“Here,” Alder says, passin’ me a card. “So you can call us. If you change your mind or have any...problems.”
My finger skates over the black embossed letters on the card, and I nod. “Okay,” I say, my voice a little breathless at our connection. I like his touch. I find myself wantin’ to lean into him, to egg him on to touch me more, but I manage to hold back. This intense attraction I have to the two of them is disconcertin’.
Alder hesitates for a moment while I look down at him from my spot on the elevated porch, all too aware of my daddy glarin’ at where he’s still holdin’ onto my wrist. My eyes drop to his purple lips, and I wait with bated breath to see what he’s gonna do next.
But like he’s just now becomin’ aware that he’s still touchin’ me too, Alder quickly drops his hold and steps back with a resigned nod. “Don’t hesitate to call, Medley.”
I have to suppress a shiver at the way he says my name—intimate, like he’s savorin’ it. After one more look, his butterscotch gaze searin’ into me, he turns and walks away, and a little disappointment settles in my stomach at his retreatin’ back. Flint gives me a simple wave, the letdown clear on his face as the pair of them head off to that fancy gray SUV.
The three of us watch as they get in and drive away, and then I turn and look at Mama through the screen door with a brow arched and arms crossed. “You told me I was dropped off at your doorstep by an angel,” I say dryly.
True to her gumption, Mama just shrugs. “Well, demons are just fallen angels, ain’t they?” she counters.
Now I’m the one gapin’. “Really, Mama?” I counter. “That’swhat you have to say about all this?”
She shrugs and shoves open the screen door, and Daddy and I both walk inside to the blessed A/C. “You think they’re lyin’?” she asks me.
I bite my lip in thought, but a resoundin’noblares through my mind. “It’s crazy, right?” I say instead.
Mama tilts her head at me, her frizzy red hair held up with both humidity and hairspray. “I told you time and time again how we found you.”
My eyes bug out. “I thought all thatleft on the doorstep by an angeltalk was just somethin’ you said to me when I was little to make me feel better about bein’ adopted!”
Mama and Daddy both scoff like that’s ridiculous. “Course not. You know I don’t tell lies. It’s a sin,” Mama says.
“But they said I was a demon!” I argue.
Mama lifts a shoulder. “I didn’t know it wasn’t an angel. All I saw were some wings. Purple, I think.”
Purple wings? What kind of angel has purple wings?
I stumble more than sit in the chair at the dinin’ room table. “What in the world is my life right now?” I groan as I bury my head in my hands.
“Your life is just what it should be, honey girl,” Daddy says, and I look up at him with a soft smile, makin’ myself take a deep breath and calm down.
I should probably be freakin’ out more right now. Maybe I’m in shock. Or maybe Alder is right. Somewhere deep down, I’ve known that I didn’t fit, not the way I was supposed to, anyway. I had my money on Professor X showing up one day and askin’ me if I’d like to attend his school with the other X-Men, but I guess secretly bein’ a demon works too.
“Here,” Mama says, settin’ down a steamin’ bowl of gumbo in front of me. “Eat. Everythin’ is always better once you got a full belly to think on.”
“How the heck are you so calm right now?” I demand. I blame my easygoin’ nature on them.
“Because it doesn’t change anythin’,” she answers simply.
I nearly spit out my first bite of gumbo. “Mama, I just got told that I’m a damndemon! Evil Hell spawn! How are you not freaked out, callin’ Pastor David and gettin’ me exorcised?”
Mama snorts and plops down next to me, glarin’ daggers at Daddy until he moves the shotgun off the table.
“You don’t need to be exorcised,” Mama tells me. “There’s nothin’ wrong with you. And if you’re a demon, then demons can’t be evil Hell spawn, because you’re as good as they come, baby girl, and that’s that. Ain’t no one gonna tell me otherwise.”
I stare into my mama’s green eyes and fight back the emotion that crashes through me at her words. I don’t know how I got so lucky at bein’ left on the stoop of such lovin’ and beautiful people. They’re far better than I ever deserve, and I wouldn’t give them up for anythin’.
Daddy nods and slops some food in his mouth. “Your mama said it. She’s right as butter on a biscuit.”
He gives me a wink, and I shake my head with a small smile.
“So your people were demons, who cares?” Daddy says with a shrug. “You’re a Bell now, and that’s all that matters. We’re simple people. I’ll leave all that salvation and damnation to the Bible thumpers, but you, my girl, were a blessin’ from the day you arrived, and if we have Hell to thank for that, then so be it.”
I toss up my arms around both of their shoulders and wrap them up in a hug that has us all gigglin’ between our sniffles and cheek wipes. “You guys are the best parents ever. If a demondidleave me with you, then they can’t be evil, either, because you two are the best people I know,” I whisper into Mama’s hair while she pats me on the back.
