“We’ve made a decision.”
We could hear the angels again as the head angel came walking toward us. “It’s a compromise.”
I nodded, terrified for whatever it was that they were going to say. The angel turned to me first. “Meg, we have been especially impressed with your change of heart since you died,” she said. “Since the moment you returned to Earth, you have showed compassion and kindness to your fellow man. You gave up the money for Parker’s family. Instead of running away from the demons, you stayed to make sure Hope received the money. You tried to help Courtney after she was shot. You could have killed Mitchell and sent him to hell, but you didn’t. I don’t think the person you were before you died would have made all of those choices.”
I looked up at Parker, the whole reason for my change. “I have to agree.”
“And Parker,” the angel said, “due to a breach of rule 18394.394, you shouldn’t have gone to hell anyway. That deal was made under duress, which is unacceptable. It should never have been made in the first place. I apologize that we didn’t catch it sooner. You do not deserve to spend eternity in hell.”
“In fact,” she said, looking at the two of us, “your heart should have sent you to heaven when you died. However, you didn’t technically die, which puts us in a little bit of a pickle, so to speak. We’ve discussed it at length—”
“You discussed it, we had to just sit and listen,” the guard grumbled.
The angel narrowed her eyes. “The matter has been discussed. The two of you will not be going back to hell.”
I gasped, turning to Parker, who hugged me tight. Our future together was uncertain, but hell was not our destination.
“Instead, the two of you will be sent back to Earth to live out your lives. Parker, your deal has been voided. I apologize for your trouble. Because of the nature of the deal and the torture you had to endure, we will be making reparations to you. We will bring you back to the date that you were originally sent to hell. As I said, the deal is void, but you will be able to keep your job. You’ll still be working IT, and only need the one job to survive. Additionally, the demon who made the deal with you will be reprimanded and retrained.”
“Who knew the afterlife was run so much like a corporation?” I murmured to Parker.
“And you, Miss Cross, we’ve been debating a little bit about what to do with you.”
I nodded. Whatever compromise they had made for me, it would be better than being sent back to hell.
“You can thank Ezekiel here, he’s a bit of a romantic,” she said, motioning to the angel with the Asian features. He waved. “We assume that you do not want to resume your life with those two?” She motioned to Courtney and Mitchell.
“I really don’t,” I said.
“We’re rewriting your past. You’ll never have met them. We’re also putting you in a position that we think you’ll be better suited for.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” I said. I would have teared up had I been alive yet.
“Thank us by living a life full of love,” Ezekiel said. “Thank us by becoming a person who helps others, a person who is selfless. The type of person who would get into heaven when she died.”
I looked up at Parker. “I have a good role model.”
Parker looked over at the angels. “Will we remember each other?”
Ezekiel smiled, but the head angel spoke up before he could. “You’ll remember everything that’s happened.”
“All right,” I said, breathless. “But can we say our goodbyes first?”
The angel smiled. “Of course.”
Parker and I stepped aside, hands still entwined.
“Thank you,” I said. “You thanked me earlier, and now it’s my turn. You’ve made me into such a better person. If you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be getting this chance.”
“I didn’t make you into anything,” he said. “I just pulled out what was already there.”
“Either way, thank you for that,” I said, hugging him tightly.
“I’m going to find you,” Parker promised, leaning in for a kiss. “Some how, some way, I’ll find you.”
“I’m counting on it,” I told him.
Parker leaned down and kissed me, a deep kiss that thrilled me through every bone and cell and nerve of my body. A kiss that was mournful, made me sad, because as much as I wanted to believe we’d find each other, I had no idea what to expect when our world changed. I knew, and he knew, that we might never see each other again. This might be our last kiss, and we had to treasure it, savor it.
“Well, we’re leaving now,” said the guard as Parker and I embraced.
“Have fun in hell,” the angel said.
“Ha ha,” mocked the guard. “Come on, let’s go.”
I don’t know how they left, if on foot or if they could snap their fingers and appear magically back in hell, but when Parker and I pulled apart, they were gone. All that was left were the frozen figures of Hope, Mitchell, and Courtney, as well as the angels.
“Can you save her?” I asked, motioning to Courtney. I wasn’t sure if she was dead yet or not, but she certainly didn’t look good.
“We’re returning you to the day Parker was sent to hell. What happens after that is out of our control,” the angel said. I nodded. That had to be good enough.
“Are you ready?” she asked us.
I looked up at Parker. “As ready as we’ll ever be, I think,” I said, and Parker nodded. We squeezed hands, and I savored the feeling of his skin against mine and the angel smiled.
“Three, two, one,” she said, and snapped her fingers.
The world went dark and I felt like I was being thrown in the air, tossed around. Everything went still.
I opened my eyes.
Chapter Twenty–Eight
Everything was bright. I blinked several times, trying to adjust from the darkness of the forest to the bright room I was in now. The walls and the ceiling had been painted a stark white. The windows were dressed with black curtains, but they were open instead of closed which is why everything was so bright. Across the room from me sat a set of black dressers, and a few clothes were strewn across the floor, my clothes and a man’s clothes. I looked to my left at the small black bedside table that held a black and white damask lamp, my cell phone, charging, and a black and white photo. I squinted, trying to see who was in the picture. After a moment, I realized it was Parker and me, arms around each other.
I rolled over, and to my right was Parker, eyes closed, looking so at peace. His chest rose and fell softly, his slips slightly parted. I could have cried, and I was surprised when tears sprang to my eyes. I reached over to gently touch his arm, and his eyes flew open.
“What, what the hell?” His eyes met with mine and softened. “Meg?”
“Hey, I’m here,” I said.
“Where is here?”
I looked around the very lived-in looking bedroom. “I think we’re home.”
“Home? Together?”
I nodded, frowning. “My mind is such a whirl,” I said. “I’ve got these memories of what we’ve been through, memories of hell and our escape, but then I’ve got these other memories that are almost as clear, memories of another life.”
“You’re right,” he murmured, rolling over to face me. He was shirtless, and my eyes roamed his chest. “I remember meeting you in hell, but I also remember meeting you at the college.”
“That’s right. You were tech support.” I blinked a few times. My head was throbbing. “They changed our memories?”
“I think they changed the past.”
“I know things about you that I didn’t think I knew before,” I said.
“Like what?”
“Your favorite color is green, like a forest green. Your middle name is Leopold.”
He reached over and stroked the side of my face. “You love Italian food and early 2000s pop punk.”
My eyes widened. “You were never supposed to know about that.”
He laughed. “They did it,” he said, his eyes softening once more to become tender. “They didn’t have to put us back together, but they did.”
“She did say Ezekiel was a romantic.”
“Lucky for us,” he said. Parker pulled me in close, our lips meeting. I hadn’t realized how little I was wearing to bed—just a sports bra and shorts—until our skin melded together, his hot against mine. I reached up, hand on the back of his neck to draw him as close to me as possible. Somehow, now that I was alive, my senses were heightened, the kiss, the touch of his hands on my waist, everything thrilling through my body, my senses humming and my heart pounding.
It took a little bit of adjusting, but soon enough we managed to settle into our new lives. I no longer worked at the university; instead the angels had given me a job working as an assistant to the director of a nonprofit shelter for abused women and children. My job required a lot of planning and organizing, and I found I loved it. I thrived in my new position, and I adored helping others. It was a position I never would have considered in my old life, but the person I was now was perfectly suited to it. I didn’t make a lot of money, perhaps, but I was finding more and more that I didn’t care how much money I made. It wasn’t as important anymore.
Parker still had his job as tech support, and he enjoyed his as much as I did. He was good at it, too, with a remarkable adaptation to technology. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got a promotion soon enough.
When we eventually got out of bed, I realized we were living in a house. It took a moment, but the memory of everything came back to me. All that money that Parker had put into savings had been used for a down payment for the house instead of being left behind to take care of his family. We now lived in a three-bedroom rambler in the southeast corner of the city with a wide green lawn. We even had a puppy.
I had a new family, now, too. Hope, AJ, and Avery had welcomed me into their family over a year ago, but I still felt like I was just beginning to get to know them. I had all these memories of them, knowledge of what they liked and didn’t like, but I was still adjusting to even having young kids in the house at all.
The transition had been a little hard to deal with at first. I had memories of two lives in my head, and sometimes they got mixed up. I’d talk about things that Hope didn’t remember or that had never happened in this life. I’d brush it off awkwardly, joking that it was “from another life.” Parker always thought it was hilarious. His siblings didn’t get it.
Overall, my life had fallen into routine. I got up, went to work, came home, and often Hope had dinner ready for us. She would be going to Harvard in the fall, but having an extra adult in the house meant less work for everyone all around, especially since Parker and I had full-time jobs, so Hope stayed home with the boys. We’d spend the evenings together watching TV or playing games if the boys didn’t have baseball practice. It was a family I’d never known I wanted, and I adored it. I especially adored climbing into bed with Parker every night, feeling his body beside me, knowing he would be there when I woke up.
Nearly two weeks after we’d returned from our adventure, I came home from work to find Parker waiting for me.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, setting my bag down by the door. “You’re home early.”
He leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. “Everything is fine. But we’re going out tonight.”
I raised an eyebrow. “We are?”
He put his hands around my waist, looking down at me. “Well, I realized that we haven’t been on a date, a real date, since we came back, which means that technically, the two of us haven’t been on a date at all. So tonight, I wanted to take you out.”
I smiled. “All right. So I should go get ready?”
He teasingly slapped my ass. “Wear something nice.”
I giggled as I headed to the bedroom, searching my closet for my go-to little black dress. This was the first time I had gotten dressed up since our experience, and I was going to have as much fun as possible. I spent time curling my dark hair into ringlets, adding a little extra makeup around my eyes, and pulling on my best heels. When I returned to the living room, Parker’s jaw dropped.
“You said something nice,” I said, feeling self-conscious.
“You do look nice,” he finally said. “You look fantastic. Honestly. Fantastic.”
I suppressed a grin. “Thanks.”
He hadn’t told me where we were going, but I sat stunned when we pulled up to a fancy restaurant in Minneapolis.
“Parker, this is way too expensive,” I protested.
“I wanted our first date to be special.” He stepped out of the car and circled the car to open my door.
“Technically,” I said, “our first date was at the coffee shop on campus while we waited for that software to install.”
“It’s confusing, isn’t it?” he asked. “That’s our first date, according to our memory, but it still doesn’t always feel the same.”
“As far as first dates go, then, this couldn’t be nicer,” I told him as we stepped inside the restaurant.
“I’m glad you like it.”
I turned to face him, arms hooked in his. “Still, I think a coffee shop first date feels a little more...us.”
“More so than meeting in hell?”
I paused. “Fair point.”
After we’d finished our horrifically expensive dinner, we went to a movie and then returned home. The house was dark when we got back, the kids all asleep. Perfect.
“Do you want anything?” Parker asked, motioning to the kitchen.
“We just ate.”
“I meant to drink.”
“Oh! Wine, please.”
Parker opened the refrigerator, the light spilling out over the tile. He poured a few glasses as I turned on the radio, a soft song playing over the speaker.
“Shall we?” Parker asked, taking my hand.
“You want to dance?”
“Why not?”
With a hand around my waist, he spun me around the room in the refrigerator light. We’d pause, take a few sips of champagne, before I leaned in close, whispering in his ear.
“Should we go to the bedroom?”
There was no hesitation. Parker scooped me up, his lips meeting mine, and carried me down the dark hallway.
“Wait,” I said as he set me down on the ground. Instead of turning the light on, I fumbled in my bedside table drawer and found a box of matches. I struck them against the box and lit the candles on our dresser, casting the room in a warm, flickering glow.
“Perfect,” Parker said, wrapping his arms around me, kissing me deeply. His hands traveled up my back and found the zipper on my dress, pulling it down slowly, kissing my neck as he unzipped me. My dress fell into a puddle at my feet and I kicked it off, sending it flying across the room. I leaned down to undo the straps on my heels, but Parker stopped me.
“Leave them on,” he murmured.
I pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his chiseled, dark chest. I never got sick of looking at it. I wrapped my hands behind his neck, pulling him toward me, my bare torso against his. My hands fumbled at his belt buckle, undoing it, letting his pants fall. The bulge in his boxers was unmistakable, pressing against my stomach as he grabbed my ass. With his hands under me he lifted me, my legs wrapping around his waist, carrying me to the bed. We fell together, a tangle of limbs as he teased my breasts, pinching and licking my nipples as my back arched toward him.
Parker hooked his fingers into the waistband of my panties, yanking them down over my heels. I could feel how wet I already was, and it was obvious to him as he dragged his fingers and lips up the inside of my thighs. I had to fight not to moan when his tongue hit my clit; I didn’t want to wake up the rest of the household.
After he’d teased me, dipping his tongue in and out of my center, driving me to the brink and back again, he kissed his way back up my body, supporting himself on his bulging biceps.
“Ready?” he murmure
d in my ear.
“So ready.”
He positioned the helmet of his thick cock at my entrance and with one swift thrust he entered me, filling me until I couldn’t be filled any more. I nearly cried out and Parker had to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep me from making too much noise. The roughness was sexy, more than I had ever gotten with Mitchell. As his thrusts increased he began to struggle keeping his moans down, and it was my turn to put a hand over his mouth. We stayed like that, keeping each other quiet as we did our best to drive the other to the brink of bliss. When my orgasm began, filling me with pleasure, he clasped his hand a little bit harder, and when his body tensed and the ecstasy began to overtake him, I did the same. We collapsed together, spent, exhausted, and perfectly satisfied.
The next morning I woke up feeling more amazing than I ever had in my entire life. My muscles were relaxed, my pores were clear, my mind filled with happiness.
Then I looked at the date. June 18th. My death date.
I knew that I wasn’t going to die, but it was still weird to think about. My gravestone had once had this date. Now, it was going to be a perfectly normal day.
Normal.
Nope, no matter what, it was going to be a little awkward.
I hadn’t seen Courtney or Mitchell since we had returned from our alternate-dimension adventure. I had, however, done a little bit of creeping online. Their lives hadn’t deviated much. They were both still employed at the banks, both living together. Online they were listed as “in a relationship.” I wondered how many times he had cheated on her. Did she know? If she was anything like I had been, she didn’t. I would have felt bad for her if she hadn’t conspired in my murder.
I wondered if they were still robbing banks, even without me as a getaway driver. Really, there was only one way to find out.
“You okay?” Parker asked, coming into the bedroom from the bathroom.
“Hm? I’m all right,” I said.
He sat down on the bed next to me. “Tell me the truth.”
I twisted my hair in my hands. “I think I’m going to take a personal day off of work today.”
Hell and Back Page 22