The Christmas Angel (2 page)

A long, high-pitched whistle blast from down the street drew everybody's attention. A
moment later, the Central High School Marching Knights struck up a marching band version of
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and the parade began.

Michael took up station behind Kaitlin as the parade went by. Every so often she'd
bounce on her toes and wave at somebody she knew who was a parade participant. All of a sudden,
an old-fashioned, hand-cranked fire truck siren brought a squeal of delight from Dani and got her
out of her chair.

"Oh my God, here they come!" She grabbed Kaitlin's shoulder and gave her an excited
shake.

Michael looked up the parade route. He didn't see anything to email home about. "Who's
coming?"

Kaitlin shrugged off the blanket and handed it to him. Her eyes were wide. "The
firefighters--the best part of the parade, at least for us girls." As an antique fire truck came into view,
Dani grabbed Kaitlin's hand. They stepped into the street and started waving their arms as if their
lives depended on it.

It didn't take a genius to see what, or rather who, had the girls so worked up. As the
truck drew closer, a half dozen muscular firefighters, three on each side, leapt in unison from the
truck and sauntered over to the sidewalks. Going without jackets, the better to show off their
form-fitting T-shirts, the firefighters were dropping things into the outstretched hands of the female
spectators. A few of the bolder young women, Dani included, gave a firefighter a kiss on the cheek
after receiving the tiny gift.

Kaitlin was grinning from ear to ear when she returned after getting a hug from one of
the firefighters. "Next to Santa Claus, the best part of the parade, hands down." She shook her head
and laughed. It was an easy sound that brought to mind freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and
sent Michael's heart into overdrive.

"So what are they handing out?"

She held up a little piece of hard candy in a red, plastic wrapper. "Red Hots, to help keep
you warm for the rest of the parade. I got two. Want one?"

Michael's voice caught in his throat. He hadn't been all that jacked about the parade part
of this trip. But now, gazing into the most luminous pale green eyes he'd ever had the pleasure to
enjoy, he couldn't believe his luck.

"Hello? Michael?" Kaitlin waved the Red Hot in front of his eyes. "You haven't frozen
solid, have you?"

"No, I was just...your eyes." He shook his head. "Never mind, thank you. I thank you fifty
times. Bless you." He took the candy and popped it into his mouth.

Kaitlin's eyebrows shot up. "Ah, Scrooge. Very nice. I adore Dickens. Have you read
much of him?"

As if their friends no longer existed, Kaitlin and Michael spent the rest of the parade side
by side, chatting about books and cheering the youth groups that marched past, until the Big Man,
Santa himself, floated by on a massive red sleigh being pulled not by reindeer, but by an antique red
tractor. When a couple dozen women marched past, singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas,"
people started folding up their chairs and drifting away.

Kaitlin handed her blanket to Michael and bent to fold up her chair. At the same moment
someone shouted, "Coming through!"

He turned just in time to see two teenaged boys barreling right at them. He tried to
warn Kaitlin, who'd been looking the other way, but he wasn't quick enough. All he could do was
watch her turn just in time to be rammed by the first boy's forearm.

She pinwheeled backward and fell to the rock hard ground. From the corner of his eye,
he saw something gold spin out of his sight. As a second boy flashed by, Kal took after them.

Michael knelt by Kaitlin and brushed back her hair. His heart was thrumming
double-time, and it wasn't just from the adrenaline that had been dumped into his system. "Are you
okay?"

She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times. After a moment or two her gaze
focused on him and her lips curled up at the corners. She pushed herself upright as Dani knelt on
the other side of her.

"Oh honey, are you hurt?" Dani's tender tone shocked Michael. Because of her looks and
the way she'd flirted with Kal, he'd assumed she was shallow. But because of the way she was
holding Kaitlin's hand and fussing over her, Michael made her a silent apology.

Kaitlin took a deep breath and rocked back and forth a few times. "Just got the wind
knocked out of me. I'm okay." She gave Dani a look, causing the blonde to grin. Michael and Dani
helped her to her feet.

His heart ticked up to triple time when she leaned into him while Dani brushed her
off.

"Thank you," she said, in a breathless tone that made him forget the December
weather.

Before he could respond, Kal returned. "I tried to run them down, but no luck."

Dani threw him an appreciative smile. "Thank you Kal, and you, Michael. Now, I think
we should be going." She gathered up the chairs and blankets. "We're meeting some friends in
Irvington, and we're running a little late. We've had a lovely time though."

With her free arm, Dani turned Kaitlin around and led her away. Kaitlin looked back and
gave Michael a little wave. He returned the wave as the late afternoon cold began slicing its way
into him again.

"Police are on their way." Seth put a hand on Michael's shoulder. "I thought Kaitlin
might be hurt, so I called 911. When she got up, I told them forget it, but they said a couple of purses
got snatched today, so they wanted us to stay put and give the cops a description of those
kids."

Eventually a police officer arrived, took a description of the boys and departed. When
he'd gone, the three of them looked at each other, a little off balance after the unexpected turn of
events.

Seth glanced up at the overhead street lamp when it flickered on. "Still time for a couple
of beers. Come on guys."

Michael was about to fall in with Seth and Kal, when a glitter in the grass next to the
sidewalk caught his eye. He knelt down and picked a golden angel pin off the ground. A new dose of
adrenaline surged through his veins. He knew the pin's owner.

"Dudes, wait. It's Kaitlin's pin. I gotta find her."

* * * *

The Subaru's heated seats soothed Kaitlin's frazzled emotions as she and Dani made
their way to meet their friends.

"You're sure you're okay, honey? No headaches or back pain?"

"I'm fine, Dani. I just..." Physically, she was fine, but she couldn't shake the vision of
Michael at her side after she'd fallen. The slight frown, the furrowed eyebrows--he'd been genuinely
concerned for her. Lance had never acted that way.

"I know." Dani patted her leg. "Michael was a nice guy. Kal was, too. But tonight's about
you." She got her phone out of the glove box where she'd stashed it during the parade and ticked off
a message. A few seconds later, it buzzed. "The girls have a table for us at The Waterfront. Time to
resume the fun."

Once Kaitlin and Dani were seated with their friends at a round table overlooking the
river, wine glasses were raised. "Happy twenty-fourth birthday to Kaitlin, who doesn't look a day
over twenty-three," Dani said. Everybody laughed and the group eased into the comfortable banter
shared among good friends. After the usual catching up, the conversation turned to the parade.

"Oh my God," Kaitlin's friend Sue said, "I heard Lance was going to be marching with the
alumni band. You didn't see the snake, did you?"

Kaitlin shook her head. She hadn't seen her ex-boyfriend, but even the mention of his
name left a bitter taste in her mouth. They'd been an item for three years. Kaitlin had told herself
the reason he hadn't proposed was because he was waiting to build a nest egg for them.

She knew now there were signs she'd chosen to ignore, like how distant he'd acted after
her parents' accident. Or how he'd gotten angry when she couldn't get in the mood for sex in the
months afterward. So it shouldn't have surprised her when she saw Lance at a corner table of the
swankiest restaurant in town one night, getting very intimate with some redhead.

But it
had
surprised her. Worse than that, it had driven a wooden stake, full of
splinters, right through her heart. She'd gone straight to Dani's and cried all night. Her parents had
died unexpectedly and now her boyfriend, the man she thought she'd marry, had been cheating on
her.

After a long talk, Dani'd helped her pack her things and move out of Lance's house the
next day. Kaitlin had written him a long, eloquent letter telling him goodbye. Dani had written a
shorter one herself. "Piss off, you bastard."

Kaitlin had neither seen nor heard from him since.

Michael would never have treated me that way
.

Good Lord, where did that come from? She took a long drink of her mulled wine, then
another, to soothe her confused thoughts.
Michael
.

"What's that?" she asked, when someone mentioned her name.

"The ribbon in your hair, is that the one your mom gave you?"

"Uh huh. I wanted her with me today. That's why I put this brooch on, too."

Her hand went to her chest, expecting to feel the warm metal of the angel's wings.
Instead, all she felt was the soft wool of her sweater. She looked down.

"Oh my God! It's gone." Kaitlin got to her feet, looked all around the table, and shoved
her hands into the pockets of her jeans. Nothing. "God, Dani, Mom's angel, it's gone. I need to find
it."

She grabbed her purse, fighting with everything inside her to keep the building wave of
total panic at bay. "Sorry, everyone, but I need to go." She turned and sprinted out the door, blinking
back hot tears as she ran to her car.

A knock on the car's passenger side window got Kaitlin's attention. When she saw it was
Dani, she unlocked the door. Sliding in without a word, Dani buckled her seatbelt, and then gave
Kaitlin's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Let's think about this for a minute. Have you checked the blankets?" When Kaitlin
nodded, she went on. "Do you have any idea when it may have come off?"

Kaitlin tried to focus, but the panic and despair she was fighting made it almost
impossible. She rubbed her temple. "I still had it during the parade. Michael said he liked it."

"Good. Why don't we head back downtown? I bet it came off when you got knocked
down. It's probably right there waiting for us."

Kaitlin pulled out of the parking lot and turned south toward downtown. The half-hour
it would take to get back to their spot on the parade route would be excruciating. Her knuckles
turned snow white as she gripped the steering wheel. With her focus straight ahead, if there were
any other cars on the road, she didn't notice them.

"Please be there, please be there..." She was so focused the pin, she paid no attention to
the red SUV that passed her, heading in the other direction.

* * * *

"Ow!" Michael sucked in a breath and shook his hand. The pin may have been old, but
could still prick a finger with a vengeance. "Can you take easy on the turns, man? I'll never fix this
thing, getting thrown around the back seat like this."

Kal glanced back at him from his spot in the passenger seat. "Dude, chill. I've never seen
you like this. What gives?"

Michael shrugged off the dig and went back to work on the pin. Repairing it wasn't the
problem. Finding its adorable owner so he could return it to her, was.

"The Waterfront looks pretty busy. Let's try there first," Seth said as he slowed the Ford
Escape and turned into the parking lot. Once they parked, he turned toward Michael. "Got a plan yet,
Mikey?"

"How about this? Let's head in and look around. If she's not here, I'll buy you guys a beer
and you can hang out while I check out the other places close by."

Michael followed Seth and Kal into the nightclub with his fingers crossed. It wasn't very
late. If he could find Kaitlin, maybe they could spend the rest of the evening together, maybe...

After coming up short in three clubs, Michael stepped back into the cold, alone and a
little lighter in the wallet. He sprinted across the street to continue the search. He was on his way to
a fourth place when his phone signaled a text message. He looked at it and cursed. Seth and Kal
wanted to hit the clubs downtown and were giving him fifteen more minutes before they were
leaving.

He made it back to The Waterfront just as the guys were paying the check. "No luck," he
said between breaths that were ragged from sprinting from club to club in the cold.

Kal put his arm around Michael. "Dude, we know you hit it off with Kaitlin and you're
trying to do the right thing, but you're never going to find her this way. What do you think,
Seth?"

"Kal's right, man. Give it a rest for tonight and in the morning we can all post something
online. Bet we'll get a response from her in a couple days, max."

Michael let out a long breath. Maybe the guys were right. The important thing was
getting Kaitlin's pin back to her. And if it took a couple days, then that would give him time to
properly fix the clasp. He waved his arm toward the door.

"After you guys. I'm buying the first round downtown." Kal and Seth both clapped him
on the back. They spent the drive downtown telling him what a great guy he was for going to such
great lengths trying to reunite a girl he barely knew with an old pin.

Michael saw things much differently. He couldn't escape the feeling that just posting the
pin on the net would be letting Kaitlin down.

He'd never been much of a ladies' man, despite his easy smile and a frame that was trim
from years spent swimming competitively. One drunken night, Kal had pointed a finger in his
general direction and told him, "Mikey, it's a crime someone with your good looks doesn't have the
chickies falling all over you." Then Kal had passed out.

Michael had been called shy, quiet, reserved, and other similar things over the years. It
was common knowledge that if you didn't find him in his room working away at some sort of
engineering problem on his laptop, you'd find him in the basement humming away in his metal
shop. The truth of the matter wasn't complicated. Michael was an introvert.