Page 48 of When the Angel Falls First

Making a knee-jerk decision, I dove into the bushes, where I still had a good view of the windows.

Was it utterly ridiculous behavior? Yes. Was I going to leave and let her have a date in peace? Absolutely not. Would I ever admit this to a soul? Also no.

Josie walked around the nearest corner, and I felt her aura dance across mine like the best tart lemonade. As she cleared the front steps of the restaurant, I caught a glimpse of her and time stood still.

She was a vision in red, the bold color of the wrap dress setting off her creamy skin and dark curls. She’d gone all out for the evening, with tall black heels and a shiny clutch purse. Jealousy, hot and acrid, ate the back of my throat.

I hadn’t even gotten to see this new, vivacious side of her before, and here she was, going all out for a stranger.

Well, I assumed he was a stranger. They both had auras tinged with nerves, typical of a first-date meetup. I watched as she pulled the restaurant door open, scanning carefully for her date. When she spotted him, her lips turned up in a warm smile.

What had I done?Why did I come here?Black tickled the edges of my vision once more, but I was powerless to stop it.

I should have left, but I was stuck like glue. I would only watch for a minute or two, make sure the guy seemed safe and on the up-and-up, and then I would go, darker side of me be damned. This wasn’t healthy or fair. I couldn’t be with her, and the fact was, she needed to find herself a nice man to be her companion, to lean on in the hard times.

It couldn’t be me, no matter how much I longed to be the one to unwrap her from that delicious dress at the end of the night.

It isn’t my right.The darkness flared at the thought, and I didn’t even try to tamp it down. I was on the fast track to hell, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care.

Theywere seated quickly, and I watched sadly as the man pulled out her chair with a smile. They chatted in fits and starts until the waiter came and dropped off waters. After he left, rock-tie guy reached across the table and brushed something off her shoulder. She leaned in to let him. My stomach turned, and I knew it was time to go, before the tremulous hold I had on my powers snapped.

I glanced around, trying to stay low so no one inside the restaurant caught sight of me, and looked for the nearest break in the bush where I could let myself out. Instead of an opening, I found an impenetrable wall of foliage.

Just my shitty luck.

I shoved my hand into the bush to create a place to step through when I heard an angry buzzing. I didn’t stop pushing forward because bugs didn’t bother angels.

Apparently, nobody told those wasps that.

As soon as I stuck my leg through the opening, I felt three stings on the back of my knee in rapid succession.

I howled as I jerked it back, the reaction involuntary. Thankfully, the wasps didn’t pursue, because I didn’t have anywhere else to go to get away from them.

I’d straightened when they stung me and was now back in an awkward half-crouch, rubbing the back of my leg when I heard someone say, “Is that a man in the bushes?”

I spun and saw a waiter pointing directly at me from inside the restaurant. People all over the restaurant were standing up and peering in my direction, but I wasn’t worried about them. It was Josie’s eyes, shocked and dismayed, that would be branded in my memory for the rest of my eternal life.

NINETEEN

Josie

It had thus far beena picture-perfect Seattle evening, the city’s lights reflecting off the leaves of massive trees, casting a magical ambiance over the small restaurant. Ethan had been sharing a sweet tale about the time he found an age-old fossil in his back yard with infectious excitement, his hands gesturing wildly, when the commotion caught our attention.

“Weirdo in the bushes!” someone cried.

That was when I saw him. A familiar figure, hunched and oddly out of place, head peeking out from the bushes right outside the restaurant’s large windows.

Caleb.

The sight of him should’ve been comical—a grown-ass man attempting to half-hide in a highly visible bush—but it wasn’t. The tension that knotted in my stomach made sure of that. Yet what I felt wasn’t just the expected awkwardness of,Oh look, there’s my former lover of this afternoon spying on me, though that would have been entirely reasonable.

No, I sensed something else. A shadow, as if the light wasangling off him in an unnatural way. But it must have just been the streetlight, or the fact that he was caught in shrubbery.

Whispers started around the restaurant as others noticed him, too, speculating about his strange behavior.

“We ought to call the police,” one woman said, a silver-haired lady in the next booth.

But I quickly reassured her, “Oh, he’s harmless. Just a friend trying to play a prank.”

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