Golden Angel: (Broken Angel #5) (8 page)

J
eremy gawked
at the flimsy triangle that lay on the grass. Squinting, he stepped closer to the glider to get a better look. His vision had become so bad lately, he’d thought about getting glasses. His hearing wasn’t any better, either. What had he been thinking when he’d asked Leilani to take him hang gliding?

And the crazy girl was going to do it. She was actually going to jump off the cliff.

In an oversized polyester kite!

“Here, take these and put them on.” She tossed a helmet and harness to him.

Great. He was sending Leilani to her death with
him
, a helmet-wearing, near-sighted, wingless archangel, attached to her.

“Leilani, I think—”

His voice caught when she drew closer to him and she came into focus. She gathered her hair off her face, exposing high cheekbones as she pulled it into a ponytail. She was all lit up with excitement. She was beautiful.

“You think what?”

“I, uh . . .” He inched away until her face blurred.

There. That’s better.

“Are you sure about this? It doesn’t look very sturdy.”

Laughing, she slapped on a helmet and adjusted the strap under her chin as she shortened the distance between them until she was in his face.

“Chickening out, Golden Boy? It was your idea, remember?”

Why did her dark eyes have to twinkle like that whenever she looked at him? And why did it make his heart sing when she did?

“Yeah, I remember,” he grumbled. It had been the only thing he could think of to keep her from freediving. There was no way he was going to let her do it when he didn’t have the strength to help her. And he didn’t trust that man-child to watch over her.

He shoved his feet through the bottom loops of the harness. There was nothing he could do if they got into trouble. And it was his fault for being an idiot.

The moment he’d woken up on the bar floor with Leilani’s worried face looking down at him, he’d known what had happened. Gabrielle hadn’t been there for Joab and Jether. She’d been there for him.

He couldn’t believe it. He’d known the archangels would punish him. He expected to be banished, not stripped of all his powers. He’d never expected that. Not even Lash had been punished so severely. Lash was allowed to keep some of his powers. He’d been able to fly, even if it had been for limited distances.

They had taken away everything that made him an angel. After Leilani had left him off at the cottage, he’d tried to get his angel wings to emerge. He could live with wearing glasses and hearing aids if he had to, but not without flying. After days of trying, he’d finally collapsed on the floor.

If their punishment was to make him weak, mission accomplished. He was as weak as a human. But the worst of it was the pain. When he was in his human form, he’d felt pain, but nothing this intense or that lasted so long.

Yesterday, he’d accidently scraped a paper over his finger. Paper! It was a small paper cut, but the damn thing had made his finger throbbed for hours. And when Sammy had shown him how to make fresh lemonade and the juice had entered the tiny cut, he had run around the cottage rotating between sucking on his finger and cursing. It didn’t help that Leilani had laughed and told him to stop crying like a bitch-baby.

“You done grumbling yet? Come over here and I’ll connect your harness to the hang loops. And don’t forget to put on your helmet.” She directed him to move underneath the glider.

Ducking his head under the glider, he said, “What do I need the helmet—ow!”

“That’s why.” She chuckled when he hit his head on one of the tubes.

He rubbed his head, scowling.

“This is supposed to be fun. Where are those dimples you were flashing at me all afternoon yesterday?”

His eyes locked with hers as she tapped his cheek. She was so close, he could see her clearly. That was the problem. He didn’t want to be able to see her, because then he couldn’t pretend she was just a girl. This confident woman who pulled and tugged the straps on his harness was a fire he shouldn’t be around, not at all.

“Dang, Jeremy, you’re worse than Sammy. Do you need to pee or something? Stand still.”

He froze, holding his breath when her fingers traveled over his back, making sure that the harness was on snug enough. Every touch sent electricity traveling through his body at the speed of light. He wasn’t going to survive being so close to her.

“There,” she said, giving his helmet a light pat. “You’re ready.”

I’m not.

“Look, Leilani, this is cool and all, but—what are you doing?”

She took his hands and, turning forward, she placed them over her chest.

He moaned at how soft she felt. His hands had a mind of their own when they ever so gently caressed the tops of her breasts. Heat surged through him, traveling to the pit of his stomach. What was she doing to him? He forced his hands to obey and jerked them away, jamming them into his pockets.

She tilted her head back, eyeballing him. “Seriously, Golden Boy, take a chill pill or something. I’m not asking you to feel me up.” Her lip twitched. “You have to hold on to my harness straps.”

“I’ll be okay with my hands where they are.”

“That’s not how it works. Come on, I don’t have all day.”

“It’s not that.” He let out a frustrated breath.
What can I say? Touching you makes me want to do things to you that I shouldn’t be thinking about?

Gritting his teeth, he placed his hands on her harness’s straps, careful to keep them high above her breasts.

“Now don’t freak. I’m going to lift the glider. Think you can handle that?”

He could hear the teasing in her voice. He smiled, remembering the spunky girl who’d taught him to surf. She was back.

“Got it. Do you need help lifting the—?”

Before he finished his sentence, she lifted the glider with ease, shouting out instructions to him over the wind.

I guess not.

“When we get to the edge of the cliff, it’s better not to look down. Just look out straight into the horizon, ’kay?”

He walked slowly with her as they neared the ledge. When they were only a few feet away, she paused and looked back at him with a huge grin. Her excitement was contagious.

“Ready?”

“Ready!”

“Lean forward. Now, step with me and run, run, run!”

He pushed ahead, keeping his eyes on the horizon until suddenly there was nothing underneath his feet.

He was flying!

He closed his eyes, relishing the wind hitting against his face. He was free. In that moment, he was Jeremiel, archangel. He could fly again, and so could Leilani. They were together. They were the same.

“Scared?”

He opened his eyes. Leilani’s face was a breath away from his. He’d never felt so alive as he did at that moment with her.

“No.”

“Good because I’m letting you take over.”

“Wait, I’m not sure if I can do this.”

“Of course you can. Reach your hand out and place it on the bar.”

He didn’t want to let go. What if he messed up? What if he made a wrong move and sent them plunging to their deaths? He knew in this human body, he would more than likely die, past angel or not. But Leilani didn’t deserve to die.

“You can do it, Jeremy. I’ve got you.”

He gazed in awe at the woman she’d become. She was all grown up. There was no denying it. She was the teacher, he the student. And she believed in him. She’d seen him at his lowest. She’d seen him beaten down and beaten up and still she believed in him.

“I know you do,” he said softly.

She moved to the side and lifted her hand, placing it over his as he reached out for the control bar. The glider took a small dip. She patted his right arm, motioning him to move his hand across the bar. When he did, the glider straightened.

“You’re flying, Jeremy! You’re flying!”

“I can’t believe it!”

Her face lit up, eyes shining and filled with pride from him. Him. Not the god among men, but for Jeremy, just a regular guy.

Their eyes locked for a moment. A loose strand of hair whipped against her pink cheeks and lips. Her face softened, revealing all the feelings she had for him.

His heart slammed against his chest. He couldn’t fight it anymore. He cared for her. Deeply.

He was flying because of her.

His soul was alive again because of her.

His lips parted as she inched closer. Thoughts about being banished and losing his powers didn’t matter anymore. All he could think about was her, the way she looked at him; the way her arm held him close; the way she placed a delicate hand over his, helping him balance the glider, keeping it steady as they flew together as equals.

He raised his hand to pull her mouth to his when the glider jerked to the left.

“No!”

“Don’t panic!” She thrust her hand onto the control bar, making the glider balance again.

He was horrified at what he’d done. How could he be so careless?

“I’m sorry, Leilani. I shouldn’t have let go.”

“Don’t sweat it. No, keep your other hand there. We’ll fly this baby together.”

They flew quietly for a moment before she gave him a nudge.

“Well, this is a first.” She grinned.

“What is?” His heart was still racing, and not because he’d almost sent them spiraling down to their deaths.

“I’ve never seen a green Golden Boy. Just kidding. Hold on tight. I’m gonna land.”

She angled the glider, directing it into an open pasture lined with red flags. She moved her hands up the gilder’s bar, bringing it lower to the ground. With ease, they landed on the soft grass.

“So how was it flying for the first time?” She took off her helmet and removed the rubber band from her ponytail. She combed her fingers through her hair, fluffing it out until it lay like black silk on her shoulders.

She was stunning. She had the type of beauty that went deep into her soul. He couldn’t stop staring. And he didn’t want to.

“There are no words to describe it.”

T
his was a bad idea
.

Jeremy lifted the stopwatch closer, brushing off the water droplets. If Leilani didn’t come up in thirty more seconds, he was going to put on the stupid eye prescription diving mask he’d bought online (because he was as blind as a bat without it) and go in after her. Yes, there would be cussing, but he couldn’t take the waiting anymore. It was a good thing Sammy was far away on the beach.

Sighing, he climbed onto his surfboard and lay down on his back, stretching his tired muscles. Stupid body. Was this what it was like to grow old? Unable see or hear anything unless it was right beside you, and being tired after only a few minutes of swimming? Even his skin looked like a red prune.

He shot up. Was the sunscreen he lathered on this morning waterproof?

He lightly touched his knees and winced. They were still tender from the wicked sunburn he’d gotten last week after spending hours on the beach watching Leilani surfing. He’d barely been able to bend them the next day and had seriously thought about buying a cane. Instead, he’d waddled to the beach, this time with layers of sunscreen just to make sure Leilani didn’t do something stupid—like drown.

“Crazy, stubborn woman,” he muttered.

She still had it in her pretty head that she was going to win the surfing competition. He couldn’t talk her out of it. She had her mind made up. The only thing he could do was volunteer to help her do it.

“Time to come up,” he said, tugging on a rope tied to what she called her homemade float system. He called it a water bottle with red yarn.

She was taking too many risks just for a little bit of cash. Well, he planned to do something about that. He couldn’t wait to share his surprise with her.

Leilani broke the surface, gasping for air. Her arms flopped onto the surfboard as she spat water in his direction.

“Hey!”

“That was not even four minutes,” she said.

“You’re right. Three minutes is long enough.”

“Three min—ugh! How am I supposed to build stamina if you keep treating me like I’m going to break?”

“There are other ways to solve your money problems without drowning yourself on the bottom of the ocean.”

She lifted herself onto the board. “Oh, yeah, Golden Boy? Like what?”

“A bank loan,” he said as they paddled with their hands to shore.

She snorted.

“Aww, come on. It’s a good idea. People get bank loans all the time.”

“Banks want to know that you have a way to pay them back, ya know. It’d be easier to rob it.”

“Now you’re talking silly.”

“Me? Silly? Get your head out of your ass, Golden Boy. There’s no other way. I can’t get more shifts. And other jobs that pay more require a college degree.”

“I have another way.”

“Oh really, what’s that?”

“It’s a surprise. I’ll tell you when—”

Jeremy stopped when he spotted someone standing next to Sammy, waiting for them on the beach.

It looked like the man-child.

“What’s up?” She jumped off her board, wading onto the beach. “Oh, it’s Kai.”

Jeremy took Leilani’s surfboard. Maybe if he had his hands full he wouldn’t be tempted to throw on his prescription mask and punch Kai out. The one good thing about not being an archangel anymore was that he didn’t have to be role model or be godlike. He owed Kai a good left hook.

And based on the way Leilani passed by Kai, ignoring him, she wouldn’t be too upset if he did sock him one.

“Leilani—”

“I have nothing to say to you,” she snapped at Kai as she grabbed her things. “Come on, Sammy.”

“Kai said he would take me to watch a movie. Can I go? Please?”

“I’ll take you,” she said.

“When?”

“When I have time.”

“You never have time.” Sammy pouted.

“Please, Leilani,” Kai said. “I just want to talk to you.”

The man-child was lucky that Jeremy didn’t have any angelic strength left, because the moment he touched Leilani, Jeremy dropped the surfboards and was instantly in Kai’s face.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” he growled.

Kai paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. This time Jeremy was ready. Tired, wrinkled body or not, he wasn’t going to let Kai get one punch on him.

“Don’t, Jeremy,” Leilani’s soft voice spoke from behind. “Kai’s leaving. He knows why.”

“We’re leaving too,” Jeremy said, bending over to pick up the surfboards.

“Wait, Jeremy,” Kai said. “I want to apologize.”

Jeremy blinked. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The man-child had actually apologized.

He looked from Kai’s open hand to Leilani’s beaming face and back again.

“I, uh . . .” Damn. Kai was being nice. Before Jeremy shook his hand, he caught Kai’s eyes flash briefly to Leilani.

The man-child wanted her back. Jeremy’s jaw clenched. He had to shake Kai’s hand. If he didn’t, that’d just piss Leilani off and make him look bad. He was stuck.

“No problem.” He plastered a smile on his face and shook the man-child’s hand, putting all his strength behind it.

“See. That wasn’t so bad was it?” She kissed Kai on the cheek.

“Man, Leilani. You and your boyfriends should make your own TV show on YouTube or something. Bet we could make a lot of money,” Sammy said.

Everyone spoke at once.

“Knock it off, Sammy.”

“I’m not her boyfriend.”

“We’re friends, little buddy.”

Jeremy locked eyes with Leilani. The problem was he did want to be her boyfriend, as juvenile as it sounded. It was also painfully obvious that Kai did too.

“Crap! My shift starts in an hour. There’s no way I can make it back home in time on the bus,” she said.

“I’ll give you ride,” Jeremy and Kai said in unison.

“I told you,” Sammy said, his eyes dancing. “It’s just like that
Young and the Reckless
show Auntie Anela likes to watch.”

“Sammy,” Leilani warned.

“You never let me do anything fun,” he muttered.

“Oh, all right. You can go with Kai.”

“Cool. Let’s go, Kai, before she changes her mind. Maybe later we can go to Queen’s Bath.”

Jeremy pursed his lips trying to fight a smile as Kai looked at Leilani and then Sammy, clearly torn.

Thank you, Sammy!
He loved that kid. He was going to treat him to a triple scoop cone for sure.

“Uh, okay,” Kai finally said.

“No Queen’s Bath!” she yelled after them as they left. “I don’t care what the people say. The waves there are too dangerous. Bring him home after the movie, Kai!”