The Christmas Angel

by Jim Cangany

  "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' m
an, 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.

  He'd always been comfortable with who he was and where he fit in the world. He didn't mind being around people, and he had a lot of friends. But there had never been anybody he felt he couldn't live without.

  Until now.

  He pulled the pin back out of his pocket and wrapped his fingers around it tight. He didn't know why, but something in his head told him Kaitlin needed it back tonight. And his heart told him he needed to figure out a way to do just that.

  "You coming, man?"

  Michael had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts, he hadn't noticed they'd made it downtown and were parked in front of a place called The Golden Harp. Over dinner, Michael came up with a plan. It was crazy, the longest of long shots. But it was also very simple.

  To Michael, simplicity was beautiful.

  To Michael, Kaitlin was, too.

  * * * *

  "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Kaitlin lowered her head and closed her eyes. There were no tears. They'd probably come later, in the privacy of her bedroom. For now, there was only bitter disappointment and self-recrimination. If only I'd left the brooch at home. If only I'd worn a coat.

  Dani flipped off the little emergency flashlight Kaitlin kept in the car. "I'm so sorry, honey, but we've been over this area twice and it just doesn't seem to be here."

  Kaitlin stood stock still as Dani put an arm around her. "I meet a nice guy and then manage to lose both him and Mom's brooch in one fell swoop. This has turned into the crappiest birthday ever. I just want to go home and crawl in bed and stay there forever."

  Once they got home, Dani got Kaitlin a glass of wine, and then headed for her bathroom, claiming she wanted a long bath to warm up. Kaitlin was pretty sure Dani was giving her some time to be alone with her thoughts.

  By the time she was halfway through the wine, she should have been feeling a little drowsy, or at least a little relaxed. Her mind was too agitated and her soul was too badly injured to allow that, though, so she changed into her favorite wintertime pajamas--an old sweatshirt and coordinating cotton sweatpants.

  When the late news ended, Dani announced she was going to bed. Kaitlin put her empty wine glass on the table and started flipping through an interior design magazine.

  "Must be caffeine-infused wine," she said to the television screen, as her agitation kept getting worse. After making three laps around the couch and coffee table, she got dressed again, grabbed her keys and slipped out the door while she was wrestling her coat on. She had to look one more time.

  It's gotta be there, she repeated over and over on the drive back to the parade spot. I'll widen the search area.

  A light snow had just begun to fall when Kaitlin parked the car. She got out, her heart hammering away. About fifty yards from the spot where they'd watched the parade, she pulled up short. Someone was leaning against a nearby light post.

  Alarm bells went off in her head. The self-defense class she'd taken told her to turn around and come back tomorrow, but something compelled her forward. She dug her phone out of her coat pocket and dialed 911. If things started to go badly, she'd hit the send button.

  With her thumb hovering in position, she approached the leaning figure one tentative step at a time, hoping her presence would spur him to move on. At thirty yards away, she manufactured a cough. The figure--she was certain it was a man--pushed himself away from the pole and turned to face her.

  He kept his hands in his pockets, but didn't say anything. The snow obscured his features. A shiver went through her and she was about to turn around when he finally spoke.

  "Kaitlin?"

  * * * *

  Practically frozen to the bone, Michael stared at the person approaching him through the fluffy snowflakes. The height looked about right, but then again, after he'd been shivering in the cold for what seemed like eons, maybe his mind was playing tricks on him.

  "Michael? Is that you?"

  His stomach did a backflip as his nearly frostbitten lips curled into a smile. "Yeah, it's me."

  Kaitlin stepped out of the shadows and into the light cast by the street lamp. She pushed back her hood to reveal a warm smile. His heart caught fire at the sight.

  "What are you doing here?"

  "Waiting for you."

  Her forehead creased in apparent confusion. "Waiting for me? Why?"

  "To give you this." He pulled the pin out of his pocket and held it out to her. "It must have come off when you got knocked down. By the time I saw it, you and your friend were long gone. I tried to find you and when I struck out, I came here."

  Kaitlin looked into Michael's eyes. Instead of accepting the pin, she took her mittens off and wrapped her hands around his. The heat of her hands flowed from her to warm his entire body, and his soul.

  "Lord, you're nearly frozen." She drew him right up to her. Her foresty scent filled his nostrils, sending a good chill down his spine. "How long have you been here?"

  "I don't know. A couple hours, maybe?"

  "Just to give me this?"

  Michael chuckled. "I could tell it's old, so I figured it was special to you. And something told me that you needed to get it back today. Am I right?"

  Kaitlin nodded and closed her eyes. Despite the smile, a tear escaped and ran down her cheek. "It originally belonged to my grandmother. It was given to me this past spring after my mother died. It's a Christmas Angel and today was the first day I'd ever worn it."

  Michael parted his hands. The golden angel shone like a tiny sun in the lamplight. "I didn't have my tools, but I was able to fix the clasp partway, at least. Here, you should put it on."

  She unzipped her coat. "You put it on me."

  With hands shaking partly from the cold and partly from being so close to Kaitlin, he did as instructed. When he finished, she took his hands in hers again.

  "Today's my birthday. You've just given me the most wonderful gift ever." She hesitated for a moment, as if trying to see inside his head, and then cupped his face with her hands and brought her lips to his. The tenderness of the kiss sent wave upon wave of tropical warmth through him.

  When she released him, her breathing was heavy. "Thank you, Michael. You're a true angel."

  He nodded, breathing a little heavy himself. "My pleasure. Anything for you."

  She looked up and down the street. "Your friends...they left without you, didn't they?"

  "Yeah, they had to get back."

  "Yet you waited for me." Kaitlin tapped her finger on her chin a few times, evidently mulling something over. She glanced toward Joe's, where the lights were always on. "Can I buy you a cup of coffee? I'd love to hear the story of what you did trying to find me."

  Michael took her hand. "I'd like that, but only if you tell me why you ended up coming back here."

  "Deal." Her eyes were a little watery, but she was grinning from ear to ear. His grin matched hers as they began the short stroll to the coffee shop and the long walk through life together.

  About the Author

  A lifelong resident of the State of Indiana, Jim Cangany is proud to call himself a Hoosier. The youngest of eight children, he grew up in a household full of books and people. Thanks to the influence of his older siblings, Jim gravitated toward fantasy and sci-fi when looking for something to read. He wrote his first story at age fourteen. A school project, The Magic Coin was a fantasy that involved a king, some bad guys, and, not surprisingly, a magical token.

&
nbsp; These days, Jim writes romance on the sweet end. If you ask him what is a guy like him is doing writing romance, he'll reply, "Those are the stories in my head." A believer that the world has enough doom and gloom, he likes stories with a happy ending, regardless of genre. He lives in Indianapolis with his wonderful wife Nancy and his two sons, Ryan and Aidan.

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