.

  “I know it’s March, but we’re in the mountains, and there was a snowstorm today. As you can see, it left a good foot or two of snow,” Evangeline said. “Mother Nature said it would continue over the next few days.”

  Liam narrowed his eyes at Evangeline, and wondered if she had suggested the storm to Mother Nature so he would have to shovel. Maybe it was some type of punishment for getting angry with her on the last assignment.

  The weather in Lake Tahoe was a direct contradiction from the lovely weather of Arizona. It seemed so long ago that he and Adela sat in the warm sun, enjoying breakfast, and she threatened to stab him, but it had only been a few days.

  He sighed and couldn’t help but smile.

  “Is something amusing, Liam?” Evangeline asked, arching her eyebrow.

  “Nope.”

  There was a beat of silence. Liam stared into the fire and he felt Evangeline and Adela looking at him.

  “Is there anything else, Evangeline?” Adela asked.

  “Not right now. I’ll be on my way so that you can eat and get some rest. I’ll return in the morning.”

  With that, Evangeline unfurled her wings and walked out through the glass door into the night. Her wings flapped lazily, propelling her upward, and then she disappeared among the stars.

  Chapter 3

  Adela woke and snuggled under the thick, green and yellow patchwork quilt. Her cheeks burned with cold, and she wondered what the temperature was in the bedroom as she brought the sheets and quilt over her face.

  She recalled the frigid winters in Salem, where she had lived before she was hung after being accused of being a witch. She remembered huddling with her mother and father around the fireplace while her father read Bible passages, her nose and fingers numb. Being chilly as she was now brought back the memories of the crisp air, the love she felt from her parents as they tried to remain warm together, and how much they all appreciated when spring finally made an appearance. Later in her life, she would huddle around the fire with her husband trying to keep warm.

  The snow and frigid air also made her remember that she didn’t like being cold.

  Another assignment. Closing her eyes, she let out a groan. She would much prefer returning to being an Angel of Death. It was an easy role, one that didn’t require the emotional investment that being an Angel of Affection, and alive again, did. She found out during their last assignment that in order for them to be successful, they needed to engage people, to get to know them. Her eyes stung with tears as she remembered Missy, the woman from their last assignment, and the friendship they had shared. Perhaps one day she would be able to return and see Missy and Jeff, the man they had pulled back from the darkness and into the light to love again. Adela hoped they were happy and taking care of each other’s hearts as both were wonderful, caring people.

  She’d also learned on her last mission that her biggest irritant as an Angel of Death and an Angel of Affection was also her . . . what should she call him? Her secret crush, perhaps? Wanting to find out more about love, she’d gone to the library and asked for help to find books. She had ended up reading many romance novels, and somehow, Liam became the leading man of her fantasies. Her body warmed as she remembered the books, the caresses, the tenderness, the love that flowed off the pages. Somehow, that annoying angel had wormed his way into her mind and played a starring role in her delusions.

  She threw off the covers and put her feet to the cold, wooden floor, the need to urinate strong. It was odd having these human urges after not needing to attend to them for so long, and it was something she still wasn’t used to even after their last assignment. At least she hadn’t tried to walk through any walls or doors on this assignment . . . yet. She hoped she wouldn’t, but old habits were hard to break.

  Shivering, she dressed in jeans, a turtleneck, and wool socks and ran a brush through her hair. Opening the bedroom door, a blast of heat and the smell of bacon and coffee greeted her. Her stomach lurched at the aroma, and she inhaled deeply.

  She padded out to the kitchen and found it empty. Glancing through the cabinets, she finally located a coffee cup and filled it halfway. She then went to the refrigerator and found the milk, filling the cup another quarter. Finally, she ran water into the brown liquid and sipped.

  Perfect.

  The strength of Liam’s coffee made her eyes water and he had shown her how to water it down to her liking.

  Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she went to the sliding glass door. Liam had his back to her as he shoveled the snow off the deck. Puffs of white breath blew from his mouth as his large shoulders pushed the shovel into the snow and then tossed the white powder over the edge to the ground below. She leaned against the doorjamb and sipped her coffee, watching the muscles in his back strain against the long-sleeved, white shirt he wore.

  He stopped and leaned on the handle of the shovel, breathing heavily. Turning, he caught her gaze and smiled.

  She opened the door and was met with chilly air, sending a shiver down her spine.

  “Good morning,” Liam said.

  “Good morning.”

  “Did you sleep well?”

  Adela nodded and sipped her coffee again. “Thank you for making coffee.”

  “Sure. I’ll be in a minute and make us some eggs as well.”

  “That sounds wonderful.”

  “And I’ve got good news.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It looks like we’ve got a car we can use. I found a Ford pickup in the garage while looking for the shovel. We’ll have to go exploring in the next few days.”

  “Sounds good, Liam,” she replied, smiling.

  Liam turned and went back to his shoveling. Adela watched for a few more seconds, and then looked around at the house. The flames in the stone fireplace crackled, the red couches invited her to curl up with a blanket.

  She went into the kitchen and did the dishes in the sink from last night’s late dinner of hamburgers and salad. Yes, Liam had been very patient in teaching her how to work the appliances, but she was still hesitant to cook on them. With Liam doing the lion’s share of the cooking, she took up the task of cleaning up. Sometimes he helped.

  A few minutes later, the dishes were done and she looked out to the deck. She didn’t see Liam, but she heard voices.

  Going to the window, she couldn’t see anyone. A pair of boots sat next to the door to the door, so she slipped them on. Stepping out, she almost fell. Under the snow was a thin sheet of ice, and she was able to steady herself before crashing to the deck.

  Carefully, she walked to the railing. The voices came from her right, and she looked over at the house standing in the trees about three hundred feet away.

  A man and a woman stood on the deck facing each other, the man with a shovel in his hand, the woman with her arms crossed over her chest. Both wore thick jackets
and jeans.

  Their voices carried through the quiet forest, but Adela had trouble deciphering what they were saying. However, their body language gave her all the insight she needed.

  The woman crossed her arms over her chest, and the man shook his head and tossed the shovel to ground. Their voices rose, and Adela heard the man say, “I’m fine! Would you please just quit?”

  The man then turned and went down the stairs to the forest floor and glanced over at Adela.

  “What are you looking at?” he yelled to her. “Mind your own damn business! I don’t like people staring at me!”

  “Jonathan!” the woman admonished, then looked over at Adela. Her gaze dropped the tossed shovel, and she swiped at her face as if she had tears falling.

  Looking defeated, she following Jonathan down the stairs and into the house through a door under the deck.

  A tingle went up Adela’s spine. Had she found the couple who was supposed to be in love? Had she found their target?

  What an odd outburst. It wasn’t as if she were spying on them while they were in their home—the argument had taken place outside on their deck for anyone to see. It just so happened she was in the right place at the right time to witness it.

  Once back inside, she took off the boots. Liam stood in the kitchen, obviously having come into the cabin a different way.

  “What’re you doing out there?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder as he stood at the stove.

  “I think I found our assignment,” she answered, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. No, she wasn’t terribly happy about being an Angel of Affection, or human again, for that matter, but she had an obligation to fulfill and she liked the idea of getting started.

  “Really? Who is it?” Liam asked.

  “I believe it’s our neighbors,” Adela said.

  Liam nodded. “Come eat and tell me about it.”

  Chapter 4

  Liam listened as Adela told of the confrontation she had witnessed with the neighbors. As she brought her fork to her delicate mouth and chewed, he found it difficult to concentrate. She pushed her thick curtain of hair behind her back, her cheeks pink from the cold.

  “And then he yelled at me, telling me to mind my own business, and I believe she was crying,” Adela explained, her large brown eyes boring into him.

  Right. They had an assignment to complete, and he really needed to stop noticing the little things Adela did that made him think salacious thoughts and brought forth vivid images of both of them naked, rolling around in bed.

  Jesus, he couldn’t even watch her take a bite of eggs without sexual heat warming him.

  He took a sip of coffee and looked around the kitchen, trying to find something to focus on besides Adela, while thinking about what she’d said. The stove seemed liked a good place to keep his gaze.

  Couples had disagreements all the time, and just because there was a quarrel, it didn’t mean they were on the precipice of divorce or anything. He remembered fighting with Annie before she died about mundane things such as dishwashers that went unloaded, socks on the bathroom floor, and toilet seats left up. No, just because there was an argument didn’t mean that they had found their assignment.

  However, when he was shoveling the deck he noticed that most of the cabins around them seemed to be closed up. Blinds shrouded the windows and doors, large drifts of snow piled on the decks. Long icicles hung from the rafters, yet to have melted from their winter formation. There were no puffs of smoke from fireplaces, and there certainly wasn’t anyone doing any shoveling.

  So maybe Adela was right. Maybe the problems in their neighbors’ relationship went much deeper than Adela had seen.

  It wasn’t like anyone else had presented themselves, and there was that whole “haste” thing Michael had mentioned.

  “Could be,” he murmured, staring at the stove while taking a bite of his eggs. “It’s odd he was yelling at you like that, though.”

  “I know. It was very strange,” Adela agreed.

  They ate in silence for a few moments, and Liam noted there wasn’t a need to fill the void with idle chitchat. It was the quiet of two people who were comfortable with each other. He appreciated it, and the relationship they had formed.

  “Breakfast was delicious,” Adela said.

  “Glad you liked it.”

  “I’ll clean up the dishes.”

  Adela moved into his line of sight, and he couldn’t help but notice the curve of her butt and her long jean-clad legs.

  She is a virgin!

  And he didn’t do virgins.

  Every woman remembered her first, whether with a mushy heart or a painful wince, and he wasn’t going to be the one.

  Besides, at some point they would go back to being Angels of Death, right? They would have to return to their old lives of taking souls from Earth and delivering them to the Fringe, the area of Heaven where those not holy enough to reside in the Inner Circle of Heaven were housed.

  And if they weren’t returned to Angels of Death? What if they remained in this Angel of Affection role? That was a mixed bag for him. Yes, he enjoyed being human again, but at the same time, he didn’t like the human feelings of wanting Adela like he did. He wasn’t interested in the emotional investment of being someone’s first, and he certainly didn’t want a relationship with Adela. Last time he had been in love, losing Annie had hurt so badly, he promised himself that he would never allow that to happen again. He needed to protect himself, look out for number one.

  It was a purely sexual attraction he would have to tamper down and ignore. As she reached to grab the dish rack from the other side of the sink, her long body stretching, her muscles taut, he tore his gaze away and focused on the microwave.

  “We should take steps to introduce ourselves to them,” Adela remarked, her back still to him.

  “If you think that’s the way we need to go, then sure.”

  There was a light tapping at the sliding glass door, and Liam looked over to see Evangeline. Her lips formed into a semi-smile, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. The clouds parted and the sun reflected off the crystals in her wings, sending rainbows streaming around her. Her white gown waved in the cool breeze, and she stepped through the glass.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Hello, Evangeline,” Adela mumbled, and Liam simply nodded and took another sip of his coffee. All these good-looking angels around was bad for a guy like him who was used to playing the field. He knew Evangeline was unattainable, but Adela definitely wasn’t, and he reminded himself again that he didn’t do virgins.

  Evangeline sat down at the table, and Liam watched out of the corner of his eye as Adela bent over, put the last dish into the dishwasher, and closed it.

  She came to the table, tossing her hair over her shoulder. She really needed to pull it back so that it didn’t look so damn sexy draped over her breasts. After sitting down, she interlaced her hands on the table and looked at Evangeline expectantly.

  “There’s going to be another angel joining you,” Evangeline said.

  As far as Liam was concerned, they didn’t need another angel in this mess. They had enough problems with the last assignment, and another opinion would only convolute the mojo he and Adela had developed.

  “Why do we need that?” Liam asked, glancing over at Adela.

  She looked at him questioningly.

  “Yes, why do we need that, Evangeline?” she asked, and then turned her attention back to Evangeline.

  “Because this is the way the Creator has said it shall be.”

  Liam inhaled deeply, then released it slowly. He had only been on one assignment and was already tired of the secrecy Evangeline spoke of with her riddles and her ‘that’s the way it’s supposed to be’ mantra.

  For instance, why was it so damn important that he shovel snow? He knew she could have swept it all away with a quick wave of her hand.

  And why did they need another angel? Yes, they had screwed everything up by them
selves last time by not seeing what was directly in front of them, but they had also brought Jeff and Missy together—with a little bit of help—but they had done it.

  They could get the assignment right without help. Liam felt the intrusion of the other angel, although he didn’t know who it was. He and Adela had a sort of groove going on, and he didn’t want that disturbed. However, he knew that whatever Evangeline said was the law of the land, and there was no point arguing with her.

  “And when can we expect him or her?” Adela questioned, glancing over at him. He tried to keep his face neutral.

  “It will be soon,” Evangeline said, standing. Without another word, she went to the window, the rays of the sun once again casting rainbows as they hit the crystals on her wings. She drifted through the sliding glass door and out through the day, disappearing as a whisper of smoke. The sky became a cloudy gray again.

  “I wonder what that means,” Adela mumbled.

  Liam looked over at her, and she met his gaze. In his opinion, it meant nothing good. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Chapter 5

  Adela sat on the red couch snuggled under a large blanket, the fire warming her. It was late in the afternoon, and Liam had gone to his room, claiming he needed a shower. She curled her legs under her and pulled a pillow on her lap, the heat from the flames making her groggy.

  She wondered why Evangeline thought they needed help. It seemed adding another angel to assist them would only complicate things. Her and Liam were comfortable with each other, and another angel just seemed to be . . . an intrusion.

  She wondered whom it would be and if she would know them. She didn’t socialize a lot with the other angels, and really didn’t have what she would call a friend. Not that there was a lot of time—they were constantly on the go delivering souls to the Fringe because death never stopped.

  Liam came out wearing a green turtleneck and low-slung jeans. His dark hair was still damp. “What’s up?” he asked, sitting down on the couch next to her, pulling the edge of the blanket over his chest and lap.