“Can I get some coffee in that as well, please?” I asked through a yawn. I was stalling, avoiding his questions, but I also really wanted some coffee—I hadn’t slept all night.
“Sure.” He flicked the coffee machine on. “Now answer the questions.”
Dammit. “Uh . . . the car is a goner. I think. Obviously, I’ll have to have someone look at it, but it wouldn’t start at all.”
“And . . .” He waved his hand for me to continue.
“And some friends were passing by here, so they were kind enough to give me a lift. They just had some other stops to make first, which is why it took so long. And that’s how I ended up standing outside in below-freezing weather—I was just waving goodbye.”
“Well, I’m sure as hell glad you found a way to get here.” He slid a steaming mug across the bench to me, and I immediately wrapped my hands around it and inhaled, closing my eyes. Chocolate, coffee, and mint hit the back of my nose in a perfect combo of scents. “Who are these friends? Have we met them?”
“No. I only met them recently.” I took a sip to avoid saying anything else. “This is excellent, Dad.”
He raised his eyebrows over the rim of his own mug as he took a sip. “All right, I’ll let you off the hook. But only because you look like shit and I’m glad you’re here.”
I rolled my eyes. “You mean because you know Mom will ask a million questions and you’ll get your answers anyway.”
He grinned. “We’re a good team like that.”
He came to sit on the stool by me, and we sipped our hot chocolate in companionable silence for a short while. Now that he was done banging around the kitchen, the house was quiet, the snow falling outside adding an extra layer of stillness.
“So, how’s work? And your apartment? How are things in the city?” Dad asked.
I flashed him a smile and opened my mouth to answer . . . and the words died in my throat. I’d been about to give him the same response I always gave him on the phone before I changed the subject or hung up—that everything was fine, I loved the city. But I didn’t want to lie to him anymore—or myself.
“Actually, Dad, I think I’m over it.” My shoulders slumped.
“Over what, sweetheart? What’s going on? Is that douchebag Brian still giving you trouble?”
“He has been, but I have a feeling he won’t be an issue after tonight.” I smiled faintly at the memory of standing up to him, the guys at my back. I’d felt more confident with them there, somehow knowing they’d step in if I needed them to. “No, it’s everything. The job, the apartment, being so far away from everyone. I’m just . . . I’m not happy there.”
By the time the hot chocolate was gone, I’d told him all about how my job was OK, but it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing; how my apartment was comfortable enough, but I hated not being able to come home for Christmas; how I loved Monica and her friendship, but the thought of getting a corporate job like hers made me want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil.
He listened, asked questions where appropriate, and made all the right comments without judging me.
When I was done, I folded my arms on the counter and dropped my head onto them, groaning. “I’m such a mess. What the fuck am I doing with my life?”
My dad chuckled and stood, taking our mugs to the sink. “That’s a tad dramatic. I think you know what you want and how to get it. You’re just not going for it.”
I thought about that for a while. It was true. I had the business set up. I had dozens of sketchbooks filled with designs. I just wasn’t letting myself dive in headfirst and prioritize my dream—I wasn’t taking the risk.
Before I could grudgingly admit he was right, the sound of someone coming down the stairs had me turning in my seat.
“Warren?” My mom’s groggy voice came from down the hall. “Is that you? I thought you were going to get . . . Sadie!”
As soon as she rounded the corner and spotted me, she launched herself forward and wrapped me up in a hug, nearly knocking me off my stool.
“Merry Christmas, Mom.” I chuckled.
“Oh, merry Christmas, my baby. This is the best gift ever! Warren, make the hot chocolate she likes.” She waved in Dad’s general direction, her warm brown eyes glued to me and her light brown hair sticking up all over the place.
“We already did that,” Dad said.
“Actually, is it OK if I head up and take a shower and a nap before everyone else gets here?” I stood up and stretched.
“Sure, honey. Then you have to tell me how you got here and what’s been happening. I missed you so much. Oh, but all the rooms are full. Your cousin Mary is in your bed. She hit the eggnog pretty hard last night. But you can snooze on our bed, or the couch in the sunroom if you want. What time is it? Geez, maybe I should get in the shower too . . .” All this was said while she flitted around the kitchen, got herself a cup of coffee, absentmindedly put on some toast, and removed random items from the fridge—I had no idea what she was planning to do with the ketchup, but Dad picked it up and replaced it before she could close the door.
I smiled as I walked up the stairs. My parents balanced each other perfectly, my dad the calm one, my mom the ball of energy. I hoped the guys and I would find a way to fit so perfectly together.
I paused halfway up the stairs and shook my head before continuing. I’d only just met them, for fuck’s sake. I wasn’t entirely positive I’d ever even see them again . . . I had a feeling Max would put the ketchup back in the fridge for me though.
After a quick shower, I changed into jeans and an oversized sweater with reindeer running across the front, then tried to nap on my parents’ bed.
It was no more than half an hour, barely a snooze, before the noise from downstairs became impossible to ignore.
I stretched, put my hair up in a messy bun, and made my way downstairs.
It was ten, but everyone who’d stayed the night was already in the living room. Mugs of coffee and empty plates littered the available surfaces, the floor was covered in ripped wrapping paper, and the younger kids ran around playing with their new toys. The adults would wait until everyone had arrived to do theirs.
I stood in the doorway and managed to take it all in for about thirty seconds before I was spotted.
“Sadie!” my younger cousin Mary yelled at the top of her lungs and rushed up to hug me. She was just finishing college, and we were closest in age out of the cousins, so we’d always been close growing up.
The others all surrounded me, giving me hugs and wishing me merry Christmas. The rest of the family started to arrive one by one. My aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents—close to forty people—piled into my parents’ usually spacious living area. We chatted, played with the kids, and took turns helping my mom and uncle get lunch ready as carols played and the tree sparkled.
Mary was telling me in great detail what she wanted for her birthday—a custom bra and panties set that was making me blush a little, and I’d just had sex with three men in one night—when the doorbell rang again.
I frowned just as Dad popped his head around the corner.
“Who’s that?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I thought everyone was here. I’ll get it.” I was closest to the door, so I set my mint-flavored coffee down on a side table and moved to answer it.
The Shortbread
I did a mental head count as I headed for the door—all my family members were in the living room, even my aunt and uncle who lived on the other side of the country and usually didn’t join us for Christmas. Who could possibly be knocking on Christmas Day?
With a slight frown, I opened the door, then gasped and almost took a step back from sheer shock. But my body launched forward of its own accord.
I thought it would be weeks, months, before I saw my sexy elves again—I’d half convinced myself I never would. Yet there stood El, Max, and Tin, looking fresh and clean with friendly smiles on their faces.
The smiles widened as I tried to pull them all
into a hug at once, making them crouch awkwardly, turn their shoulders, and squish up against one another.
“Sadie.” Max chuckled as I released them from my iron grip. “We just saw you a couple of hours ago.”
“I know.” I kept my voice low, glancing behind me. My cousin was standing very close and eyeing the tall, gorgeous men with a little too much interest, and other family members were rubbernecking as well.
“I just . . .” I leaned in and practically whispered, “I wasn’t sure if . . .”
“She thought we were gonna ditch her.” El stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“Wait, what are you wearing?” I finally took a step back to look at them. The black pants and green elf jackets were gone, replaced by everyday, regular clothes.
They were in jeans and boots and warm coats.
“Clothes.” El raised his brows and gave me a look as if I were crazy, but I could see the teasing quirk in the corner of his lip.
“Would you like us to take them off?” Tin leaned in and gave me a devious smile.
Naturally, Mary heard that. She threw her head back and laughed, drawing even more attention.
Max was the only one who seemed to take pity on me, saying politely, “We hope you don’t mind us popping in. Our plans changed, and we thought we’d come back here. May we come in?”
I opened my mouth to say “fuck yes,” but my mom beat me to it, appearing at my back and making me jump. “Of course! Come in out of the cold. Is it still snowing? Shit! We might all get snowed in. Shut that door—you’re letting the heat out. Here, let me take your coats. Wow, you’re tall!”
She spoke at a million miles an hour, as usual, but the guys handled it good-naturedly, all of them looking amused as she wrangled them out of their plain coats and shuffled them into the living area.
Underneath the coats they were wearing Christmas-themed sweaters that made me smile. Tin was in white with silver snowflakes, Max was in red with a cartoon reindeer, and El was in gold with green wreaths at the neck and sleeves. They looked so fucking cute!
“Introduce us to your friends, Sadie,” Mary said, but she wasn’t even sparing me a glance—her full attention was on them.
“Uh . . . sure. Everyone!” I tried to call over the hubbub, but it was almost impossible to get all their attention at once, especially this close to lunch.
“I like your sweater.” One of my little cousins ran up to El and gripped his sleeve, running his little fingers over the green detail.
“Thanks.” He smiled at him, but the rest of us chuckled at his nervous, deer-in-headlights look—the same one he’d sported at the concert in the park.
That brought Timmy’s mom over, and the intros started. Everyone wanted to know who the new guys were, and everyone wanted to catch up with me, since I didn’t get to see the extended family that often. I awkwardly introduced the guys as my “friends,” not knowing how else to refer to them, but it wasn’t long before I was pushed out of the circle and they were doing their own intros to my fascinated family.
The next hour passed in a blur. El, Tin, and Max chatted with my family, played with the kids, and generally delighted everyone.
I helped my mom finish up with lunch, flitting between the kitchen and the living area, completely incapable of keeping my eyes off them or not smiling like a fool every time I made eye contact with one of them.
By the time we all sat down at the long table, which had been set up to stretch out of the dining area and into the living room, three new place settings had been added. The guys were all pulled into seats—none of them near me. I was glad my family seemed to like them, and I was overjoyed at the genuine smiles on the guys’ faces, but they were in the same room as me, and I was missing them.
I was seated at the kitchen end of the table near my mom, my aunt, and my cousin Mary.
“So, which one is it, Sadie?” my mom leaned in and stage-whispered. “I feel like you’re giving them all googly eyes, and I can’t figure it out.”
“Mom!” I growled. “I do not have googly eyes.”
“I don’t blame you.” Mary laughed. “They’re all . . .” She bit her bottom lip, looking at them as if they were the juiciest turkey. “. . . delicious.”
“Mary!” her mother scolded, but she was my mother’s sister, so she laughed at the same time.
I managed to deflect their intrusive questions for most of the meal, but as the table started to clear, Mary shifted over to the seat next to me and leaned in.
“OK, seriously, I need to know which one to keep my hands off. Because they’re all hot, but chicks before dicks and all that.”
I laughed and gnawed on my bottom lip, looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping before answering in a low voice, “Keep your hands off all three.”
Mary leaned away from me slowly, her eyebrows so high I worried they were at risk of merging with her hairline. My cousin was definitely the wild child of the family, but I was still a bit nervous to tell her I was interested in all three men—let alone that I’d already slept with them.
After a tense moment, her lips slowly pulled into a smile. She crossed her arms and looked me up and down, as if she were seeing me for the first time.
“Good for you.” She nodded, and I released the breath I’d been holding, letting myself smile.
Good for me, indeed. It was only hours ago I’d been talking to Dad about taking chances, doing what I really wanted to with my life. Yes, we’d been discussing work, but I was determined to live my life to the fullest in every way. If that included the three elves currently charming my family, I wasn’t going to complain.
And in the spirit of going for what I wanted, I stood up and raised my voice. “All right, I’m taking my friends to have an actual conversation now.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?” Mary mumbled under her breath and took a sip of her wine.
I flashed her a warning look but gestured for El, Tin, and Max to come with me. A chorus of disappointed grumbles went up around the table.
“You just spent half the night with them, pumpkin,” my dad complained. “What more do you have to talk about?”
I rolled my eyes at him but turned and walked to the back of the house, knowing the guys were following me.
No one else was in the sunroom, but I still kept my voice down when I turned to them and asked, “OK, what is going on? How is this possible?”
Max rubbed the back of his neck in that adorable way I was coming to realize was a habit of his. “I hope you don’t mind us just showing—”
Tin pushed past him, coming straight for me. He enveloped me in a hug so tight he lifted me off the ground. I wrapped my arms around him and breathed him in.
“I missed you.” He sighed.
“I missed you too, cutie.”
“Dammit,” El grumbled, and then he appeared at my back, wrapping his arms around us both. He didn’t need to say the words—I knew he’d missed me too.
When they finally set me down, I immediately reached for Max and pulled him in for a kiss. I threaded my fingers through his as I backed away with a massive smile.
“I don’t mind you showing up at all, Max. I’m so happy you’re here. And my family love you. I just have so many questions.”
They all chuckled, and El rolled his eyes. “Of course she has questions.”
I smacked him on his rock-hard abs. “Aren’t you missing Christmas at the Pole? Surely that’s way more epic than my crazy-ass family crammed into my parents’ living room.”
“Christmas at the Pole is always festive and lively,” Max explained with a smile. “It’s like our own massive family thing, except there are thousands of us. Festivities start at breakfast when all the sleighs start to roll in empty. But those who may have made connections in the outside world go to see those special people too. We’ve never had a reason to be anywhere but at the Pole before this year. But we all wanted to spend Christmas with you.”
I stared at them for
a moment, stunned. “I’m special to you?”
Max blushed, looking sheepish.
El cleared his throat and stepped up. “It’s ridiculously early in the rel . . . uh . . . whatever this is between us. Trust me, I know we only just met last night and this is a little crazy, but we think you could be very special. To all of us. We want to see where this goes.”
“We like you a lot, and not just because you jingled all our bells.” Tin wiggled his eyebrows, breaking the suddenly intense moment with the perfect joke.
We all laughed, but my heart was bursting. The old Sadie—the one who put up with crap from her ex and worked a dead-end job while pretending she wasn’t giving up on her dreams—would’ve talked herself out of this. She would’ve argued it was crazy and impractical and downright dangerous to agree to dating three men she’d only just met. But fuck her! These weren’t just men—they were elves, and they’d shown me more than one kind of magic that night. I was counting this as my own Christmas miracle.
“I can’t wait to get to know you all better.” I nodded, a hint of nervousness mixing with the excitement.
“She means she can’t wait to ask us a million questions,” Max grumbled but with a smile on his face.
“Ask all the questions you want, baby. I love your curiosity.” Tin gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Kiss-ass,” El teased, but he looked happy. They all did.
“Presents!” my mother yelled from the living room, her voice carrying over the chatter and through the entire house. The sound of several sets of feet making their way to the tree immediately followed.
“Dammit.” I groaned. “The questions will have to wait. Come on.”
I rushed into the living room ahead of them. The kids were running around and playing, but the adults were gathering around the tree, chatting, getting ready to open their presents.
“Oh, by the way,” I whispered over my shoulder. “Thank you for what you did with my gifts. It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome.” Tin squeezed my hand.
My dad put on a Santa hat, shouted “ho ho ho,” and started launching gifts across the room as if he were reliving his quarterback years. Most people caught theirs or managed to call out before he handballed something breakable. One year he did throw a glass jewelry box before my uncle realized what was happening, and my aunt got a box of broken glass that Christmas.
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