Holiday Kisses
Calliope didn’t look convinced.
“I noticed that garden shed as we pulled up. It looks a little worse for wear?” Xander moved in and placed a comforting hand on Calliope’s back. She tensed, as if uncertain how to accept the gesture, then seemed to sag back against him. He took that as a good sign.
“We’ve cordoned it off until we can get someone out to tear it down,” Hildy said. “Hopefully next week.”
“Let me take a look. That way Calliope won’t have to worry about me while she’s visiting with her mother.”
“Xander, really,” Calliope insisted. “You’ve done more than enough—”
“It’ll keep me out of trouble.” And he got the distinct impression Calliope was more worried about him being around her mother than she was letting on. “I’ll be over there.” He pointed to the other side of the house, along a narrow rock path strewn with lush greenery and shaded by overhanging trees.
“Ah, yes, okay.” Hildy looked as shell-shocked as Calliope. “Please, be careful. You should find some gloves—”
“Go on inside. I’ve got this.” He gave Calliope’s shoulder a quick squeeze before he turned the wagon over to her.
* * *
“WHERE DID YOU find him?” Hildy asked in a somewhat awed tone. “Because I’ll take half a dozen.”
“He came into town yesterday,” Calliope said as she followed Hildy into the house. And half a dozen? One Xander Costas was more than enough to handle. He was so take-charge, so helpful. And she, for some unknown reason, was incapable of fighting him on it. “He’s the architect the mayor hired to design the butterfly sanctuary I was telling you about. Are you sure everything is okay? If Mama’s becoming a problem for you all—”
“You need to stop worrying about this so much, Calliope.” She guided Calliope and the wagon to the front door. Together they hefted it over the threshold. “It comes with the territory. And there’s no point in blaming yourself. We’ve made some adjustments and I’ve brought in a night nurse to monitor her room when we’re sleeping. We’ll work it out.”
The knots that had been forming in Calliope’s stomach days before finally made sense. She should have realized something was off, but she’d been so distracted by Xander’s arrival and getting the market ready this morning, she’d pushed aside those warning bells. Warning bells she’d sworn never to ignore again.
A plate of food was one thing, but next time it could be worse. She’d never forgive herself if something happened to her friend or her friend’s family because of Emmaline, and Calliope’s inability to care for her.
Hildy pushed the wagon down the hallway into the kitchen. The breakfast nook, where Stella sat and chatted with Eddie, Hildy’s husband of twenty-seven years, and their son, Joshua, who had been diagnosed as severely autistic seventeen years ago, was well out of ear shot, allowing Calliope and Hildy to speak freely.
Calliope took a moment to enjoy the view of her sister, who always brought a smile to Joshua’s face. Stella, bless her, was as patient and calm as a summer breeze as she asked Joshua all about the birds in his journal.
“Should I be worried about Stella seeing Mama?” Calliope murmured.
“It’s hard to say.” Hildy seemed inordinately concerned with hoisting the boxes onto the center island. “But it might be best if I stay with you when you do. She’s been mumbling things about you, Calliope. I can’t understand most of it, but enough that you need to be careful around her.”
Calliope closed her eyes and let out a long, slow breath. “Okay.” Calliope prided herself on her strength and her ability to bend with the forces of life, but she’d never been able to quell the terror that accompanied the thought of Stella being alone with their mother. While Calliope could protect herself, Stella couldn’t. “Let Stella see her without me then. I don’t want Mama to connect the two of us.”
“A good idea, Calliope.” Hildy turned an understanding yet concerned face toward her. “If it’s too hard on you to visit...”