by Kate Benson
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad,” I chuckle, adjusting my belt before I move toward the back and pulling the large, red velvet bag out and swinging it over my shoulder. “You look cute.”
“Cute?” she argues, her voice full of disbelief as I give her a onceover. When I meet her eyes, I can’t help but laugh harder at the very unenthusiastic look in her eyes. “You’re still pissed about me making fun of your name, aren’t you?” she asks, pulling another low chuckle from my lips. “Dude, it was a joke and I said I was sorry.”
“I know.”
“Well, then why?” she asks, grasping at the festive fabric in offense. “I’m a good person. What the fuck?”
“There she is,” I snicker, pulling my beard over my jaw and giving her an amused wink. “Come on, my jolly little helper. Let’s go grant a few Christmas miracles.”
Abby
I’ll be the first to admit that walking into public dressed as an elf on one of the coldest days of the year with a hangover is hovering right at the top of my ‘things to never fucking do ever in my life’ list. However, once we get inside and the coordinator shows us to the small room they have set up for us, I can’t help but smile all the same.
While the bulk of our day will be spent traveling from room to room, visiting children who are simply too weak or too small to travel far from their beds, there will be at least an hour or two set aside for the children who can. There’s a candy cane embellished ‘throne’ sitting in the middle of an elaborately decorated gingerbread house that looks like it came directly out of a fairy tale I’d read back before my heart went cold around the edges. Little twinkle lights and Christmas music is all around us as we make our way up the makeshift aisle, roped off and donning a combination of poinsettias, mistletoe and artificial snow at the bases. Glittery snowflakes hang from the ceiling above and when we make our way to the end of the walkway, we’re greeted with stacks of boxes, each wrapped meticulously to finish off the makeshift set.
“This is amazing,” I whisper, taking it all in before my eyes finally fall on Dex who is watching me with intent. “How did they find time to do all of this and still take care of the patients?”
He’s about to answer, but before he can, the coordinator returns and cuts his words short.
“Alright, Santa. I think we’re all good to go if you’re ready in here,” she smiles. “After you left yesterday, I closed the room off, but we did have a cleaning crew come in last night, so please be sure to make sure it’s all as you left it before we bring anyone inside.”
“Will do,” he smiles. “Thank you.”
“Oh, no. Thank you! The kids are so excited to come down. It’s really incredible that you were able to get all of this done in only a few short hours,” she smiles. “It’s really going to mean the world to these children and their families. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.”
“Well, that means the world to me,” he answers her graciously, his expression soft as he gives her another wide smile. “I’m really excited to give them a fun experience. I’ve been looking forward to this all year.”
“That’s sweet,” she says, gripping her chest at the sentiment and I’d be lying if I said I’m not tempted to do the same. “The world needs more young people like the two of you.” I’m about to sell myself out, tell her I was duped into doing nice things for other people and the whole thing was all Dex’s doing, but she cuts me off before I can. “If you’re just about ready, I’ll go ahead and let the volunteers know they can start getting them ready to head this way.”
“That would be great. Thank you,” he smiles, pulling a nod from her before she takes her leave and we’re alone in the room once again.
“You did all this?” I ask, taking in the details more carefully this time as I look around for the second time.
“Yes,” he nods, carefully moving forward to reposition a crooked box on his right before he sets the large bag of toys to the left of his chair. “I’d have loved to get a little more done before-”
“Are you serious?” I cut him off, shaking my head in amazement. “Dex, this is awesome,” I smile wide. “Like… this isn’t my kind of thing like… at all and even I’m ready to bake cookies and sing a freakin’ Christmas carol right now.”
“Yeah?” he chuckles, looking around us once more before I nod.
“You should be really proud of yourself,” I tell him, giving his arm a friendly pat. “The kids are going to love this.”
“Thanks,” he says quietly, giving me a small smile of appreciation for my words. His eyes linger on my longer than I expect, shifting quickly to my lips for a moment and my belly begins to fill with butterflies. “Abby?”
“Yeah?” I husk, my voice low and breathy as I get a whiff of the delicious mint slipping from his lips.
“Remember that thing I wanted to talk to you about?” he asks, his voice low as mine, his eyes heavy and mirroring mine as I nod.
“Uh huh,” I manage as he leans closer and I swallow hard.
In this moment, I’m sure, absolutely positive, he’s about to lean in to kiss me.
I’m not the kind of girl that typically makes out with Santa, but when he quickly licks his lips and one of his dimples peeks through the edge of that fluffy white beard, I’m ready to give up all my cookies for a taste of Dex.
“The thing is…” He leans forward just enough that I can taste the delicious scent of peppermint from his toothpaste on my lips once more. It’s mesmerizing until suddenly… flashes of the night before fly through my brain and my hand raises of its own accord, clamping over my mouth.
“Oh, God!”
“What’s the mat-?”
“Santa’s Panties,” I blurt out, rasping painfully as I cut him off, desperate to stop the memory his delicious breath is helping to recreate.
“What?”
“Last night,” I manage, fanning myself obsessively. “After we talked last night, and I went back inside the bar?”
“Yeah?”
“Marissa and I drank like six of them.”
“Six of what?”
“Santa’s Panties.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asks, pulling my eyes back to his.
“Shots, Dex,” I manage, understanding covering his features finally. “I think I might still be drunk.”
“What?”
“Only a little,” I insist.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” he starts, unable to keep the smirk from his lips.
“I didn’t know you were bringing me here until it was too late!” I insist. “And I felt okay then. Don’t worry, though. I think it’s fine,” I wave him off, steadying myself. “Yeah, I think it’s okay. It’s probably just a hangover. Tell me what you wanted to say.”
Kiss me, you deliciously dimpled, fake bearded bastard.
“Okay,” he replies, taking another step toward me. One hand falls on my waist, the other angling my chin up to face him more fully. “Abby, the thing is…”
The sound of the door swinging open behind us cuts him short again, pulling a low groan from my chest.
“Son of a Blitzen!” I hiss under my breath as we step away from each other, stomping hard enough that the bells on my stupid shoe dings in protest.
His eyes dance in amusement as he clears his throat and shifts uncomfortably beside me.
“Easy there, my little spreader of joy,” he whispers as he gives me a suggestive wink. “You don’t want to end up on Santa’s naughty list.”
Chapter Sixteen
Dex
The rest of our day is by all accounts incredible.
Over the years of Christmas past, even after everything fell apart with my parents and they went their separate ways and our visits to Cringle Cove came to an end, I never lost sight of the magic of the season. However, after having done this for so many years, I’d by lying if I said it had held the same sense of wonder as in the beginning.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but there’s
something glaringly different from your first time doing something amazing and your tenth. Today, there was something especially inspiring about watching Abby experience this whole thing for the first time.
She starts out slow, unsure of what to do or say, but once the kids step inside and begin to interact with us, I see that little veil of uncertainty begin to slowly slip away. She engages with them, shows her playful side and even helps me make my way through a few crying toddlers who are still too young to find me anything but terrifying.
She’s been a piece of perfection in what started off as nothing short of a completely imperfect day.
By the time we’re making our way down the final rooms of the day to deliver the last of the gifts I’d brought with me this morning, it’s all I can do to keep my hands off her. We’re nearly to the door, nearly to a place in the day where we can really talk, I can really tell her everything I’ve been trying to say all day. There’s a part of me that’s completely nervous at the thought of her turning me down, telling me I’m not what she wants at all and she’s just been trying to be nice out of pity or something. However, the further into the day we’ve gotten, the more she’s begun leaning into me, the more I can feel that my feelings for Abby might just be returned.
If we ever get a chance to talk, that is.
We round the last corner and I steel myself, ready to run with whatever happens once and for all. I slow my steps and she follows suit, glancing over her shoulder and giving me a sweet smile.
“You’re crooked again,” she smirks, gesturing toward my beard and making me grin beneath the thick white curls.
“Thanks,” I smile, adjusting it slightly just in case we pass an open door.
I’d hate to destroy some poor kids Christmas magic over something as stupid as a cattywampus beard. I catch my reflection in a window and give it a gentle tug, righting it quickly, but not before I get a good look at myself and realize I can’t talk to Abby about dating me while I look like this.
No way in hell she’s gonna take you seriously looking like this, I tell myself. You’d better wait until you get inside.
She pushes the door open, my nerves beginning to flare again. She steps through and I close the door behind us, ready to take the leap once and for all.
“Abby…”
“Wait, don’t say anything,” she cuts me off, pulling my eyes to hers and making me freeze in place. “I think I know what you’re about to say and just in case I’m right, I need to know something first.”
“Okay.”
“If you’d never met me, do you think there’s any possibility you’d have gone back to her?” I’m about to answer, calm her fears when she cuts me off once more. “And don’t just answer right away. I want you to really think about it for a second before you tell me.”
I give her a subtle nod and despite the confidence in my answer, I do as she asks. I take a moment to think about how I’ve felt for the last few weeks with Kim. How the ending to our tumultuous relationship came to be and what it felt like to walk away from her. I think about how I expected to be more upset, but how the only thing I felt inside once I got the words I’d struggled over for days was immense relief.
Next, I think about how I felt when I got here, when I first saw Abby coming into the coffee shop. I recall her blonde hair messily flipped over on one side, the way she tucked herself in to her long, black sweater as she weaved through the horde of holiday shoppers. I remember the gentle sigh that left her lips when she finally made it to the sanctuary of the corner that we’d since claimed as our own and how her lips curved up slightly when she smiled, how engrossed she was in the pages of the books she read. I think about how even that first day, sitting beside her felt like I’d finally made it back home.
I pull my eyes up to Abby’s, the vulnerability there mirroring the same thing I’m feeling in my chest as I clear my throat and take a half step closer to her.
“I wish I could tell you that what I’ve been feeling all week has nothing to do with you. I think that’s really what you want to hear,” I offer, watching her features fall slightly. It makes my heart clench. “But Abby, I can’t say what would be happening right now if I’d never met you, because I did. I met you and I feel things for you I’ve never felt for anyone else, certainly not Kim. I don’t feel anything for her other than I just really want her to find someone nice that can make her happy,” I shrug. “And I’ve known for a while it just wasn’t going to be me. That’s why I ended things before we ever left for Cringle Cove. I also think that meeting you, feeling so much more for you than I ever did for her kind of opened my eyes to how obviously wrong she and I were for each other.”
“So, you don’t think…”
“I’ll probably never see her again once I’m back in Allentown, Abby,” I cut her off, hating the uncertainty in her eyes. “There’s really only one girl I have any interest in seeing when I get back home and it’s you.”
She smiles wide before giving me a small nod, her chest relaxing slightly as she takes a step closer to me, deep in thought as she considers what I’ve said. She absentmindedly reaches for the long, white tendrils flowing over my faux belly and her fingers begin to nervously thread through them gently, making me smirk.
This chick is so weird, I think to myself. God, I can’t get enough of her.
I study her features, aching to pull her close, to satisfy the craving I’ve had for her lips all day. When I whisper her name and my fingertips move up to brush away a fallen strand of her hair, she finally gives me her eyes.
“Don’t ever ask me to dress up like an elf again,” she warns, her expression severe. “This was fun, but it was a one-time thing. If you think I’m doing this holly jolly Christmas bullshit with you every year, you’ve got me elfed up, son,” she continues her rant. “I’ll help you with the kids because I think it’s actually really cool, but this is the end of the line for these ugly ass shoes. They’re going in the fire.”
“Fair enough,” I chuckle. “I won’t ev-”
The fingers she has entwined in my beard grasp on tight and she gives it a gentle tug, pulling me forward and immediately cuts my words short.
Her lips are so much softer than I ever thought they could be, her tongue hot as it slowly begins to move against mine. My head is swimming, the feel of her waist in my palm as she begins to melt into me only making me want her more. She tilts her head as I deepen the kiss and her free hand begins to stroke my belly as she lets out a low whimper, the sound of her bell-ridden shoes clanking into my boots pulling a deep chuckle from my chest.
When we pull away from each other, we’re both panting quietly, completely fallen under each other’s spell.
If I ever thought it was possible I’d lost hope in Christmas miracles, the foul-mouthed elf I’m still clinging to has just wiped my doubts clean.
“Father Christmas,” she sighs against my lips, making me smirk.
“You’re telling me,” I husk, holding her closer. “Imagine the damage we could do with an hour inside the gingerbread house and some mistletoe.”
“Hmm…” she hums, her eyes darting just enough to grab a bunch from one of the small columns leading up to the display before returning to me with a smirk. “Challenge accepted,” she winks, taking my hand and tugging me toward the gumdrop embellished entrance. “You’d better hold on to those bootstraps, Santa.”
Chapter Seventeen
Abby
“Where the hell have you been?” Marissa asks as she swings the door to our cabin open, yanking the knob from my hand. “Jesus Christ, Abby! I’ve been freaking out all day worried about you and now it’s snowing like nobody’s business outside. I thought you got stuck somewhere and I’d never get you back! Why the hell didn’t you call or answer your phone?” she exclaims, pulling me close to her chest and squeezing me tightly. She releases me a moment later, giving me a quick onceover before her eyes come back to mine, this time, filled with a combination of amusement and confusion. “And what the hell h
appened to you?” she smirks. “What are you wearing?”
“My phone went dead and it’s a long story,” I admit with a low groan as I take in the now disheveled elf costume we’d just defiled in what is now the naughtiest gingerbread palace in Cringle Cove. “I’ll tell you all about it, but first, I have to pee and wait for…”
“Sorry! My belly got stuck in the steering wheel again,” Dex calls out, the sight of him coming toward us in a slow jog making me snort. “Is it cool if I change in your bathroom or something?” he asks, yanking his hat off. “I’m burning the hell up in this thing.”
“Sure,” I smirk, returning my gaze to Marissa to find her staring back at us in bewilderment. “Marissa, this is Dex. Dex, this is my sister, Marissa.”
“Hi, it’s really nice to finally meet you,” he smiles, putting his hand out to greet her. “Abby talks about you all the time.”
“Well, it must be nice,” Marissa exclaims, making me roll my eyes as she ignores his outstretched hand. “What the holy hell is going on right now?”
“Again, long story,” I reiterate. “Let me pee and I’ll…”
“Fine, yes,” she waves me off as she ushers us in and pushes the door shut behind us. “Santa, there’s a spare bathroom down the hall. Jingles, I’m coming with you.”
I take the stairs two at a time, desperate not just to get to a bathroom, but to both strip this crap off me and finally talk to my sister.
Although every second I’ve spent with Dex today, well, since I met him if I’m honest, has been amazing, it’s all seemed to move incredibly fast. Especially for someone like me.
There isn’t a doubt in my mind that I want him, but I do feel like a little talking things out with my twin is definitely in order.
I give her the rundown as I strip away the remnants of the weirdest Christmas eve in my history, eternally grateful that I don’t have to leave even a single detail out with her. Her eyes widen and roll at just the right times and by the time I get to the part in the gingerbread house, she’s grinning wildly enough to make me want to vomit.
