“Alright, keep the necklace and ditch the cufflinks.”
Pleased, she removed the items from the list and he handed her the money. She bagged everything for him and left the necklace out, surprising him by taking it out of its little velvet case and slipping it around his neck. She looked at the finished product with a satisfied grin.
“There. You’re all set.”
“Before I go, tell me something.”
“Sure.”
“What does your name mean?”
Her grey eyes widened, seeming luminous in the bright lights overhead. “I…don’t actually know. I’ve never looked it up before.”
“Oh? Alright, how about I come by tomorrow and I’ll tell you what your name means? No cheating and checking online tonight.”
She studied him for a good long while until he felt worried she would blow him off but she finally nodded. “Okay. My shift is over at six. Don’t be late.”
“I won’t be. Thank you, Diana.”
She winked at him before turning back around. “Have a nice day, sir.”
I watched as Michael pulled away from me and closed the small, transparent box holding my First Aid supplies. “And? What happened when you came back the next day?”
Michael stood up and placed the kit back underneath my sink. “She wasn’t there.”
I frowned. “Why? You two seemed to have hit it off pretty well.”
“She was killed in a hit-and-run the night before.” His voice was so quiet I barely heard it over the sound of the water rushing from the faucet as he washed his hands.
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Michael shook his head, leaning forward to put the finishing touches on my bandages. “It’s alright. I’m glad to have met someone like her at all, even if our time was short. Before then, I had no clue where I was going or what I was going to do. She helped me take the first step. That’s why I don’t judge humans as harshly as I once did.”
“Although…” His eyes wandered down towards my back. “Sometimes it’s hard to resist the urge.”
“I can’t imagine anything tempting you, Michael.”
When he met my eyes this time, it felt different. I couldn’t have explained it if someone asked me to but it just…was. For a couple of seconds, my view of Michael trickled from angel to human being all from one slight crinkle above his brow, a faint tilting of his lips downward, the quick bob of his Adam’s apple in his throat, and an emotion in his sea-green eyes that had no business being there. Worse still, my fuzzy mind worried my own eyes reflected the same thing.
“You’d be surprised,” he murmured, before straightening up so fast that I swayed a little in my seat. The trance shattered around us, and the tension crumbled with it. For now, anyway.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“What does Diana mean?”
He paused in the doorway, his shoulders tensing. I thought about apologizing for prying, but as my lips parted so did his.
“Divine. It means divine.”
He didn’t give me a chance to reply, just cleared his throat and raised his voice to a more normal tone. “You need to eat. I can take Jacob around town today.”
“I’m going with you.”
He sighed, flashing me a weary look. “I thought we agreed you were going to take it a little easier since the hospital fight.”
“Look, I appreciate the concern, but I’m healed to the point where I can walk around without pain or stiffness. Besides, you’re going to need my insight on this one.”
“I can handle this one. You’ve already done enough. I’m supposed to protect you and you almost got your head smashed in by a demon. You need to stay home and get better.”
“I know what you’re trying to do, Michael. I’m a big girl. I can’t just hide here all day. I have a life. I have sins to atone for, even if your boss says my soul is freed. I have to hold myself accountable for what I’ve done.”
Michael narrowed his eyes at me. “And what if Belial is standing on the other side of that door?”
At the mention of the demon’s name, a cold shock went up my spine. The skin on the back of my neck tightened as if he were behind me, laughing that dry laugh in my ear. I steadied my breath and stood, stepping closer to Michael and giving him a challenging smile. “Well then, I guess it’s a good thing that you’ll be there to protect me.”
Michael studied me for a long moment, seeming to realize the aggravating truth of my words. He reached up and unclipped the necklace from his neck, thoroughly confusing me. “I was right, you know. You are stubborn.”
I merely shrugged. This time, it didn’t hurt. Hurray. “It’s one of my best—what the hell are you doing?”
He gripped my left arm and wrapped the necklace around it until the chain stretched tight across the skin of my wrist, leaving the padlock to hang down near my palm. He then lifted it up and kissed it. The combination of his warm lips and the cold metal made goosebumps pop up across my skin before I could yank my hand away.