Angel of Redemption

by J. A. Little

  Just before ten o’clock, I park my car and walk to the Starbucks where I agreed to meet Emily. I’m kind of nervous, but I don’t know why. She’s standing at the counter digging through her purse, but she looks up at me with a huge grin on her face.

  “Hi!”

  “Hi.” I smile.

  “I already ordered my coffee. I would have ordered yours, too, but I don’t know what you drink.”

  “That’s okay. I take it black. Give me two seconds.”

  When I get my drink, I join Emily, who found us a seat by the window. I sit down and we just kind of stare at each other for a minute. Suddenly Emily starts laughing. It’s infectious, and before I know it, we’re both in hysterics.

  “I’m sorry,” she breathes. “This is just silly. This shouldn’t be awkward.”

  “No, it shouldn’t,” I agree, finally settling enough to take a sip of my coffee.

  “I’m glad you could make it.”

  “Me, too.”

  We spend the next ten minutes chatting about little things like the weather and the color of her fingernails, which are painted a brilliant blue. It’s trivial, but we’re testing the waters, feeling each other out. The longer we talk, the more comfortable I feel.

  Eventually we move into more personal stuff. She tells me she’s thirty. She and Aiden met when she started working as a bookkeeper for Wyatt House fresh out of college. They’ve got two kids: Ashley, who’s turning six and Caleb, who’s two.

  “Do you like working with your husband?” I ask, smiling.

  Emily laughs. “Most of the time. When he’s being an asshole, not so much.”

  “I thought Dean was the asshole of the two,” I say, only partially joking.

  She shrugs and takes a sip of her coffee. “Dean’s all right. He’s had a rough life.”

  “But Aiden hasn’t?” It’s a genuine question. I don’t know much about the Wyatts, so I have no idea what their background is.

  “No. He hasn’t. The Wyatts—Jim and Grace—theyand good people. They’ve dedicated their lives to helping others, but at the expense of their own kids. Jim was always so hard on them, and Grace overcompensated by babying them. Dean was her little angel. There’s was nothing that kid could do wrong. Aiden was the opposite. He was a playboy as a teenager. He had a different girl every week, got into some trouble with alcohol and pot. But it wasn’t until Dean—” she stops. I can see the hesitation on her face.

  “I know about his arrest,” I tell her. “His drug conviction.”

  “Uh, yeah.” She half smiles and then continues. “Anyway. When Dean was arrested, Aiden straightened up. It was kind of a wake-up call for him.” There’s a sadness in her eyes that I don’t understand, but she blinks and it’s gone. “But he can still be a total douchebag sometimes.” She grins at me. I can tell she’s trying to take the tension out of the conversation. “What about you? How long have you been a social worker?”

  “Six years,” I say, thinking about how quickly the time has passed.

  “Do you like it?”

  I down the rest of my coffee. “Yeah. There are times I wonder why I do it and feel like it’s all for nothing”—memories of some of my most difficult cases flash through my head. There are definitely some I wish I could forget—“but I love my kids, and I love my coworkers.”

  Emily finishes her coffee, too. “Do you want to walk?”

  For the next two hours, we stroll through the mall, shopping and talking about our families.

  “So you don’t have a boyfriend?” she asks, tapping her chin.

  “No,” I answer suspiciously. She looks like she’s up to something.

  “Hmm. I might know a few guys.”

  “Absolutely not,” I choke.

  “Oh, come on. Don’t you trust me?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” I laugh.

  She grins. “Well, if you ever want me to set you up, just let me know.”

  “Thanks.”

  It’s not that I don’t trust Emily. In the short time we’ve spent together, she’s made me feel like I’ve known her for years. But it would be weird to have her set me up. Especially since I can’t stop thinking about her brother-in-law.

  “I’m pretty good at making matches. Although, I thought my best friend Delia would make a great match for Dean.” She makes a face. “I was really wrong on that one.”

  “I thought Dean was married,” I blurt out. I meant to say it in my head, but it came out of my mouth regardless. Emily looks surprised. “A lot of rumors go around. I heard he was.” I know it’s not exactly the truth, but there’s no way I’m telling her I Googled him.

  “Don’t listen to rumors, Kayla. Please,” she begs. “Dean gets a bad rap, but that’s all it is. People don’t understand him. They don’t even try. It doesn’t help that he’s a defensive asshole, either,” she laughs lightly. I smile at Emily’s protectiveness for her brother-in-law. And then I frown when I remember it wasn’t rumors that gave me that tidbit of information. The news article clearly reported that he was married.

  Emily seems to read my confusion perfectly. “Okay, so, Dean was technically married—a long time ago. He was practically a baby. It was a big mistake, and he filed for divorce. That was over seven years ago.”

  “Sorry,” I whisper, embarrassed.

  “Don’t be.” She smiles at me. “I know how rumors go. People tend to get out of control when they don’t know the facts. I don’t even want to know everything you’ve heard, but just take it with a grain of salt. I’m starving. Do you want to grab an early dinner?”

  I like Emily. A lot. She doesn’t get offended by my stupid, invasive questions. She answers them the way she wants to and moves on.

  “Sure. Where do you want to go?”

  Chapter 13

  Dean

  Daniel Rawlings, 29. BA in Psychology.

  Robert Dobbins, 40. Masters in Sociology.

  Axel Reed, 24. BA in Social Work.

  This is the tenth time I’ve been through these goddamn applications. We’re supposed to start interviews next week. We’d like to have someone hired and trained in the next six weeks, before the gala. Aiden and I are always required to attend. As CFO and PR agent, Emily is, too. The last several years, that’s meant Tracey’s had to look after the boys overnight. This year, I know she’d really like to go to the gala.

  “Hey, Dean?” I look up to see Brayden standing in my doorway. “Can I take the car tonight?”

  “Where you going?”

  “Date. With Caitlynn.” Brayden has a smirk on his face.

  “And where are you taking Caitlynn on this date?” I ask. Brayden looks away, scanning the room.

  “I don’t know,” he shrugs. “Dinner. Movie. Ya know, date stuff.”

  “Backseat of the car?” I’m not teasing him. I want to make sure he’s being safe. He looks both sheepish and somehow still a little smug.

  “Nah,” he sniffs. “She’s a nice girl.”

  I don’t believe him for a second, but he’s eighteen and sexually active. There’s nothing I can say or do to change that. I have to pick my battles, and that is one I will lose. Aiden and I have an open-door policy when it comes to sex. We answer their questions and try to teach them about the responsibility that comes with it. As long as they’re not having sex on our property, we don’t scold or punish.

  I reach into the top drawer of my desk, grabbing the keys to the car and tossing them to Brayden.

  “No drinking, no drugs, no road head.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He rolls his eyes. “I know the rules.”

  “You know the consequences?”

  “How are you gonna know if she sucks me off while I’m driving?” he scoffs.

  “If nothing happens, I won’t. But I might also get a phone call that the car is wrapped around a tree, and you and your girl are either dead or in critical condition.” The thought puts me on edge. I grit my teeth together, agitated.

  “All right, all right. I get it,” Brayden m
utters.

  “Good.” He turns to leave. “Hey, Bray?”

  “Yeah?”

  I stand up, open another drawer, and pull out something he may need. Walking over to him, I grab his hand and put the condom in it.

  Brayden looks down and starts laughing. “Why you got rubbers in your office? You don’t ever get none.”

  “Shut up and take them.”

  “I told you, she’s a nice girl.” He smiles broadly.

  “Yeah, well, better safe than sorry. Get out of here.” I shove his shoulder, chuckling. “And be careful.”

  * * *

  A few hours later, I’m staring at my brother across the dining room table, sorting through more applicants. I couldn’t stand being cooped up in my office anymore. Brayden left and took Logan with him. He said that his girl had a friend who needed a date last minute. Logan, of course, volunteered. It wasn’t until after they’d gone that I realized I hadn’t had the sex talk with him yet.

  “Don’t worry about it, Dean,” my brother says. “If Logan needs protection, I’m positive that Brayden is fully stocked.”

  “Great,” I mumble. “Why can’t Emily do this?” I ask as I drop another clearly padded resume in the no-way pile.

  “Because it’s not her job,” Aiden answers. “Besides, she’s busy.”

  “What’s she doing?” I ask, only half listening.

  Aiden sets the application he’s been reviewing in the no pile and picks up a new one.

  “She had coffee with Kayla this morning, and I believe she’s now shopping for Ashley’s birthday.”

  And suddenly I am interested. I’d completely forgotten about their plans.

  “Lemme ask you a question,” I demand rather than ask. Aiden waves his hand for me to continue. “Why is Emily so interested in being friends with Kayla?”

  He chuckles, but doesn’t look up from the resume he’s scanning. “I don’t know…she likes her? Em doesn’t have a lot of girlfriends, Dean. According to her, all the chicks she went to school with are vapid and soulless. Don’t fuck this up for her, please. She was really excited. And I like my wife excited.” He waggles his eyebrows. “When she gets worked up…”

  “Ugh, you nasty bastard,” I laugh. “I don’t want to hear about your wife’s proclivities.”

  “That’s a big word, little brother,” Aiden grins. “Here. I like this one.” He thrusts an application at me.

  We spend another hour picking out a total of fifteen applicants to interview, but it’s hard to concentrate. I can’t stop thinking about Kayla and the kinds of things she and Emily might have talked about. My mind paints really ugly pictures.

  I know I should leave it alone. Kayla made a point of saying that her little sister was staying with “us,” meaning she lives with someone. She doesn’t wear a ring, but that doesn’t mean much. I never wore a ring. Steph always said they didn’t prove anything.

  Maybe that should have been my first clue that my marriage wasn’t exactly what I thought it was.

  For some reason, the whole thing pisses me off. Kayla was flirting—at least, I think she was, anyway. But maybe that’s just her personality. I’m having a hard time figuring her out. I had every intention of keeping her at arm’s length—of doing what we need to do for Logan and Matty and keeping everything professional—but when her thumb slid over my knuckles, tracing the reminders of my time in Faribault, something changed…

  Aiden’s phone rings, tearing me from my thoughts.

  “Hey, sugar, what up?”

  I roll my eyes. My brother gets this expression on his face that makes me want to puke every time he talks to, looks at, or even thinks about his wife.

  “Yeah, why?” He flashes his eyes at me. “Really? Hmmm. I’ll ask him.”

  “What?” I mouth. He holds up his finger.

  “Okay. I’ll text you. Love you, too. Bye.” I make gagging noises, sticking out my tongue. He hangs up and sets his phone back down on the table. “You spend too much time with teenagers,” he laughs. “You want to meet Em for dinner? The kids are at her parents’ house, probably for the night, and Tracey’s on dinner duty. We’re free and clear.”

  “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

  “Cool. Grab your coat. I’ll go tell T and we can head out.”

  * * *

  Walking into the restaurant, I know immediately that something’s going on. It doesn’t take me long to figure out what.

  “Aiden, you dick,” I growl. My brother looks guilty. My sister-in-law does not. She smiles widely. I want to know what in God’s name made her think this was a good idea—because it’s not.

  “Hello, boys,” Emily coos, wrinkling up her nose as she jumps up and kisses Aiden.

  I clear my throat. “Kayla.”

  “Dean.” She appears as stunned as I feel. Something flashes in her eyes, but it’s gone in a matter of seconds. Aiden slides into the booth next to Emily. There’s only one place for me to go. Kayla scoots over, making room for me.

  “So.” Emily grins happily. It appears that she’s the only one who’s not uncomfortable at the moment.

  “So,” Aiden repeats. “What did you ladies get up to today?”

  “Well, we had coffee this afternoon and just couldn’t get enough of each other, so we spent the day wandering aimlessly and chatting incessantly.”

  “Did you actually get anything done?” Aiden asks.

  “Of course we did,” Emily scoffs. “On top of finishing almost all the shopping for Ash’s party, I got to know Kayla’s innermost desires.”

  “Well, that sounds promising. Care to share with the class?” Aiden teases.

  “Maybe later,” Kayla quips, her tongue peeking out playfully. She shifts slightly to cross her legs. The booth is so small that her hand grazes my thigh. I jump slightly at the contact. “Sorry,” she whispers.

  “‘S’okay.” I try to smile, but I’m sure it looks forced.

  When the waitress comes over to take our drink orders, Kayla orders a Jack and Coke.

  “What?” she asks when she catches me staring.

  “I just didn’t take you as the hard-liquor kind.”

  “Well, what good is it if it isn’t hard?” she deadpans. Emily and Aiden both laugh loudly.

  Fuck, I like this girl. She’s got a dirty mouth. Flashes of red heels and flushed skin hit me, making my cock twitch in the confines of my jeans. I lean back, attempting a sly look at her feet. She’s wearing jeans and boots—furry ones, not sexy ones. Thank God.

  When I look back up, they’re all watching me. Aiden and Emily are silently questioning, and Kayla has her eyebrow cocked. I smirk and wink at her, eliciting a soft chuckle—a very alluring sound.

  When the waitress returns with our drinks, we order dinner. We talk easily, laughing and bantering. Kayla fits right in. She tells us about her friends at work, Sara and Warren. Apparently Sara was the social worker for one of Wyatt House’s most notorious cases. Kayla says I’ve met her, but I can’t remember. The kid had only been with us a few weeks, and all I remember is Aiden and I rushing to the hospital only to be told that he was being treated, had been placed on a psych hold, and would be released to police custody upon discharge. Aiden took care of everything else after that.

  Now Warren, I know. Well, I know of Warren. Everyone knows of Warren. His father is one of the richest men in the US, and yet, instead of pissing away Daddy’s fortune, he works at a thankless job and donates every cent he earns. I’m surprised to learn he’s bisexual and not just gay. That explains the gorgeous creatures he always brings to the fundraisers. I wonder why he’s never brought Kayla.

  “Oh, he’s a smooth one,” Kayla laughs. “He spent the first six months I knew him trying to talk me into his bed. Every time we went dancing, he’d whisper dirty things in my ear in Spanish.” She furrows her brow. “Actually, he did that to me last night, too.”

  “Last night?” I ask, my voice higher than I was aiming for.

  “Yeah, we all went out last night. Somet
imes we like to let go at the end of the week. I think it’s the only way we can all stay sane.”

  “Huh. Imagine that,” Emily says, looking pointedly in my direction.

  “Is he still trying to talk you into bed?” I ask curiously, ignoring my sister-in-law. The more Kayla talks, the more I begin to question her relationship status. She has yet to mention a boyfriend or anyone who remotely sounds like one. Of course, the conversation hasn’t exactly gone in that direction, either.

  “No. He gave up on that a long time ago.” She smiles, and then frowns. “At least I hope he has.”

  “You never even considered it?” Emily asks.

  “No. He was never looking for a serious relationship, and I have to work with him. It would have become awkward.”

  Just like that, reality hits me. Even if she’s not in a relationship, she’s pointing out the two problems with me acting on my urges: I have to work with her, and I can’t promise her anything serious. I’m damaged goods. My thoughts feel like a fucking yo-yo going back and forth.

  The waitress comes back to tell us our order will be ready soon and that the side salads will be right out. We order another round of drinks.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” Kayla announces, playfully shoving me. I don’t react, other than to slide out. “Thanks,” she whispers, obviously noticing my change in demeanor. When she’s out of earshot, Emily pipes up.

  “What just happened?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were doing fine, Dean. You were nice and sociable and then poof, you’re all moody.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine.”

  Aiden eyes me, but doesn’t say anything. I’m quiet while they talk between themselves. I have to take a piss, but I don’t want Kayla to think I’m following her. Unfortunately, watching the waitress refill our water glasses makes it worse.

  “Fuck. I gotta pee.”

  “Thanks for the announcement, bro,” Aiden chuckles.

  “Check on Kaylawhile you’re back there, will you?” Emily says without looking at me. “She’s been gone a long time.”