Chapter 3
Chloe
Three weeks later.
The sidewalk was treacherous. As I got into my car, I slipped on the ice, catching myself on the doorframe at the last second.
My elf hat fell off, and I grabbed it where it had landed in the snow.
On top of my full-time diner job, I’d been moonlighting as a singing telegram. It was a short-term holiday gig, but if my reviews were good, they’d bring me back on board for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
I didn’t have many skills in life, but singing was one of them. I wasn’t half bad. And this paid way better than Uber.
The elf costume on the other hand? What an embarrassment.
You put a plus-size girlie in a tiny elf costume and things looked… different than they would on a smaller woman. I was busting out of the costume. They hadn’t been able to provide me with a bigger size.
But I got a hundred dollars per gig, plus they paid for mileage. All I needed was a decent singing voice and the ability to drive myself wherever the job was. So I wore the costume without complaint.
It was just odd to get a job all the way out at Red Oak Mountain after going there for the first time a few weeks ago. Especially when you considered that I’d been obsessing over a certain Sexy Santa who lived on that mountain.
Before Astrid and I had gone on the sleigh ride, I’d never known the place existed. It was only an hour away… but it felt like a world apart from my reality.
Astrid had tried to talk me into going back out to Red Oak Mountain, but it hadn’t happened until I found a real reason to go.
She was convinced that Sexy Santa had been into me. Astrid said it was something about the way his expression had darkened when he looked at me.
Just what I needed. A dark and stormy sex machine.
But I was a realist, and pragmatic at this point in my life.
There was no way in hell I would waste that much gas money driving all the way out to the country on a whim.
And then what?
Pay for another sleigh ride?
My rent money was laughing at the idea of that.
Nope.
Better to focus on my electric bill. It was due in two days, and I didn’t quite have the funds to cover it yet. But rent took precedence over electricity.
As I drove, the roads were already getting slick. A storm would be rolling in later tonight. The roads were predicted to get bad by two a.m.
Under normal circumstances, I would never be out here navigating black ice patches in an old car. But the need for money made people do foolish things.
And the gig tonight would pay my electric bill.
Maybe I could just swing by the Santa’s Sleigh Ride event for one minute.
And what? See my dream man while dressed as an elf?
Besides, I didn’t know anything about him.
He’d been pretty shut down, and despite what Astrid thought, he had not been interested in me. If he had been, he would have asked for my number, or at least tried to talk to me.
My thoughts kept me occupied for the next hour.
The second I’d been out of the city and driving through the countryside, a sense of calm had descended on me that I wasn’t used to feeling.
It was like everything felt more real out here.
I could see myself living out this way, which was a crazy thought. I was broke as hell and didn’t have the means to uproot my life to move somewhere new. But the thought held me tight and refused to let go.
Maybe in the future.
It was good to have dreams. And my dream was a small one. I wanted a simple life in a slow-moving town.
I wouldn’t need much.
Good insulation. Thick blankets on my bed. A man who looked like Santa to share it with.
I was almost at the sleigh-ride place. I knew I was going to feel like a fool showing up wearing this outfit and thinking that gruff man wanted something more with me.
But I couldn’t stay away. It felt like fate.
And right now, maybe I was driving to my future. Maybe he was my one. It was possible. Anything was possible.
There was no denying the way he’d made me feel, even without any words exchanged.
There’d been an undercurrent between us. A connection of some sort. And I knew it went beyond just the typical sexual attraction a person sometimes felt when looking at a handsome man.
I wanted to uncover his mysteries and soothe his pain.
I wanted to make him believe that he could be whole again.
This wasn’t the right time in my life to attach myself to a fixer-upper project like him, but somehow I couldn’t stay away. And fate was playing a hand now.
In fact, it was playing such a big hand that I fated my way straight to the parking lot where the sleigh rides were held.
The drive had been fast enough that I could see my mystery Santa and still have time to make it to the client’s place for the gig.
And singing telegrams only took a few minutes.
Maybe afterward he’d be open to spending some time with me. We could get a drink. Surely there’s a bar or a coffee shop somewhere in this town.
My heart rose in my chest at the thought of seeing him again. This was wild. And it felt like I was taking a big risk. But the compulsion to see him again was overwhelming. I’d never felt this way before in my life. It was kind of crazy.
And to think, if it goes right, I could be on a date with him in just a few short hours.
I grimaced. I should have brought a change of clothes. I hadn’t thought that part through.
But there wasn’t anything to do about it now. I’d just have to wear my winter coat. It would hide the costume to a certain extent.
But when I pulled in, all my hopes vanished.
The parking lot, which had been so alive and festive a few weeks ago, was completely desolate. There was nobody here.
No crowd of expectant tourists.
No tired horse.
No cranky Santa.
I hadn’t expected this.
Well, fuck-a-doodle-doo. So much for destiny.