Love Struck

Table of Contents

 

 

 

GROSSET & DUNLAP
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eISBN : 978-1-101-44590-7

To Andrea S. Petroff,
The sister I always wanted and finally have.
You're a wonderful addition to the family.
Love you.

A lot of people helped me bring this book to life. I'd like to thank:

 

My wonderful family and friends for all of their love and support.

 

With special mention to my mother, Marilyn, who has gone above and beyond for me. My brother, Jordan, who has acted as the perfect sounding board, consultant, and friend. And my father, Robert, who will always live in my heart.

 

My agent, Jodi Reamer, for her advice and guidance. As well as Alec Shane and the rest of Writers House.

 

J. David McKenney for his fabulous cover illustration.

And, of course, the people at Penguin. To Francesco Sedita and Bonnie Bader for believing in both the series and me. To Judy Goldschmidt for her support through this whole process, her editorial input, and for making Bedeviled everything it can be. And to everyone who has worked on the series and helped make it a reality.

 

And of course the booksellers, librarians, and readers who have spread the word about Bedeviled and who love Angel just as much as I do.

 

Thank you all!

“Marc is looking at you,” I whispered to my BFF Gabi Gottlieb, hiding my mouth with my burger.

Gabi glanced over to the popular table and then back at her Tofurky sandwich. “Probably wondering why he ever hung around with a dork like me,” she mumbled.

“That's not true,” I protested.

She gave me a long, hard stare as I tried to think of something brilliant to say that would cheer her up. But as I studied the intricacies of the ketchup packet lying on my tray, nothing sprang to mind. Nothing other than that I should never have brought up Marc Greyson to begin with.

Gabi had a big crush on Marc. And for a brief second not too long ago, it looked like he had liked her, too. Only his feelings weren't real.

They were the result of powers. Mine, to be exact.

Angel Garrett, daughter of the devil, struck again. I'd accidentally made all of Gabi's wishes come true. And that included having Marc like her. As well as Cole Daniels. And who is Cole Daniels, you ask? Cole Daniels is my boyfriend.

It was awful, to say the least. For me, anyway.

Everything eventually got back to normal—including Marc's feelings. But now Gabi was stuck crushing on a guy that only saw her as co-captain of the nerd herd. Not exactly the image she was going for.

“Once Marc
really
gets to know you he'll want to go out with you,” I said, dropping my burger.

Gabi glanced back at Marc. “No way. Have you seen him? He can get any girl he wants. He'd never pick me.” She let out a sigh.

“You don't know that,” I said. “He could surprise you.”

“Soooo.” Gabi tugged at her braid. “Any more Lou sightings?” she asked, changing the subject from one she didn't like discussing to one I hated even thinking ab out.

“No, thank goodness.”

My father, better known as Lou Cipher, aka Lucifer, and I were not exactly on speaking terms. I found out he hadn't given up all of his evil tricks. He'd made excuses for why and said it wasn't his fault, but I wasn't buying it. I told him I would let him into my life if he stopped granting wishes in exchange for people's souls. And until I knew for sure that he had changed for good, we were done. In the meantime, I asked him to stay away. So far it had been a week, and no surprise visits. My fingers were crossed that it would stay that way.

I could tell Gabi wanted to say something, but she shut her mouth. It was a good thing, too, because I knew what she was going to say. That I was being too hard on Lou. We'd had the same conversation about a dozen times and it always got me riled up. I wasn't looking for a fight. Especially not with Gabi.

The whole wish-granting/Cole-stealing fiasco had put a temporary strain on our friendship. We'd gotten past it, but I wanted to stay on neutral territory for a while. So I switched to something we could both agree on.

“I cannot wait to meet Lance tomorrow!”

Lance Gold was the hottest actor on the planet. That's not even an exaggeration. He won the title eight weeks in a row in
Teen Wow
magazine. And his reign was probably going to last forever.

“If we can even get close to him. The mall is going to be swamped.”

“That's where my special gift comes in,” I said, wiggling my fingers.

“Angel . . . ,” Gabi said in her control-freak mother's reprimanding voice.

“What? I'm not going to do anything stupid. I learned my lesson. No advanced powers for me. I'll stick to the basics.” The only powers I had under control were moving objects (including people) and stopping them in their tracks. Not as cool as turning green beans into hundred-dollar bills, but it did have its advantages. “I can just part the crowd and we can walk right on up to Lance. Simple.”

“Nothing with you and your powers is ever simple,” she said, popping a soy apple crisp into her mouth.

“You'll see,” I assured her. “But it doesn't even matter. I won't need to use my powers. The whole reason Lance is here is because of you. It would be just plain cruel if they didn't give you a personal introduction.”

Lance had gotten caught up in Gabi's whole wish-making disaster. She was starring in her own reality TV show, and he was supposed to do a photo shoot with her. It never ended up happening because the wishes got reversed. But since Lance was already scheduled to come to Pennsylvania, his producer had turned the visit into a mall appearance set for tomorrow. Everyone was going to be there.

“Are you kidding? Personal introduction?” Gabi practically shrieked. “Without the show, I'm a nobody. I'm not getting any closer to Lance Gold than anyone else at the mall.”

She needed more faith. “Just wait,” I assured her. “You'll see.”

Just then I saw Cole approaching our table. “See what?” he asked.

“We're just talking about tomorrow,” I said, covering my stomach with my arm. It always did this wild hula dance whenever Cole was around. I knew it wasn't visible to the human eye. But still, I wasn't taking any chances.

“It's okay that I come with you guys, right?” he asked looking from me to Gabi and then quickly back to me.

“Of course,” I said.

Gabi nodded her head slightly. “Yeah,” she said quietly.

“Cool.” Cole was only allowing himself to look at Gabi out of the corner of his eye.

Things had been kind of weird between the two of them since she accidentally made him want to date her. Cole doesn't know anything about powers. So he thinks he's to blame for momentarily dumping me for my best friend. He's apologized a zillion times and begged me to forgive him. And I did. I had to. He never would have done it if I hadn't given Gabi wish-making capabilities.

“Do you want to sit?” I asked Cole.

“That's okay. I should be getting back to my table in a minute.” Cole hadn't sat with us all week. I think he was embarrassed to be around Gabi because of the whole crush thing. But I needed him to get over it. I couldn't go through life with my boyfriend being all awkward around my best friend. I wanted us to be able to have fun together—not feel like we were stuck in detention.

“We finally finish up
Romeo and Juliet
next week,” I said, trying to break the tension.