Page 40 of Claimed by the Fallen
I lift the phone back to my ear. “Hey. Sorry about that. I was saying goodbye tosomeone.”
“Someone tall, blond and handsome, Ihope.”
I walk to my front door. I unlock the door and shut it behind me, flipping the lock, before I reply, “Yes.”
Annie squeals. “Oh, girl, spill it. How do you know the guys from therestaurant?”
I greet Periwinkle, scratching her ears. “One of them wasZeke.”
“Zeke? As in,theZeke?”
Annie, of course, knew about my crush on my kickboxing instructor. I couldn’t keep something like that from my best friend. Though, she’d never seen him. By the time I finally agreed to bring Annie to one of my classes to check him out for herself, Zeke had left ValleyLake.
“Yes,” I answer. “TheZeke.”
“Woah. What’s he doing back intown?”
Quickly, I come up with a lie. “His brother lives here. He’svisiting.”
“Was his brother the other guy with him? Which one was Zeke? The taller or shorterone?”
I try to think about the men’s heights, but I hadn’t noticed a difference between them. “Um… Zeke is the one with golden hair. Adrian is more platinumblond.”
Annie hums her approval. “Well, they’re both crazy hot. But why were they at the restaurant? And I saw them get in your car. First the black-haired customer, and now two hunky brothers. You must be emitting some crazy vibes into the universe,” Annie rambles, and I cringe when she makes the comment about emitting vibes. She has no idea how close she is to thetruth.
“Zeke just wanted to say hi,” I lie again. “He saw me working through the window, and they’d walked to the restaurant from where they parked on Main Street. We went outside to talk, and I offered to drive them back to their car so they could avoid walking in the heat.” To distract Annie from asking any more tough questions, I add, “And it turns out I met Zeke’s brother at the Young and Heart concert last week. Small world, huh?” I’d told Annie about Adrian two daysago.
She, Joey and I had been hanging out at my house Monday evening, spending time together before Joey left Valley Lake to visit his older brother in California. I’d been relieved to see Joey was, as Adrian had said, unharmed from the demon attack on Saturday night. Joey and I had spoken on the phone and he sounded normal, but it wasn’t until I confirmed there were no lingering cuts or bruises that I finally believed theangel.
The three of us had been sitting in my living room. I was starting Joey’s action movie of choice when he said, “So, Ronnie, have you heard from McDreamy since the concert?” I stiffened and glared at Joey, silently asking what he thought he wasdoing.
“What?” Annie perked up from her spot on the couch, glancing between us. “What are you talking about,Joey?”
Joey had shrugged and said, “Ask,Ronnie.”
Which shedid.
At the time, I was still struggling to comprehend the insanity of meeting angels, let alone learning I was Nephilim. I hadn’t wanted to tell Annie anything about Adrian, fearful of accidentally revealing the truth about the angelic world. But, as expected by my pushy best friend, I really didn’t have a choice. So, I revealed Adrian seemed interested in me, and he’d alluded to the fact he might see mearound.
As you might imagine, Annie lostit.
She proceeded to conjure up scenarios in which I may run into my mysterious admirer. While, at the same time, giving me an earful for not telling her about the mysterious man sooner. I’d continued to glare at Joey as I defended my stance to my best friend, telling her there was nothing to tell. Adrian said hi, then he left when Joey arrived. That wasit.
Joey remained silent during my explanation, looking unbothered by my irritatedstare.
I hadn’t understood what prompted Joey to mention Adrian in the first place. Part of me wondered if he was jealous, but I’d dismissed the idea immediately. After all, he had no reason to be jealous. Joey was my best friend, not my boyfriend. And he’d never given the slightest indication that was something he would ever want to be. Joey was just beingweird.
Several minutes later, Annie finally let the topic drop when I hit “play” on the remote, but now that she knows Adrian is the guy from the restaurant, I doubt I’ll be so luckyagain.
“Zeke’s brother was the guy at the concert?” Annie can’t contain her shocked excitement. It makes the earpiece on my phone crackle with her elevated pitch. “Are you for real? That’scrazy.”
“Yeah,” I agree with her, “it’scrazy.”
“So… are you like… going to go out with Zeke or Adrian? I mean, Zeke kind of ditched you when he left without saying goodbye. If I were you, I’d go for Adrian. He seems moremature.”
I don’t bother asking what she means. She doesn’t know either of them well enough to make that claim. “I’m not going out with either of them. Zeke just wanted to say hello,” I remindher.
“Okay, but what about Adrian? You said he seemed interested at the concert. Why not datehim?”
