Valerie nodded. “You’re all a package deal. I know that, and I’m okay with it. Heck, if she’s this good at social media management, I might hire her.”
“Don’t you dare!” he hissed. “I’m trying to get rid of her, not bring her into the inner circle.”
Valerie laughed as she gently shoved him away. “Go make your Christmas wish.”
“You’re incredible.” He gave her one last longing look and then took off.
Jogging across the park, he stopped at the back of a gathering of children who were staring in amazement at an honest-to-goodness reindeer. While he didn’t have any antlers, he was all muscle and held his chin high. His harness read: Prancer.
“Don’t let him fool you,” said Nick, dressed as Santa again, fake beard and all, “He’d just as soon turn the sleigh upside-down as fly straight.”
Prancer huffed and tried to kick Nick. Nick was ready for the move and skirted out of the way in plenty of time. “Then fly right,” he fired back.
Catching sight of Ethan, Nick patted Prancer’s neck. “I have to talk to him. Be nice to the kids, okay?” Several of the children were taking pictures. Since when did third-graders get phones? Thankfully, Collin hadn’t asked for a phone yet; however, it was only a matter of time.
Nick strode through the group, kids reaching out to touch his red coat as if they could absorb some of his magic.
“Aren’t you worried about him?” Ethan pointed to Prancer, who was trying to grasp a candy cane from a little girl, using his lips. It was pretty funny, and the girl giggled so hard she couldn’t hold still.
“He wouldn’t hurt a fly–unless it was on me.” Nick glared at the reindeer, and Ethan got the feeling there was a story there. He didn’t have time to ask, though.
“You called about changing your wish?” Nick prompted.
“Yeah,” Ethan grabbed the back of his neck. “Pearl is driving me crazy. I thought having her as a co-parent would be a good thing, but she only caused more problems. I think it would be better if we returned to being ignored ninety percent of the time.”
“Wow,” Nick pulled out his phone and started typing. “I should have brought Lux, but she hates to fly. Ugh! I need her skills for this.” A second later, Lux popped up on his screen, and they were officially in a video chat.
Ethan glanced around, but no one was paying them any attention because Prancer was stealing the show. He was using the end of the candy cane to draw in the snow, and the kids were trying to guess what he drew.
“Snowman!” yelled Cooper McCoy.
Prancer stomped his hooves to celebrate his answer. He moved to a new spot in the snow, and the kids gathered in.
“The clock is ticking, Nick.” Lux put on a heavy leather apron as she spoke. “Stella’s stuffing machine is down, and I have to weld a part together.”
“She welds too? Impressive.” Ethan nodded in appreciation.
Lux reached for a welding mask and paused. “Is that Ethan?” She set the mask back down and pulled her laptop toward her. “I’m pulling up the Christmas Wish Simulator now.”
Nick nodded. “She’s put together a whole program to monitor my wish granting. I can’t believe she’s even able to measure things like this, but–,”
“A-hem,” Lux cleared her throat, stopping Nick from divulging more information. “Okay, I’m going to screen share so you can see what I see.”
The image changed. Ethan squinted.
“This end over here is where your last wish started to unravel the twist.” The curser circled a relatively large looped section.
“Can I see what it looked like before?” Ethan asked.
“Yep.” Lux typed for a second, and the image changed to massive amounts of curled ribbon in different colors, all swirling and twirling around one another in chaos.
Nick cringed at the sight.
“Okay. I remember it now.” Ethan felt terrible for making the guy relive his mistake.
The new image re-appeared. “This side is your next wish–what was it?” asked Lux.
“He hasn’t made it yet.” Nick stepped back and looked at him. “Think hard. Think so hard.” His blue eyes swirled with possibilities. He implored Nick to take this seriously, and a weight hung heavy on his shoulders.
