She gasped and looked him in the eyes. “You told me it wasn’t wrong, I thought—”
“It’s not it’s just…I’m supposed to not want this until my human couple binds and I inherit part of their humanity.”
She smiled like that was the greatest compliment. “Wow. I’m so amazing.”
He nuzzled her lips with his. “Heaven yes. Yes, you are.” Though Toren figured it was more than that and wished he knew the reason for it. He’d wanted her since she’d kissed him. But why?
** ** **
“What?” Toren finally had to ask, looking at his beautiful wife sitting there in the driver seat just staring at him.
She shook her head and gave a light gasp. “Just trying to figure out if I’m dreaming or if you’re actually real. An…angel.”
“You say it like you weren’t sure we existed.”
She gave a cute non-lady-like snort. “Hello, human here. Frail. Corrupt. Fallen. Of course I wasn’t sure. It's not like there’s been a whole lot of miracles happening in my life.”
It was Toren’s turn to snort.
“What!”
He nodded a few times and gave a light laugh. “No miracles? Baby, there have been more miracles in your life than recorded in your Christian Bible.”
Shocked gasp. “Oh please!” She started up the truck and yanked at the wheel till they were aimed in the direction of the ranch. “Like what.”
Toren kept one nostril to the wind for danger and the other all over his delicious soon to be wife. “Well, there’s the whole you breathing thing.”
“I mean besides the regular obvious miracles.”
“Ah, okay. Let’s see. The bear you got for your sixth birthday.”
“What? That was no miracle, my uncle gave me that after I asked for it.”
“Yeah but you didn’t know they’d discontinued that bear. There was only one place that sold them and we tipped off your Aunt to where that was.”
She drove like a beautiful lunatic, her mouth open. Toren smiled at how Joe would wake up with a serious headache added to his humiliation. “What else!”
“Remember that flat tire you guys had on your way to the stock sale in Great Falls?”
“Oh my God, you did that? Daddy was so pissed. We missed the opening and he didn't get to bid on a stallion he wanted.”
“No, not me personally, Arliean did.”
“Arliean?”
“Your guardian?”
She glanced from him to the road, her mouth stuck on open. “Okay, but how is that a miracle?”
“Because if you hadn’t, the guy who stopped to help your dad wouldn’t have learned what he did.”
“Oh my God, I remember that creepy dude. I was sure he was some kind of serial killer and would cut us into little bits. What did he learn?”
“He wasn't a serial killer, but he wasn't far off either. He'd lived a very hard life and believed humanity was completely lost, that goodness no longer existed in the hearts of men. He learned that there were still good people in the world that day.”
“But he stopped to help us.”
“Yes. He stopped because he planned to rob you. And your father would have resisted, allowing him to justify killing all of you. He'd have discovered he liked killing that day. But when your father gave him the fifty-four dollars, all the money in his wallet, for his kindness, he saw exactly what he needed to see.”
Sam busted out laughing. “Oh my God! I remember my mother having a shit fit about that and my dad saying he just felt compelled to. It was the last trip we took as a family. Just a few weeks later, she was gone.”
“Well your father was compelled that day.”
“By an angel?”
“Yes, Lauris pulled that one off.”
Sam shot another laugh. “I’ll say, must’ve been like pulling a heist at the tightest bank in town getting my father to do that.”
Toren smiled. “Not when Lauris showed him similarities between that man and the little brother who he’d lost when he was seventeen. Before you were born, your uncle was shot to death attempting to rob a small diner.”
“Ohhhh my Gosh.” She shook her head, looking in the rearview mirror. She gasped. “Shit, I forgot about Joe back there.”
Toren bit his lip to keep from laughing when she didn’t slow down.
“So wait, isn’t that like manipulation? What the angels did?”
“Of course.”
“Of course! And that’s…okay?”
“Yes, as long as it’s for one's good. He didn’t lie or twist his arm, he just reminded him and your father did what was right.”
“Giving all his money?”