He glanced at the mom again and she flashed ten fingers at him, nodding exuberantly.
“Let’s go with a top ten,” Wade said.
*
Bethany turned out to be a good way to ease into playing Santa. One or two of the children were shy and soft-spoken, barely able to whisper a deferential wish for a single Christmas gift, and a few more were total sweethearts who could have come straight out of a Hallmark holiday movie. If he’d gotten any of those kids as his first, he probably would have let his guard down.
Fortunately, Bethany had prepared him for a long, long day that would include plenty of candy-sticky hands trying to tug his beard off, demands for video games way too old for any kid who still believed in Santa, and heated cross-examinations about how Santa was here and in front of the grocery store at the same time.
Even the most dizzyingly overwhelming kids were usuallygoodkids, just too curious and skeptical for any mall Santa’s peace of mind. But it all added up to a hectic, stressful day.
... And it was still only lunchtime. It wasn’t like the day was over. But at least he could change out of the red suit for an hour.
And maybe he could see Galadriel again. Not everyone in the Christmas Village had the same lunch break, because some of the elves stayed behind to manage the crowds, sell gingerbread and sugar cookies, man the gift-wrapping booth, host carol-oke, and generally keep the place feeling more like a village than a seasonal pop-up in the plaza of an outdoor mall. Galadrielcould easily be on duty during his lunch. If she was ... well, as desperate as he was for a break and the relative quiet of the usually-slammed food court, he would rather hang out here and get the chance to talk to her.
But he got lucky, because she came out of the women’s locker room part of the Outpost right as he was coming out of the men’s.
Now that Wade wasn’t being bowled over by his shifter senses announcing that she was his fated mate, he got to actually look at her. She was tall and curvy, with thick chestnut hair. It had been loose in her Galadriel costume, but when she had changed back into casual clothes, she’d put it into an adorably chunky braid. A light spray of freckles ran across her nose and cheeks, like a sprinkling of cinnamon.
And if he was staring at her, she was also staring at him. A pink flush surfaced beneath the freckles.
“Uh, hi,” Wade said. It wasn’t the best opening line he could hope for, but she’d already seen him as a terrified and overwhelmed newbie Santa, so it couldn’t get worse than that, could it? “I’m Wade. From before. The Santa.”
Have you ever talked to another human being before?his polar bear asked him, covering its face with one paw.
He had, but he could admit that you sure wouldn’t know it from this.
Thankfully, Galadriel didn’t seem to mind. Either that, or she was nice enough to pretend that he was less awkward than he actually was.
“I recognized you,” she said. “I’m Mira, by the way. Mira Allenby. The non-Christmas elf.”
Mira, Wade said to himself dreamily. It was a beautiful name.
“Petey told me that someone didn’t have a typical elf outfit,” Wade said. “I was thinking it would just be a little bitmismatched, though. I didn’t picture a Tolkien elf at the North Pole.”
“Believe me, I didn’t either. This was Marsh’s brilliant move.” She covered her mouth. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“We’re not friends or anything,” Wade reassured her. “I haven’t even met him yet.”
“You will,” Mira said darkly. “And when you do, he’ll want to talk to you about why you aren’t wearing the Santa belly.”
“I have a good answer for that one, though. The costume was tailored for Petey. I can squeeze into it, but I’m bigger through the shoulders than he is, so all the extra room in the suit goes to make room for that. I can’t fit the belly in.”
“The absolutely makes sense, but Marsh still isn’t going to like it.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t bad-mouth him like this. I really need this job. And we both really need lunch.”
This is your moment!his polar bear said, nudging him.Ask her to share a delicious seal with you!
I’m going to revise that a little, Wade said.
He cleared his throat. “Do you want to grab lunch together? I could use some more tips about how the Christmas Village works. Petey didn’t have a lot of time to go into it.”
Mira’s smile made her dark brown eyes sparkle. “I wouldn’t either, if I needed to make sure you took the job. And sure. I’d love that.”
Chapter Four
The doesn’t-fit-in weirdo is getting some cozy one-on-one time with Santa, Mira thought.I’m practically Rudolph.
But while the lunch was funny if she thought about it as her misfit Galadriel having lunch with Santa Claus himself, it felt completely natural at the same time. After all, they had both left their costumes behind at the Outpost. They were probably the only workers at the Christmas Village who bothered to change for their lunch break—most of the elves didn’t think it was worth it, not when they would have to put the pointy ears back on in an hour.
