Rob served her the beef, and piled other goodies on her plate. This was his place, next to her. Everything would be perfect if Cassie were back. He crossed his fingers and prayed under his breath.
# # #
Melisa had never been to a more beautiful Christmas Mass in all her life. The sanctuary was decorated with trees full of lights. Garlands and hollies covered every surface and candles were lit throughout the church.
Rob held her hand the entire time, and even though they hadn’t a minute to themselves, being greeted by their extended family and friends she hadn’t seen in a year since the last Christmas Mass, having his presence was the best gift ever.
After church, and caroling at the fire station, they returned home for their traditional hot apple cider, mulled wine, or whiskey spiked eggnog, and the opening of a single present, with the rest saved for Christmas Day.
“I want to know what the big one is,” Mom said, when it was Melisa’s turn to choose her present.
She glanced back at Rob, but he remained expressionless, which was another thing she loved about him. He had confidence in her ability to make her own decision.
Sensing indecision, her family stepped into the void.
“Melisa, open mine,” Jenna said, shaking a shirt box.
“Mine, mine, mine,” Connor teased. He held up a lump of messy wrapping paper, probably a stuffed animal.
“Who loves you?” Larry’s voice boomed. “Huh, huh, huh.”
He picked up a cylinder and shook it.
Melisa looked at Rob again, but he only winked. Maybe he hadn’t gotten her anything. Of course she hadn’t gotten him anything, either.
Her heart still ached at Cassie’s empty cage. Usually, on Christmas Eve, they’d let Cassie play with the wrapping paper and ribbons. That little bird loved to rip and shred. She ruled the coffee table, patrolling from one end to the other, throwing trinkets on the floor and tugging at ribbons while talking up a storm.
“Mel Bell, you’re holding up the minced pies,” her father said, referring to the next activity after the single gift unwrapping. He was recording her on a camera phone.
“Okay, the big one then,” Melisa declared.
“Boo, hiss,” Jenna hooted, three sheets to the wind already. Her model thin body couldn’t take much, despite her Irish blood.
“You probably got me another ugly sweater.” Melisa passed by her, shaking her butt.
“Better than the ugly robe you got me last year.”
“How about my ugly scarf?” Cait joined in.
“Or my ugly apron,” Mom cried. “I have one for every day of the week.”
“Ha, that big whatever it is has got to be something uglier.” Jenna stuck her tongue out at Melisa.
“Who’s it from?” Her father asked.
“Anonymous the mouse.” Melisa recalled a children’s book. She slipped a fingernail under the tape, prolonging the agony by carefully peeling off the tape to save as much of the gaudy wrapping paper as possible.
“Hurry up, already,” Connor said.
“Why, you have a date waiting?” Melisa pulled the ends of the wrapping back, exposing the picture. It was a portrait of two lovebirds. “Wait, this is Cassie. Look at the way her orange patch is pointed on one side.”
She ripped the paper all the way down, and tears spurted from her eyes. Cassie and Casey were captured, sitting side by side on a perch on top of the cage at Rob’s Lake Tahoe cabin.
Rob sprang to her side and put his arm around her. “I didn’t want you to open it until I found her.”
“I miss her so much.” Melisa held onto Rob’s shoulders. “Thank you for the gift. I’ll never forget how happy they were together.”
“They’ll have more happy times, soon.” He kissed her forehead and peered into her sorrowful eyes. “You must be tired. Shall I take you back to your place?”
She nodded, biting her lip, and leaned on him while he bade her family goodbye and wished them a Merry Christmas.
The truth. There would be no Merry Christmas for her as long as her Cassie was missing.
# # #
Rob followed Melisa into her apartment, lugging her overnighter and laptop bag.
She rushed to the windows and pulled back the shades, opening them. “How stupid of me to camp out at my parents’ place. What if Cassie had tried to come back?”
“Don’t blame yourself.” Rob rubbed her back. “I walked by several times today, whistling for her.”
“Yes, but she doesn’t know you. She wouldn’t have come to you.”
He set her things down and kissed her cheek. “Do you want me to stay here? Or would you rather be alone?”
“Please stay.” She hugged him. “I can’t bear to be alone not knowing. There’s no closure.”
There might never be. Most lost birds were never found, dead or alive, but Rob wasn’t going to point it out. Not right now.
“I shouldn’t have encouraged you to let her fly.” Rob sighed, stroking her back.
“When did you do that?”
“I was Lovebone, remember?”
Her eyebrows narrowed and she pierced him with her gaze. “Don’t you ever blame yourself for this. Cassie was the one who tried to fly, and then Ella came by with ice cream. I was careless and opened the door with Cassie on my shoulder.”
He couldn’t do anything but hold her tight. Gradually, her breathing returned to normal, and she pushed away. “I have to get back online and check my messages.”
“Sure, I just remembered I should go check on Casey. I left the window open.” Worry crept over him at how he’d neglected his bird while searching for hers.
“Oh, no!” Melisa clapped a hand over her mouth. “Does he know to stay in your apartment?”
“He’s in his cage, but he’s also an escape artist. Now I’m worried. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Let me go with you.” Melisa followed him to the door.
“Sure.” A warm fuzzy feeling enveloped him as he clasped her hand. She had his back, too.
They drove to his place, a modern, redwood paneled two story unit where he rented the top floor. It was situated on the top of a hill near a park and sported a view all the way to the Financial District with the iconic Transamerica building and Embarcadero in the distance.
“Why’d you leave the window open?” Melisa stepped into the elevator with him.
“It was warm today, so I figured I’d catch some authentic San Francisco yeast for sourdough starter.”
“Sourdough starter? I didn’t know you baked.” Melisa hurried with him to his apartment door.
“There’s a lot about me you don’t know, and I’m sure it’s the same with you.” He couldn’t help giving her another kiss on the lips before opening the door.
“Mmm …” She smiled, humming. “I can’t wait to find out all about you. I’ve a feeling this is much more than a childhood crush.”
“Much more, since we’re both grown up.” He let the door open, but brushed her lips again, unable to keep from indulging in a deeper, more adult kiss.
“Cheep, chirr, tweet, squee,” Casey chirped, making a ruckus. Rob breathed a sigh of relief into Melisa’s mouth. At least his bird was here.
She eagerly tugged at his lips, then licked the seam of his mouth, opening him. Yum, she was luscious, in every way.
Their kiss deepened. He closed his eyes and dropped his car keys inside, then lockstepped with her into his dark apartment. Finally, they were alone.
Except Casey was going nuts, chattering and whistling up a storm.
“Squee, tweet, chee, chee, rooo, wooh, sweet,” he called, then teased, “Kissee, kissee, kissee.”
“Kissee?” Melisa jumped back. “Cassie? Where’s the light switch?”
“I meant to tell you, Casey’s been talking.” Rob kept his hand on her shoulder, not wanting her to be disappointed.
He flicked on the light, and a flurry of wings beat through the air.
“Cassie!” Melisa hel
d out her hand, as her lovebird landed on her finger.
“A sweet. A sweet,” she said, shaking her feathers and looking not a bit ruffled.
Melisa was all over her, kissing her beak and crying. “Oh, sweetie. You sweet, sweet little bird.”
Meanwhile, Casey whistled a lovebird love song, thrilling higher and higher notes.
Joy flooded Rob as he shut the open window. “I know you want to get in on the action, Case.”
He opened Casey’s cage, and the little lovebird flew out, crowing at the top of his little squeaky lungs.
Cassie jumped from Melisa’s shoulder and chased after him, the two birds darting over and under the exposed beams above.
Bong. Bong. Bong. His tablet alarm was set to chime at midnight to announce the start of Christmas Day.
“Merry Christmas,” Rob and Melisa exclaimed at the same time they fell into each other’s arms.
“This is my best Christmas ever,” Melisa said.
“Mine too. Thank you, God.” He held her tightly, drowning in her whiskey colored eyes.
“Thank God for lovebirds.” She tipped on her toes and pressed her lips over his.
“Cassee.”
“Casee.”
“Cassee.”
“Casee.”
The two birds argued back and forth before agreeing. “Kissee, kissee, kissee.”
Chapter Twenty
Christmas at the Harts was always a colorful and festive affair. Melisa couldn’t wait to share it with Rob. She woke up early, considering how late she’d stayed up the night before finding Cassie, and put on a candy-caned diagonally striped ugly sweater dress with crocheted snowflakes randomly splattered over the front and back of the dress. She’d outdo her sisters this year.
Turning in front of the mirror, she smiled broadly and said to Cassie, “Think I look sweet in this?”
“A sweet, a sweet,” the little lovebird chirped happily, playing on top of her cage. She flew over and landed on Melisa’s shoulder.
Her toenails got tangled in one of the snowflakes and she flapped her wings while tugging her feet.
“I better put you in the travel cage. Ready for Christmas with Casey?” Melisa untangled the bird.
“Casee, Casee!” Cassie trilled at the top of her little lovebird lungs.
Melisa texted Rob who’d come to her apartment to pick her up. You better have an ugly sweater or they won’t let you in.
A few seconds later he texted back, I don’t have one.
Be creative. Can’t wait to see.
She kissed little Cassie and put her into the cage. “This is going to be so much fun. Rob’s forgotten about our ugly sweater tradition.”
# # #
“Merry Christmas!” Melisa’s family called out as soon as Rob buzzed the doorbell at her family’s fairytale home. He hadn’t noticed before, since he’d been concentrating on finding her bird, but they had twinkling lights strung around the turrets as well as wire reindeers on their small patch of lawn. The wrought-iron balcony rail held a large banner saying “Merry Christmas” in many languages, and a blow-up Santa stood behind the rail with elves hanging over and underneath the balcony.
Rob wore his raincoat and hadn’t allowed Melisa to peek at his sweater, but as he entered the foyer, she tugged at his coat. “Mistletoe alert!”
Sure enough, a sprig decorated the arch over the front door. He placed their two chattering lovebirds in their cage on the floor under the mistletoe.
Bending Melisa back, Rob planted a hot kiss on her, tasting her candy cane and apple flavored lip gloss.
Her large family whooped and cheered. Was it his imagination or were there more people than the night before? Right, at least half the squadron of firefighters were hanging around, and everyone was wearing an ugly sweater.
“Why’d you have your coat on?” Melisa’s mother said. “Let’s hang it on the coat rack.”
“He won’t let me see his sweater.” Melisa tugged at his coat.
Larry rose from the sofa and swaggered toward him, wearing an awful reindeer laden sweater with antlers hanging out from his chest and a big red light bulb where Rudolph’s nose protruded.
“Come on, take it off,” he said. “No admittance without an ugly sweater, and it better be really gruesome.”
Great. Now the entire group’s attention was leveled on Rob. Conversation stopped, and all eyes turned toward him.
Rob had no choice but to peel off his raincoat. A few colorful sticky notes fell off and fluttered to the floor.
“You covered yourself with Post-Its?” Melisa asked.
“Yep, and you have to read each one.” He picked one off.
“It’s a treasure hunt,” Melisa exclaimed. “For a back rub, count how many sprigs of mistletoe in your house.”
“Wait, let me get one,” her eldest sister, Cait said, picking off a sticky note. She was wearing some kind of sweater laden with pom-pom kittens with red and green bows.
Rob held his breath. He’d only meant the favors for Melisa. How was he to know her entire family would take it as a game for them, too?
But then, his family hadn’t been this close-knit, scattered all over and barely talking to each other.
“For a midnight hot chocolate, name every Christmas carol with the word ‘Holly’ in it.” She pasted it back on his sweater. “Have at it, Melisa.”
The rest of the family laughed and patted his back.
“That’s the most creative ugly sweater ever,” Connor said, looping an arm around him. “You’ve making my sister happy, so it’s all good. Merry Christmas.”
That felt good, knowing he had Connor’s friendship again. Rob slapped his friend’s broad back. “Merry Christmas to you, too.”
“Picture!” Cait said. “Look this way.”
Snap! Everyone clapped and Melisa’s mother said, “It’s so good to see you two friends again. I remember the day we brought Melisa home from the hospital. She was a wee—”
“Not again, Mom.” Cait corralled her. “Let’s hand out the fruitcakes.”
“Not until Jenna and Grady get here,” Melisa said. She tapped Rob. “It’s a family tradition. Everyone gets a cake. Hope you like fruitcake.”
“Is it the same one you all passed around last year?” Rob smirked. “Don’t worry. I’m a doctor in case anyone gets food poisoning.”
“That’s good to know,” Cait said. “But Melisa’s right. Grady’s due any minute and Jenna’s upstairs designing her ugly sweater.”
“Designing it? Still?” Melisa stormed toward the stairs. “She’s so vain. I bet it’s sexy and not ugly at all. She always cheats.”
“Hey, if you have all these hunky firemen around and you’re still single, wouldn’t you?” Cait winked and waved Melisa off. She turned to Rob and pulled him toward a large man who was staring at his smartphone. “This is Brian, my husband.”
“Oh, hey, hi,” the man said, shoving his phone into his pocket.
Rob shook his hand, but there was something about this man he didn’t trust. He was an emergency room doctor so he was good at reading people, since sometimes the patients were evasive about how they got their injuries.
Before he had a chance to say more to Brian, a commotion at the door caught his attention.
“Ho, ho, ho!” A young man dressed like a cowboy—vest, Stetson hat, and boots clambered through the doorway.
“Grady!” Cait’s hands flew up. “You made it.”
The large man picked his sister up with a bear hug and swung her around. “I caught the last puddle jumper out.”
“Great, but that’s not an ugly sweater,” Cait said.
Rob got the feeling she was a bossy big sister. Their mom and dad seemed pleased with Grady’s presence.
“Hey, I’m the renegade,” Grady said. “There’s nothing ugly about me, ever.”
“I call mistletoe!” an attractive Latina who’d been sitting with the firefighters said. She stretched her arms up and looped her hands around Grady’s ne
ck.
Ugh, they necked in front of the entire family. Rob tapped Cait who had sidled back to his side. “What’s their story?”
“Oh, Grady’s the black sheep of the family. That’s Rachel Soto, a probie, or probationary firefighter. They met at the Labor Day picnic the last time Grady was home.”
“Why is he exempt from the sweater business?”
Cait rolled her eyes. “Wait ’til you see Jenna.”
“Oh, another cheater, huh?” Rob accepted a mug of cider from Larry and sipped it.
Cait also took a mug. “Jenna and Grady always have to make a grand entrance. It’s because they’re twins. Attention hogs, both of them. You just wait.”
Rob had no interest in Melisa’s sister, the fashion designer. From what he remembered during the frantic bird hunt, Jenna wore an elegant designer outfit just to man the telephones.
“Ta dum!” Melisa announced from the stairs. “And for the grand finale of the ugly sweater competition, we have award winning fashionista, Jenna Hart.”
Melisa descended the stairs and turned, clapping, as Jenna glided down the stairway in a dazzling, glittering black evening gown. Her only concession to Christmas was a faux fur wrap around her shoulders, and the red and green sparkling gems floating above her cleavage.
Oh, Jenna was gorgeous all right, but Rob couldn’t help wondering about that empty, lost look in her pale green eyes. She was among family and a crowd of rowdy firemen, but why did she feel she had to upstage everyone?
“She’s so beautiful, it hurts.” Larry gasped. He turned toward the door, hiding the side of his face that had been burned in the fire he almost died in.
“Beautiful people need love, too,” Rob said, putting his arm around his newfound friend.
“Easy for you to say.” Larry turned the scarred side of his face to Rob. “Who will love me?”
“Someone who’s beautiful on the inside,” Rob reassured. It hadn’t been long ago that he’d wondered the same. “Come on, buddy, let’s get some of that fruitcake.”
“To fruitcake.” Larry managed to dredge up a smile. “Merry Christmas.”
At that moment, Melisa opened the cage door for Cassie and Casey who flew up and around the Christmas tree.
Christmas Lovebirds Page 12
