An Angel for Emily Read online

As Emily reached the door to the outside, she was beginning to relax. Whatever was wrong with her? The man had just been hit by a car! It was no telling what a person might say after being knocked down a mountain. Maybe she’d misheard him and what he’d really said was that he felt his guardian angel had protected him. Yes, of course, she thought, smiling. Believing in guardian angels was all the rage lately. Having one meant a person was personally watched over by Heaven. A guardian angel could make a person feel very special.

  She was musing on this idea so intently that she didn’t see him until she was inside the car and buckled in her seat.

  “Now I see why you mortals sleep so much,” he said as he gave a bone-cracking yawn and Emily nearly jumped out of her skin. He was sitting in the passenger seat.

  “What are you doing in my car?” she half screamed.

  “Waiting for you,” he said, as though she’d said something odd.

  “How did you get in here? It was locked and—” She cut him off before he could say another word. “And so help me, if you say that you’re an angel and that’s why you can open locked car doors, I’ll…I’ll….” She never had been very good with threats. Instead, she opened her door and started to get out.

  “Emily,” he said as he caught her arm and drew her back in.

  She snatched out of his grasp. “Keep your hands off of me!” She drew a deep breath and tried to calm herself. “Look, I don’t know who you are or what you want, but I want you to get out of my car and go back to wherever you came from. I am very sorry I ran into you but the doctor says you’re fine, so you can go home. Do I make myself clear?”

  He gave another of his huge yawns. “This isn’t your town, is it? Do you have one of those…mmmm…what do you call them? Places where you stay overnight.”

  “A hotel?”

  “Yes,” he said and looked at her as though she were a genius. “Do you have a hotel room where we can stay?”

  “We?” she asked, anger just below the surface. She was no longer afraid of him, just fed up.

  Leaning back against the headrest, he smiled. “I can read your mind, Emily. You’re thinking about sex. Why do mortals think about sex so very much of the time? If you people just used a little restraint—”

  “Out!” she shouted. “Get out of my car! Get out of my life!”

  “It’s that man, isn’t it?” he asked, turning toward her. “He let you down again, didn’t he?”

  For a moment she had no idea what he was talking about, then she nearly exploded. “Donald? You’re asking me about the man I love?”

  “Isn’t there something in this country named that? Or is that in Persia? Now, what was that? Oh yes, a duck. He’s—”

  At that, Emily doubled her fists and lunged at him as though to beat him in the chest. But he caught her wrists in his hands, then looked at her for several moments nose to nose. “Your eyes are quite nice, Emily,” he said in a low voice that made her hesitate before jerking away to lean back in the driver’s seat.

  “What do you want?” she asked heavily.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I really don’t know why I’m here. Michael told me there was a serious problem on Earth that involved you, and he asked if I’d be willing to take on a mortal’s body so I could solve it.”

  “I see,” Emily said tiredly. “And just who is this Michael?”

  “Archangel Michael, of course.”

  “Of course,” Emily said. “Whatever was I thinking? And I guess Gabriel is your very best friend.”

  “Heavens no. I’m only a level-six angel. Those two are…. Well, they don’t even have levels where they are. But when Michael asks you to do something, you do it. No questions asked.”

  “So you came to earth to help me do something—”

  “Or to help with something involving you.”

  “Yes, of course. Thank you for correcting me. And now that that’s straightened out—”

  “Emily, we are both tired. These mortal bodies are certainly awkward, heavy things and—what is it you say?—I’m asleep on my head.”

  “Feet,” she said wearily.

  “Your feet? Did you hurt them?”

  “Asleep on my feet. I am asleep on my feet.”

  “Me too,” he said. “But I think I’d really rather be asleep on my back. Could we go to your hotel now? I got you one with two beds, didn’t I? Or did they disobey me? Sometimes making mortals actually hear you is difficult. You people don’t listen very well.”

  Emily opened her mouth to speak but closed it again. Maybe if she slept, when she awoke she’d find out this was all a dream. She put the key in the engine, started the car and drove to the inn without saying another word.

  Chapter 2

  WHEN EMILY AWOKE THE NEXT MORNING, HER FIRST feeling was of panic. She was going to be late for work or she was to meet someone to talk about town business or she had to…. It was with disbelief, then blessed relief, that she realized she had the whole weekend off. She didn’t have to do anything at all until next Tuesday, and this was only Saturday.

  Turning over under the heavenly down comforter, snuggling deep into the lovely white sheets, she thought, What a strange dream I had last night, of brown-eyed angels and car wrecks and…. She drifted back to sleep without finishing her thought.

  Sunlight shining in her eyes woke her, and as she squinted up at the window she seemed to see a man standing in front of the bright light. She couldn’t see his face, but he seemed to be wearing a huge set of white wings. “I’m not awake yet,” she mumbled and moved back under the covers.

  “Good morning,” said a pleasant male voice.

  Ignoring the voice, Emily kept her eyes closed.

  “I brought you breakfast,” the voice said. “There are strawberries just picked from the landlord’s garden and tiny muffins made with carrots. And there’s cold milk and hot tea and I had the landlady make you an egg, just barely cooked so the yolk is firm. That’s the way you like eggs, isn’t it?”

  With each word she heard, the night before came back to her. Of course what she remembered couldn’t possibly be true. Cautiously, she pushed down the comforter and looked at him. He had on the same dark shirt and dark trousers from last night, and now in the light she could see that they were dirty and stained.

  “Go away,” she said and tried to snuggle back under the covers.

  “I’ve made you sleep too long,” he said as though observing a scientific experiment. As though next time he’d know to put a little less so-and-so into the formula.

  Emily knew that sleep was no longer something she was going to get. “Don’t start that again,” she said, groaning, pushing the covers back and her hair out of her eyes. Now that she was waking up, her body felt awful. She didn’t seem to remember much about last night after she drove away from the clinic, but she must have fallen into bed in…. A glance down confirmed that she was still wearing the remains of her beige evening gown, and, no doubt, the remains of her makeup.

  Holding the covers closely about her, Emily sat up in bed. “I want you to go,” she said firmly. “I’ve done my duty so now I want you to leave. I never want to see you again.”

  He acted as though he hadn’t heard her. “The tea is very hot so don’t burn yourself,” he said, handing her a pretty porcelain cup on a saucer.

  “I don’t want—” she began, but stopped at his look. There was something compelling about his eyes, she thought as she took the cup and began to sip the tea. He put the tray of food across her lap, then sprawled on the bed with her.

  Compelling eyes or not, this was too much. “Of all the presumptuous—” she began as she set the cup down and started to get out of bed.

  “I talked to a man downstairs who is with—what did he say?—the police, and he is investigating an auto accident the doctor reported to him.”

  Emily halted, one foot on the floor, and looked at him.

  “The policeman said that if I didn’t press charges there was nothing he could do about the a