She stood still, watching Jonathan until he disappeared around the corner. The world seemed silent in his wake. Calliope had only the throbbing ache in her heart to keep her company. Well, that and the lingering voice of reason—which sounded strangely like Jonathan—whispering in her brain.

“You know, you’ve been going about this whole abandonment thing all wrong,” the voice whispered. Not just once, but on repeat.

That one, niggling thought looped through her mind with growing intensity to the point where she too had to walk away from the Silver Dollar. Instead of following Jonathan, though, she headed off in the opposite direction, not certain where she was going. The side streets of Haskell’s town center blurred in the corners of her vision as she walked toward the water tower that Darren Ross and his partner had converted into a tiny house.

It was bad enough that she had a hard time dealing with being alone, but to figure out—no, to have someone point out to her—after all this time that she hadn’t gotten over something from when she was eleven years old? Ouch. Double ouch, because that decades-old wound had caused her to be pretty horrible to the people she cared about the most.

But was that really it? She turned a corner, changing direction to head back home. Were all of these twisted, broken feelings she’d been hauling around for the past few months really nothing more than left-over childhood trauma? They felt far too immediate and real to be echoes of the past. There had to be more to it than that.

“Calliope!”

Calliope turned and glanced down the side street she was about to cross at the sound of Kathy calling her name. A fresh stab of guilt hit her, sticking her feet to the ground. She raised a heavy arm and waved without smiling.

Kathy waved back. She had something in her hand…Calliope’s purse. Calliope had left the Silver Dollar so fast that she hadn’t gone back to get it.

“Wait up,” Kathy called, even though Calliope hadn’t moved an inch since being flagged down. She waited until Kathy reached her, panting, before daring to breath. “You walked out so fast that you forgot your purse.”

Calliope could have made some crack about Kathy stating the obvious, but instead she said, “Thanks.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Kathy handed the purse over with an uneasy smile. “I got worried,” she said, “when you and Jonathan both disappeared. Especially since you didn’t seem to like my idea that much.”

“I—”

“It was a terrible idea, I know,” Kathy rushed on. “I guess I didn’t think it through all that much. I mean, you’re right that the letters and photos could be damaged. And I guess you’re right about how we shouldn’t go overboard with spending Howie’s money either.”

Kathy’s shoulders sagged as she spoke. She didn’t look scolded so much as defeated. As if she’d waged a valiant battle and lost. The image brought to mind Jonathan’s time in Afghanistan, which started her guilt loop all over again.

“This shouldn’t be a fight,” she breathed, barely above a whisper.

“It…what?” Kathy blinked at her.

Calliope shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a stupid idea to want to display everything from the time capsule. Those letters and photos are really cool, and they should be somewhere that people can see them. They should be in the space where Julia Standish put them all those years ago.”

“Really?”

The fact that Kathy brightened, as though Calliope had had the idea instead of her, only added to Calliope’s sense that everything was off-balance. Jonathan had used that image, the image of balance—both in terms of it being off and in the need to restore balance—and she liked it. It fit. Calliope had felt off-balance for a long, long time.

Well, it was time to put things back into balance. Past time.

“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe we could get together for lunch sometime to brainstorm. Or…or just to catch up on old times.”

Kathy’s face lit up. “I’d love that. I’ve been hoping that we could reconnect ever since Cameron and I moved back here. It’s been so long. I don’t even think I’ve told you the crazy story of how Cameron and I met. You’ll laugh your head off.”

Calliope caught herself laughing preemptively. Not just because she could see the humor of the story in Kathy’s eyes already. Jonathan was right yet again. There was something wonderful about making someone else smile. And if she were being honest with herself, it hadn’t been as hard to do as she’d thought it would be.

“We’re all pretty busy with the renovations this weekend,” she said, “but my schedule is really flexible during the week, since we are our own bosses over at the flower shop.”

“I just started working part-time at Abigail Sedgwick’s gallery, so I could do lunch on Tuesday, if that works for you.”

Calliope smiled as something that had been bound up tight inside of her wriggled loose and flew free. “Tuesday sounds great. Why don’t you come over to the shop then and we’ll figure out where to go eat after that?”

“Perfect.” Kathy’s smile widened. “Well, I don’t want to interrupt your walk. You look like you were thinking hard about something.”

“I was,” Calliope admitted. “But I think I’m starting to sort a few things out.”

“Good. Okay, have a great rest of your day. I can’t wait to see what you do with the rest of the apartment.”

With a final wave, Kathy turned and hurried back up the street in the direction she’d come from. Calliope watched her go for a moment before continuing on herself, this time with more purpose in her stride. She knew where she needed to go next and who she needed to talk to.

The bell over the flower shop door jingled as Calliope rushed through. Melody was manning the front, as usual, and Calliope could see her mom building an arrangement on the table in the back room. It was Melody that Calliope had come to see, though she had to wait for old Mrs. Chance to finish buying a pile of loose flowers first.

As soon as Mrs. Chance was done, Calliope rushed up to the counter. Melody’s expression flattened at the sight of her—apparently she still hadn’t been completely forgiven for their fight days before—but Calliope didn’t let that bother her.

“Is Dad right?” she asked.

Melody blinked, swaying back. “What?”

“Is Dad right?” she repeated. “When he says that I’ve always had a buddy, that I function best when I have a buddy. Was he right?”

It took Melody another second of adjusting to what she clearly hadn’t expected their interaction to be before she said, “Uh, yeah. He kind of is.”

“He’s right,” their mom called from the back room, though she didn’t leave what she was doing to join them. Which was probably exactly what Calliope needed at that moment. She owed her apology to Melody first and foremost.

“Don’t I ever do things on my own?” Calliope asked on.

Melody smirked, sisterly affection coming back into her eyes. “Not that I remember. You’re more of the glue that brings everyone together than the things being glued.”

It was the perfect analogy. Because without anything to stick together, glue was just a shapeless, sticky mess. Which was exactly how she’d been feeling for so long. And frankly, she was tired of being glue.

“I’m sorry that I was such a bitch to you the other day,” she went on.

Melody continued to look surprised. “You’ve been upset,” she said slowly. It was wonderful of her to give Calliope the benefit of the doubt. “I think I’ve just been frustrated because I haven’t known what to do to make things better for you.”

“But it’s not up to you to make things better for me,” Calliope said. “I think that’s my problem. All this time, I’ve been assuming that it’s someone else’s responsibility to make sure I don’t feel alone. But that’s just silly. It’s not other people’s job to make me happy, it’s my job to make other people happy.”

“Wow.” Melody grinned, and even though there was a fair amount of teasing in that grin, Calliope was comforted by it. “Where did this revelation come from?”

“Jonathan.” Calliope shrugged, smiling. “Where else?”

“You need to hold onto that one,” her mom called from the back room. “He’s good for you.”

“Don’t I know it,” Calliope called back to her. She faced Melody. “I’m happy for you, sis. I always have been. But I’ve been a total poo over the fact that I haven’t known what to do with myself since everyone else paired up. Only, as Jonathan helped me see, it goes beyond that.”

“Does it, now?”

“Yeah.” Calliope grinned, her confidence in herself and in what she needed to do to set things right growing by the second. “It’s time I balanced the scales.”

“Okay,” Melody said slowly, nodding. “Whatever that means.”

“It means that I have to stop thinking of everything in terms of how it affects me, and I need to start doing things for the effect they will have on other people.”

“Still don’t know what that means,” Melody said. “But it sounds good.”

Calliope tapped the countertop, then pushed away. “I have an errand to run,” she said. “I need to get over to Montrose Lumber before they close.”

“You’d better hurry, then,” her mom called from the back room. “They close in an hour.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Calliope replied. “And I won’t be home for dinner tonight. I’ll find something to eat on my own.”

And for once, she wouldn’t feel like a total failure for eating by herself.

Once the worst of Jonathan’s anxiety cooled off, he felt bad about walking away from Calliope. That feeling intensified when he returned to the Silver Dollar only to find out that she hadn’t gone back after her walk.

“I didn’t even realize she’d gone,” Linus said when Jonathan asked about her.

In a way, that made Jonathan feel twice as bad. He knew Calliope had a thing about being forgotten and abandoned, and he was convinced he’d made it worse. But work in the master bathroom had reached a crucial point, and he was needed to figure a few things out. The only thing that kept him from falling right back into the pit of anxiety was spotting Kathy picking up Calliope’s purse and heading out, presumably to return it.

As soon as he was able to get away, right about the time the entire crew quit for the day, Jonathan wanted to make a bee-line for Calliope’s house to make sure she was okay. Wanted to, but the dust and sweat of work meant that he had to head home for a shower and change of clothes first.

It was hours after he wanted to go after Calliope that he finally found himself knocking on her front door. Only, Calliope didn’t answer.

“Is Calliope here?” he asked as soon as Melody opened the door.

Melody’s grin was encouraging, but she said, “Nope. She’s not.”

Jonathan fought his frown. “Do you know where she is?”

“Actually, no, I don’t.” Melody leaned against the doorframe. “I was kinda under the impression that she was with you.”

“Really? What gave you that idea?”

Melody took a breath, her smile growing. “We had a little talk this afternoon. Or maybe I should say that I hear the two of you had a little talk.”

“We did,” Jonathan said slowly. “I feel a twinge bad about it. I might have been too hard on her.”

Melody laughed. “I don’t think so. In fact, whatever you said, I suspect it was exactly what she needed to hear. Whatever it was, I think you connected some dots for her.”

“Well that’s good.” His brow inched up in surprise and hope.

“Yep.”

“So where could she have gone?” he asked.

Melody’s smile turned perplexed. “All she said was that there was something she needed to do at Montrose Lumber, but I doubt that was her final destination.”

“Montrose Lumber,” Jonathan repeated, running a hand through his still-damp hair.

The last time they had gone there, Calliope had been in a terrible mood. But if that’s where she had gone, chances were it had something to do with the renovation.

“Thanks, Melody,” he said, stepping back from the door. “I think I’ve got an idea of where she is.”

“I hope so.” Melody smiled. “Go find her.”

Jonathan returned her smile, then charged down the stairs. The only place he could think that Calliope could have gone was back to the Silver Dollar. He must have missed her by minutes when he’d left earlier.

Sure enough, when he made it back to the old saloon, letting himself into the back apartment with the key Howie had entrusted to him, the radio was on, along with lights in the kitchen. He strode around the corner, and there was Calliope, sitting at the work table in the center of the half-finished kitchen, piecing together tiny tiles on a sheet of something clear and rubbery. She glanced up with a gasp as soon as he entered the room.

“Jonathan.” She stood from the chair where she’d been working as though she’d been caught doing something naughty.

Jonathan glanced from her wide eyes and pink cheeks to the table. Along with a small pile of colorful tiles, the photographs and letters from the time capsule rested in the clear glass pieces that Kathy had brought by earlier. Jonathan blinked as realization dawned. She was piecing together a backsplash, exactly the way Kathy wanted, letters, photos, and all.

“What’s all this?” he asked as he approached, careful to keep his voice even. “How did you get in?”

To his delight and relief, Calliope answered with a wide smile. It was the first genuine, relaxed smile he’d seen from her since the day he’d pulled her out of the crevasse.

“Jake let me in through the bar. What you said earlier really hit home.” She stepped away from her work, but seemed hesitant about approaching him. “And then I ran into Kathy while I was walking. She said a couple things, and, well, stuff began to click in my head.”

“So you decided to give her the backsplash she wanted?” he asked, his words measured.

“Yeah.” She huffed a laugh and pivoted to study her work as it spread across the table. “You guys are better than therapy. And maybe the backsplash a good idea after all.”

“You’re not worried about the cost, or about whether the stuff from the time capsule will be damaged?”

“Oh, I’m seriously worried about that,” she said with a laugh. A laugh. A real laugh, coming from Calliope, over something she had been upset about just a few hours earlier. “But the thing is, you’re right.”

“I am?” A grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. He inched closer to her.

“Don’t look like you didn’t already know that,” she teased him. Teasing had never felt so good. The Calliope in front of him was a different one than the woman who had nearly fallen to pieces earlier that afternoon.

“As long as you got something out of all the stuff I said earlier, I’m happy,” he said.

“And that’s the point,” she went on. “I was so caught up in what I wanted, in me being happy, that I ended up making everyone else around me miserable.”

He wasn’t going to argue with her. In fact, he figured it was best if he just kept his mouth shut.

“But your whole philosophy about restoring balance to things is perfect. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”

“Because you had a whole lot of other things bugging you,” he said. “Trust me, I know what it’s like to have your good sense hijacked by bad memories.”

“I don’t think it’s fair for me to compare stupid childhood stuff to what you went through at all,” she said, a bit more serious. “Even if you’ve given me leave to think that way.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that the things bothering you are less important than the things bothering me,” he rushed to say.

“I know.” She nodded. “But I was still being stupid.”

He wasn’t sure she deserved that, but instead of calling her out on it, he said, “So you decided to build a backsplash to make up for it?”

Calliope laughed and shook her head. “No, I decided to build a backsplash because that’s what Kathy wants. And the more I thought about it—and after I talked to her—the more I realized that I do want to be friends with her again. Not just because the rest of my friends are taken either,” she rushed to add. “That would be just as selfish of me as not wanting to put in a backsplash in the first place for my own reasons.”

“Okay. Then why the sudden turn-around where Kathy is concerned?” he asked.

“Because it’s long overdue,” Calliope said. “And because I think that the two of us could be close again. Which would be for both of our sakes, not just mine. Kathy wants to feel at home in Haskell again, and I want to help her.” She huffed out a frustrated breath. “I don’t think I’m explaining it very well. What I mean is, I’m done with doing things the way I want them done simply to get my way. I don’t want to have friends who are nothing more than a way for me to not feel alone. I want to start making genuine connections with people. For their sake. I’m not sure I’ve ever really done that in my life.”

She wilted a little, as though she were being a lot harder on herself than he could see. But Jonathan picked her up again by drawing her into his arms and planting a sudden kiss squarely on her lips. “I think that’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

“Really?” she arched an eyebrow, but allowed her body to lean into his. “Because to me, it feels like a lesson I should have learned a long, long time ago.”

He shrugged. “So what? As long as you learned it, you’re still ahead of most people in this world.” Before she could say anything else, he went on with, “And I love you for it.”

She’d been about to say something, but his declaration left her gaping, even more pink splashing to her face. She stared at him for a few long seconds before saying, “You love me?”

The joy that bubbled up from Jonathan’s gut put a smile on his face that he wouldn’t be able to wipe off anytime soon. “Well, it’s fresh love. Kind of shiny around the edges, if you know what I mean. But it’s definitely taken root. I think I could love this particular Calliope more and more every day.”

She continued to stare at him, but her smile grew and the light in her eyes increased by the second. At last, she let out a giggling breath and threw her arms around his shoulders. “That might be the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever said to me. And you know what? I love you too.”

She followed up her declaration by kissing him. He was surprised and not surprised at the same time. He hadn’t needed or expected her to tell him she loved him in return, but once she did, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. He slipped his arms around her further, drawing her close and slanting his mouth over hers. The urge to kiss her with everything he had, to whisk her off to someplace where he could do more than just kiss her, was overpowering. It reached down into the depth of his soul, telling him, “Yes, this is where you belong. And it was worth the work to get here”.

“I still can’t believe you’re putting together a mosaic backsplash,” he said with a laugh when he was at the edge of being drunk on her kisses.

“I think it’s really going to work to have the glass bits in there,” she said, rocking back in his arms. Her smile turned into a mischievous grin. “Wanna help me finish it? I can think of a pretty awesome way for the two of us to reward each other once we’re done.” She bit her lip, her gaze heating.

“I think you could convince me to do just about anything with a promise like that,” he said. He shifted to take her hand and walk with her over to the table. “Just tell me where to start. I’m all yours.”