Meant to Be (The Saving Angels 1)

Mark pulled the chains of my swing, twisting me around toward him. I looked intently into his eyes, waiting for his answer.

“I want you to listen to me. You seem to be under the misconception that there is something wrong with you, that there is nothing special about you. There is nobody else in the whole world that I would rather be with. I could look at you for hours and never get sick of it. I could spend every second of everyday in your presence and I would die a happy man. You belong with me,” he finished as he gave the chains of my swing another tug, dragging me even closer as he kissed me.

I wound my hands around the chains of his swing and sighed as he deepened the kiss. I felt the warmth spread though me and wound my arms around his neck to pull him even closer.

I finally broke the kiss to find that I was sitting on his lap.

“How did I get here?” I asked as he laughed.

Mark changed the subject and brought up a point I had not thought of.

“So, I’ve been thinking, since the Dean knows about us, I don’t see any reason why we need to keep our relationship a secret from your mom anymore,” he said as we gently swung back in forth.

He was right; there really was no reason why we couldn’t tell my mom about us. The fact that he was an intern at my school seemed trivial after all the things we had learned. He was so close to my own age, I didn’t see my mom having a problem with us dating. I suspected it would be the exact opposite. She would probably be thrilled that I was seeing someone and not obsessing about my “dream” guy.

It would be nice to go out on an actual date with Mark. Plus, we could double with Sam and Shawn.

I smiled, things suddenly seemed so much better. The dark cloud that had been hovering over our heads moved away. We may not have found the answer to the turn our dreams have taken, but it no longer mattered, we had each other in reality and that was all that was important.

Sam and Shawn joined us and I glanced at my watch.

“We have enough time to walk around the park once.” I said.

Our conversation was much more light- hearted, and Sam soon had us in stitches, making fun of the rich kids at our school. She gave the best imitation of the stuck up drama queens. “Oh my gosh! My nail polish doesn’t match my shoes or watch. How will I ever face anyone again?” She said in a perfect imitation of one of the Lush Trio.

I had to hold my sides, I was laughing so hard.

It was nice to be around people who were on the same wave length as me. The more time I spent with Shawn, the more I liked him. I had put everyone’s assumptions on the hold after my emotional melt down, but I couldn’t help noticing small habits that we both shared. He rubbed his forehead a lot and I knew I did too. My dad used to tease me that I would rub a hole in my forehead if I didn’t stop rubbing it. I also noticed that he laughed the same way that I did.

When I was in middle school, I tried to change my laugh to be more ladylike, but it didn’t work. When I thought something was funny, it just seemed to burst out of me.

It was an unreal experience to see someone that shared many of my traits. Just watching him filled me with a sense of rightness.

“I hate to break up the mood, but we seem to have forgotten something important. What about the other four?” Shawn asked.

He was right; we had put the others out of our minds, but they could be ignored no longer.

“Hopefully, they’re drawn to Santa Cruz also. If they are, then maybe we’ll run into them. I know it’s a long shot, but the four of us found each other, so it could happen,” Mark said.

“I know how we can try to find them,” Sam said. “We can search the internet for children that were abandoned around the dates we were abandoned. We now know their ages, so that should narrow the search down. Not to mention, that you need to talk to your dad,” she said to Mark.

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “My dad is so freaking straight laced though, that none of this seems like him at all. I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around the fact that he knows about all this since I saw Shawn’s picture yesterday. I tried calling him on his cell phone, but of course it went right to voicemail. His secretary informed me that he’s out of town for at least another three weeks or so, when I tried to call him this morning. She told me in an offhand way that he is way too busy to talk to me unless it’s an emergency, but she would pass a message along to him,” Mark said with sarcasm lacing his every word.

I reached out and grabbed his hand, hoping that whatever healing power we possessed would calm his anger and hurt.

“Well, until he gets back or calls you, we can do our own digging,” Sam said.

Once we had a game plan, the guys decided they would walk us home. Now that we were going to tell my mom, I was anxious to introduce Mark to her.

It only took us ten minutes to walk back to my house.

I felt a serious case of butterflies in my stomach as we walked up my walkway.

I wasn’t nervous; I just wanted my mom to think Mark was as great as I thought he was.

Mark grabbed my hand as we headed up the stairs of the front porch. Sam and Shawn opted to wait on the porch. They wanted to give us a little privacy as I introduced Mark to my mom.

My mom was on the couch watching a rerun episode of CSI. We were avid watchers of all the CSI shows.