1
URIEL
Ding dong.
Uriel blinked awake. Surely that hadn’t been his doorbell ringing at—he glanced at the clock on his bedside table—four in the morning? Before he could decide if he’d imagined it or not, his least favorite song blasted through his house.
You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
“Edgar, I willendyou.”
His cousin had recently installed a new video doorbell apparatus and had apparently added his own unique twist to the system. With his annoyance nearing a boiling point, Uriel flipped back his down comforter, sat up, and slid his feet into his faux fur slippers.
He grabbed his thick fleece robe from the back of his bedroom door as he stormed toward the front of the house. Answering it better make the song stop before his ears began to bleed.
Uriel flung open the door, ready to bellow at one of his cousins, only to find Joe Watson standing on his porch. “Uriel, something’s happened downtown. Eldon told me to get over there, fast.”
Uriel squinted, half asleep and completely confused. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Come on.”
“I’m hardly dressed for—”
Joe grabbed his arm and tugged. “You’re wearing more layers than I am. I’m not going down there by myself. You know I get nervous when Eldon gets cranky.”
Somehow, Uriel found himself being dragged toward town square in Mistletoe Falls, the town he’d called home for as long as he could remember. In all that time, no one had ever woken him from his bed in the middle of the night, much less forced him to involve himself in some sort of local drama. They all knew better.
Joe, however, had become the exception to many of Uriel’s rules. Their shared love of books would only get the man so far, though. The entire situation had become untenable. Uriel stopped moving. Unfortunately, he jerked Joe to a stop as Joe still had his arm firmly hooked through Uriel’s.
“I forgot how cranky you are in the mornings,” Joe said. “How late did you stay up reading? We’ve talked about this, Uriel.”
“I’m a grown man,” Uriel huffed. “I can stay up as late as I choose.”
He might have sounded petulant, but he couldn’t exactly confess to Joe that he’d been out late with his cousins, performing their first official Yule Lads prank of the season. By the time he’d arrived home, he’d been buzzed with the success of their magical endeavor and hadn’t been able to sleep for quite some time.
Joe rolled his eyes so dramatically they may as well have fallen out of his head. And that was entirely too gruesome of an image for this ridiculous hour of the morning.
“I’ll get you coffee. Come on. Eldon will scowl if I take too much longer.”
Uriel growled but let Joe drag him forward once more. “I don’t know why you’re so concerned about Eldon,” Uriel complained. “What’s he going to do, fire you?”
“Yes, Uriel. He’s my boss. That’s exactly what he could do. You know how I feel about this job.”
Uriel smothered a yawn. “Your vision of a dream job is disconcerting to me. Have I mentioned that to you before?”
“Only a dozen times.”
“There are sticky children in the Snowda Shoppe,” Uriel continued. “And I don’t care for sticky children.”
“Oh, don’t be such arude-olph.”
Uriel growled again. “Which one of my cousins taught you that? I will—”
“None of them. Linus has been helping me. I swear, so many of my customers get a kick out of the holiday puns. It’s so much fun having one for every occasion. You should try it sometime.”
He stopped again and glanced down at Joe with a frown. “Yousleighme.”
Joe snickered before releasing a jaw-cracking yawn. “See? It’s fun.”
