Chapter 31 Angel
Two weeks later
“Angel!”
I flinched at the calling of my name. “Yes, Mom,” I groaned as I slipped on my sneakers.
“You didn’t finish your breakfast.”
“Because you made so much. I’m going to gain twenty pounds,” I grumbled as I laced my sneakers.
“Angel!”
“Jesus Lord,” I mumbled. “Mom, I have two bedrooms. You’re right there in the kitchen; you don’t need to scream at me.”
“Why are you dressed for exercise?” she demanded as I walked into the kitchen. My mom was small, stout, and beautiful. “No,” she told me. “I’m getting your father,” she said as she made her way to the backyard. “Don’t you dare go . . . Angel!”
I was already out the front door and jogging away from my house. I loved my mom — she was the absolute best — but I was twenty-eight. I’d lived on my own for years. Adapting to people in your space was not easy.
Adapting to your mother in your space was worse.
When she and Dad had arrived, and I had to go through the whole retelling for them, Dad had gone to my house and thrown out all my furniture. Mom had helped. Then Dad fixed all my kitchen cabinets and was currently taking care of the backyard.
My house was on the market. I was moving whether I wanted to or not. If I were honest, I wasn’t happy in my home anymore, and the first week, it had been nice sleeping on an air mattress with my parents close by. Yeah, neither of them thought the whole furniture thing through properly.
Then the air mattress started to deflate, and so did my shiny bubble of denial that my mom wasn’t going to make me scream myself hoarse.
All my pantry had been reshelved. Which was insanity, as I was moving. My pots and pans wound up in a different cupboard that made more sense. More sense to whom?
My fridge was emptied and scrubbed, and she threw away my chunky peanut butter, reminding me God gave me hips for babies, not butter.
It was nice to run away. I snort-laughed as I turned the corner. I wasn’t running away. I was just running.
Healthy exercise. Not escaping from my mom.
Dad had looked at a few alternative properties with me, and my mom had fallen in love with one in Belle Meade.
It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but since she’d decided that this was the one, she wouldn’t look at any other.
Dad and I looked, but I could see the side-eye he gave me every time. He also liked the one Mom did.
He was just a more indulgent parent.
My cell rang as I was running, and I checked my watch, seeing it was Chrissy, “Hey,” I greeted.
“Why are you out of breath?”
“Running.”
“From who?” she asked me in alarm.
“Exercise,” I told her as I hit a flat stretch.
“You’re running voluntarily?” Chrissy sounded disgusted. “Freak.”
“How’s Bailey?”
“Perfect.” She sighed happily. “And the girls love him, obviously, and oh my God, Angel, Jer got him a tiny, tiny football helmet. It’s adorable.”
“He can’t wear it though, can he?”
“No, silly, he can’t even hold his own head up yet, but it’s soooo cute.”
“You’re both weird.”
“Says the girl running from her mother,” Chrissy deadpanned. “So, when are you coming to meet your nieces and nephew?”
“I’m . . .” I slowed. “Nieces and nephew?” I asked quietly.
“Yes, I told the girls about Aunt Angel, and of course, now they think you’re an actual angel, and Jer said you were, asshole.” She took a breath. “So, they think you’re an angel, and I just had to order you wings.”
“I feel like I have a concussion again,” I admitted.
“Just adopt my kids, okay? Come Saturday. It’s Sophia’s birthday — wear the wings.”
She hung up and left me staring at the street with my hands on my hips, feeling like I had run a marathon, and I hadn’t even had the chance to break a sweat. Shaking my head, I resumed my run.
I was due back at work on Monday. Maybe a weekend out of Nashville was what I needed. I’d been working from home, but since the doctor had told my mom I needed rest, she hadn’t let me out of the house.
If I went to Chrissy’s, Mom and Dad could go home. I was a bad daughter.
I might also see Onyx.
I didn’t want to see Onyx, did I?
No.
Yes. So badly.
I ran harder.
When Cooper told me Johnathan had been arrested, I hadn’t believed him.
Cooper told me that Johnathan had caught Will trying to sneak into my office, and Will had told him why.
Will must have been a snake charmer in a former life, because according to Johnathan, he had completely convinced him I was the devil.
Johnathan thought I deserved everything I got, and he would get my clients when I got what I deserved for ruining Judd’s life. Will had an inside man.
The path to hell was paved with good intentions.
Bullshit.
The path of false intentions was paved with gold.
I really do wish I had been there when he told the actual Devils, men who had low or no scruples — for the right reasons — what he had thought was going to happen to me.
I hadn’t spoken to Onyx, but I had seen the gleam in Cooper’s eye, and that had been enough.
It seemed Johnathan was a bit of a whiz on computers — who knew? Because he was a mediocre agent.
As I ran around my block, I took in the nice lawns, the pretty gardens, and the small stores. There were people everywhere. I wasn’t a fan of people. The house in Belle Meade was large, the grounds spacious for my needs, and my neighbors far enough away.
It also had a pretty complex security device with a very thick manual. My dad had been salivating over it.
I was going to buy the house, I decided.
I wanted to move.
As I approached my house, I saw my mom waiting for me at the door . . . and I was going to Chrissy’s for the weekend. It was time to take back control of my life.
* * *
“I can’t believe you actually made me wear these,” I hissed at Chrissy as her children played around a giant unicorn made of white, pink, and blue balloons.
Her yard was filled with gorgeous children, sophisticated-looking women, and a platter of pro stars that had to be seeking an agent, surely.
My summer dress was pretty, white, and floaty, with little dandelions drifting over it, and a splash of pink.
My hair was in its normal low ponytail, the section I’d had shaved by the doctors for stitches in my head and where Burt had ripped hair from my head carefully covered.
However, as presentable as I was, I couldn’t really approach a potential client wearing feathered wings on my back.
“Can I take them off?” I asked her as I sipped a glass of champagne, which I hated, but Chrissy was breastfeeding and not allowed to drink, so she was living vicariously through me. Or some such bullshit excuse that made me wear heels on grass and sip champagne.
“If you want to ruin my girls’ hopes and dreams, feel free.”
“You’re an evil bitch,” I told her as I smiled at the QB for Jer’s team as he passed with his son on his shoulders. “I hate you right now.”
“Just keep drinking that champagne, and you’ll forget you have them on,” Chrissy said as she bounced Bailey in her arms.
“I can’t believe I swapped my mom for you.”
“Aww, you say the sweetest things, boo.” She winked at me as she made her way over to her daughters, both of whom were beautiful and I had instantly fallen in love with.
“Wings?”
My eyes closed briefly before I turned to Onyx. “Hi.” I plucked at a feather. “Jer told his children that I’m an actual angel, so obviously, Chrissy bought me wings.”
“Obviously,” he murmured as he sipped his beer. He was in dark jeans and a black button-down, and had sunglasses concealing his eyes. “Well, I better go—”
“Uncle Onyx!” A scream that could not be perceived as anything but joyful pierced the air, and then one of Chrissy’s daughters, Sophia, was launching herself at her uncle.
He quickly offloaded his beer to me, and I caught it one-handed as he caught his niece mid-leap.
She unloaded a lot of information on him, but in her very excited state, I heard pony, now, and must. Onyx heard it too, and soon he was passing me as he headed to the balloon unicorn.
“Hi.”
“Cooper,” I greeted with a smile. “I didn’t think you’d be here.”
“That one is his,” he said as he pointed at Onyx and Sophia, “but this little one is mine.”
“Uncle Coooooooop!”
“Jesus,” I flinched at the screech.
“Lilybeth,” he said as he scooped her up and hugged her tightly. “Pony!” she demanded, and I winced again at the vocal range of children.
“I need earplugs,” I muttered. But I couldn’t deny they were cute and excited, and their two uncles were their obvious highlight of their day, and considering how much Chrissy had spent on this party, that had to sting.
Jer came over to me, holding his son, and looked at his two friends. “We told you,” he said with a grin.
“When can I take the wings off?”
“Don’t be such a spoilsport,” he reprimanded. “You look adorable.”
“I look like a twenty-eight-year-old woman wearing angel wings,” I corrected him. “I look like an idiot.”
“Aw, man, here they go.” Jer shook his head as a pony was suddenly being led into the yard, and his two daughters were racing toward it, and Chrissy was yelling that it better not be staying, while Cooper was asking the two girls what they were going to name their pony.
Jer and I made small talk while the girls jumped and leaped as they marveled over their pony.
I noticed he wisely stayed out of it as Chrissy interrogated Cooper, who merely laughed at her.
And then the screaming became insane as Onyx led in a pure white pony with a sparkly horn fixed to its head.
“Aw, fuck,” Jer cursed beside me. “They’re never going to forget this, poor Coop.”
“Your kids just got a pony each,” I told him. “Didn’t they?”
“Nah, Onyx gave Sophia a unicorn for her birthday. Coop’s fucked.”
I watched the girls jump up and down and scream, and Onyx pushed his glasses up onto his head as Cooper pushed him away playfully, and Onyx was laughing. Really laughing. Chrissy was still yelling, and it was all . . . a lot.