AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 2
How drunk was he?Because one minute Anderson Miles was walking down the sidewalk, and the next, he was hit by an angel. It wasn’t even Christmas!
She was soft and warm, completely covered in white, and falling from the sky. Because one moment he was alone, and the next, she was in his arms.
Looking at her in the streetlight glow with her nearly white blonde hair spread over the white snow, she looked like the angel he was sure she was. Her eyes opened, and he was looking into icy blue depths that instantly captivated him. He leaned closer to her, and her gaze shifted to look at his mouth.
Who was this woman, and where the hell had she come from? Had fate sent her?
Not an hour before, he had just told his friend Rafferty at the bar that this town wasn’t the kind of place he was going to find love. But suddenly, he was rethinking that. Maybe there was someone in this town worth staying for.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, then stopped staring at her and started to get up, or tried to. All he seemed able to do was roll off her into the snow pile beside her. Closing his eyes, he rubbed his face, still seeing those ice-blue eyes. With some effort, he sat up and explained, “I think I might have drank too much.”
When she didn’t say anything, he opened his eyes and looked at the snowbank beside him, but it was empty. She was gone. He looked up and down the sidewalk but didn’t see her or any sign of her. She had vanished, and all that was left of her was an indent in the snow pile.
Flopping back into the cold snow, he stared at the falling snowflakes and wondered if she had just been a figment of his imagination. Was she even real? Was he drunk enough to hallucinate?
“Are you passed out, Anderson?” Rafferty Brooks kicked his foot, causing him to sit up.
A few weeks ago, he had gone out for a drink at the only bar in town and had stumbled into Rafferty. They had been hanging out since then. Anderson liked Rafferty, he was a fun guy who knew everyone in town. But then again, the man had been raised here, whereas Anderson had just moved here four years before.
Until recently, Anderson had always driven the hour and a half from Landstad to spend every weekend with his girlfriend, Daphne. He and Daphne had been dating and living together on the weekends for almost five years. In that time, he had twice asked her to marry him, and almost every month or so, they would talk about her moving to Landstad. None of those things had happened because she had a career in real estate that she was not giving up to live with him in some back-water town up north.
Even so, late last fall, when he had asked her again to marry him, he wanted more than her weekends. It wasn’t the first time, but he was sure she was in the same place as he was. After all, it had been five years. Instead, she had actually laughed at him, callously informing him that his brother had proposed not three days before and that she had accepted his proposal. The better proposal.
Anderson had been devastated, not just by her words but by her attitude. Numb and hollow, he had walked out of the restaurant they were in, leaving her behind to figure out her own way home. After packing his stuff as best he could, he headed home to Landstad. After that, he had only been back but once or twice for holidays.
In hindsight, he could see now that he hadn’t really loved Daphne. It had just been time to settle down, and she had been in his life. His brother Jonathan would not marry her because he was already married to an amazing woman with two kids. He was just trying to take what Anderson had—that was how Jonathan had always been. In the end, his brother cheating on his wife was what had pissed Anderson off more than him taking Daphne. His brother’s wife deserved better.
“Do you believe in angels?” he asked, his mind back on the woman he had just had in his arms. He could still feel her against him.
“I’ll drive you home, buddy. I can tell weekends in Landstad are a little too much for you.” Rafferty laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet.
Anderson waved him off and replied, “I think an angel landed on me.”
Anderson half hoped that Rafferty had an explanation for what had happened, that maybe he had seen it happen and could either tell him he was drunk or who he had run into. Anderson was sure she had been a real woman, all curves and softness and vanilla-scented.
Rafferty ignored him. “We can do lunch, and you can pick up your truck when you’re sober again.”
“I think she was a real woman,” Anderson admitted, now convinced that she was real. She was just able to disappear, like a superpower…so maybe not so real.
“Sure, buddy, we all do.” He chuckled and slapped Anderson on the back, then pushed him towards his truck.
Anderson went willingly because, after all that, he was sure that she was real. Or maybe he was too drunk to even know since she had vanished as fast as she had appeared.
* * *
Hours later,Anderson was back on Main Street in Landstad, about to throw up in the middle of a 50s style café. Rafferty had picked him up for the promised lunch, and they were at Mia’s, one of only two restaurants in town. This one was by far the most popular with the locals.
Not that Anderson could blame them—the place was quaint and charming and looked the exact same as it had four years before when he had first seen it. It was right out of 1955, and the charm of it was never lost on him. Even today, when he was sick enough to throw up, the café still maintained its charm.
“How can you eat that?” Anderson watched him eat and tried not to gag at the mere smell.
“How can you not?” Rafferty replied as he just kept shoveling more of the greasy eggs in his mouth before digging into his hash browns.
The café door opened, letting in a cold blast of air, and everyone in the café looked to see who’d walked in. The chilled air actually helped to settle his rolling stomach. People-watching was more than a hobby in a small-town café; it was a sport. Knowing what everyone else was doing was just what everyone did.
The wind had blown in a tall blonde in a thick blue jacket and white boots. Not able to look away, he watched her gloved hands as she pushed off the snow that had settled on her. Her long hair was completely covering her face, still disheveled from the wind. Instantly, he knew he was looking at his angel again. The woman who had appeared out of nowhere last night had just walked into the cafe.
