“Oh, by the way, if you’re not busy after your shift at the shelter tomorrow night, Zeph wants to get together. The carnival is in town — we were talking about checking it out.”
“That sounds good,” Maddock said, but his voice was distant and emotionless. He couldn’t really concentrate on anything else until he knew the girl was okay. Even a night out with their best friends couldn’t distract him.
“Meet at Zeph’s place at 7?”
“Okay, sure.” Maddock agreed, but Cheydan doubted his brother was even paying attention. When Maddock made up his mind about something, he went after it. If an opportunity to help the girl arose, Cheydan was sure that Maddock would forget all about their plans for the evening.
Cheydan sort of envied his brother’s ability to abandon all restraint sometimes in pursuit of his passions. Cheydan was too level-headed, too cautious to do anything on impulse. He even planned his outfits out a week in advance, for heaven’s sake.
Of course, Maddock could probably benefit from a little more planning in that area, Cheydan thought to himself, rolling his eyes at his brother’s getup — a pair of wrinkled khaki shorts and a faded tee shirt that looked like it was on inside out and backwards. Maddock’s clothes always looked like they’d been pulled from the bottom of a pile of dirty laundry.
Cheydan’s clothes reflected his lifestyle — preplanned, perfectly coordinated, traditional, and conservative. Cheydan had had his future figured out since 7th grade when, after doling out a particularly helpful piece of advice to someone, he realized he would make a great counselor.
He was gentle, thoughtful, logical but compassionate, and he had great ideas for how to live life successfully. Plus, he was patient enough to help people who constantly made the wrong choices. Everyone he knew came to him for advice, and he’d always been happy to give it.
That was why he was studying psychology at Indiana University. He was going to finish school, become a therapist, marry a good woman, have two kids, and spend the rest of his life helping others. It was the perfect plan for a perfect life, and Cheydan was patiently working towards it, even if that meant delaying some instant gratification occasionally.
That’s exactly why he’d taken his new internship at The Greatest Gift Adoption Agency. With school and work he was already pretty busy, but interning would give him some real world experience, and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. He probably wouldn’t get to do any actual counseling, more like office work — answering the phones, making coffee, filing. But it would look good on his resume, and it would sort of be like community service, since they weren’t paying him.
He had just found out about getting the position today, and he was eager to tell his brother, but Maddock was lost in his own little world, so Cheydan decided to save it for tomorrow. Zeph and his wife, Eve, would want to hear all about it, anyway. He’d tell them all together.
Chapter 4
Lissy stared in the mirror at her pale skin and sunken eyes, the life long drained out of them. She dabbed on a little more foundation with a beauty blender, hoping the make up would camouflage her sickly complexion, but her illness had taken too much of a toll to go unnoticed any longer. The loss of her beauty was just one more way kidney disease was stealing her life out from under her. Lissy was tired of being sick, tired of letting her illness control her. It was time for her to take control instead.
Today, she was going to quit letting things happen to her. Instead, she was going to make things happen. She was on the transplant list, but her doctor said she wasn’t sick enough yet to make it to the top of it. There were too many sick people and not enough kidneys to go around. But what was she supposed to do, just sit around watching her life slip away while she waited to be “sick enough” to deserve a transplant? No way. Lissy was tired of being the victim.
She looked around at her bedroom, both comforted and disgusted by it. Soft pink walls, a canopied bed piled high with lacy pillows, antique furniture in a pale ivory finish. It looked like a room designed for a Disney princess. Bookshelves overflowed with novels and journals; reading and writing were her only way to escape her own pathetic existence. Rain pattered against the windows, turning the world outside foggy and opaque and making her room feel like a prison.
Lissy’s parents had grown their home development company into a lucrative business that had allowed them to provide their only daughter with every luxury she could desire. Except, of course, for the one thing she really wanted — a healthy body. Dance lessons and riding lessons were no fun if you were too sick to participate, and pretty clothes and fancy jewelry couldn’t make up for sallow skin and hollow cheeks.
Lissy took one last look at her reflection and shrugged, hoping maybe her sickly appearance would gain her sympathy points with the people she was going to ask to help her — the staff at the adoption agency that facilitated her placement with the people she called Mom and Dad.
Once in the car, Lissy lowered the volume on her car stereo so she could practice what she was going to say as she made the drive downtown to The Greatest Gift Adoption Agency. Going there was a decision she’d made on a whim. She’d been thinking about her birth family a lot the last few weeks as her health began to deteriorate more quickly.
Getting a kidney from the transplant list could take years of waiting, especially if your disease was not imminently life-threatening. But if you could find your own donor, you could have the surgery before your body was knocking on death’s front door. Lissy’s adoptive parents would give up all four of their kidneys if they thought they could improve their daughter’s life, but unfortunately neither of them was a close enough match. A blood relative was a much better chance.
She had only briefly researched the lengthy process involved in accessing birth records. It seemed like a huge headache that could take more time and energy that just waiting to move to the top of the transplant list. But Lissy was used to getting her way, and she figured it wouldn’t hurt anything just to ask for what she wanted. The worst that could happen is they would tell her no, but Lissy was hoping her sad story would be enough to convince someone to give her the little bit of info she needed to start the search for someone who shared her DNA.
The Greatest Gift agency was housed in a red, brick storefront in an old section of downtown Indianapolis. The unassuming sign would’ve been easy to miss if she hadn’t been looking for it. She wondered if it had looked much different nearly 20 years ago when her parents first visited it, wanting to bring a child into their family. How had they found this place hidden in a tiny corner in the middle of the city?
It was a Saturday, so most downtown businesses were closed for the weekend, and the nearby shops and restaurants weren’t yet open for business, so she found a parking place not too far away. Lissy took a deep breath as she pushed open the heavy, glass door, the harsh spring wind blowing her long, dark hair in crazy swirls around her face. She took a minute to untangle the locks before her eyes noticed the young man sitting at the desk.
He was tall — she could tell he was even though he was sitting, and his broad shoulders made him look a few years older than he probably was. His clothes were sharply pressed, and his thick, dark hair was neatly trimmed and styled — shorter on the sides and longer on top, the shiny brown strands highlighted with shades of gold and bronze. A scruff of facial hair accented his strong jaw and the dimple that appeared when he smiled hello.
Lissy was taken aback by the sexy male receptionist; she was expecting a mousy, young woman or a grandmotherly type. But maybe this would work in her favor, she realized, offering her most dazzling smile in return.
Lissy knew most people considered her pretty, even though all she saw when she looked in the mirror was someone who was fighting an incurable disease. Maybe her looks combined with her sad story would win the sympathies of this curious boy.
“Uh, hi,” she said, approaching the desk with a look of innocence, an endearing smile softening her face.
Cheydan sat at the fro
nt desk, anxiously drumming his fingers, leaving sweaty fingerprints on the ebony surface. It was his first day interning at The Greatest Gift Adoption Agency, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. The woman who was supposed to be showing him the ropes today had taken a phone call as soon as he arrived, waving at him to sit in the front office as she transferred the phone call to an extension in the back room. Fifteen minutes had elapsed, and she still had not emerged, so Cheydan was nervously hoping that no one would come in to the office who needed assistance, since he was completely clueless and on his own.
When the door opened, the wind ushering in a disheveled girl, Cheydan’s stomach began to tighten, and he glanced rapidly back and forth between the waiting client and the back room.
“Uh, hi,” the girl greeted sweetly when she had managed to smooth her windblown hair away from her face. Her eyes sparkled bright green like spring foliage after a heavy rain, and her broad smile was lit with a row of straight, white teeth.
The girl was an immediate enigma to Cheydan. She looked like a teenager, so maybe she was pregnant and thinking about giving up the baby, but wouldn’t most teenagers bring their parents along? Also, he knew he was stereotyping, but the girl was dressed like someone who had money, and Cheydan imagined most teen mothers came from the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. His curiosity instantly flared as she approached him, and he couldn’t resist asking what she needed, even though he was completely unprepared to help her in any way.
“I’m Lissy,” she said then thrust out her hand awkwardly. Cheydan took it with a tilted head and a quirked lip. “Melissa, I mean — Melissa McAllister.” Cheydan held her hand for an extra moment, enjoying the warm, soft, feminine skin.
He was nearing 20, and he’d never had a girlfriend, never even been on a real date, but that wasn’t because he didn’t long for the affections of a female. He was just too shy and awkward to ask girls out and too focused on his plans for the future to worry about dating, anyway. Besides, he was a Celestia Divisa, and that meant that someday he’d meet someone who needed a miracle, and when he performed it they’d fall in love. There was no sense wasting time on girls he wasn’t meant to be with when God had the perfect mate for him waiting somewhere in the wings. He just hoped God’s plan didn’t mean waiting for another 20 years.
“Cheydan Engel. How can I help you?” he replied, and it was the girl’s turn to look surprised. Cheydan had seen that look a hundred times before. His name wasn’t exactly popular, but Celestia were a lot more interested in what a name meant than how likely it was to appear in a top 100 baby names list. Every Celestia was named after the special gift they received, and Cheydan’s name meant patience.
His twin brother, Maddock, was named for his gift of generosity, and it was obvious to Cheydan how that gift could be useful to others. He wasn’t as confident about his own gift, as he couldn’t quite imagine how he could use it to work a miracle. Sure, he found dozens of opportunities every day to spread some much-needed patience to those around him, but the situations were never life-altering by any means. Fortunately, Cheydan was patient enough to wait and see exactly what God had in mind for him.
“My parents adopted me from this agency back when I was a baby.” Lissy took the seat in front of the desk. She unbuttoned her jacket, revealing feminine curves in a tight, thin, pink sweater worn over jeans. Cheydan’s eyes made a circuit from her face to her feet, lingering on a few spots in-between.
“I really need to find my birth mother, for medical reasons, so I was hoping you could help me.” Her eyes begged for mercy as she sucked on her bottom lip.
At that moment, Cheydan could think of nothing he’d rather do than help this forlorn-looking girl find her family, and he wished like crazy it wasn’t his first day.
“Uh, I just started,” he was loathe to admit, “so I’m not really sure how to help you, but let me see what I can do.” Cheydan jumped from his seat and headed towards the back office where Sharon had gone to take her phone call. On his way, he glanced back at the girl waiting eagerly for his assistance. She gave him another smile, and he grinned in return, his heart suddenly beating faster.
Sharon was still talking animatedly into the telephone when he poked his head in the back office. “Do you need something?” she whispered, covering the mouthpiece with her hand.
Cheydan nodded and jerked a thumb back towards the lobby. “There’s a girl out here who’s trying to find her birth family.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “I’ll be out in a second.”
Cheydan shut the door behind him and wrung his hands as he lingered in the hallway. Sharon didn’t seem too interested in helping Lissy. Cheydan would tell her anything she wanted to know, but he had no idea how to access the information. A few minutes later, Sharon emerged from the office and led the way to the front lobby where Lissy was waiting, hands pressed between her knees.
Lissy told Sharon the same thing she’d told Cheydan, and Sharon took a seat at the desk, in front of the computer. Cheydan hovered behind her, watching over her shoulder as she logged into the computer and opened up some kind of record-keeping software.
“What are your parents’ names and dates of birth?” Sharon asked, typing them into the system as Lissy provided them. Cheydan watched with excitement as the page filled with information. Lissy caught his expression, and a look of hope lit her eyes.
“Sorry, but your adoption was closed; that means the records are private. I can’t tell you anything about your birth family,” Sharon explained perfunctorily. “You’ll have to go to the county clerk and file a petition.”
“If I do that, then will I be able to get the information?”
“Well, you’ll have to go to court and present your case. If the judge decides your request is warranted, then you can request an intermediary who will negotiate with your birth parents.”
“That sounds like a really long process,” Lissy sighed. “I’m not sure I can wait that long.”
“Sorry,” Sharon said, offering a polite smile. “But my hands are tied. Legally, I’m not allowed to give you any more information. Good luck with your petition, though.” She stood and held out a hand to Lissy who shook it apathetically.
Lissy took one last look at Cheydan, her eyes filled with silent begging, and Cheydan gave her a look of pity. He didn’t know her story, had no idea why it was so important for her to find her family, but he couldn’t help but want to meet her needs.
Lissy gave a sad smile, recognizing his predicament, and she turned towards the door, buttoning up her jacket. “Thanks anyway,” she murmured as she exited, the wind blowing traces of her perfume back into the room, tickling Cheydan’s nose and stirring up a deep longing.
Chapter 5
Maddock’s face lit with a generous smile when she saw the girl walk into Hinkleman’s Grocery on Saturday. He was afraid she wouldn’t come if she was out of money, but she must have managed to find some. He still didn’t know what he was going to say to her, but he knew he had to do something.
He halted his shelf stocking and walked briskly in her direction, his tennis shoes squeaking on the slick floors and his untied shoelaces flapping. She was heading for the tuna aisle, as always, and Maddock wondered briefly if she picked it because it was a healthy, precooked form of protein that could be eaten straight from the can, or if she just really, really liked tuna.
Busy chuckling at his own thoughts, he accidentally walked past the tuna aisle instead of turning into it. He caught just a glimpse of her as he realized his mistake, and he pivoted quickly, but not just because he had missed the aisle. Had his eyes deceived him, or did he really just see her pocket a can of tuna? He tiptoed up to the edge of the shelves and peeked around the aisle. Sure enough, the girl was sticking another can in her jacket.
Maddock’s blood pressure rose, and he squinted his eyes as he watched her, blood pounding in his temples. The only thing he hated more than stinginess was thievery. As someone who was gifted with generosity, it was hard for
him to understand why some people were so tight with their money, and the idea of stealing just turned his stomach. He tried to remember that the girl was probably desperate, but he still thought there was no excuse for stealing, especially when there were resources available to help her.
He slipped around the corner, bent on confronting her, but the look in her eyes when she spotted him immediately dissolved his anger. He saw shame and guilt, desperation and anxiety all reflected in her bright green eyes, and she held up her hands like a criminal.
“I’ll put it back, I swear! Just please don’t report me!” she whisper-shouted, her hands shaking and her lip quivering.
Maddock’s face softened, his brows relaxing, as he held out his hands to settle her. “Shhh, it’s okay. I won’t tell anyone. But you can’t steal that stuff. Here, this should cover it.” He held out a $20 bill, and she stared at it like it was an unrecognizable object.
“Go on, take it.” He took her hand and pressed the bill into it. He would’ve given her more if he had had it on him.
“Why are you helping me?” Her voice was a soft crackle.
Maddock tilted his head and squinted his eyes, wondering why the girl thought she was unworthy to have someone help her. “Nobody steals tuna without a good reason.” He shrugged and granted her a smile, revealing his dimple.
Her worried look faltered a little at his joke, and she cracked a small smile before her brow wrinkled again. “But you don’t even know who I am.”
“I don’t need to know who you are to recognize you need some help.”
Date with Destiny Collection: Angel Romance Series: Books 1 - 4 Page 28
