Page 3 of By An Angel's Grace

It had once been a closed-in sunroom, though heavily remodeled. The glass ceiling sloped and the view of the river was astounding. A fireplace burned bright and cheery, set into what was once the outside wall of the cabin, and another door on the other side of it led into a bathroom. The bed, a sleigh bed and easily king-sized, was just inside the door. Across from it, down the narrow room, were a couple of chairs and a table set between them. I closed my eyes for a second and imagined a morning of drinking coffee across from one another and quietly talking. I couldn’t wait.

“Here, let me take this,” Tab murmured and lifted my pack from my shoulders. I let him have it, and he set it beside his bag on the bed.

“You go first,” I murmured, indicating the bathroom.

“I need a haircut,” he said.

“I know, which is why I need you to go first. I can’t do it with your hair dry, it won’t come out right.”

He looked at me curiously. “I didn’t know you could cut hair,” he said.

I smiled at him slyly. “You don’t know everything about me.”

“You are correct,” he said, drawing me into his arms, “I do not. However, I very much so look forward to learning.” He murmured the last before placing his lips to mine in a kiss that stole my breath away.

Tab went first when it came to a shower while I slipped out and scared up a pair of scissors. Gabriel was gone again, though I did find a kindly older woman who ran what was apparently a bed-and-breakfast that we’d be staying in for tonight. I trusted Tab so implicitly, I hadn’t even been curious as to where we were going or where we were staying. It just was what it was, and it wasn’t like I had anything I wanted to go back for or to.

For a moment, an incredible sadness over that settled over my shoulders, guilt running its fingers down my spine.

My mom and I never got along, but as far as she probably knew, my boss had been murdered and I’d disappeared. It’d been over a year by now and I wondered to myself if she was over it, or if like so many other times when it came to me, she simply swept me under the rug and didn’t acknowledge my existence. That was kind of where our relationship had left off the last time I’d seen her. I was her greatest disappointment but then again, I couldn’t be anything other than me and the me that I was just didn’t fit what my mother wanted me to be.

I tried not to dwell on it long because where I was my mother’s greatest disappointment, to Tab, I was one hell of an achievement and his love was definitely making up for having been love-starved for most of my life. The way I would catch him looking at me, the way I would turn and see that ghost of a smile on his otherwise stoic face, that made up for so much, I couldn’t even begin to put it into words.

I went back to our room, the zippered leather case of stylist’s equipment in my hands. I was still surprised that it’d just been given to me. Faye, the woman running the bed-and-breakfast had insisted, and I was sure I had room in my pack for such a useful item; if I didn’t, then I’d make some.

When I slipped back through the door it was to Tab, already out of the shower and mostly dressed in a neat pair of pressed black slacks and a black button-down shirt. The fabric screamed expensive, and I raised an eyebrow.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked.

“You,” he said with a smile. “And dinner out tonight.”

“Like a date?” I asked, teasing.

Tab looked thoughtful for a moment, but he couldn’t suppress the creeping smile forcing its way back onto his lips.

“Yes,” he answered, finally. “Exactly like a date. Go and get cleaned up. My hair can wait a moment longer.”

I set the grooming kit on the table by the bed and picked up my pack. “I’ll dress to impress,” I said.

“I am the only one in attendance tonight,” he said absently, tucking in the tail of his shirt.

“Exactly,” I stated, wrinkling my nose with impish humor. I scooped up my pack and his laughter chased me into the bathroom where I shut the door on it.

I sighed and stared at myself in the mirror for a minute. I didn’t exactly have any dressy clothes, so I was a little dejected.

I wouldn’t look half as good as Tab. Maybe if I wore the Chinese silk blouse Mei-lei had given me so long ago back at the temple, I could at least try to come in at a close second. I mean, I could pair it with jeans and it would look pretty good.

My brain clicked off when I opened the top of my pack to a tissue paper wrapped package. I stilled, and lifted the light package off the top with careful fingers, turning the plain white tag over so I could read it.

Cupcake-

You didn’t think I was going to let you get out of here with only your dreadful man-clothes, did you? Hang it up in the bathroom with you when you shower. The wrinkles should come right out.

XoXo,

Gabriel

(AKA The sexy Archangel)

---