But notanymore, because afterward, they’d become friends, so theembarrassing incident hadn’t been all bad.
“Yeah, I knowwe’re besties, but you won’t have time for all this.” She waved herarm in a random fashion. “You know, drinking cheap wine, eatingpizza and putting the world to rights.”
“I wouldn’tmiss sharing all the terrible wine in the world. Even if it isserved in a dirty glass and a chipped mug.”
Again with theright thing to say. How did she get so lucky to be assigned anamazing teacher like him? Well, maybe not lucky at first—she didhave to die to be given the honour of training to become anangel.
“Don’t get mewrong, I’ll be forever grateful for being given a chance to proveI’m worthy of becoming an angel, but this whole immortal lifething?” She drained her mug of wine and poured another. “How do youcope, watching people you love grow old and die?”
“It’s hard, I’mnot going to lie, but it’s far better to have known them and shareda part of their life than not known them at all. You’ll get used toit.”
“Says thehundred-year-old angel who lands perfectly every time, as opposedto me, who still can’t land without looking like a clumsy emutumbling over the sand.”
Yeah, oldenough to be a great grandad, but who didn’t look a day overtwenty-eight, with wavy, ebony hair, a perfect chiselled jaw and akind smile that could turn any woman into a quivering wreck withnothing more than a twinkle in his striking eyes.
He laughed, adeep rumble inside his chest. “You’ll learn to land gracefully oneday. You have to be patient.”
“Patience hasnever been one of my virtues, and whoever heard of a klutzyangel?”
Caleb pattedher knee. “Stop worrying. You’ll get there. I know you will.”
“Hmm, maybe,”she replied, trying to ignore the tingle shooting along her thighfrom his touch. She inched her leg away, pretending to get herselfinto a more comfortable position.
They finishedthe pizza, staring across the city in silence.
A car hornsounded somewhere below.
Evie threw hercrust into the pizza box and closed the lid. “Our job is to bringhope to people’s lives when they’re at their lowest, to save theirsouls in their hour of need and make them happy, but what aboutme?” She took a breath and confessed, “I don’t want to be alone forall eternity. I know it makes me sound selfish, but—”
“No, itdoesn’t. Angels deserve to be happy too. It’s not a crime to wantto share eternity with a soulmate. It doesn’t affect our job. Itmakes us better. Look at Raphael and Ophelia.”
“I don’t knowthem that well, other than they’re, like, a thousand years old orsomething, and they’ve been together forever.”
Caleb had takenher to dinner at their house once or twice, and to say she wasstar-struck by the ancient angels was putting it mildly. Orangel-struck, if there was such a thing.
“Eight hundredand ninety-seven, actually, and they both said they liked you.”
“I smashed acrystal glass that was probably older than me, for goodness sake. Icould have died if I hadn’t already.”
He dismissedher words with a flick of his wrist. “They have plenty more. Mypoint is, they saw you have a good, kind soul. You sacrificed yourown life to save a child.”
“Duh, kind of aprerequisite for getting into angel school.”
“It’s more thanthat, Evie. You’re special.” He looked away suddenly, gazing acrossthe city at nothing in particular.
A few momentslater, he fetched his phone from his trouser pocket. “If you’re soworried about being alone, why don’t you try this?” Caleb tappedthe screen, brought up a website and handed the device to her.
Evie looked atthe screen and read it out loud. “Love Bites. The number one datingagency for supernatural beings. Find the magic in love.” She burstout laughing. “Like Tinder for supernatural beings? That can’t be athing, surely?”
“It is, honest.Raphael told me one of his wards had signed up.”
“Have you triedit?” she asked, still chuckling. There seemed no end of things inthis incredible new life of hers that amazed her.
“No, I don’tneed to look for anyone, but if you think you do…?”
She sobered,her curiosity getting the better of her. “Okay, I suppose itwouldn’t hurt to have a look. I bet there are some right mingers onthere.”
Now he laughed.“You have such a way with words.”
“Years ofgrowing up in the roughest of areas, I suppose.”
Sudden darknessswept over Caleb’s features. “We’re all only a whisper away fromsuccumbing to our dark side, given the wrong environment andcircumstances.”
“What’s thatsupposed to mean? Don’t tell me Mr. Holier Than Thou has a darkside?” she joked.
Only he didn’tappear to find it funny. She frowned. Caleb had never given her anyimpression that he wasn’t anything but a model, goody-two-shoesangel, but by the way he was grinding his molars, he regretted hiscomment. She didn’t push for an explanation, more confused by thesudden tingling in her belly at the thought of Caleb having a darkside.
Stop it,Evie. He’s a friend.
She had to bewired wrong. Why did she always find bad guys attractive? Well, notanymore. She wanted to find love, an epic love like Raphael andOphelia, and Caleb had put her firmly in the friend zone. Sheshouldn’t care whether he had a dark past or not. He was Caleb, herteacher, her best friend.
Evie didn’tdwell; she’d been dragged down that path in her other life, shovedbetween children’s homes and—some would say inevitably—falling inwith the wrong kind of people. But she’d be damned if she would gothere again, not now she’d been given a chance to make the world abetter place, if only a small piece at a time.
She glanced atthe screen on Caleb’s phone again and tapped the ‘Enter here’button. It directed her to a sign-up page. She harrumphed. “Theywon’t let you eye up the talent without signing up first.”
“Sign up,”Caleb told her. “Then we can both see the, err, ‘mingers’ onthere.”
Evie smiled. Hesaid the word like it was foreign. “I’ll sign up on onecondition.”
“Which is?”
“You sign uptoo.” If nothing else, she wanted him to be happy.
“I told you I’mnot looking for anyone.”
“Go on, itmight be a laugh.”
“I don’t know,Evie.” He poured himself more wine and took a sip, his neatlytrimmed, clean fingernails looking out of place
