Holiday Kisses

She nodded. Calliope could hear her teeth chattering as she clutched at the jacket. “He’s going to be so mad. I just left. I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn’t go home.” Her chin wobbled as she turned pleading eyes on Calliope. “I couldn’t stay at school. Everyone’s going to be so mad at me.”

“Your family loves you...” Calliope searched her memory for a name. Three sisters. Ophelia, Dyna and...the baby of the family. “Alethea. That’s correct, isn’t it?” She put an arm around her shoulder. The sorrow inside of Alethea reached out and seized Calliope’s heart. Oh, this poor girl. “Let’s get you to your brother, Alethea. Come on.” She picked up the bag, held out her hand and led the young woman away from the ocean.

As she and Alethea headed toward the stairs leading up to Main Street, Calliope’s anxiety grew.

Patience, she reminded herself, even as she wished for time to speed up. When she felt the tiny flicker of threadbare life dancing along her palm, she relaxed. Calliope held out her arm.

“Look,” she whispered to Alethea as she displayed the monarch butterfly balancing on her finger. “That’s a good sign. A sign you’ve found the right place.”

A tiny flicker of a smile illuminated Alethea’s face. Calliope glanced over her shoulder. The grey cloud began to dissipate.

“How about we send him ahead?” Calliope said as they rounded the corner and on up the hill. “Go ahead. Blow on his wings, very, very gently.” She grinned at Alethea as the young woman did as she suggested.

The insect flittered a moment, scratched its infinitesimal legs against one another and then pushed off into the late-afternoon sky toward Xander’s cabin.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

XANDER HAD KEPT his word and called Antony back within the two hours. But with nothing new to convey and no ideas other than to file a missing-person report, the conversation had not gone well. The fact that Antony believed Xander was wasting his time out here in California didn’t help matters. Nor did the revelation that one of the firms offering to buy Costas Architecture had just upped their bid. As if money was the answer to everything. This was about the family, their grandfather’s legacy. Xander’s legacy.

Besides, even if he did go home, what good was he going to do there? He’d just be worrying in a different location and arguing with Antony in person. Not to mention that if he left Butterfly Harbor now, before submitting a revised design, he’d be abandoning their best chance to save the family firm.

But this was Alethea. His baby sister. How would he ever forgive himself if he didn’t do everything possible to find her and bring her home? If it was a choice between business and family, he knew which to choose. Because there was no choice.

Which was why he began throwing his clothes into his bag while on hold with the airline to change his flight.

Something knocked against his bedroom window. The sound was dull. Low. So low he thought he might have imagined it. Just the weird weather, he told himself as he hustled into the living room. He grabbed his pencils and notepad, tossed them on the coffee table beside the unopened Christmas ornaments for the tree.

He heard it again. And again. Against the main window this time. Irritated, he walked around the table and sofa and found a solitary monarch butterfly battering itself against the glass.

“What on earth?”

He’d never seen such a thing. It was as if...but no. Butterflies didn’t knock, did they? He pulled open the front door and was about to step onto the porch when he caught sight of Calliope in all her colorful wonder, pushing open the iron gate to the cottage’s yard. And beside her was the only thing that could make his heartbeat steady again.

“Alethea.” His knees went weak with relief. She was safe. She was...here.

He dropped his phone and raced toward them, barely noticing the tears on his sister’s face before he locked his arms around her in a hug so fierce he was afraid he’d hurt her.

“You’re okay. Thank goodness, you’re okay.” He started to let go, but she let out a muted sob and clung to him. “Where did you...?” Xander looked to Calliope, who continued to stroke Alethea’s hair. “How did you know?”