Date with Destiny Collection: Angel Romance Series: Books 1 - 4 Page 2

  When she passed his aisle, he peeked his head out to follow her and noticed her joining a group of students congregating in the corner. He turned around and walked to the other end of the aisle then made his way to the side of the library where she was heading.

  Mr. Volnar was talking about the Mathletes, and Zeph wondered if the girl was on the team. The Mathletes didn’t get a whole lot of attention at his school, and Zeph didn’t know anyone else on the team. He recognized the plain-looking girl from the cafeteria, though, and sure enough, she had saved the redhead a seat.

  Zeph didn’t want to just stand there staring, so instead he decided to grab some books and take a seat. He used the computer to look up books about angels and picked a few that looked interesting. He found a table not too far away from the girl and began to read. He always found it fascinating what humans had to say about angels.

  The Celestia Divisa weren’t exactly a secret, but most humans didn’t know about them. Celestia didn’t go around broadcasting what they were, but you could sometimes find theories about them in old books. They usually used their gifts in subtle ways with no one the wiser. Only when they worked complete miracles did humans tend to take notice.

  Of course, the emotional effects of a miracle were so intense that most of the time the human and Divisa fell in love. Once that happened, the human was let in on the Divisa world. Most humans accepted the idea of guardian angels, so the concept of Celestia wasn’t too foreign.

  Zeph propped up a book in front of him to hide his face and scanned the pages, his eyes frequently wandering over to watch the girl. She seemed to be in her element with this group — smiling, laughing, and chatting with her friends. She must be pretty smart if she’s on the math team, Zeph thought — way out of my league. He managed to get decent grades, but nothing came easy.

  As the meeting came to an end, Zeph wrestled with himself. Should he just sit here and pretend to be studying, or should he approach the girl? But what could he say? He didn’t even know why he was there, but ever since he first saw her he couldn’t quit thinking about her. She lingered in his thoughts, like a song lyric that plays over and over again in your mind till you can’t think of anything else until you hear it again.

  As he gazed at her, she turned and caught his stare. The choice was taken from him when she approached him instead.

  Zeph sighed as he realized she must recognize him after all and prepared himself for the inquisition. Everyone always asked the same questions about his strange lack of Celestial gifts.

  The girl had seemed shy in the cafeteria — the way she dropped her head when she wasn’t talking and sat with her limbs tucked in. The team meeting must have buoyed her confidence, though, because she headed his way with a smile.

  Zeph touched the thumb of his right hand to his ring finger in the universal Celestia greeting, but the girl didn’t return the sign. Strange. Instead, she pointed at the book in front of him.

  “I read that; It was really good!” she said. Zeph closed the book he hadn’t really been reading and looked at the front cover. Shiny, gold angel wings spanned the front cover. “If you’re into angels, have you seen that new show, Wings?”

  Zeph worked his jaw in confusion but had no idea how to respond. “Show?” he finally croaked.

  “Yeah, it’s this new series about guardian angels. I really like it.”

  “I haven’t heard of it. When is it on?” Zeph stared at the girl, trying to figure her out.

  “It’s only been on for a couple weeks. It’s on Thursday nights on the CW channel. You should check it out.”

  “Maybe I will.” Zeph gave a hesitant smile.

  “Well, I hope you like it.” She waited for him to respond, but he was mesmerized by her smile. Up close he noticed the spattering of freckles across her nose and the luminescence of her creamy skin. Her fiery hair lay in sharp contrast against the paleness of her chest. When the silence grew awkward she turned to leave.

  “Wait!” Zeph blurted. “What’s your name?”

  The girl turned back, encouraged. “Eve Jones.”

  Zeph tilted his head and scrunched his nose. “Your name is Eve Jones?” he asked, more confused than ever.

  “Yeah.” The girl laughed at his expression. “You seem surprised. What were you expecting?”

  Something angelic, Zeph replied in his mind. He would swear this girl was Divisa, especially after all the angel talk. So why didn’t she have a Divisa name? And why didn’t she return the Celestia hand sign?

  “I don’t know,” Zeph managed to reply with a shrug and a smile. “I’m Zeph Arella.” He tried the hand sign again. Still no response.

  “Zepharella? Like Cinderella?” Eve chuckled. “And you think my name is weird?” The girl quickly covered her mouth with her hands. “I’m sorry, that was really rude.”

  Zeph laughed. “No, it’s Zeph… Arella. Two words — first and last. Zeph is short for Zephaniah.”

  “Oh, I get it. Sorry.” The girl smiled, dazzling like sunshine. “I’ve never heard of anybody named Zephaniah before. Isn’t that… biblical or something?”

  Zephaniah wasn’t a typical Celestia name, but shouldn’t she have recognized the last name Arella? It was obviously Divisa. There were only a handful of Celestia Divisa surnames, all that meant angel in one language or another.

  “Yeah, he was one of the minor prophets.”

  “Are your parents like, really religious or something?”

  “Something like that.” Zeph nodded with a small smile. “What about you?”

  “What? Religious? No, not really. I just like the idea of angels, I guess. It’s kind of comforting to think there are supernatural beings out there looking out for us.”

  Zeph nodded slowly, still baffled. This close to her, her Celestial nature felt stronger than ever, but why did she seem so oblivious?

  “Well, it was nice talking to you, Zephaniah. I have to go get my brothers now. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime,” she said, returning his confused stare.

  “I’d like that,” Zeph slowly replied.

  Eve waited another moment for the boy to ask for her number or maybe even a date, but instead he just stood there, staring. She shook her head as she walked away.

  Chapter 3

  Eve shook her head, an unconscious response to the strange interaction. When she saw the boy in the library she was immediately intrigued. How was it she had never seen him before, and now, here he was, staring at her twice in one day?

  The angel book is what motivated her to forfeit her normal shyness and approach him. Eve was kind of obsessed with angels. She didn’t understand how someone so focused on practical things like math and science could be so fascinated with a supernatural fantasy, but the contradiction didn’t stop her from greedily lapping up any morsel of angel minutiae she could find.

  She preferred intellectual dissertations on angel theory and true life accounts of Celestial experience, but she couldn’t resist a good paranormal angel romance, either. When she saw the boy reading one of her favorite books on the subject, it was like her obsession grew a will of its own and marched her body over to him before her mind could come up with a convincing counterattack.

  The boy was just as much of an enigma as her supernatural obsession. She thought maybe he was interested in her, the way he kept staring, but then why did he act so weird when she tried talking to him? And why didn’t he make a move when she gave him an opportunity? She didn’t understand guys at all, which was probably why she had never dated one.

  She knew she wasn’t really like the other girls, the ones who flipped their hair and stroked the boys’ egos while flaunting their assets in skin tight clothes. But she’d been told she was pretty often enough to believe it, even if she didn’t dress like a present for the boys, half unwrapped.

  Maybe it was her intelligence that turned guys off, intimidating them with her mastery of calculus and chemistry. It probably didn’t help that she went to Mathlete competitions and science fairs in
stead of football games and parties.

  But Zeph didn’t know any of that. He knew nothing about her — except that she liked books and shows about angels, but that didn’t seem like an offensive trait, and besides, it appeared to be an interest they shared if the pile of books on his table was any indication. Every single one was about her favorite subject.

  Oh well, Eve shrugged as she dug her keys from her bag and made her way to her mother’s old sedan. She had inherited the vehicle when she got her license, mainly because her mother was anxious for Eve to take over chauffeur duties for her two younger brothers. Now, Eve had all the freedom a 1999 Toyota Camry could offer, in exchange for taking her little brothers to and from karate and wherever else they needed to go.

  When she arrived at the martial arts studio, Alex and Andy were waiting outside, throwing kicks and blocking punches in their karate gis. Eve drove up to the curb, and the two tow-heads tumbled into the car, hyped up on cookies and karate talk. At twelve and eleven, her brothers were at that awkward stage between boy and teen, just as likely to talk about Legos as boobies, but not nearly old enough to offer Eve any insight into the teenage male mind.

  Pulling into the driveway right behind their mother, Eve prompted her brothers to help carry in the groceries their mom’s car looked to be full of. The boys scrambled from the backseat and competed to see who could carry the most bags on one arm, leaving just a few for Eve to grab.

  Her brothers plopped their bags on the counter and started dumping out the contents, scavenging through the groceries like vultures picking tender morsels from day-old carrion on the side of the road.

  Eve snagged a couple baby carrots to munch on while they put away the groceries, the succulent aroma of fresh rotisserie chicken awakening the rumbling ogre in her stomach. Her mother pulled a pot from the cupboard and dumped in some water and a packet of seasoned rice mix.

  “It’s my turn to pick the vegetable!” Andy pawed through the groceries for the least offensive produce. He settled on a bag of frozen corn and tossed the pack to his mom who caught it without taking her eyes off the stovetop.

  “Good catch, Mom!” Andy complimented her, and Julie pumped her hands in the air in a self-congratulatory cheer.

  “How was your first day back to school, sweetie?” Julie asked as Eve poured drinks and cut up the chicken.

  “It was okay.” She kind of wanted to talk to her mom about the strange encounter she had with Zephaniah, but she didn’t want to bring it up in front of her brothers. Their maturity level had not developed past the fart joke stage, and they were likely to tease her incessantly if they thought she had even the tiniest interest in the opposite sex.

  All through dinner, Eve replayed the conversation in her head, trying to figure out what she might have said to scare off Zephaniah. When her plate was clean and her brothers had resorted to flicking corn kernels across the table at each other to avoid eating them, Eve decided she would ask her mom as soon as her brothers left the room. Considering their current behavior, it wouldn’t take long before their mother shooed them away.

  A few minutes later, the boys had been relegated to their rooms, and Eve was clearing the table when her mother finally broke the silence. “What’s up with you today, honey? Did something bad happen at school?” Julie asked, stroking her daughter’s long, silky hair.

  Eve sighed, grateful she had her mom as a sounding board. “Do you think I’m weird?” she asked, biting her lip to keep the tears from pooling in her eyes.

  “Now why on earth would you think that?” Julie replied, her voice soft with motherly concern.

  “I don’t know, it’s just, well, there was this boy at school today. He kept looking at me at lunch, and I thought maybe he was interested.” Eve busied herself with putting away the leftovers, hoping it would distract her face from leaking tears. “I saw him after school in the library, and he was staring then, too.”

  Sensing there was more to the story, Julie turned around from the dishwasher and caught Eve’s eye. A raised eyebrow and a gentle touch were all it took to break the dam of her daughter’s nonchalance.

  “But as soon as I started talking, he clammed up and looked at me like a freak with two heads! Am I really that awkward at normal conversation that a boy would be repulsed as soon as I open my mouth?” Eve wailed, scrunching up her face as the tears spurted from her eyes.

  Julie harrumphed and puffed out her chest as she took her daughter by the shoulders. She didn’t always understand her daughter’s interests, and she had no idea where Eve got her intellectual skills, but she knew her daughter was an extraordinary person, and anyone who spent any time with her at all was more likely to be amazed than repulsed.

  “Listen here, angel.” Julie’s voice was rough with consternation. “Don’t ever let a boy’s opinion determine your self-worth. I may not know much about men, but I know a lot about women, and you, my dear, are an incredible girl. Beautiful, brainy, ambitious. I’m surprised the boys aren’t lined up around the block!”

  Eve’s grimace softened at her mom’s words, and she tugged self-consciously at her hair.

  “Were you talking about coefficients or electromagnetism or something else the average person doesn’t understand?”

  “No, I just mentioned that I had read the book he was looking at and thought it was good.”

  “Well, then! If anything, the boy was probably so overwhelmed by your attention that he didn’t know how to respond. You think girls are the only ones who feel insecure around the opposite sex? I’m sure that boy is kicking himself right now for not making a move when he had the chance. Here’s what you do: the next time you see him, you walk right up and act like you hit it off today instead. I bet you dollars to donuts he gets up the nerve to ask you out.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” Eve grinned, giving her mom an impulsive hug before running off to her room.

  Julie smiled back, hoping her little speech had repaired her daughter’s damaged self-esteem. What she really wished was that her late husband was around to give her daughter a male’s prerogative. She glanced at the family picture hanging above the mantle, the last one taken before Steven had died, and said a little prayer that she was doing a good enough job being both mother and father.

  Chapter 4

  The next day, Eve found her eyes constantly scanning the halls, hoping to catch another glimpse of the inscrutable Zephaniah Arella. Every time she saw a head of honey brown hair she did a double take, but the face below was never his. Why did she have to go to such a huge school? She grumbled as she glanced around her 3rd period classroom, hoping they had at least one class together.

  She knew they didn’t share any of their afternoon classes; she would have noticed him yesterday after he caught her eye at lunch. At least they had the same lunch period. Would fate present her with an opportunity to talk to him, or would she have to make her own? She wasn’t sure she was brave enough to do that, especially after her bombed attempt at conversation yesterday.

  Apparently, fate was on her side, because when she got in the cafeteria line, Zeph was standing just two people in front of her. Eve joined the end of the line and stared at Zeph’s back, hoping he would notice her. She wasn’t going to call him out, she decided, but if he saw her then of course she would say hi. Her stare must have burned a hole in his back because a few seconds later Zeph turned around.

  A genuine smile lit his face as he recognized her, and Eve responded with a small wave. “Hey, Zeph, did you read any more of that book last night?”

  Zeph nodded. Motivated by her enthusiasm for it, Zeph had checked it out and read the whole thing in one sitting. It was a compendium of true life stories of modern angel sightings. “It was really good.”

  “What was your favorite story?” Eve asked, encouraged. Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, and Zeph was momentarily stunned.

  “Uh, I guess the one about the little kid who played with the angel in the park.”

  “Oh, that’s my favorite, too!” Excitement
turned her pale cheeks the color of pink rose petals. “What did you think of the last story, the one with the man who claimed he had dated an angel?” she asked, her voice growing serious.

  Zeph’s face clouded. That one had obviously been about a Celestia Divisa. Did Eve bring it up because she was one? Her essence practically shouted Celestia, but her gift was still a complete mystery to him, as was just about everything else about her.

  If she wasn’t a Divisa, then why did she seem so interested in him? Girls never paid him any attention. Of course, he was usually too shy to even look at them, let alone strike up a conversation. Talking to Eve wasn’t so hard, though, he realized. She seemed… cool. And for some reason she didn’t seem to think he was a total loser, despite his foot-in-mouth behavior the day before.

  “Move it, dude,” the guy between them growled when Zeph failed to keep up with the progressing line.

  Eve waved him back towards her, and Zeph let the other student pass him. Eve’s face lit up as Zeph joined her in line.

  “So what do you think?” Eve pressed. “Do angels date?”

  You tell me, Zeph wanted to say, but he refrained. He was so confused by her response to everything! Before he had a chance to formulate a better reply, he reached the front of the line. The lunch lady interrupted them with an offer of mashed potatoes and gravy, and Zeph held out his tray.

  The buffet seemed to have distracted Eve, and Zephaniah breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn’t know what to say. As he waited for the cashier to ring up his purchases, he scanned the crowd for his friends. His sister was already surrounded by a gaggle of cooing classmates, but where were Maddock and Cheydan?

  Eve noticed Zeph looking at the table where he sat yesterday, only it was empty today. On impulse, she said, “Do you want to sit with me?”

  Startled, Zeph turned her way to see if there was a snicker on her face. She looked hopeful, not sarcastic, and Zeph quickly nodded. “Sure, that’d be great.”