CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“YOU READY TO GO?” Xander glanced over his shoulder as Alethea came out of her room.
“That depends. Are you going to be a blockhead the entire trip back?”
Xander took a deep breath and struggled for patience. “Just preparing myself for the conversation awaiting us at the end of our flight.” He’d be lucky if his mother didn’t disown him.
“Awaiting me, you mean.” Alethea set her tea mug in the sink and Xander took a final look at the sanctuary plans he’d painstakingly created. “After some more thought—”
“More thinking? Awesome.” He folded the paper in half, then in quarters.
“After some more thought,” Alethea snapped, “I’ve decided I’m going to tell everyone myself. You were right. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it on my own. Without you.”
“Best idea ever,” he muttered. “Did Calliope help you come up with that?”
“No. I can see for myself what a jerk you can be. Guess it was only a matter of time before I did. How’d your meeting with the mayor go?”
“Great,” he lied. It might have gone great. If he hadn’t canceled the appointment. Better Butterfly Harbor go with a firm that could keep an emotional distance from...the committee. He dropped the plans into the trash by the table.
“Did you get the job?” She hoisted her backpack over her shoulder and followed him to the door.
“They’ll announce after the first of the year. I’ve already checked out so we can head straight to the airport.”
“Wait. What about Calliope? And Jason and Stella? Aren’t you going to say goodbye?”
“I did last night.” As if his conversation with Calliope hadn’t been excruciating enough, he’d had to say goodbye to a teary-eyed Stella, who had begged him to stay. To spend Christmas with them. To be her and Calliope’s family.
How did he explain to a ten-year-old that not all dreams came true? That he already had a family, a family that needed him. A family that expected him to fix everything that had gone wrong over the last year. He hadn’t even tried, and instead held the little girl close and waited until her sobs abated before he left the holiday market and Duskywing Farm behind.
“You aren’t coming back, are you?” Alethea asked once they reached the car and started loading their bags into the trunk.
“No.” Xander took one last long look at the ocean. That peaceful, blissful ocean that a little over a week ago had sounded so deafening. His heart jumped in his chest as he caught sight of Calliope, walking along the shore, the brilliant red of her hair glimmering in the midmorning sun.
She stopped, turned her face toward him as the flickering wings of her butterflies caught the light. One broke away, bouncing along the wind as it flittered and flew toward him. The insect landed on the roof of his car, mere inches from his hand, its wings pulsing up and down.
“Xander?” Alethea whispered.
“I’m not coming back.” But to the butterfly, he said, “Goodbye.”
He backed out and turned onto Monarch Lane, leaving Butterfly Harbor and Calliope Jones forever.
* * *
“WE WON!” MARLIE, Stella and Charlie’s squeals and yelps echoed up and down the beach after the winners of the gingerbread sandcastle competition were announced by Jake “Santa Claus” Campbell. The three girls joined hands and encircled Calliope as they danced and hollered and whooped in celebration. “We won third place!”
Calliope couldn’t help it. She pressed her hands to her lips and laughed. There was something exhilarating about placing, she found. Although she couldn’t help but feel sorry for Simon, who, after getting an earful from Kyle about how disrespectful he’d been to Charlie, had been left on the sidelines without a team. With more than a dozen groups of kids of varying ages, coming in third was pretty darn good.
“Xander was right,” Charlie yelled. “We just made the best castle we could and it worked!”
“It was the seashell moat,” Calliope told her as she bounced up and down. “Yours was the only one that didn’t lose its water.” Although personally she liked the seashell shingles along the roof.