And yet something still felt wrong. His house seemed unfamiliar. He recognized it and all his things, but nothing seemed to be quite where it should be. He opened his sock drawer and found underwear. His shoes were lined up neatly in the closet when they were usually in a jumble on the floor. His toothbrush was in the wrong hole of his toothbrush holder. It was as though someone had scrambled all his things while he slept.
Nick had woken up yesterday with one hell of a headache, and he’d been in a fog ever since then. He didn’t remember what he’d done the night before, but it must’ve involved tequila if he felt like he did. He’d rolled out of bed around noon, taken an aspirin and tried to distract himself with television, but every channel he turned to had a Christmas program on it.
While he didn’t care for the holiday, the shows seemed to make him more irritable than usual. Almost angry. He couldn’t figure out why he was in such a bad mood. It must’ve been the dreams he had the last two nights. He couldn’t remember them, but every now and then he had a flash of one thing or another. The first night, he recalled a sexy blonde, a rustic mountain hotel…and Christmas elves. There definitely had to have been some tequila involved if he was dreaming of elves.
Last night he was certain he’d dreamt of the blonde again, but had a feeling the dream had taken a decidedly naughty turn. When he woke up, thinking of the blonde made him crave coffee so badly, his throat ached for it like a man in the desert without water.
“I’m going stir-crazy,” he said aloud to his empty house. “I need to get out of here.”
Maybe he should go get that coffee, anyway. Nick tugged on his coat and decided to walk into town. It didn’t take him long to reach Main Street. It was a Sunday, and the day before the Christmas holiday, so things were pretty quiet. He popped into A Cup of Cheer for coffee, then carried it out with him to drink while he walked.
Nick wasn’t sure where he was headed, but he pressed on. The crunch of the fresh snow and the bite of cold air against his cheeks were soothing somehow. He didn’t stop until he found himself standing across the street from the high-rise building of one of the local businesses—Evergreen Industries. He wasn’t sure why the building had drawn his attention. He knew they made nice ornaments. He’d mailed one to his parents once as a gift. But that was it. They looked closed today, too. Nick supposed they had several months before the rush of production started for Christmas again. By now it was all over.
Nick turned to continue down the street, but he stopped again. He fought the urge to cross the street and this time, his eye went to the top floor of the building. For a second, he thought he saw a silhouette of someone watching him from one of the windows. But again, he was imagining things. There was no one there.
Cold and frustrated, Nick spun on his heel and headed back to his house to get his tools. He may have given his guys the time off, but he needed to occupy his hands and his mind if he was going to get through this holiday.
“You fired him?” Cole yelled at Belle. And he never yelled at anyone.
She deserved it, though. Belle had let her guilt ruin Christmas for every child on the planet. She would get coal in her stocking this year, if anything at all. As it was, she’d put off this moment as long as she could by telling Dash that Nick got food poisoning at dinner and couldn’t go out yesterday. She’d hoped her stalling tactic would help her think of a plan. When she woke up this morning, she had no ideas and still, no Santa.
“I had to,” she insisted. “But I’ll get out the snow globe and we’ll pick a new Santa.”
“Today? We’ll pick one today? It’s December twenty-third, Belle. Santa is scheduled to take off around 3 a.m. tonight. Pulling off a new Santa in a week was a miracle.” Cole looked down at his watch. “Fourteen hours is damn near impossible.”
Belle was already teetering on the verge of tears. She’d given up the man she loved for his own good, ruined Christmas and made everyone hate her in one swift move. She couldn’t take much more. One wrong word and she was going to start bawling again. “Make Dash do it.”
“Dash can’t be Santa,” Cole argued with her.
“He knows how to fly the sleigh. He works with the reindeer. I’m sure he can figure out the rest. If anyone could fill in as a last-minute replacement, it’s Dash.”
Cole sighed and leaned back in his leather executive chair. “You go to Santa’s office and try to conjure a new replacement. I’ll have Dash ready on standby. If nothing else, maybe he can go along and drive the sleigh for the new Santa.”
For the first time since Nick vanished from her bed, Belle started to feel a lift of encouragement. Maybe they could really pull Christmas off without Nick.
Today when she went into the back room, a freshly cleaned Santa suit was hanging on a hook by the door. Two shiny black boots were on the floor beside it. The outfit was ready to go for Christmas Eve, even if Santa wasn’t.
Belle brushed past the costume to the magickal cabinet and pulled out the snow globe. Once again, her heart raced as she shook it and waited for the snow to fall again. A face appeared.
It was still Nick’s image.
This couldn’t be right. In the past, when a Santa quit, the globe showed a replacement immediately. It should be the same with firing Santa. “What is wrong with this thing?” she yelled, shaking it again, harder.
When Nick’s face showed up again, Belle clutched it to her chest. She backed against the wall and let herself slide to the floor. The tears flowed in earnest now with nothing to stop them.
Christmas was ruined. Dash could fill in if he had to, but that would only solve the trouble this Christmas. If she shook the globe tomorrow, would Nick’s face still be there?
“Belle?” Ethan stepped into the room.
She couldn’t move fast enough to hide the fact that she was on the floor, crying and clutching a snow globe. So she didn’t bother. Instead, she set the globe aside, sniffed and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her suit coat. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay, Ethan?” Belle said the words and immediately felt bad for it. Ethan was in charge of Christmas spirit, not to mention her brother. Of course he’d be concerned to find her crying at Christmas. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, sitting down on the floor beside her. “Tell me what’s going on. Is this about Nick?”
Just the mention of his name sent the tears flowing again. She nodded, silently crying. Ethan put his arm around her and hugged her to his chest.
“He’s the one you were in love with, wasn’t he?”
Belle was too exhausted and emotionally spent to deny it. If her brothers knew it, she might as well come to terms with it herself. “Yes,” she sniffed. “He did it because he didn’t want to lose me. But I couldn’t let him give up everything for me.”
“How do you know that he was? Nick seemed like a great guy. He might have made the perfect Santa and been happy to do it. Especially with you by his side.”
“Me, Ethan? Mrs. Claus?”
Ethan shrugged. “Did you imagine I would end up with the most outspoken Christmas cynic on the planet? Or that Cole would find the woman he had to leave behind all those years ago? And Dash and Noelle? I never saw that reconciliation coming. But love is a funny thing. And just like it helped turn Lark from a cynic to a believer, it could turn you into the perfect Mrs. Claus. You don’t need to knit and bake like Merry if you don’t want to. You could give it your own spin.”
Belle appreciated her brother’s encouragement, but this talk was a few days too late. “He’s forgotten all about me now, so this is a pointless conversation.”
“Well, just don’t give up on love yet. That’s all I’m saying.”
Belle nodded and sat up. “What are we going to do about Christmas? Nick’s face is the only one that will come up.”
Ethan climbed to his feet and held out a hand to help Belle up. “We go out there and make Christmas happen. We’re Evergreens. That’s what we do.”
One Hour until Takeoff
“Put on the suit.”
“I don’t want to put on the suit,” Dash snapped. “I will drive the sleigh, I will handle the reindeer, but someone else is putting on the red suit.”
It was 2 a.m. Christmas Eve morning, and Belle had had a very long day with virtually no sleep since Nick left. She had a headache that wrapped around her skull like a vise. With every hour closer to Christmas, it seemed to grow tighter. The toys were nearly loaded in the sleigh. The reindeer were hitched up and ready to go. The naughty-and-nice list was downloaded into the control panel on the dashboard display. Everything was set. Except for a Santa.
“Please, Dash.”
“You know what? You fired Nick. You wear the suit.”
“How about I wear the suit?”
Belle was about to yell at her brother when another man’s voice came from behind her. She turned and froze in place, her eyes disbelieving what they saw.
It was Nick. He was standing by Blitzen, casually feeding the reindeer a handful of oats and patting his neck. It was like he was meant to be there. Like the cocoa and the last forty-eight hours never happened.
“Nick!” Dash exclaimed. “Thank goodness you’re here. Are you ready to fly, man?”
Nick nodded, but his dark eyes didn’t leave Belle’s. There was an intensity in his gaze. She couldn’t tell if he was angry with her or ready to devour her. Either way, he shouldn’t even know her. Or this place. Or anything about Santa Claus and Mistletoe Mountain.
“I’ll get everything ready to go,” Dash said, making a quick exit.
Belle finally found her voice as Nick slowly made his way through the snow to where she was standing. “The cocoa worked,” she said, shaking her head. “You forgot.”
“I did forget. I walked around for two days trying to figure out what was bothering me. Something felt wrong. I was at the job site yesterday, installing closet shelves. One of my guys left a radio there, so I turned it on to drown out the doubts nagging my brain. The station was doing a live reading of A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Normally, I would’ve changed it, but I couldn’t. As I listened, the pieces started coming back, one by one.”
“How is that possible? The cocoa has never failed. Maybe it was a faulty batch.”
“Absolutely not!” Noelle interjected from the other side of the sleigh, where she’d been testing the cloaking device and other security systems. Belle hadn’t even realized she was there, or listening. Years in the CIA had paid off. “There wasn’t a thing wrong with that cocoa. Nick just stumbled into the loophole.”
“There’s a loophole?” Belle said, her eyes wide. How did she not know this?
“It’s a minor thing.” Noelle shrugged. “The only way someone can remember us after drinking the cocoa is if they really, truly believe in their heart in the magick of Christmas. Most people, adults especially, don’t believe. But even without remembering what he saw, Nick believed.”
Nick turned to Belle and nodded. “I had this feeling deep in my gut that told me it was all true. Then I remembered that I was Santa Claus. And that I lived here on the mountain. I remembered you. And what you did.”
Belle felt her heart sink. She was hoping her betrayal would be the one thing he wouldn’t recall. “I didn’t want you to do this for me.”
“I know. And I want to thank you for caring enough about me to make the hard choice. But—”
A loud honking noise interrupted them. Everyone looked around before finally peering into the night sky and seeing what looked like a falling star headed straight toward them.
“What is that?” Nick asked.
The light glowed brighter and more yellow in hue as it came closer. The honking noise continued until she could spy the shape of…a Corvette convertible. “You have got to be kidding me!” Belle shouted at the sky. “It’s Kris and Merry.”
“He doesn’t look like Santa Claus,” Nick noted.
“Neither do you.”
The canary-yellow Corvette made a dramatic landing, skidding in the snow and coming to a stop a few feet away. Kris and Merry climbed out, suntanned and dressed more for a beach holiday than a Colorado winter.
“Hey, everyone!” Kris shouted. “We’re back.” He turned to Dash, who’d just stepped outside carrying the Santa suit. “The flight mods to the car worked great. We made great time coming back from Belize. Just in time, by the looks of it. Say…” Kris frowned. “What’s with the suit?”
Dash turned to Belle. “Tell him, sis.”
Belle shot Dash eye daggers before turning to Kris. “Kris, we didn’t know where you were or if you were coming back. You left your holly pin behind, so we thought you’d quit.”
“Quit?” Kris said. “I left the pin in my office so I didn’t lose it on the trip. It’s too valuable. We left a note.” He turned to Merry. “You left a note, didn’t you?”
Merry frowned. “I thought you were leaving the note, Kris.”
“Aww, fudge. We’re sorry, guys. We just needed to get away for a little time just the two of us. We always intended to be home in time for Christmas.”
Belle glanced back and forth between her two Santas, not quite sure what to do. She’d gone from no Santas, to too many in just a few minutes’ time.
Cole pushed through to the front of the crowd of elves and witches with Taryn by his side. He surveyed the scene with an expression nearly as bewildered as Belle’s. “Nick is back. And Kris is back.”
“That’s what it looks like,” Belle agreed.
Cole nodded. “Kris, I’m sorry to say we replaced you. Or we did until Belle fired your replacement.” He turned to Nick. “I don’t know why you’re back here or why you’re not at home in a cocoa coma. I know this has been a whirlwind of a week for you, Nick. Since you haven’t tried on the suit, you’re under no obligation to stay. Kris is still technically Santa. With him back, Christmas can go on without you.”
“And what if I want the job?”
Cole seemed mildly surprised by the declaration. He turned to Kris. “Are you ready to retire, Kris?”
Kris hesitated for a moment too long before Merry sent an elbow into his ribs. “Ooof,” he gasped as he bowed over and nodded. “Let the kid have the job. You all can hire me back as a part-time consultant until he gets up to speed. I’ll even ride with him tonight and show him the ropes.”
“If you want the job, Nick, you’ve got it.”
“I want it.”
“Excellent. We’ll deal with the paperwork later. Right now, you need to go with Dash and put on that suit to make it official. The elves are about finished loading, and we’ve got to get you to the South Pacific before it strikes midnight there.”
Belle watched Nick disappear inside with Dash. Things were happening so fast, she wasn’t quite sure what was going on. Their conversation got interrupted. She didn’t know if Nick was angry with her or where they stood. He’d thanked her and followed it with an ominous “but” before Kris showed up. Now she could only mill around the launch site and wait.
Nick returned a few minutes later, dressed for the first time in his official Santa Claus attire. The suit adjusted to fit the Santa, but somehow the red velvet and white fur looked so much sexier on him than she ever imagined it would.
“Departure in ten minutes,” someone announced.
Belle frowned and clutched her tablet to her chest. Christmas was the first priority. Her talk with Nick would have to wait.
“I need to say something before I go.”
Belle turned to see Nick standing behind her. “Yes?”
“I wanted to tell you that I truly want to be Santa Claus. And not just to be
near you. This is my chance to reconnect with the magick of Christmas. I lost it so young, and I’ve mourned that loss my whole life. Now I not only have the joy and excitement of the season back, but I get to spread it around the world. How could I possibly turn that down?”
“You’re going to be a great Santa, Nick.” And Belle meant it. No matter what happened between them, he had been born to wear the red suit.
“Thanks. And I think you’re going to make an excellent Mrs. Claus.”
Belle started to argue the point with him, but shut her mouth when Nick dropped to one knee in the snow.
“Belle, you have turned my life upside down. And despite your attempts to put things back the way they were, I wouldn’t change a thing because I wouldn’t love you the way I do. This job and this place are all the more special because you’re here. I want to spend the rest of my life spreading Christmas cheer, and I want you to do it with me. Will you marry me and be my Mrs. Claus?”
Tears stung Belle’s eyes. She had always thought that she didn’t want that for her life, but Ethan had been right. She could make it whatever she wanted it to be. And the moment Nick asked, she couldn’t think of a single thing she wanted more. “Yes,” she said. “I will marry you.”
Nick stood up and covered her hands with his own. “I wanted to get you a ring, but all the jewelers were closed. The day after Christmas, I’m going to get you the most beautiful ring you’ve ever seen.”
Belle didn’t care about a ring. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled his lips to hers. Falling into the arms of the man she loved and almost lost was more precious than any metal or stone. The days of anxiety and sadness faded away, and she let her body melt into his. Christmas wasn’t ruined, and Nick wanted to marry her. The only thing that would feel better than this moment was when he got back and she could make love to him again.
Jingle Spells Page 26