Page 57 of Enchanted

“You are?”

“You said to take you away. So that’s what I’m doing.”

Shame he didn’t know what I was. With my wings, I could’ve flown us to another continent in the time it’d taken us to get to Essex.

“Thank you.” Ethan reached out to touch my hand where it rested on the steering wheel. I turned to see gratitude on his face, the same emotion radiating in my chest. “Seriously.”

“It’s what friends do,” I said, distracted by the sensation of him touching me. “You’re there for the good times and the bad.”

Ethan’s hand lingered a few more precious seconds before he withdrew it. “Thank you. If there were more people like you, the world would be a far nicer place.”

That was the whole point of angels. We were meant to be role models for humans to look up to. The epitome of grace, kindness, and humility.

Shame God gave us all the other qualities to. Selfishness. Vengeance. Possessiveness. A propensity to violence. The idea had been well meant, it was the execution that left a lot to be desired.

I shot a sideways glance at Ethan. His hand was tapping his leg now, his expression pensive. From the bond, I could tell he was calmer now…which also made him more difficult to read.

I fucking hated that.

“What do you want?” I asked suddenly, needing to know. “Silence? Music? Audiobook? Distraction?”

He chuckled. “You don’t need to worry about me, Rami.”

As if I could do anything else. “Humour me.”

“Fine,” he sighed. “Why don’t you distract me by telling me a funny story about your housemates? I’m sure you must have a couple about the twins.”

“A couple? Try hundreds.”

“After today, I can totally see why.”

I searched my brain. Not that it was difficult recalling one—it wasn’t. Trying to find one that didn’t involve any hints of my true nature though? That was a tad tricky.

Finally, my brain gave up the goods. “Okay, so it helps to know that they’re both obsessed with the American version of The Office.”

“Oh god,” Ethan said immediately. “Who did they prank?”

“Everyone.” I shuddered as I thought about it. “Noah has really long hair and is notorious for taking lengthy showers. The twins thought it would be funny to put chicken stock cubes in his showerhead. Poor Noah kept washing his hair but couldn’t figure out why he smelled like Sunday dinner.”

Ethan cackled. “That’s brutal but genius. What else?”

“Nate is really into technology. He installed a macro on Micah’s computer so every time he typed ‘report,’ it changed it to ‘arsehole.’ Unfortunately, he didn’t notice until after he sent an email out with the subject line: Feedback on the Scottish Diplomatic Arsehole.”

“Stop.” Ethan’s giggle had me grinning. “How many people did he send it to?”

“Far more than he was happy with.” I shook my head ruefully. Micah’s fury following that had been something to behold. “That’s not even the worst. With Ez, they kept stuffing toilet roll in the ends of his shoes.”

He frowned. “What’s the point of that?”

“They added it over time,” I explained. “Ez genuinely thought his feet had randomly started growing. He bought six new pairs of shoes in ever increasing sizes before he figured it out.”

“Bet he made them train with him after that.”

Actually, he’d choked both of them to death with said toilet paper, but that was in the pre-Sam days. “Sure did.”

I spent the next thirty minutes telling Ethan more stories of the twins’ shenanigans. Each one removed more of the tension from his body, until he was almost relaxed.

“My god, they really are nightmares,” Ethan said as I finished yet another tale. “As much as I hate to say it, we should probably head back. I need to look at getting a hotel for the night.”