Naughty Elf: Mistletoe (Santa’s Naughty Elf Mates)

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

MIZ

Without my phone, I lost track of time. It was sometime after lunch, but I didn't know what day of the week or the date. Ryan asked me to get dressed in something other than sweats and a t-shirt to come with him and Ellie to the shopping mall. This was my first chance to try the new puffer jacket and snowmobile mittens he bought me.

I dug through the clothes in Ryan's bin. I loved the bright oranges, yellows, and purples. My wardrobe had been mostly red and green at the North Pole.

I borrowed a belt for the crisp jeans. Like the clothes, the belt he gave me was too small to fit him. My mind wandered back to the beautiful man in the photos with Ryan and Ellie. I was grateful my fated mate hadn't been alone all this time, but I had a long way to go to convince Ryan I could … I didn't even have a word for it. I would never replace his dead husband. I couldn't take his place like he'd never been here. I would never be Ellie's father, though I would raise her like my own.

All I could do was spend time with them. My new job as Ellie's daycare provider, manny, or whatever Ryan had called it, would be my top priority.

We arrived at the mall, and Ellie walked between us through the parking lot. I felt a tug on my arm and looked down to see her gazing up at me, a silent request to hold my hand. I clasped her mitten in mine and we swung our arms in time with our steps. On her other side, Ryan did the same. We shared a quick smile over her head, and then we needed to move our little parade closer to the parked cars so we didn't get run over.

When Ryan veered toward the kiosk for a cell service provider, I nearly passed out from shock. I tried to argue against a smart phone, but Ryan insisted I would need one to answer Ellie's millions of questions. He paid a small fortune for the phone and tacked on enough data to stream videos nonstop for a month.

I couldn't stop thanking him after he handed me the bag holding the phone and accessories he insisted I would need. I wasn't so sure. The new phone would be a huge test of my willpower, but what choice did I have? He insisted I needed it for emergencies.

After stopping at a few more stores, we ate at the food court in the middle of the mall. Above us, the second-floor walkways crossed and the giant skylights let in the weak afternoon sunlight.

Once Ellie finished her meal, she rushed off to the playground. Now I knew why Ryan chose a table so close to all the shouting children. From where we sat, we could watch her progress across the rope bridges to board what passed for a wooden ship with the Jolly Roger hanging limply from the mast. Someone with Ellie's imagination could probably smell the salty air and see the flag blowing, while I saw the spaces between the planks. The ship would never sail, but the children didn't care while they played capture the leader. Ellie was next to make the capture, and then she became the leader.

"We'll let her play this round, and then we should head home," Ryan said.

"Thank you for bringing me with you."

"Stop thanking me." He shook his head. "It's nice to have someone with me while we wait."

He'd unzipped his rough canvas coat, exposing a checkerboard shirt unbuttoned to display a V of white t-shirt beneath it. While he watched Ellie play, I watched his expressions change from pensive while Ellie talked to the other kids to joyous when she made friends with a tall black girl who led her around by the hand and bodily stood between her and the other kids when they came for her as the leader.

Ryan sported a few days' stubble, and I wanted to rub my fingers against it. I'd never been able to grow a beard. Part of it was jealousy, but mostly I wanted that level of closeness.

When we were at their home, I'd welcomed Ryan's casual touches. Now, I craved them, which seemed silly after only a few days. My family didn't do casual touch. We hugged in greeting and when we were leaving, and that was it. No touching in between. I didn't hug the few friends I had, which might have been why I didn't have many friends, come to think of it. The other elves behaved like the big happy families on the shows I liked to stream.

I shouldn't have been fantasizing about touching my new boss, but I couldn't help it. He was my fated mate. I reached for his hand, but he hopped up so fast, his chair scraped along the floor. "Ellie! Time to go!"

Instead of capturing the leader, Ellie and her new friend had holed up atop the highest mast where the other children couldn't reach them.

"We could have held them off all night," Ellie said as she trudged over to us. "Now Alicia has to fight them off by herself."

"She'll be fine." Ryan waved to the girl still sitting on the small platform beneath the pirate flag. I raised my hand, too, and Ellie yelled, "See you at school, Alicia!"

"Ooh, a friend?" I asked as we walked toward the exit nearest where we parked.

"She and her family just moved in with her grandma. She'll start school in January. I hope she's in my class, not Athena's."

Both Ryan and Ellie had told me stories about Ellie's bully. I was glad they weren't in the same class this year, but going to the same daycare had been an after-school nightmare for Ellie.

My new job would give me purpose while also saving Ellie from her bully. Maybe Santa knew what he was doing after all.

Now all I had to do was convince Ryan we were fated mates.

We spent the rest of Ellie's vacation drinking my specialty hot chocolate, eating a variety of cheeses from a gift basket one of Ryan's neighbors sent him, and putting together the jigsaw puzzles Ellie's grandparents sent her.

"Where are your parents?" I asked Ryan one night over Ellie's head. She had fallen asleep during the superhero movie Ryan picked. I was too jazzed up after so much chocolate and cheese to join her, but the movie wasn't holding my attention.

"They don't like to leave herd lands." His voice dipped to a lower register that would have had me panting if we were talking about anything else. "My mom had a panic attack the last time she tried to visit us."

His mom was the beautiful indigenous woman I'd seen in his office photos, though both of his parents were moose shifters.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "How often do you see them?"

He pointed to Ellie. "Her fifth birthday."

I took a deep breath and held my tongue. My grandparents had been a huge part of my life until they ran off to Bermuda for their literal golden years of suntans and pina coladas. They still sent me birthday and Christmas cards each year.

I swallowed hard at the memory. I wondered if Santa would forward the mail I received to Ryan's house. I hoped I was still around to find out.

"They send gifts, but the older she gets, the harder it is to convince her to write a letter with her wish list. Knowing my mom, she thinks Ellie is ungrateful, but Ellie doesn't know them anymore."

"I can help her with the next letter," I said. "I'll teach her to schmooze."

Ryan laughed. "I don't like the sound of that. She's already got me wrapped around her little finger."

"She's a great kid." I patted the springy curls over her ear, careful not to wake her. "Quick to make new friends, which means she hasn't been too traumatized by the bully. Writing letters to strangers can be hard, and that's how she sees your parents. Is there any chance they could talk on the phone?"

He blinked at me like he forgot the smart device sitting beside him on the end table worked as a telephone. "We used to talk once a week … before."

His husband's death was still a sensitive topic. I nodded to show I understood. "Your mom had the panic attack afterward?"

"They were on their way to the funeral. They made it to the border and had to turn back."

"Border?"

"Our herd's lands are in Canada, not that far from here." He sighed. "We should visit them, but I keep making excuses. Maybe it will be easier with you here." For a moment, I thought he was inviting me to come with them, but then he said, "You can look after Marshawn."

"Who?"

"Ellie hasn't introduced you to Marshawn yet?"

The name didn't sound familiar. "No."

"Well, let's get her to bed, and I'll introduce you."

Ryan picked her up like she weighed nothing, which I knew was not true. Every time she vaulted into my arms, I worried I might drop her.

I followed him upstairs. Ellie and I shared the bathroom between our rooms. In a few short days, Ryan would be working on the other side of the bathroom wall, which meant I needed to find something to do downstairs, or better yet, outside in the freezing cold.

I pulled back Ellie's blankets and then covered her up after Ryan lay her down. I waited for her eyes to pop open or a sleepy question to pass her lips, but she was a much heavier sleeper than I was. She didn't even move.

"This is Marshawn Marchand." Ryan pointed to the shelf above her bed. "And yes, the rhyme was intentional."

A little fawn-colored rodent with a spray of whiskers and a twitchy black nose sat on his haunches staring at us. "He's a dwarf hamster."

"He's adorable."

"He's an old man," Ryan said. "I wish someone would have told me that hamsters don't live very long. Ellie's not going to take it well when he passes away. He was less maintenance than a cat or dog, but I wasn't thinking long term."

I knew nothing about hamsters, but I had a new mission once Ellie returned to school during the day. I would learn everything I could.

I couldn't sleep that night, so I pulled out my new phone to research the tiny domestic rodents. I could only watch so many videos about the little creatures before I was thoroughly depressed. The more I learned about the devious tricks parents used to make their children believe their precious pets were still alive … I didn't understand it.

My parents didn't rush out and get another Siberian husky when our beloved Sasha died. They never could have pretended a new dog was the same old dog we'd lost.

Ellie was too smart for that. She would see through any attempt to switch Marshawn with another hamster.

She was smart enough to know the inevitable, too. "I didn't want you to meet him," she said the next morning when I told her how cute he was. "He might be dead soon."

"I'm glad I met him, all the same. Do you have a hamster ball for him?"

She frowned at me. "You mean the wheel?"

I laughed. "No. I mean a hamster ball so he can travel the house."

Ryan rolled his eyes and said something about rodents falling into vents in the winter, but I showed him the dimensions of the ball I found online. It was far too big to fit through an air duct, even one left uncovered.

"All right," he said. "But only if Miz is watching him with you."

I may have let a few action figures burn, but I would not let a hamster fall into the furnace on my watch. I ordered the ball with my first week's paycheck, deposited into the bank account Ryan had started for me, with a credit card and everything. I felt like an adult human.

I had no need for money in Christmas Village. Santa 30 provided everything for our team, including all the hot chocolate we could drink, all the candy canes we could eat, and three meals a day catered in the break room. Outside the workshop, anything we wanted was free, within reason. Hoarding was out of the question, but all food, drink, and home necessities were free of charge. I'd loved the simplicity, but it had contributed to my feelings of insignificance.

Here, I could buy fun things like the hamster ball, and I could contribute to the grocery shopping and fixing meals for Ellie and Ryan. I didn't know how to cook yet, but I wanted to learn. After Ellie went to bed each night, I streamed how-to videos until I fell asleep, sometimes with a video still playing.

On the morning Ellie returned to school, I made my first solo trip. I'd shopped for myself all the time at the North Pole, but this was my first human grocery store. Ryan left me a shopping list and some money on the kitchen counter before heading up to his home office.

I almost left the money. He'd already done so much for me. Common sense won in the end. I didn't know the cost of a single item on the list, and while I trusted him to send the right amount with me, I also wanted the freedom to buy something for myself.

I was so excited to use money! We'd learned how to exchange all forms of currency in school as a way to learn mathematics and world business practices. As with so many other skills we didn't need in Christmas Village, I had been good at it. I hoped it still came easy for me.

I was surprised by how much warmer it felt outside than at the North Pole. The grocery store was only a few blocks away, so I walked. I was glad, too. The parking lot was almost full when I arrived.

Most of the store's patrons sat in the deli area drinking coffee around two tables pushed together. They chatted and laughed like old friends.

With one of the store's red baskets in hand, I strolled the aisles. We had the same foods at the North Pole, though the aisles of meat and dairy products surprised me.

Ryan's shopping list was in no particular order. It was more convoluted than any Christmas scavenger hunt. I was muttering something under my breath while staring at the list when a full shopping cart clipped the corner of my basket and knocked me off balance. I grabbed onto the cart and met the gaze of a beautiful brown woman with eyes almost as dark as her straight black hair.

"Excuse me," I said. "I appear to have tripped into your cart."

"It was my fault," she said. "I hit you on purpose. This is how I flirt with people."

I laughed out loud at her brazen honesty. "You are very kind and lovely, but I'm already?—"

"Fated to my neighbor. I saw the bond when you touched me." She glanced down at my hand, which was over the top of hers on the cart's handle.

"I'm so sorry." I pulled away, still staring at my traitorous hand as I wiped it on my jeans. "I didn't mean to?—"

"Again, this was all me." Her predatory smile gave me a hint of something beyond her psychic ability to sense mate bonds. She wasn't exactly human, but I didn't know what she was.

She stuck out her hand. "Drucilla Flores, but you can call me Dru. I'm the local midwife. That's how I met Ryan and Ellie, and now you." Her handshake was quick and professional, and then she grabbed her cart again. "I also live next door. You should come over while Ryan's working. I could hear his raised voice from my house. He's having a bad day."

I'd heard the beginning of an argument before I rushed out the door with his list, so I believed her.

She helped me find the items on Ryan's list, even pickled herring and cocktail onions, in return for a package of store-made cookies from the bakery counter. Then, she offered to drive me home.

After helping her load the groceries into her SUV, I hopped into the heated passenger seat and leaned back with a happy sigh. It was warmer here than at the North Pole, but that didn't mean it was warm. I fastened my seatbelt, and she started the car.

"I have a confession." She put the vehicle in reverse and the locks clicked, which made my heart pound against my chest. "I saw you leave Ryan's house this morning. Had a feeling you would be cold."

"Thank you."

"I've always wanted to meet one of Santa's elves," she said. "What's he like?"

We were already moving, so I couldn't jump out of the car.

"Never mind," she said. "That would destroy the mystique. I've heard there's more than one Santa, though. Is that right?"

That much wouldn't hurt, right? "Yes."

The drive was so short, we were already pulling into the driveway of the house next to Ryan's. So far, so good.

I opened the door as soon as it unlocked, and she laughed. "The car locks when I put it in drive, for safety reasons. I didn't mean to make you think you were trapped."

"I usually take public transportation," I said. "Er … took. I don't suppose there's much need for it around here."

"We have bus routes, if you're interested, but Ellie's school is only a block past the grocery store."

She hopped out of the vehicle, too, and helped me gather my packages to take to Ryan's. "You're welcome to come over for cookies and milk when you've finished unpacking," she said. "I promise I won't bite you."

The way she said, "you," implied her shifter or supernatural type would bite if the need arose.

"I'll check in with Ryan and see if he needs anything first," I said. Why yes, I wanted someone to know where I would be before I entered a stranger's house.

I found Ryan at the kitchen table, dabbing breadcrumbs off his plate with a pickle spear. "I didn't expect you back so soon," he said. "Had fifteen minutes for lunch before my next three hours of meetings."

He finished his pickle and dropped his dirty dish in the sink, and then he reached for the bags I'd set on the counter.

"I can get it," I said.

"You surprised me by coming home so soon. I would have waited to eat lunch with you."

"I met someone at the store."

"Oh?" His eyes narrowed to slits. A little thrill went through me at the thought he might be jealous.

"Your neighbor, Dru?"

He laughed and tapped the top of the box of cookies still in its plastic bag. "She invited you over, I take it."

"She helped me with the list, so it's only fair. I wanted to let you know, in case …" I didn't know how to finish that sentence without sounding like a scared child.

"She's harmless, mostly." Ryan grinned at me. "Fabulous midwife, though. If you're ever expecting, she's the one to call."

I couldn't explain the sudden heat in my face. "I suppose it doesn't hurt to make friends in the neighborhood."

"Have a great time!"

While I stood wringing my hands, Ryan put the rest of the groceries away. Then he handed me a plate from the refrigerator. "You should eat before you go. Dru's big on sweets, but sometimes I think she forgets most people don't hunt for their meals anymore."

"Thank you." I took the sandwich and pickle spear to the table. I sat in Ryan's chair since it was still warm. I closed my eyes to savor the first bite. Ryan had used the perfect amount of meat, cheese, and toppings, and I hadn't even told him what I liked. He'd been paying attention over the last week, while I had been lost in the conversations with Ellie or with him, ignoring everything else as we made ourselves lunches.

I wanted to be the kind of guy who picked up on the little details, but it had never come easy for me. I needed to work on it. I would have to work a lot harder to impress Ryan the way he impressed me.