Nick McLeod embraces the life of a rock star with enthusiasm-reveling in drugs, women, crazy escapades, and adulation. Among the groupies who rush backstage after his shows, he occasionally glimpses a woman with blond hair and amethyst-colored eyes. Yet every time he turns to look at her, she vanishes. Then one night as he begins his performance, fueled by cocaine and alcohol, she appears next to him on stage, shaking her head sadly just before he passes out. The near overdose lands him in rehab, and now he is rethinking his priorities. Home, family, and a life with his son are tops on that list. When the offer comes to host a reality show to find a "star," he takes it. Meanwhile, the mysterious woman, Ambriel-who goes by Brie-realizes that although she has been appointed as Nick's guardian angel, she is becoming more and more attracted to him, making Nick a challenging assignment in more ways than one. She even enters the contest on the reality show so that she can stay close to him and look after him, and he is drawn to her in spite of himself. Falling in love with a contestant is against the rules-and so is falling in love with the human you're supposed to be taking care of. With one foot in the intense human world of show business and the other in the supernatural world, Nick and Brie's romance might prove too complicated to survive. Can they overcome the obstacles of both worlds?

An Angel to Watch over Me

By Judy Mauer

Abbott Press

Copyright © 2011 Judy Mauer
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4582-0109-6

Chapter One

It was the end of the last long day in a long week. When the whispered voice came through the headset that the last contestant of the day was on her way in, he sighed in relief. Man he hoped this one actually had some talent.

So far this week he and his fellow judges had seen, jugglers, fire eaters, singers, dancers, and a few really bazaar acts that just didn't translate well into words. It was their job to watch three minutes of each performance and then decide if that person or act was worthy of going to the next step in the process of finding a "star".

He had taken this reality TV job with 'So You Want to be Famous?' because he thought it would be fun. He was all about having fun; it was just in his nature. He was infamous for some of the practical jokes he had played thru the years. Well you could just read the tabloids for some of them. He just had this joy for living and making the most of each day. It turned out to be a lot of work too. That he wasn't afraid of either, he tended to throw himself into whatever project he was doing fully, completely. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.

Having spent the last twenty years of his life in the music industry gave him the expertise. He was after all considered to be a rock legend; a rock god to some. He was Nick McLeod; his band was Gemini and he had stood in front of them for twenty years. He had been compared to some of greats; Steven Tyler, Eric Clapton even Mick Jagger. He felt humbled just to be in the presence of those legends, much less to be compared to them. That he had been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had all but knocked him out.

Small and conservatively dressed in a slim skirt and silky blouse, she walked into the audition room and sent a sunny smile their way.

"Hello" the soft voice greeted them.

"Hello back at ya" he greeted. "What is your name and what will you be going to do for us today?" He sat up from his usual slouch, she was pretty and even in the simple clothes she wore she would definitely catch attention.

"I am Ambriel Archangel." "I am going to sing for you."

Her voice played across his senses with a coolness that eased the tension in his body and the headache he was barely aware of. He was mesmerized by her smoky angelic voice. Awe-struck he looked at the other five judges to find they were as transfixed by that voice as he.

They were unanimous in the giving of the golden ticket to move her on to the next level.

Ambriel walked out of the room with the ticket clutched in her hand. She had completed the first part of her assignment. Singing was second nature to her, she had done it all of her life, her very long life. Now for the rest; that might be so easy, getting close to Nick McLeod.

At last this day was over, but it did end on a spectacular note.

He walked into the deli across the street from the hotel. Not much different than what he had grown up in. Counter to the left of the door and booths in the back for patrons to have their sandwich or bowl of soup. Nick and his sister had spent many an afternoon, weekend and summer working with their parents in the one they had owned.

She saw him when he entered, his long beautiful coffee colored hair pulled back away from that famous face. From her vantage point she could see the pain behind his green eyes. After he placed an order he gazed around the shop and spotted her in the last booth.

She gave a small fingertip wave as he smiled at her in greeting.

"Hello, again." She motioned for him to sit.

"Do you live around here?" he asked pulling out his chair. Although he was used to being stalked by fans; he didn't think it applied here. The deli and hotel were not close the stadium where the auditions were held. And she didn't appear to be the crazed stalker type.

"No, I work near by." "I restore antiquities at the small museum around the corner."

"Hmmm, singer by day and antiquities at night?"

"I know, but I have always been fascinated by things that are very old and in need of special care to restore them to their prime state." She needed to be able to touch him again. The small handshake that she had done with all of the judges after the audition was over only gave her a small glance into what she was sent to do.

They exchanged small talk until Kenny behind the counter called his number.

"Guess that's me." Grinning he stood up.

"Yeah, I need to get to work."

Walking beside him up to the counter, she asked. "Would you like to see some of the stuff I work on?" It was a good excuse as any.

"You know I am not supposed to see contestants outside of the show, it could get us both in trouble."

Reaching across the counter she gave Kenny a quick buss on the cheek. "Good night, sweetie, see you tomorrow night."

"Nite, Brie", Kenny ducked his head with a blush staining his seventeen year old cheeks.

He opened the door and they walked out into the coolness of the evening. She reached up and smoothed a stray lock of hair away from his face and leaned in a placed a soft kiss to his cheek.

"If you change your mind, I am down that alley. The big door at the end, ring the bell and I will let you in, there is nobody there at night but me."

Smiling, and raising his hand up to touch the spot where her soft lips had grazed his cheek Nick watched her disappear around the corner before he turned and walked across the street to his hotel.

The cold silent room closed in on him as soon as he entered. Taking his sandwich to the sofa he flipped on the television. Surfing through channels and finding nothing to hold his attention; his mind kept straying back to the conversation with the girl from the deli, Ambriel or Brie, as the counter kid called her. She was young, twenty seven she had told them at the audition. But at almost forty Nick considered twenty seven to be young. She was off limits to him as a contestant, but he had spent a lifetime of ignoring the rules. He was 'Naughty Nick, Nefarious Nick, and Never, Never say No Nick' or at least he had been in the past. After two turbulent marriages, a few unsubstantiated paternity suits, and the love of his life Lennon, his vicarious five year old son changed a lot of that wildness. He talked to his son on the phone every day; no matter where he was. But mostly he was just lonely. He wanted the life his parents shared; some one with whom he could lean on and to grow old with. His younger sister, Colleen, had a husband and three children and all six, seven if he had Lennon, of them spent Christmas every year with their parents in the home they grew up in. It was a tight fit, but worth it, family was everything.

Before he was aware of it he had left the hotel behind and was moving down the alley. Kenny was coming out of the door just as he was reaching for the bell. "Hey, man. You decide to go see the angels?"

"Angels?"

"Yeah, Brie, she works on restoring paintings of angels. It's her specialty. Go down the hall and thru the doors at the archway, you'll see."

Nick followed the directions and stepped into the open door way and stopped. The ceiling was arched and the room was long and wide. Paintings of angels and celestial beings covered everything. It was amazing.

He saw her sitting on her knees in front of a life sized fresco of a male angel seated upon a throne; huge black wings spread out behind him. Her hair spilled down her back to...