“I’m sorry?” He looked affronted at my interruption. Of what, I didn’t know. “Did what occur to me?”
I put down the empty glass but stopped myself from grabbing another. The Uber driver I had scheduled didn’t need to hear my life story. There wasn’t much to it, but no one needed to hear that either.
“That in all this blabbering about yourself and your cars and the rich people you know…you haven’t asked me one single question about myself. How long have we been talking, a half hour? And you haven’t asked me what I do for a living. How long I’ve been friends with Erin. In fact, I’m surprised you realize you’re talking to me and not a mirror.”
I scanned the room for Erin. Not to my surprise, she was disappointed.
She wasn’t the only one.
Tate didn’t answer my question. He whirled around and in less than a minute, he’d found someone else to word vomit on.
“I thought he’d never stop talking,” Maria said, bumping her shoulder against mine.
“Oh, so it wasn’t just me.”
“Not at all. When are you going to tell Erin to stop trying to set you up.”
I scoffed. “Probably the moment I find someone. Until then…I think she means well.
Maria said nothing for a minute, then she and her dragon mate shared a nod. Their night was over, even before midnight.
“We’re gonna go but I wanted to remind you of how I met my mate. You know what they say: there’s an app for everything.”
Maria had talked about this before. The Mail-Order Matings app. It paired up all kinds of people seeking all kinds of relationships. Shifters. Humans. All of them.
My head was fuzzy but I found a corner, decided, new year, new me, and signed up to find myself love in the form of a hot shifter.
Chapter Two
Dash
“Season sure went fast this year,” Blitz said. “Do you think we’re getting too old for this?”
“No way.” Comet, my other best friend and business partner shifted the messenger bag over his shoulder, the only luggage he would be carrying with him. “Why? Do you feel like we didn’t hold up our part of the team?”
“It’s not that.” Blitz started off toward the center of town where the actual Pole marked the top of the world. “But with everything modern coming into play, maybe the old guy could use something besides a bunch of flying reindeer to deliver his toys.”
“I get it.” Falling into step between the two of them, I gave Comet a knowing grin. “He’s been watching Christmas movies again.” Usually Blitz preferred the Hallmark variety, where someone saved Christmas and the sole business in a small town only to find they were destined to mate…marry…the least likely person. “Maybe something with a solar-powered sled?”
“Not solar,” Blitz protested. “But there was this sled…” And he launched into a description of something powered by, well, he wasn’t sure what, but he thought it might have been jet fuel. “The chief-mechanic elf in the story claimed it cut 20 percent off of Santa’s time. I really think we should at least consider something that would be so helpful.”
“I don’t think—” Comet began.
“What is going to help with my time?” The hearty voice of our boss came from behind us. “I’m always open to new ideas.”
“We’re just talking about something in a movie,” I hurried to say. Blitz might have some wild ideas from time to time, but he was like a brother to me and he meant well.
“Santa, it was a movie, but the tech is available. You could have a sleigh powered by something a little more modern. Jet fuel maybe?”
The old saint planted his hands on his belly as he laughed. “You reindeer always have the wildest ideas. You’re not trying to get out of your traditional job, are you? What would the children think if they looked out their windows and saw a rocket sled? For that matter, how would I ever figure out how to operate anything like that? I’m not exactly a hundred years old anymore, and I’m stuck in my ways.”
Also…the idea came from a movie. It wasn’t as if a sled with the capabilities Santa needed was sitting at a dealership somewhere. The way things worked was very delicate. Delivering toys around the whole world on the same night was not based on technology but a magic much older and more etheric. Sometimes I thought my friend Blitz had a more human outlook than shifter.
“Santa, you’re the best.” Comet fist-bumped our boss. “Blitz was kidding.” He wasn’t, but it might be best for all of us if we went that way.
“Of course.” Santa winked. “But we are not against everything modern, as you know.”
“Of course.” I looked around one more time. “I love our life down south, but it’s always hard to leave.”
