by Ellen Mint
“You brought it here?” Nicholas gasped.
“I needed to see you and…didn’t want to waste time.”
“Merciful heavens, I pray those stupid reindeer aren’t eating any latex gloves. You know their addiction to bright colors.”
Sighing, Nadire made a beeline for the door. “Then I suppose I best go and move them.” Her sigh faded as she glanced over at her partner in crime standing lost in the middle of the phones hunting for acceptable food. “Emeric? Do you, I could use your help still.”
“Ah.” A smile rose on his lips, but it faded when his father slapped him hard on the back and smirked. “Be happy to.”
The pair slipped out, leaving the Myras and Hellswarth to plan a subdued Christmas breakfast. Still, Nadire could swear as the door swung closed, she heard Mirek sigh to her mother, “Those two are terrible at subtlety.”
Nadire and Emeric fell into a comfortable silence as they found the elevator up to the helicopter pad. She hadn’t heard any arrivals of whirlybirds but had parked the sleigh off to the side just in case. It might be a fun story for the EMTs to come face to face with a reindeer gnawing on a glove this Christmas morning.
As the doors closed, cutting the pair of them off from the rest of the world, Emeric dug a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe my father and yours…”
“Oh, I’m sure the bickering will begin again. Hopefully, less of the punching.”
He tipped his head in thought. “I’m not so certain. My father has been known to start a few bar brawls in his time.”
A snicker rolled through her lips at the thought when exhaustion from walking into every house in the world walloped across her. Nadire wanted to slink into bed and fade away to her dreams for a day, no two. A week.
“Do you really need my help?” Emeric breathed.
“To get the sleigh back? Not particularly. In truth, I barely need to be there. They know where food is and will run to get it.” She snickered, remembering the few times in youth when she and Aaron ‘borrowed’ the sleigh and got turned around in the mountains. It was the horses that had rescued them, the entire stable preferring to be warm and fed.
“Not that,” he whispered like he feared speaking the words. “You seemed to sense which children deserved gifts before I even needed to tell you.”
Oh.
Cracking blue eyes filled her vision, his hands wrapping around hers. “I am guessing the staff imbued you with all the powers Kris Kringle would require, and you didn’t have much need for me to tagalong.”
“Emeric.” Nadire pulled in a breath, fearful she might once again ruin this rare chance for everything to align. “Santa may not need you, but I do. I want you, and…” She smoothed her fingers over his palms, drawing the nails up and down in a hypnotic fashion.
Swallowing the fear in her brain, she let her heart finally shine free. Staring up into his eyes, she admitted, “I love you.”
His hand locked to her cheek, fingers brushing behind her jaw when Emeric pulled her forehead to his. “I love you too,” he said as if swearing to God Himself and dove forward. Nadire’s back bounced against the elevator while his lips melted hers. Tranquility, peace, hope, joy, love—all that and so much more flowed from his touch to her and back again. Heat burned away the last icy fears she’d clung to, Nadire ecstatic to finally be able to give her all to the man who wanted her too.
A bing announced their arrival on the roof and regrettably Emeric pulled back. When his lips slipped off hers, a whimper at the loss rolled in her throat, but he threaded his arm with hers holding her close to his body as the pair strode out for the sleigh.
“So,” Emeric smiled wickedly, “when do we tell your father about us?”
A snort broke from Nadire. She gazed at dawn’s light cleansing the city below them and said, “Not until next Christmas.”
CODA
FOUR CHRISTMASES LATER…
Confetti streamed through the air, the burst of light and pop taking longer to fade with each pull as tiny hands tugged out the fifth paper crown. “Okay girls.” Aaron staggered out of the chair around the dining table. “That’s enough crackers.”
“But Dad!” The eldest stuck out her lip. She and her sister found a box of them from God knew when and had been strategically working through the stash. Piles of cheap trinkets and corny jokes sat on their empty plates, and what also looked like a real diamond ring. Their mother was quick to scoop that up and pass it back to the master of the house.
True to form, Nicholas laughed at the bauble and stuck it on his eldest granddaughter’s finger for safekeeping.
“There are no buts in the North Pole. Now sit your butts down in your chairs. It’s supper time.” He jabbed a finger at both cushions earning an eye roll from the nearly teen and pre-teen already. As Rebecca steadied herself on her chair, Aaron grabbed the back and shoved her in.
All the while, Nadire watched the family argue over nothing important from across the table. She had to keep a hand under her chin lest it plow into her plate. Even sleeping nearly all of Christmas away wasn’t enough after that long run. She felt another yawn building in her gut and tried to hide it away behind her palm but Aaron caught her.
“What? Too tired to break dinner still?” he scoffed at her fading form.
“It was a…” She failed at hiding the yawn this time and gave in. “…long night.”
“You did good though, daughter.” Adalet smiled while appearing with the bowl of olives. Instantly, three pairs of eyes lit up, the girls both nearly leaping out of their chairs as well as the head of the household.
Nicholas scooped two hands into the bowl of seasoned olives drizzled with, what else, honey. Rather than drop the mass onto his plate he loaded up the grandchildren who were both giggling and holding up the olives to their eyeballs while pushing the innards out. Nadire was about to comment on the olive juice splatter when a warm hand slid down her forearm, fingers folding to fingers.
Tickling his lips near her ear, Emeric whispered, “You were amazing.”
She cocked up an eyebrow and turned to the man beside her. “I dare say you were rather amazing yourself.”
“Oh, for the love of…” Aaron complained as if they had their tongues down each other’s throats. “Get them to stop. I swear I’ve seen less libidinous dogs.”
“What’s libidinous?” the youngest piped up.
“Ask your grandmother.” For a brief second, she glanced over at Adalet, but the kids still weren’t certain what to make of this magical half of the family.
The awkward moment was interrupted by the arrival of the guest of honor. A crown roast was flanked by seven lamb chops, all seasoned with fennel and oenogarum sauce on the side. The heavenly scent of the Mediterranean meal grumbled all but the stoutest stomach, eyes filling with the perfect caramel crust as Tin lay the meat before them.
Their table nearly burst with a feast fit for the byzantine era. Chickpeas were mixed with black beans in a light lemon and olive oil dressing. Beside Aaron was the plate of fried eggplant, the man guarding the lemon vincotto to drizzle over it like a dragon would her horde. Walnuts and figs, both toasted and sugared, had kept the girls entertained until the lamb was finished and the box of crackers was found.
“Ah.” The last guest at their table reached forward to stab not at the lamb but the pile of cheese and potato pierogies. Mirek dipped one into a pot of gravy before sucking the doughy treat down. “You think Christmas is tough? You should try Orthodox while in a blizzard stretched clear across the whole damn continent!”
“Mm-hmm,” Adalet murmured while falling in beside her husband. The scars of his illness had faded. In time, Nicholas picked back up some of his duties and even his spirit, but there was a slowness to his actions that hadn’t been there before. Whether it was due to the health scare or unexpected wisdom she couldn’t say.
While Nadire and Emeric worked Christmas, they let their fathers keep the Feast day and only occasionally snuck in to help while the men w
ere carousing in a pub. Even exhausted beyond measure, her hair crying for sleep, Nadire snuggled against her port in the storm. Emeric gripped a hand around her shoulders and pulled her safe to him.
Nicholas snorted, a hand slapping to the table and sending an olive flying through the air. “Do you remember that woman, the haggard one with the crooked tooth like…” To emphasize his point, he picked up two sets of knives and tried to replicate this tooth.
“That’s quite enough storytelling.” Adalet tried to intercede, a hand clamping onto her husband’s. While he lowered the knives from making a walrus tusk, she left their palms locked in place as they shared a look.
“Anyway…” Mirek slapped his hands to rub together. “She turned out to be Baba Yaga in disguise. Let’s eat!”
“Wait!” Nadire called, well aware she was staring down a row of famished people who’d been forced to hold off on the feast already due to her. “Before we begin drinking and feasting,” she glanced at her untouched wine glass and smiled, “why don’t you open my gift to you Mom, Dad, Mirek?”
Her mother fussed with the bow on the square box tripled around the table. Mirek stuffed another pierogi in before staring at it. It was Nicholas who declared, “You know we don’t do gifts in this house. God himself knows we do enough already.” He laughed uproariously at the joke the rest of the family pursed their lips at.
“Just…open it,” Nadire sighed. “Please.”
Mirek got the lid off first, his brow pursed in confusion as he lifted up a black and white square image. Nicholas followed suit, shaking the blotchy image to the candlelight like that might help. “It’s a picture of a…boat?”
“Mother Mary!” Adalet cried, her hands slapping to her mouth while she gazed down at her gift, then her daughter and Emeric.
“It’s the Mother Mary?” Nicholas guessed, and Adalet sighed at him.
“No, it’s a sonogram. She’s…”
With a bright smile dawning over both her face and Emeric’s, Nadire declared, “We’re gonna have a baby.”
“Well well, bless my hooves,” Mirek responded, already shoving the first picture of his grandchild into his pocket for safekeeping. “Congrats, you two. Nice to know the ol’ batter hasn’t gone stale after all these years.”
“Vati!” Emeric hissed.
“Not my fault it took you long enough to figure out the mechanics.” He shrugged while lifting the special goat-themed Krampus glass to his lips to slug back his schnapps.
Nadire glanced to her parents, her mother already inspecting the sonogram and trying to explain what was what to her father. “Another baby for the herd,” Adalet smiled.
Aaron’s wife Sarah sat forward to ask, “When are you due?”
“In May. End of May. We wanted to give ourselves as big of a gap as we could before…” Nadire glanced up into the sparkling eyes of her partner, her love, her heart. When she’d held up the test after the Halloween party, he’d scooped up her bedeviled body and spun her around in joy.
“Oh, I didn’t even think,” Nicholas interrupted. “Next year Mirek, you and me…” He pointed from himself to the Krampus who was looking up baby names on his phone. Dear God.
“Ah?” He glanced up and nodded. “Ja ja. We can do Christmas too. No problem.”
“We don’t even know if…” Nadire tried to insert herself, but their fathers were already plotting and scheming to try and take it back. It was the comforting pull of her husband’s arms that soothed her back. They’d solve that problem when they came to it, just like every other one that cropped up when you were Santa Claus.
Her mother leaned closer and tried to whisper, “Is there any chance of the fetus sprouting claws or horns?”
“What? No! I don’t know…?” She whipped her head over at Emeric who rolled a shoulder with his shrug.
“When your mom filled with you,” Mirek spoke up, “she hungered for nothing but clover and oats. I thought about building a manger just in case, but you came out with those ten pink toes and fingers.”
It was another problem to figure out when they reached it. Nadire swept her hand over her mostly flat belly. She’d noticed a pooch beginning a few weeks back, but did her damndest to hide it. Luckily, the Santa Claus motif aided greatly in disguising her little angel. Emeric added his palm over the back of hers, both cuddling together as their family grew larger inside of her.
“Congrats,” Aaron said. “Mazel tov, really. Kids they…they can be a blessing and a curse depending on the day.” His wife frowned at the harsh truth but didn’t chastise him. Instead, Sarah watched her little blessings trade in olives with their grandpa.
They were going to have their own child. One with bright eyes and dark hair, a heart as loving as Emeric’s, a tenacity as strong as Nadire’s, and—she feared—a brain with as much mischief as the grandfathers. But it was their family, as confounding and confusing as it could be. It was home.
Turning in her chair, Nadire brushed her fingers against Emeric’s prickly chin. He’d slumbered beside her the entire day, hands locked over her stomach, already protecting the little one inside. In those hours his five o’clock shadow had turned to an eleven, Nadire thumbing the jabbing hair against her skin. As she leaned forward, her lips softening for a taste of him, Aaron laughed.
“I just realized, a pregnant Santa delivered all the toys to the good girls and boys this year.”
Nadire chuckled in the shared thought and turned to her love. “Indeed she did.”
Curling his palm to her cheek, Emeric whispered, “May there be many more such Christmases to come.”
They shared a kiss over the pop of crackers, the cutting of the roast, the bang of silverware and glasses, the laughs and groans of life, of family.
Merry Christmas &
The End
About the Author
Ellen Mint adores the adorkable heroes who charm with their shy smiles and heroines that pack a punch. She has a needy black lab named after Granny Weatherwax from Discworld. Sadly, her dog is more of a Magrat.
When she’s not writing imposing incubi or saucy aliens, she does silly things like make a tiny library full of her books. Her background is in genetics and she married a food scientist so the two of them nerd out over things like gut bacteria. She also loves gaming, particularly some of the bigger RPG titles. If you want to get her talking for hours, just bring up Dragon Age.
For more information, you can sign up to her newsletter or join her Street Team.
Website | Bookbub | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads