Accidentaly Divine by Dakota Cassidy (best large ereader .TXT) 📗

of his head. “Also, do you remember Kevin Beasley and the infamous baloney sandwich heist?”

Her eyes narrowed in a rush of anger. Ooo, Beasley the Baloney Sandwich Bandit. Man, he’d chapped her ass.

“That jerk. He was forever taking a bite of my lunch and putting in back in the plastic container like his filthy fingers had never touched it. Oh, he made me so mad,” she grated.

“You let a dude nibble on your fucking lunch and he isn’t dead?” Nina asked, clearly aghast.

George cringed and winced. “Well, I didn’t let him-let him. I mean, I—”

“You caught him red-handed and then instead of telling him to stop taking bites of your lunch because it’s unsanitary, you offered to make him one, too, to avoid an awkward confrontation, George,” Dex gently scolded.

Nina’s gorgeous almond-shaped eyes bulged. “You did what? I woulda shoved that motherfluffin’ baloney sandwich so far up his ass he wouldn’t shit right for a damn year. What the fuck kind of pushover are you?”

George slapped her hands on her thighs and nodded with vigor. “That’s exactly my point. I’m a total pushover. How can I be a guardian angel when I’m such a pushover? Who knows what kind of riffraff could end up in Heaven because of me and my pushoverness?”

Nina gave her a light shove with a frown. “Don’t agree with me, nitwit. Push the fuck back. That’s what we should be giving you lessons in. Standing the fuck up for yourself.”

But Dex held up his hand. “Well, hold on now. She got it together and told him if he didn’t stop taking furtive bites of her lunch, she was going to report him to HR for unsanitary work conditions, and he knocked it right off. The point is, she finally stood up for herself.”

She sat back on the puffy couch and sighed. “Fine, I stood up for myself more in the last year. Big deal. That doesn’t make me guardian angel material, Dex, and it doesn’t make you some kind of miracle worker. You didn’t save the world. You saved a baloney on white with cheese.”

“It is a big deal. If you only knew how big, George,” he said, and he sounded really tired when he said it, making her feel as though getting her to the point of willingness to save a baloney sandwich had been torture. “Regardless of the pace at which you’ve grown, you’ve grown.”

“Forget the baloney sandwich and Bunny Hoffmeyer. Didn’t you say I had choices?” She only vaguely remembered that had been an option. “What are the other choices available?”

He pointed upward with his index finger, where a beautiful silver and white chandelier hung, illuminating the living room. “Like I said, you can opt to go upstairs, skip the whole guardian angel thing, and take a job in the sky, if you’d prefer.”

Her stomach lurched. “But what happens to everything here? All of my things? My house? My car?” She’d worked so hard to buy her cute little three-bedroom two-bath. Then she gasped, her heart clenching in her chest. “Gladys! What happens to Gladys?”

“You forego those things, George. All earthly possessions are left behind,” Dex said softly.

Meaning, she’d have to leave the one thing that had saved her life.

Literally.

Chapter 3

Her dog was the most important figure in her universe, and while some might find that as pathetic as they found her, George didn’t care. Her heart nearly pounded out of her chest at the idea of leaving Gladys behind.

“But if I become a guardian angel, I can stay here—with her—with Gladys?” She whispered the question, afraid she might burst into tears.

No way she’d leave the one and only living creature on the planet who loved her unconditionally. Gladys was her best friend in the whole world. Not a chance she’d choose even Heaven over her dog.

George paused mentally for a moment at how crazy that thought was. Not the bit about her dog, but about what was up in the sky.

Heaven.

Heaven.

A darkness fell over Dex’s chiseled face for a brief second, but it cleared right up as he nodded. “You can stay here, yes. You’ll have to make periodic trips upstairs for check-ins, but otherwise, you’re here for a purpose. To help others. That requires you stay on this plane.”

“Right,” she mumbled, picking at her lip. “But what about my job? What about the seniors? Can I keep my job?”

She loved her job. She loved coordinating events, trips, and outings for them. She didn’t want to leave them. Not yet. Not before she could organize the trip to Atlantic City and the spring dance.

He grinned, really smiled for the first time. “What do you think my job is about? It’s a cover for what I really do, George. You’ll need one, too. It might as well be the job you already have.”

“Right, a cover…”

Leaning farther back into the couch, her head spinning, George took a deep breath as the magnitude of what had been happening in her life for almost a year without her knowledge took a firm hold.

The past year had all been one big laugh, and the joke was apparently on her. The people upstairs must think she was some kind of head case if Dex had been her guardian for a year and her progress had been so little. Yet they were going to entrust her to be a guardian herself?

Somewhere in the process of all her questions, Marty must have asked someone to make tea. A short, stately man with a thatch of thinning blue hair and a formal crisp black suit and silver ascot entered the enormous living room, a tray with a steaming teapot and cups in his hands.

“Tea, miss? To warm your bones. Surely they’re chilled on this beautiful winter’s day?” he asked with a charming British accent, hitching his jaw to the tall, great room windows where snow fell at a rapid pace.

But he didn’t wait for her to answer. Instead, he set the tray down on a large rustic oak coffee