Free Earthbound Angels Part 1 by Sweet and Special Books

think anything else between them could be more than… well, friends. Although, come to think of it, they weren’t really friends. Raven was a lawyer, too, and she was actually intelligent and smart. They had discussed cases many times. But they hadn’t really been personally close. She might talk about personal happenings in her life, but he never did unless it had something to do with the firm.
    He had dated his share of women, but no one had hit him like Dreama and he had never even taken her out on a date. He definitely had never dated Raven. But… there were those instances when they were together in one place and she would call it a date when she talked to other people. He only had heard about this recently, when colleagues had begun kidding him about dating the senior partner’s daughter.
    But he already had plans for pursuing Dreama by that time that he took care not to aggravate Raven until he was sure about how he stood with her younger sister.
    He had been hoping to make his move on Erick and Hollianne’s wedding. Dreama would be there, and he could ask her out. It would be the perfect way to spend some time with her so that she might consider actually going out on a date with him.
    Dreama was going to be Holli’s maid of honor, a fact that did not escape Raven’s notice. Raven wasn’t even included in anything that would put her remotely in the “in circle” that included Erick and his would be wife. Not even her father’s association with Simon, who was known to be one of Erick’s close friends, had earned her invitations to parties in the castle. She was surely hoping she would be invited in the wedding, at least, and was making sure she would be there with Simon for people to see, giving her an edge over Dreama. Simon already knew her enough to know how she would think about things like this.
    Hollianne hadn’t hit it off so well with Raven due to Raven’s inherent competitive nature. Not to mention that Raven had been a bit snarky to Hollianne, which was a serious mistake because that was the only reason why she had never been invited to the castle ever . Hollianne Talbot-soon-to-be-Angell took nothing from people. It may have been due to the things that she had gone through in her life that made her intolerant. Whatever it was, Holli had refused to be faced with Raven’s insulting nature, so she would avoid her as much as she could. She certainly would not be insulted in her own territory.
    Simon didn’t blame Holli for not liking Raven. It wasn’t as if Raven made any great effort to be liked.
    But the fact that Dreama and Holli had become like close sisters seemed to irritate Raven more. She was jealous. When she used to be the one people prefer to be the apple of their eyes, now Dreama was having her own place in the spotlight.
    Simon knew things about Raven that she probably didn’t realize herself. Not everything really was her fault.
    Raven had been “trained” in competitive situations since she was old enough to walk and talk. Her mother had thrown her into one beauty pageant after another until Raven had become old enough to refuse.
    The really sad thing was that once Raven started to put her foot down about not entering pageants any longer, her mother lost interest in her. It was almost as if Raven had been a doll that she could play dress up with over the years.
    So Raven went from being the center of her mother’s world to being an afterthought. That couldn’t have had a positive effect on her.
Chapter Eight
    WHEN DREAMA CAME along, things got worse for Raven.
    Since Raven was the one entering all the pageants, Dreama never had to deal with any of that. Not only was she very young, she was intelligent in a quiet way, and had started to make her own way by being very good in her academics. Her father adored her and her mother seemed to find time for her that didn’t involve a purpose of some sort. Dreama looked quite a lot like her mother, with her light blonde hair and