Accidentaly Divine by Dakota Cassidy (books to read romance .txt) 📕

chiseled jaw, the one she’d wondered what it would be like to drop soft kisses along, and said, “She’s not taking her life because she doesn’t want to live it anymore. She’s taking it to end her agony—because her time is almost up and she doesn’t want to hurt anymore. And I dare because I once interfered—twice now, if I count you—and the first time, she ended up dead anyway.”

It was as though someone had punched her in the gut. In fact, George reached out and grabbed at the trunk of her car to steady herself, her feet crunching in the snow to reposition herself.

“Who?” she finally whispered. “Who ended up dead?”

He looked at her then, his eyes on fire, filled with myriad emotions, one very distinctly regret. “My wife.”

Chapter 22

George blinked, her lips moving before she could stop the words from coming out. “Your wife? You were married?”

Rolling his tongue inside his cheek, his face hard and unyielding, he said simply, “Yes. Twenty years ago, I was married to an amazing, wonderful woman named Mallory, who started the animal rescue I now run. She died.”

So many questions whizzed through her mind, jumbling up into a big ball of uncertainty. “I don’t understand. Were you her guardian?”

“No, I wasn’t her guardian. I died ten years before she did. I was killed in a boating accident. I drowned. But Mallory was happily remarried at the time before she was in an ugly car accident.”

George gulped hard, her fingers clenching into tight fists. “And?”

His eyes glistened as the early evening turned dark and the wind tore at his jacket. “And when I found out she was going to be in an accident, I interfered with her fate.”

That stopped George cold, sending a chill along her spine. “Did you use your angel powers to heal her or something? I don’t get what you’re saying.”

He closed his eyes and let out a ragged sigh—one so raw, George felt the pain from it deep within. “No. I always kept an eye on her from afar—from the moment I became a guardian. There’s no rule against it, but it’s not something they encourage because sometimes you can get too close, and they were right. I got too close. The night she was in the accident, I went to the scene. No one had shown up at that point because it was in a rural location, so I gave her CPR and I called 9-1-1.”

Her eyes began to water from the harsh wind, and her brain felt like mush, but she needed to understand what he meant. “I still don’t understand?”

“She was supposed to die that night, George. That was her intended fate,” he rasped out. “Instead, because I couldn’t bear to see her bloodied and battered, I saved her and put her new husband and her family through three months of hoping she’d live—and she died anyway. She was brain dead, but I only made everything worse until they had to make the choice to take her off life support. I prolonged their agony. Do you get that? I interfered, and it was wrong.”

She almost didn’t know what to say to his confession, but she saw the pain on his face, felt it emanate from him. “Is…is that how you lost your permanent wings?”

“Yes, and I’ve been trying to earn them back ever since,” he said, his tone wooden as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, his shame clear.

“So The Furry Gates was Mallory’s’?” It was clearly his way to atone. His way to make things right, to make up for the mistake he’d made.

“It wasn’t what it is today, but it was her idea—her dream. She talked about it all the time when we were married. She loved animals as much as I do. When upstairs took away my permanent wings because of what I’d done, I promised myself I’d make it up to her. Some way. So I expanded and I’ve been there ever since, doing whatever I can to build it up. It’s come a long way, even if it isn’t the most financially solvent.”

George’s mouth went dry—so dry she had to pry her tongue off the roof of her mouth to ask the next question. “But what about her husband? He didn’t want Furry Gates? What happened to him?”

Dex ran a hand over his dark hair, the sky behind him darkening with the coming night. “He was broken after Mallory died—after the trauma of her long illness. He decided to go back to his family in Oregon, but Furry Gates wasn’t as big as it is now. Mallory was just starting it when she died. Like I said, it had always been her dream, but she’d only just begun. Her husband gave the two animals she had to a shelter when he left Buffalo, and I rescued them and bought the house we run it from today.”

“And you haven’t been able to earn back your wings for all this time?” she squeaked out.

“I’ve had assignments along the way, but no. I haven’t earned them back yet. The assignments upstairs hands me haven’t been permanent-wing worthy. Until—” He stopped short, clenching his jaw.

“Until me, right?” she insisted. The conversation she’d been hoping to avoid was here, and she wasn’t going to hide from it anymore. She was going to do what Nina said.

Life hurt, but she was going to put her warrior pants on and grab the day, or in this case, the conversation by the balls.

His face softened a little. “I won’t lie to you and tell you it’s been easy trying to get you to open up and let go, George. It hasn’t. Your guilt and pain has been a hurdle I haven’t been able to clear, but I don’t see it the way you see it. I don’t see this as you keeping me from getting my permies. I don’t.”

She lifted her chin and swallowed hard, pushing her hair from her face. “Did they