Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
STETSON
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHARLIE…
“Abear fight.” Jayson smirks into his rum infused hot cocoa and then gets caught up staring out the window.
I’m still running high on talking with Charlie that long, I shouldn’t have said so much but I couldn’t help it.
Part of me wanted her to know that I see so much more than her beauty— I saw her complexities, her shadows, her light…
I can see it all. I came on strong, stronger than I meant to, and yet every word I said was purposeful.
I don’t want her doubting my intentions even if the circumstances are insane.
I look over at my cousin.
I know what he’s watching. The icy air has a frost invisible to the “normal” human eye.
But Jayson and I see winter in a completely different way.
As my first cousin and descendant of Nicholas Claus, he too is gifted with what we call, “the Christmas sight”.
It sounds cheesy until you realize how cool it actually is.
The myriads of rainbow colors sparkle in the frosty air like shards of ice.
Colors one couldn’t even imagine. We even hear the faint call of the snow as it sings its own version of Christmas carols falling from the sky.
The season is alive in every way for us.
For the four months of winter we speak to nature and understand her every call.
I follow Jayson’s gaze to the horizon.
I know why he’s riveted.
The storm that’s coming our way is massive. Given my presence, as Old St. Nick’s heir apparent, I’m not surprised by the flurries and snow clouds moving in this direction. The closer we get to Christmas Eve, the heavier the storms get until we’re nearly one with them.
It’s been like this as long as I can remember and according to my father as long as the family has been chosen to do this.
To say this weather is extreme is an understatement. I think about the fateful encounter with the polar bear.
“A bear fight.” I go for straight rum and grimace at the bottle. “Canadian?”
He scoffs. “The Jamaican was all gone.”
I pour some into a hot glass and douse it with whip cream on top, then toss it back. It burns the way any sugary substance should, right down the throat.
The fire that moves through my system feels about right.
Charlie got me burning—since the moment I set eye on her.
Just thinking about the way she smelled…
Fuck.
“It’s uncomfortable.” Jayson clears his throat.
“The way you’re fingering that shot glass like it’s a woman.
I mean I’m used to it by now but if you could just keep your Clause like fantasies to yourself while the rest of the guys are around that’d be great.
Last year you sent Rudolph into a sexual frenzy because you were so horny, I swear that guy suffers ever year because of you. ”
“Saying it like that makes it sound like I intentionally made a reindeer horny.” I point out. “And it’s not my fault he overheard things he shouldn’t have. I mean we got him those noise canceling headphones for the reindeer for a reason!”
“You know he hates the color pink.” Jayson smirks.
“Red was sold out.” I argued. “And again, he shouldn’t have made my sexual…needs get under his fur— skin, whatever.”
“You got under everyone’s skin,” Jayson shakes his head in disgust. “Except for me, of course, but that’s because I’m happily married.”
I laugh. “Sorry, still funny.”
He flips me off.
“Will a hard on be your official Christmas miracle request?”
Jayson narrows his eyes.
“Fuck off,” he says with a great deal of annoyance.
“Aggressive.”
He runs a tired hand over his eyes.
“Maybe.”
“I’d like to think so,” I sink back into the sofa and lace my fingers behind my head and watch him unravel.
“I find your shit eating grin to be extremely irritating,” Jayson scowls at me. “And do you know what else I find irritating?”
“I’m waiting with bated breath…” No doubt he’s going to complain again.
“I find it irritating that somehow, someway you managed to meet a woman in the middle of a snow tundra on our arctic trip—which by the way was supposed to just be a relaxing holiday for us to unwind before the Christmas crush.” Devon vents like his life depends on it.
“How did guy time turn into you being so gone for a girl this fast?”
“You sound jealous,” I tease.
He cocks an entitled, aristocratic, arrogant brow.
“That doesn’t dignify a response.”
I laugh.
“You’re right,” I give him what he wants because he’s my cousin and I love the bastard. “I didn’t expect to meet anyone, let alone feel anyone.”
Jayson opens his eyes and stares at me, eyes narrowed.
“You felt her?” He asks slowly dragging out the sentence like he’s afraid of my answer. “You sure?”
“Yes.” I admit hesitantly. He’s the only one I’d admit it to. Shit, saying it out loud makes it even more real, more terrifying.
Feeling someone before encountering them—especially the opposite sex—is the stuff of legends in the Nicholasen family. Only two St. Nick’s had found their fated partner to share Christmas cheer with.
Only two.
In seventeen fucking centuries.
“The ground will tremble with echoes of ancient past. Breath will falter. The heart will race. The stranger is no stranger. She is your face.” Jayson whispers the old words the way my grandfather would when he’d recount the tale.
“Did the ground tremble?” Jayson asks softly. “Or was it just the bear?”
My gaze flicks to his.
“It was more than the bear.”
It was her.
I felt her in my buggy. That’s why I jumped out the way I did, walking into an unknown blizzard feeling for her energy. It was overpowering, like a siren’s call. The blood pumping through my veins was racing so hard that I could feel it when I entered the buggy.
She was the first and only person I saw before I was pulled away by her friends.
But in that second, when I set eyes on her, the world shook. I still can’t explain it—like I was living in one reality where Charlie Horse (her parents are cocks) didn’t exist—and then she was there, and everything somehow changed.
And I don’t even know how.
I saw her last Christmas, the look on her face. I felt her loneliness, her pain like it was my own.
I saw my person… didn’t I?
I watch Jayson’s pensive face.
Frankly, I don’t have time to care what he’s thinking because I’m still processing the feeling myself.
I’d never felt anyone before.
Not another female.
Only relatives with my bloodline.
“Fuck. Me.” Jayson lets out a long sigh and leans back in the seat. He shakes his head and lets out whistle.
“Scared?” He finally asks.
“Hell no.”
Hell yes, but I’m not telling him that.
“Liar.”
“If you say so,” I shrug before finishing my drink.
“So what now?” Jayson asks. “Besides having dinner with them tonight? And just so you know, I had planned on binge watching Aliens On Earth this evening. I’d even planned my meal and what bottle of wine I’d have them bring up from the cellar.
” He sighs. “I know they’re in the arctic I just need to fucking prove it! ”
I stand and pour myself another drink.
“As exciting as an alien reality series followed by hunting does sound, you’ll have to take a raincheck.”
“Do you have any idea what my life is like with three children under the age of four?” Jayson shoots me a look of desperation. “The noise never stops. That’s all I wanted from this trip— quiet. I can’t even go to the bathroom without screaming.”
“Yeah, that’s not new, man.”
“Shut the hell up! You know what I mean!”
“You love those little hellions,” I laugh. “And so do I. The noise is worth it, you literally sleep with a fan and the tv on now because silence gives you anxiety.”
“Hell is the perfect word to describe the state of my life right now,” Jayson diverts the conversation and his head. “My wife doesn’t think I help enough and every time she looks at me, I swear to God, Stetson, she looks like she wants to kill me.”
I remember the look on Evelyn, his wife’s face, when she opened the door and saw me, since I picked Jayson up. To be fair to my cousin, she didn’t look like her usual cheerful self.
“She did look like those women on those crime documentaries that end up poisoning their significant others.”
Jayson pales. “My stomach has been off.”
“I’m kidding, but she did look pissed.”
Jayson shakes his hand up in the air like an Evangelical minister. I’m guessing he’s looking for validation.
“See!” He shoots back another drink. “And now she talks to herself, Stetson! And when I catch her mumbling about me the words I’ve been able to decipher are— useless, moron, inept and missing braincells… a few colorful ones I remember…”
I burst out laughing.
“I’m serious, man! You should see the look in her eyes. Stetson, it’s like a wild animal’s taken over,” he shakes like even he can’t believe it, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more humorous than him losing his mind over his wife and kids, wasn’t he just a bachelor a few years ago?
“She’s incredible,” I manage.
Jayson narrows his eyes at me then sighs. “I know.”
I’m proud of Jayson. I smile over at him, thoroughly enjoying the moment of clarity. She drives him crazy but he wouldn’t want it any other way. Love is like that. I find myself insanely jealous in that moment, jealous of his chaos and noise.
Jayson pins me with his gaze.
“Just so you know, I felt Evelyn too—and look at us now,” he says dryly. “I’m going to have to buy her a really good gift this year.”
He’s not the heir so him feeling her isn’t as big of a deal as me feeling someone, but it’s still massive at least for Jayson.
“I might have a few ideas,” I smile.”
Jayson leans back in his chair.
“Clearly, you have much to look forward to.”
I think about all the experiences I have yet to have with Charlie—the kind where she’s naked, wet and moaning.
“Indeed.”
“A very Merry Christmas.”
“Ho. Ho. Ho.” I wink.
“…you know what this means.” He sobers a bit. “If you felt the ground shake it means she’s the real deal or she could be, it means a risk, that doesn’t—”
“—I know.” I immediately feel like I’m going to be sick. “Imagine loving someone with so much force even magic has to acknowledge it.”
I leave out the rest of my thoughts as my brain reminds me. “Imagine losing it too.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Jayson whispers. “Take it a day at a time.”
Time. As if we really have it. Once Christmas is finished my chances are gone. You only get one shot when you feel the earth shift that way, one Christmas to make things right. Christmas gives chances, but if it gave you one each Christmas would it really be special?
I have a choice to make.
And I have until midnight Christmas Day to make it.