Angel Unaware (3 page)

When he was sure he wouldn’t topple off, he continued with his instructions. “You’ll leave immediately after your briefing. While you’re there, you will work with a family who is sorely in need of guidance.” He took Dora’s shoulders in his large hands. “There are two things you must remember. If you’re successful in this, there’s a good chance there will be a promotion to Guardian Angel in it for you.”

The thought of a promotion to Guardian Angel didn’t come close to exciting her a fraction as much as going to Earth. Dora grinned and started to pull away, anxious to get started. Calvin’s grip tightened.

“This is the most important thing you have to remember. You’re young, impressionable, and inexperienced. Mortals have a way about them that… Well, suffice to say, take care in your dealings with them. Do not, I repeat,
do not
get emotionally attached to any humans, and under no circumstances are they to know that you’re an angel.”

Half-listening, Dora nodded vigorously, while she danced in place, waiting for a sign that Calvin was done with his list of conditions. He wasn’t.

“I cannot emphasize this enough. If you violate any of the terms of your transition to mortal form, Dora, when you return here, there will be dire repercussions.
Dire
.”

A tiny chill of foreboding chased down her spine, but she ignored it. Before Calvin could find more reasons to detain her, she raced off to report for her briefing and then the final preparations for her long-awaited transformation to mortal form.

Tony answered the doorbell and found a woman standing there. Could this be the first candidate for the nanny position? He checked his watch. The agency said she should arrive around this time.

He blinked. With the sun behind her, she was totally surrounded by a glowing bright light. He couldn’t see her face, but he could see the delightful outline of her body in silhouette, and delightful it was in every way. He took a deep breath and knew that his reaction had nothing to do with Penny’s neglected needs and more to do with his own.

A distant rumble of thunder broke the silence, and just then a large dark cloud seemed to appear from nowhere to cover the sun.

The woman extended her hand and smiled up at him with eyes the color of a velvety night. “Hi, I’m Dora DeAngelo.”

That smile and her voice did things to his insides that made his head light and his heart thump loudly in his ears. The thunder rolled again, this time closer. Tony glanced at the one dark cloud hanging almost directly above them.
A thunderstorm in the dead of winter
?

He shrugged.
Crazy weather
.

“I’m here to apply for the nanny job.” Another rumble of thunder pounded overhead.

“Hi. Thanks for coming so quickly.” Another ominous rumble came from above. He glanced heavenward again. “You’d better come in. I think the sky’s about to open up.” He shoved the door wider and stepped aside to allow her passage. Before she slid past him, she looked questioningly at the sky and then frowned. As she moved through the doorway, he inhaled a fragrance he’d never smelled before, one that made him think of summers at the lake with Rosalie mixed with the perfume of those large, pink flowers she cut from her garden every spring and put in the middle of the dining room table.

He shook his head and pulled back from the memories, both physically and mentally. This was ridiculous. He had to keep his mind on Penny and get himself under control before he scared Dora away in the interview.

Dora walked into what she expected to be a disheveled living room cluttered with a child’s toys and games. To her surprise, the room was immaculate, not a thing out of place, not a speck of dirt or dust to be found.

Unlived in
came to mind. Where were the signs that a six-year-old lived here…for that matter, that
anyone
lived here?

She tucked that thought away for the moment and looked around her, fascinated by finally being inside one of the houses she’d been seeing for so long in the Earth Pool. Tentatively, she touched the dark green fabric of a wingback chair. So solid, so strong. Nothing like the insubstantial, ethereal clouds she was used to. She looked up to find the man watching her, a faint smile barely curving his full lips.

“Your home is lovely,” she said in explanation of her inspection.

“Thanks.” He glanced around as though to confirm her assessment of the house. “I can’t take the credit, I’m afraid. My sister always had a good eye for decorating. She did all of this.” He waved his hand to encompass the room.

For the first time, Dora concentrated on him. A tingle tripped up her spine. She’d heard some of the angels telling stories about the Greek and Roman gods, and she was sure this man was what they meant by
handsome
.

His dark, wavy hair framed his face and brought into prominence his deep-chocolate brown eyes. Sad eyes. Eyes that seemed to carry no life in their depths. But she saw one other thing…fear. Why fear and of what?

Then she remembered what she’d been told in her briefing. He had lost his sister and had been left to raise his niece on his own. He had no previous experience with children. Perhaps the fear stemmed from the idea of having to raise this child by himself? Then again, maybe he just feared life.

He moved closer and, when confronted by his physical appearance, her troubled thoughts vanished. Instead, her attention centered on the man.

His blue work shirt’s sleeves bulged with the muscles hidden beneath the material, and his square jaw announced his strength of will and determination. Why then did he look so…defeated? He smiled, but there was no joy in the expression. Nevertheless, it had the power to send a new and unfamiliar warmth coursing through Dora’s body.

Outside the thunder grew louder. She glanced out the window. Calvin. How was she to do her job if he kept reminding her that she was just an angel? If she was to blend in with these mortals and help them, then she had to behave as they would. She ignored the following rumble from the sky.

“Please, sit down so we can talk.” The man gestured to the sofa, and Dora took a seat. She gave a little bounce, enjoying the firmness of the furniture beneath her. She leaned sideways, testing to see if it would tip and throw her off as the clouds often did. To her delight, no matter how much she moved, the furniture remained stationary.

The man sat across from her in the wingback chair. Leaning forward, he rested his arms on his thighs. “We might as well get right to it. I’m sure the agency already told you that I’m Tony Falcone. I need a nanny to look after my niece, Penny. It’ll be a live-in job, and I’ll expect you to cook and clean as well as take care of the laundry.” He paused as if waiting for her to object.

“That’s fine,” she said.

He seemed surprised. “You’ll dress Penny, do her hair, feed her breakfast and drive her to school each morning, and pick her up at the end of the day.”

Dora nodded and smiled, although the word
drive
caused a shiver of apprehension to shimmer up her spine. Then she recalled that Calvin promised she would have every skill she had to have when the need arose. Still, the idea of actually getting behind the wheel of one of those cars filled her with dread.

“Unfortunately, I can’t afford to pay you much,” he went on, rousing Dora from her troubled thoughts.

“I have little need for a lot of money, Mr. Falcone. Whatever you can pay will be adequate.”

He released a sigh and leaned back in the chair looking relieved. “I’m not much on formalities. Please, call me Tony.” He went silent for a moment, his brows furrowed in thought. “I guess all that’s left is for me to see your references?”

References
?

Calvin hadn’t said anything about references. She didn’t even know what this reference thing was. She must have been staring blankly at Tony.

“Could that be it?” He smiled and pointed to the sofa cushion beside her.

She gazed down and found a black purse at her side with a white envelope protruding from it. As she pulled the envelope out, she read
References
written across the front in a black scrawl.

Calvin’s words rang through her mind.
I’ve heard one can’t do anything down there without the proper papers
.

With an apologetic smile, she removed the envelope and passed it to Tony. As he opened it and scanned through the sheets, she watched his face for a reaction. He studied the words with a concentration that might have been compared to a government official studying a peace treaty with a warring power. His strong hands deftly turned each page and tucked it behind the others as he read. A wave of midnight-black hair fell forward on his brow. An unexpected itch to push it back, to see if it was as silky as it looked, jarred her with its intensity.

Outside, the thunder rumbled angrily. Again, she ignored it.

At one point he glanced up at her, and she could see an easing of the worry lines etched across his handsome face. But she knew it would take more than a few words on paper to completely erase them and the darkened circles beneath his eyes. Her heart twisted in her chest, and a deep longing to ease his pain raced through her.

After a few minutes had passed, he refolded the sheets, stuck them back in the envelope, and handed it to her. “Your references are excellent. If you want the job, Ms. DeAngelo, it’s yours. When can you start?”

“Right now,” she said, happy that he looked a bit more at ease. “And I’m not much for formalities, either. Please, call me Dora.”

“But don’t you need to get your things, Dora?”

“I brought everything I’ll need with me. My things are right out there.” She indicated the front door.

He rose, walked to the door, and opened it. There, right beside the welcome mat, were two brown suitcases. Tony tried to recall seeing them when he’d first opened the door to her. He replayed her arrival in his mind and then decided that the sun had been so bright behind her, and he’d been so preoccupied with his sensual reaction to her, that he must not have noticed the bags.

Grabbing the suitcases, he pulled them inside the foyer. A warm awareness spread down his left side, and he realized she had come to stand beside him. He moved away from her magnetic beauty. Right then he decided that making a pass at her, no matter how enticing he found her to be, could mean disaster. He needed her to look after Penny, and he couldn’t take the chance of losing her simply because his testosterone had risen to a new and alarming level.

An hour later, Dora was settled into a charming bedroom at the top of the stairs, complete with a canopied bed covered with a colorful patchwork quilt and a wash-stand with a blue and white Delft bowl and pitcher. The filmy, white tiebacks framing the two large windows reminded her of clouds, except, when they moved, they didn’t throw off little wisps of vapor.

A tall mirror with an ornate frame hung on the wall. She was able to see herself from head to toe in it, and she took great delight in examining this unfamiliar attire that she’d been given before she left. Jeans hugged her slim hips and a bright yellow sweater clung to her upper torso, accentuating pert breasts. White running shoes encased her feet. She turned to get a full perspective and found she rather liked what she saw. Her angel robe’s shapelessness hid the woman beneath. Not so the mortal attire. With these clothes, no one would ever guess her true identity. That was one of Calvin’s cautions she wouldn’t have to worry about.

Since Tony had hurried off to pick Penny up at school, a chore that would fall to her after today, she unpacked and stowed her suitcases in the closet and her clothing in the dresser, and decided to explore.

Back downstairs, Dora walked through the room in which Tony had interviewed her and into a homey, immaculate dining room, complete with a lovely, honey pine table, six chairs, and a hutch showcasing snowy, milk glass dinnerware. The kitchen, located at the back of the house, was much like the living room and dining room had been — immaculate and overly tidy.

No dirty dishes filled the sink and no fingerprints marred the glow of the countertop’s matted shine or the fronts of the glowing appliances. No child’s drawings were secured on the refrigerator with colorful magnets as Dora had seen in other houses while gazing into the Earth Pool. The kitchen, designed like one that had been used in colonial days, held all the modern appliances mortals relied on to get through a day of providing three meals for a family. Each appliance was carefully concealed behind pine doors with black, strap, wrought-iron hinges.

From observing the mortals in the Earth Pool, she already knew the function of most of the appliances. The toaster took pieces of white bread and made them brown and hot enough to melt butter. The refrigerator kept food fresh and cold. The stove cooked the food, and the dishwasher cleaned the dishes when the meal was done.

But she didn’t recognize the machine holding a large, glass cylinder with a handle on its side and a lid on top. The cylinder sat atop a base that had an array of buttons across the front. Experimenting, she pushed one of the buttons. The machine came to life with a deafening roar. It vibrated and shook while a silver thing spun madly in the bottom. Frantically, Dora sought for a way to silence the machine. She pushed another button. The machine only grew louder and more aggressive.

It’s called a blender
, Calvin’s familiar voice whispered

in her mind.
Press the button marked OFF
.

Obediently and with a large measure of relief, she pushed the last button and the machine went silent. Though she appreciated the help, a small part of her resented Calvin’s interference. Was he going to watch every move she made? She certainly hoped not. This was her mission, and, sink or swim, she wanted to do it alone.

Nevertheless, she thought,
Thank you, Calvin
.

Heaving a sigh of relief, she decided that she would push no more buttons until she became better acquainted with what the result would be.

Slowly, she strolled out of the kitchen and into the hall that provided passage from the front door to the rooms at the back of the house. Halfway down the hall, a small side table stood beside a large mirror exactly like the one in her room. She stopped to run her fingertips over the surface of the table, enjoying the solid feel of the dark wood beneath her touch. It was nothing like the ethereal clouds, more like the firmness she had imagined could be found in the muscles that pressed against the material of Tony’s shirt.