Chapter 3
Luci
“You want me to stay after hours to do what exactly?” Ben asked, crossing his arms in front of his massive chest. The extra padding on his stomach might fool the children, but it was obvious to any adult that Ben wasn’t really an extra cuddly Santa, but more of a muscle bear.
He still had a bit of cushioning around the middle, but not nearly enough to be Santa.
“To meet my neighbor’s daughter?” I said, giving him my widest, most pleading smile.
Ben sighed. “Is there a reason they can’t, you know, visit Santa when everyone else does? During our actual business hours?”
“They could. But we’re gonna have hot chocolate afterward, and I didn’t want them to have to wait in line or for me for hours. Please, do it for me?” Batting my lashes at him was a bit overkill, but it worked.
Ben let out another heavy sigh, but nodded. “Fine. Under one condition.”
I raised my brows at him. “What do you want?”
“I want you to tell me exactly what your intentions are regarding your neighbor and his daughter.”
I snorted. “Deal. I would’ve told you all about him during our lunch break anyway.”
At five fifty-five, the line to visit Santa was almost empty.
We’d closed it almost an hour ago to make sure every kid got to actually see Santa.
During our first year, we’d often had to work overtime or disappoint kids and send them away.
Needless to say, we’d worked a lot of overtime that year.
But in the four years since, we’d learned a lot.
How to keep the line going, how many kids Santa could see in an hour.
We’d perfected our routine every year. This year, we were working like a well-oiled machine.
Even the new elves on board fit in like they’d been working this North Pole for ages.
Christmas music was blaring through the speakers, and I stood on my tiptoes again, trying—to no avail—to look over the crowd.
Theo and Hazel should be here any minute.
Unfortunately, there were still so many people, and I wasn’t the tallest guy in the world.
Quite the contrary. I was what most people in the community called a twink.
Small, slim, with a rather boyish look. The perfect candidate to put on an itchy costume and play Santa’s good little helper.
“I’m sorry, Sir. The line’s closed for the day. You’ll have to come back tomorrow,” I heard Mary say for probably the hundredth time in the past fifteen minutes. Internally, I braced for the rude comments that, more often than not, followed.
“Oh, uhm… I’m actually here to see…” I recognized that voice immediately. Whirling around, I searched for Mary and Theo.
“Mr. Elf!” Hazel stood in front of the candy-cane striped velvet cord that worked as the barrier between the North Pole and the rest of the mall, waving with both arms. “Mr. Elf, we’re here!”
I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm, and my body filled with a weird, fuzzy feeling I really liked.
“Hello, Hazel,” I said and skipped over to them, making all the bells that were attached to my costume jingle loudly. “Are you ready to meet Santa?”
It’d take another five minutes, as I saw the last family disappear inside the North Pole to meet Santa, but hyping her up a little couldn’t hurt.
“Yes, yes, I am,” she answered seriously, her lips pursed. “I have a whole list of questions for Santa.”
Behind Hazel, I heard Theo let out a small groan.
“Sweetie, we talked about this,” he said, his voice patient.
Hazel nodded. “I know, Daddy. No talking Santa’s ear off. But I made a list of questions so I only ask the important things.”
I could swear Theo was mouthing a sorry at me while placing a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “And I’m sure Santa would love to answer your questions, but do you remember what our plan for this evening is?”
For a moment, Hazel pursed her lips, then they stretched into a wide smile that lit up her whole face. “We’re gonna have hot chocolate!”
“Exactly,” Theo said. “So I’m afraid we don’t have the time to ask Santa everything you want to know; otherwise, the coffee shop will be closed for the day before we get a chance to get your hot chocolate.”
I highly doubted that, as the coffee shop was open until nine, but Hazel gasped, her eyes going impossibly wide. “But Daddy, you promised I could have marshmallows. And whipped cream.”
“I did, yes.” He winked at me. “So maybe you need to choose the three most important questions for Santa.”
My insides went all fuzzy at the way Theo was talking to his daughter. Gone was the shy, stumbling guy I’d talked to in front of my apartment. In his stead was a young father with the patience of a saint.
Who would’ve thought patience could be equally sexy and adorable as shy mumbling?
“Hi, Theo,” I greeted him, then pulled back the velvet cord to let him and Hazel enter the now-empty line to the North Pole.
“Hi. Uh, thanks for doing this for us,” he said, gesturing at the North Pole. “I didn’t realize we’d be coming after hours. That really wasn’t necess—”
I held up a hand to stop him in his apology. “It’s no big deal,” I said, then winked at him conspiratorially. “In fact, it’s one of the perks of being so kind and inviting one of Santa’s elves over for Christmas.”
Hazel grinned at me, her brown eyes glittering in the bright lights surrounding us.
“Daddy told me to always be kind. He also said I shouldn’t invite strangers over, but it was okay this one time because we’re getting to know each other and becoming friends.
My friends in preschool don’t believe that I’m friends with an elf, but Daddy says he’ll take a photo of us so I can show them on Monday. ”
Looking up at Theo, I raised my brows. “Is that so?”
Theo turned an adorable shade of pink. “Uhm… is that okay?”
I laughed and nodded. “Of course.” I couldn’t help but tease him a little. “But only if I get a photo with you, too.”
Hazel crinkled her nose. “Why do you want a photo with my dad?”
Mary slapped a hand in front of her mouth to stop herself from laughing.
I gave her a withering look and nodded towards the entry to the North Pole to get her to check if Ben was ready for us.
Meanwhile, I smiled at Hazel. “I need a picture with your dad to prove that we’re friends, too, of course. ”
Hazel pursed her lips, then shrugged. “Okay. You can take one with Daddy, too. But I want one with all three of us, too. And one with Santa.”
“That can be arranged,” I said, smiling.
It took another few minutes, in which Hazel told me all about her day, until Mary finally skipped over to us with her best elf-smile and declared that Santa was ready to meet Hazel.
“Can I have a cookie with my hot chocolate?” Hazel asked, pressing her face against the glass counter of the coffee shop.
My stomach rumbled in agreement. The selection looked amazing. Christmas cookies, cupcakes, macarons—my sweet tooth ached to try everything.
Next to me, Theo tensed for a second. Looking at him, I found his lips pressed into a thin line, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Damn.
Apparently, I wouldn’t be ordering an ungodly amount of sweet treats to share today.
Hell, if Theo said no, I wouldn’t be able to buy even a single thing for myself, would I? Eating one of those delicious peppermint chocolate cookies while Hazel wasn’t allowed to have one would be rude, wouldn’t it? Probably.
But they looked so good.
Giving Theo my best puppy dog eyes, I tried conveying that I needed something sweet to eat.
He rolled his eyes at me, then sighed.
“How about a compromise, Miss Hazel? Do you remember what a compromise is?”
She nodded. “If I want something and you want something else, and we meet in the middle.”
He nodded. “Right. And I want you to eat something that actually fills your stomach. It’s already dinnertime, you know. So… how about you select a cookie or a cupcake—one item—and I choose one of the grilled panini, and then we share?”
Hazel contemplated the option for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, Daddy. I want the big chocolate cookie. Mr. Elf, do you want a cookie, too?”
Nodding, I pointed at the chocolate one with peppermint bark in it. “I want that one.”
Hazel gave me a big smile. “That’s a good choice. Will you share with me? Daddy says sharing is important.”
I snorted a smile, then checked in with Theo, who gave me a subtle nod. Conspiratorially, I winked at her. “I think that can be arranged.”
When it was our turn, I started ordering for me—one peppermint mocha, two peppermint bark cookies, and three macarons. I went ahead to pay, but Theo butted in before I got the chance, ordering for himself and Hazel, and paying for all of us.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I said, my cheeks filling with heat as I thought about all the extra stuff I’d purchased.
As far as sweets were concerned, my self-control was barely there on the best of days, but when I was hungry, all bets were off.
Which was exactly why I should be the one paying for it. Not him.
Theo gave me a shy smile. “You were kind enough to talk your colleagues into staying after hours for us. It’s the least I can do.”
If it gets him to smile at me like that more often, I thought to myself, I’ll happily talk my colleagues into working overtime every single fucking day.
We grabbed our trays and went on to find ourselves a free table. Skipping ahead, Hazel started frantically waving at us before running off, securing us a table right in front of the big windows, granting us a perfect view of the busy shoppers speed-walking past us.
“Can I have a bit of my cookie first, please?” She asked her dad and lit up when he handed her a quarter of the big cookie.
I offered Theo my plate of macarons. “I want to say I bought them to share, but you bought them, so it’s only fair you try one.”
He let out a quiet laugh, then carefully eyed the red, green, and white macarons. “I’ll take this one,” he said, grabbing the green one out of the bunch. “I think the white one with the tiny red sprinkles is the peppermint one. And I have a feeling you’d like that one.”
Grinning, I raised my peppermint mocha to my lips. “I don’t know where you got that from.”
Theo smiled at me again, his eyes sparkling. “Call it intuition.”
I called it being observant and attentive. I wouldn’t have held it against him if he’d chosen the peppermint macaron; I’d invited him to choose one, after all. But the fact that he’d taken a moment to consider which one I’d like told me a lot about him.
“So, it’s obvious that peppermint is my favorite Christmas flavor. But what’s yours?”
Theo thought about his answer for a while, taking a sip of his latte.
“I think… gingerbread?” he said, wrinkling his nose in thought.
“I’m not really sure. I love cinnamon too.
To be fair, we didn’t celebrate Christmas at home like this.
” He pointed at the fake fir garlands adorned with fairy lights and thousands of red ornaments, and nodded towards the fully decorated Christmas tree, which had a ton of fake gifts under it.
“We didn’t bake cookies or anything, and if there ever was any baking, you could bet your as—terisk it was done by the women.
So I really only ever started celebrating Christmas after Hazel was born and we were living with Josie’s parents.
One day, Josie’s mom, Linda, was baking gingerbread men, and it was the first time I’d ever had a Christmas cookie, so…
yeah, I think gingerbread. It’s not my favorite taste-wise, but the memory alone makes it special. ”
I blinked, a thousand questions shooting through my head, each one fighting to be the one tumbling out of my mouth.
In the end, I hastily stuffed half of my cookie into my mouth to keep me from assaulting Theo with an onslaught of questions. Gabe always said I could talk like a waterfall—I never stopped. It was the same with questions, and I didn’t want to overwhelm Theo.
“How old were you when you had Hazel?” I asked after I’d managed to swallow the last crumbs.
“Seventeen.” Theo chuckled, but it sounded a bit forced. “I’m the prime example of why abstinence is not only a good idea, but going into that topic would end up with both of us being depressed. Anyway, I’m twenty-one now, Hazel is four, but she’ll be five in two months.”
I whistled. He had a kid at seventeen? Fuck, that had to be rough.
“I’m twenty-five,” I said, not that it was that important. Not to me, at least.
Theo tilted his head. “You look younger.”
“It’s the elf costume,” I joked, shaking my head to make the bells on my hat jingle.
“Maybe,” Theo conceded, but the smile he wore said otherwise.
Most people thought I was younger. It came with the whole twink thing. And yeah, okay, maybe with the whole ADHD-thing, too. Apparently, being impulsive, jumping from hobby to hobby and from job to job didn’t read mature to most neurotypical people. Who knew?
“Do you like the macaron?” I asked, watching the way Theo was taking one teeny tiny bite after the other. “Because if you don’t, you don’t have to keep eating.”
He smiled at me. “Oh, I like it. A lot, actually. Which is why I’m trying to savor it.”
Damn.
“I’m kind of a fast-savorer,” I joked.
He let out a laugh. “Yeah, I kind of get the feeling you’re more of a whirlwind.”
Hazel perked up from where she was nibbling her cookie. “I’m the same,” she told me seriously. “Daddy always says I manage to turn the world upside down. But Grandma Linda says it’s a good thing.”
“It is,” I said, grinning at the little girl. “Otherwise, the world would be a boring place, and we can’t have that. Can we?”
She shook her head and gave me a wide smile. Oh, how innocent kids this age managed to look. “No, I make the world fun and exciting for Daddy.”
I didn’t have even a shred of doubt about that one.
Theo did seem the quiet type. Thoughtful. A lot more mature than I’d expect a twenty-one-year-old guy to be, but I guessed that came with the whole teen-dad thing. Hell, Theo definitely screamed more mature than me. Then again, if Gabe or my parents were to believe, that was not hard. At all.
So, if Hazel bringing excitement to his life was a good thing, then maybe my bringing a bit of chaos into his life was a good thing, too.
We’d see.
For now, I really enjoyed this. Drinking coffee and hot chocolate with a cute guy and his equally cute daughter.