Heavy snow was already falling from the first bands of the storm. I’d hoped for a pretty dusting to make Main Street appear picturesque and festive. Instead, we’d already gotten a few inches that’d turned the street into a sloppy, slippery mess. Still, the streetlights and vendor tents were coated, and it was hard to feel upset when you looked up to see a million flakes falling from the sky.
The walkie-talkie crackled in my hand. “Skiers are five minutes out. Everyone else is in position.”
Okay
, I thought to myself.
Everything is going fine. Everyone is in position. All of this because we’re lighting a goddamn tree. As long as the tree is lit by the end of the night, I will consider this whole thing a success. But where the fuck is Dani?
I stepped to the back of the platform, yanked my mitten off, pulled out my phone, and quickly phoned Bryan.
“Hey babe, can’t really talk right now,” he said breathlessly.
“I know, but I wanted to tell you that your cousin still hasn’t showed up. I tried calling her a couple times, but she’s just not picking up.” I couldn’t hide the irritation from my voice.
Bryan sighed on the other end. “I’m sure she’s fine. You can’t even know if she came down from the house, can you?”
“I suppose,” I mumbled. Dorothy, one of the town gossips, was standing a bit too close and trying to listen in on the conversation. I gave her a tight smile, turned, and walked behind the Christmas tree. “But that’s not the point.”
“You’re not afraid because of this whole arsonist thing, are you?” Bryan asked.
To be honest, the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. I was beyond frustrated with her. I’d extended this as a gesture of goodwill, a peace offering, and she was throwing it right in my face. In my mind, it pretty much proved I was destined to be a horrible mother. If I couldn’t get a teenager to do one thing, what hope did I have raising Jack? I hadn’t even entertained the terrifying idea of arson. “It wasn’t until now, thanks a lot.”
The walkie-talkie crackled in my hand again. “Skiers have arrived. Readying sleigh.”
There was a rustling on Bryan’s end of the phone. I heard his muffled voice before he returned. “I gotta go.”
“Yeah,” I replied, “I heard. I guess I will have to look for Dani later. See you in a few minutes, Santa. And try to not step in any horse shit.”
I tucked my phone away and rounded the front of the platform just in time to see Dani pushing her way through the crowd at the side. I swear she grimaced when our eyes met. Her sour expression reflected exactly how I felt seeing her. I swallowed every angry thought and word and reminded myself that I was literally on stage in front of the entire town. Whether I liked it or not, all eyes were on us.
Dani weaved past the confused onlookers and tripped on the last step as she came up to the platform. I had to jump to catch her before she face planted. Supporting her by her hand and elbow, I caught a whiff of vodka on her breath. Her long blonde hair looked like a rat’s nest, thankfully tucked under a purple knit hat.
My
knit hat.
“Where the hell have you been?” I asked through a smile.
“Sorry, so sorry. Lost track of time again. But I’m here now!” she said with more enthusiasm than I’d ever seen from her. I couldn’t tell if the smudged black eyeliner was deliberate or another victim of the vodka. I eyed her suspiciously, knowing full well she had a few drinks in her system, but she seemed sober enough to do the job.
“Well, better late than never, right?” I was still painfully aware we were on display in front of the entire town.
You better believe you’re gonna catch hell for this later,
I thought.
“Absolutely!” Dani exclaimed, throwing her arms out.
The walkie-talkie at my waist released two short bursts of static, the coordinator letting me know the sleigh was less than five minutes away. “Okay, this is all I need you to do. Bryan is on a horse-drawn carriage with a torch that skiers carried down from the top of Powder Mountain.”
“Oh! That’s what all those fireflies were,” Dani exclaimed as she drunkenly pointed to the mountain.
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Right. So, all you need to do is press this button here.” I gestured to the device tucked behind the podium. “When Bryan touches his torch to this one here, press the button and the tree will light up.”
“Got it,” Dani said. She gave me two thumbs up, which normally would’ve seemed mocking but appeared genuine.
The girl was drunk, but I figured it was an easy enough job even she could handle it. We’d have a further conversation back at the house, but for right now, I needed her to do this.
I’ll hold her up and use her like a puppet if I have to
. I got on the walkie-talkie and spoke to one coordinator near the band, letting them know the sleigh was close.
On cue, the Christmas carolers faded as the sound of the jingling bells on the reins of the approaching sleigh grew louder. The crowd
oohed
and
ahhed.
A few children shrieked in the excitement.
“Santa’s coming!” every parent told their kid.
With the best vantage point high above the crowd, I saw Bryan waving in his red suit before anybody else could. I did my best to remain professional, but inside I was a giggling idiot. When the original Santa couldn’t get to town in time, I had to enlist Bryan in playing Santa Claus. I’d only caught a glimpse of him during the run through, but with the full beard and belly, I struggled to keep from cracking up.
Within moments, the sled came to a stop at the edge of the crowd. Bryan, in his Santa suit with a torch held aloft, made his way through the parting crowd. Our eyes met and I’m pretty sure from underneath that white beard and wig, he gave me a quick wink.
As was traditional, there were no formal speeches or declarations. No pomp and circumstance for the level-headed residents of Tellure Hollow. Bryan strolled up to the cold torch waiting at the platform, nodded to me, and touched the flame. With a
whoosh,
the gas ignited. The crowd cheered and looked to the huge tree. With a broad smile I turned, looking to Dani expectantly.
I couldn’t believe that in a matter of minutes she’d gone from looking a little tipsy to out-of-her-mind drunk. She wobbled on her feet as if she were standing on the deck of a ship at sea. To her credit, she managed to press the button before she stumbled over to the edge of the stage and threw up a day’s worth of food and liquor.
Luckily, only the people to the left of the stage were witness to this embarrassment. Everybody else stood in awe of the thirty-foot lit Christmas tree, the successful conclusion of the Festival of Lights.
As Bryan and I shared a look, I used every bit of my gaze to wordlessly say,
I’m going to kill your cousin.
Half an hour later in the darkness of Walt’s shop, as I was helping Bryan strip out of his Santa Claus outfit, I let my rage fly.
“I called that girl I can’t tell you how many times. I told her when she needed to be down here, stressed how important it was, and she shows up drunk? You don’t know everything. This isn’t the first time she’s blown me off.”
Bryan hopped on one foot as he tried to pull off a shiny black boot. He nearly toppled over into the counter before he regained his balance. “She’s a teenager, Liz. I’m sure you were pretty independent at her age.”
“You’re right. She’s a
teenager
and she got drunk on
our
liquor. How do you think that looks? Jesus, she puked on stage!” I cried, throwing my hands up in defeat.
“She’s been having a tough time. Between her dad and then coming up here, you’ve gotta give her time to adjust.”
“It’s been a month. She should be adjusted. I know she’s had a tough year, but that’s not the fucking point.” Bryan gave me a warning eye, his automatic reaction every time I swore. “Jacky’s not around, I’m allowed to curse. If I can’t swear about this…” I growled. “That girl is driving me up the wall.”
“Where is she now?” Bryan sighed as he pulled down the suspenders of the red velvet pants.
“I got her some water and some food and put her in the car out front. Walt’s keeping an eye on her.”
“Oh Christ, she’s gonna puke everywhere.”
I leaned against the counter. “Someone needs to talk to her, and it can’t be me. I’m way too fucking pissed off about this, Bryan.”
Bryan stood in his boxers and a white T-shirt, his cheeks and nose still a deep rosy red from the blush he’d borrowed. Bushy white eyebrows still stuck to his own, but the rest of the costume laid scattered around on the floor. Even as angry as I was, I couldn’t help but notice how ridiculous he looked… and sexy.
“All right, I’ll talk to her when we get home. You can put Jacky to bed, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t asphyxiate in the middle the night,” he said with a sigh.
I gestured for him to come closer, my temper cooling as I remembered the stress he was carrying. I felt guilty about blowing up about his cousin, but even after less than a month, I was already at my wits’ end.
“I appreciate you talking to her tonight. She’ll listen to you.” I reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him against me. “I totally understand why your aunt dumped her on us, though.”
Bryan looked at me through his long lashes. “She didn’t
dump
her anywhere. We took her in. You know they need to concentrate on Jason’s therapy, and she was falling in with a bad…”
I waved my hand to stop him, having heard the long list of heartbreak little Dani had been through before. I sympathized, really, but I also had gotten little time with my sexy husband. “You’ve been so busy.”
“You’ve been busy, too,” he said as he buried his face into my neck. “You got this whole festival moved forward two days, which might not sound like a lot, but I know it was difficult.”
Somehow, the anger and stress I’d been carrying all evening morphed into a different kind of need. I arched my back against him, urging him to press me harder against the counter.
God, when was the last time we’d been together?
“We need to make sure we make enough time for the two of us,” I groaned as I tugged at his shirt. “It’s important we don’t lose this in everything else. Especially when we’re trying for another baby.”
“
Mmmmhmmm
,” he mumbled into my hair as his cold hands slid under my sweater. “You looked really hot up there on stage. The furry hood pulled up, the snow in your hair.”
I threw my head back, giving his lips access to my neck. “And you make a pretty sexy Santa.”
He pinned me against the counter, his hardness growing against my leg. With one swift movement, he hoisted me up. I let out a little squeal as I landed on my ass. Bryan lifted my sweater and buried his face between my breasts as he fumbled with the button and zipper of my jeans.
“What are you doing?” I gasped.
“I want to taste you,” was his muffled reply.
“Here?”
He looked up at me with a lust-filled sparkle in his eye that always melted my resolve. “You have a problem with that?”
I shook my head and helped him pull down my jeans. “No, but we have to be…”
The bell above the front door tinkled and we froze. Bryan’s eyes went wide as he whispered, “We didn’t lock the…”
“You two almost done in here?” Walt called out gruffly. “I want to lock up and get to bed. As soon as all these assholes go home that is. Where the hell are you?”
It was like getting caught by your parents. I scrambled to button up my pants as I jumped down from the counter. “We’re back here, Walt.”
I pulled my hair back into roughly the same position as before. I smiled over at Bryan as he frantically collected the pieces of the Santa Claus outfit. A naughty idea popped into my head, jumping out before it’d even fully formed.
“When do you have to return the costume?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. They didn’t say and with the storm and everything… why?” he replied absently.
“Maybe you could keep it… you know, for
things
.”
Bryan spun around, the velvet suit slipping from his hands. “Seriously? With Santa?”
I shrugged, pulling my jacket on. “We’ve been together for a while. We could spice things up,” I replied with a wink.
Walt popped out from between two overstocked shelves and immediately sensed the mood. A naughty grin grew as if he knew he’d caught us in the middle of something. Little Jack laughed in his arms when he spotted his mommy and daddy.
“Thanks again for letting us use the shop for staging,” I said as I gave him a pat on the shoulder. I hefted Jack onto my hip. “How’s Dani?”
His bushy eyebrows furrowed and nearly touched. “The little lush hurled again. I’ll have frozen puke outside my store until Easter.”
“And for once, it won’t be yours!” Bryan laughed.
Walt locked the shop behind us as we returned to the cold street. Dozens of volunteers were breaking down tents and tables, their cars and trucks parked at odd angles along the closed main street.
“I’m never getting any sleep with all this noise,” he grumbled. We bid him a good night and waved as he shut his front door. We could even hear as he climbed and cursed his way up the stairs to his apartment above the store.