She consulted her list. “We need to dress the sorhoxes again and lead them around the outskirts of town to the parade starting point. I don’t want the kids seeing them until they’re hitched to the sleigh, but I want to make sure one more time that they’re comfortable with their antlers and bells.”
“We can do that an hour or so before the parade.”
“Sounds good. I need to go check on a few things with Dungar.” She gathered her tablet and headed for the door, pausing when she reached it. “Becken?”
“Yes?”
“I appreciate you letting me be part of all this. You’ve trusted me with something important to your community.”
The sincerity in her voice made my chest tighten. “I appreciate you caring about it as much as we do.”
We stared at each other, the air between us charged with unspoken words. Then she was gone, leaving me alone with the lingering scent of her shampoo.
The afternoon sorhox costume fitting went smoothly. Peeka stood patiently while Carla adjusted her antler headpiece, and Thrakul barely flinched when she attached the collar of bells around his massive neck. And when we walked them along the road toward the edge of town where we’d hitch them to the sleigh, they paced beside us placidly.
When we’d reached the sleigh and everyone who wouldwalk in the parade, she stepped back to examine her handiwork. “How do they look?”
“Funny,” I said honestly. “But festive.”
Her laugh made warmth unfurl in my chest. “High praise from our grinchy orc.”
“I thought I was supposed to be Santa.”
“You’re multi-talented.” She caught Peeka trying to scratch her fake antlers against a fence post and strode over to scold her. “No destroying your costume.”
Peeka looked chastened.
“She understands you.”
“It’s people I struggle with.”
The comment was casual, but I heard the hurt beneath it. “You don’t struggle with people here.”
“Here’s different.” She removed Thrakul’s collar and laid it over the rail. “Everyone’s been welcoming and accepting. I keep waiting for the moment when they realize I don’t truly fit in. When the novelty of the newbie wears off and they remember I’m just passing through.”
“You belong here.”
She looked up, vulnerability flickering in her brown eyes. “Do I?”
“Of course. You’ve become part of this place. Part of…” I paused, searching for the right words. “Part of everything that matters.”
“For now.”
“For as long as you want.” I’d been so focused on what I couldn’t ask of her that I’d forgotten the most important thing. She couldn’t choose me if she didn’t know I was an option. But how could I tell her that without making staying with me feel like an obligation?
We stared at each other across Peeka’s snout, and I thought for a moment she was going to say something that would either stun or crush me. Then her tablet buzzed with a message, breaking the spell.
“Holly needs help with the decorations on Main Street,” she said, checking the screen. “I need to go.”
A short time before the parade was due to start, Ostor arrived to help me hitch the sorhoxes to the sleigh, only to find Peeka’s antler headpiece in pieces.
“What happened to her costume?” Carla asked, striding over to join us.
“She must’ve caught it on something while she was waiting,” I said grimly. “Probably trying to scratch an itch.”
She looked like she might cry. “Can we fix it?”
I studied the damage. The headpiece was beyond repair, but maybe… “We can make something simpler. Basic antler shapes, with minimal decoration.”
