Chapter Four
Strolling across the empty parking lot toward the open diner, Enrico debated how he could convince Celyn to come back to the workshop with him.
From what he’d seen of her life here, her job at the pub sucked, and he knew for certain that he could talk Mrs. Claus into giving her a position in the kitchen making cookies. The problem was her family.
Could she leave them behind?
Would she even be interested in moving to the North Pole to be with him?
He just didn’t know. He needed more time with her. Time to get to know her better, to allow her to get to know him better, and to see if they could be more than just kissing in the shadow buddies.
Problem was, he didn’t have the kind of time that kind of getting to know one another needed.
It was only three and a half weeks until Santa’s big day, and he needed to be in his office, sorting, processing, and all the other issues that came from dealing with letters that arrived by the planeload during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
At the same time, Celyn needed to be here, working her job and taking care of her family.
Reaching around her, Enrico pulled the door open and held it for the woman he had a driving need to mark as his own. That might get him through their busiest season and he could return just after the new year to romance her and convince her to join the North Pole’s staff of human helpers.
They weren’t elves exactly, but were humans who had given up their lives in the world to help Santa and Mrs. Claus each year.
Some stayed year-round at the North Pole, testing games, inventing new toys, taking care of the elves who were getting up there in years.
Others arrived in the fall for the busy season to help with sorting, wrapping and preparing millions and millions of gifts for Christmas Eve.
Enrico was a hybrid. His father had been a human who’d visited one spring to set up an early computer system, and his mother had been an elf in charge of the doll-making crew.
Knowing Celyn would be an amazing addition to the kitchen staff, Enrico smiled to himself as he followed her across the diner to the empty booth farthest from the door.
There were two rough-looking men sitting at the counter drinking coffee and an amorous couple sharing one bench of a booth next to the door.
He was surprised that their waitress arrived as soon as they’d settled across from one another.
“Good morning. What would you like to drink?” she asked as she set two paper napkin rolls of silverware in the middle of the table.
He looked to Celyn, waiting for her to order first.
She took a deep breath and met his gaze with a smile. “I’d like a hot chocolate with whipped cream and piece of apple pie. Heated and with whipped cream on top instead of ice cream, please.”
The waitress wrote down the order then turned to him. “And you?”
“The same, thank you.”
The older woman made a note on her pad and walked away without another word.
Laying his hands palms up on the table, he was not surprised that Celyn immediately laid hers on top of them. The need to touch, to be close, was something that soulmates shared throughout the world and history.
“So,” he started after a moment of staring deep into her eyes. “Tell me about Celyn Berry.”
“How do you know my last name?”
He shrugged, not sure she would understand the truth. “I must have heard it somewhere. Now, tell me about you.”
As he watched, her face turned bright pink and she dropped her gaze from his eyes to the tabletop.
Then she shrugged. “Not much to tell. I’m a military veteran helping out with my family while I try to figure out where my life is going to take me next.
Nothing exciting or talk-worthy. Tell me about being an elf. ”
Enrico knew she was deflecting but did not know why. When he opened his mouth to answer her question, he found the words refused to come. At least the words to describe his life as Nick’s right-hand elf. Then he remembered that telling outsiders was forbidden.
Instead, he said, “It’s cold and dark six months of the year, but thanks to LED light technology, we don’t get down and depressed in January like we used to. When you were eight years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
Before Celyn could answer, the waitress returned with their orders.
The apple pie was steaming around the whipped cream and their mugs were piled high with whipped cream with chocolate shavings on top. Taking a deep breath, Enrico grinned at the yummy scents that swirled and mixed as they filled his lungs.
“Smells so good,” he murmured, unrolling his silverware and laying the paper napkin aside for later.
He waited for Celyn to take a bite of her pie before doing the same. Their appreciative moans harmonized as they looked into each other’s eyes while chewing.
“Delicious,” Celyn said once she’d swallowed that first bite.
Enrico nodded his agreement as he lifted his mug and took a sip. Hot and chocolatey. Not bad, but Judy made better. Probably because the elf used real milk and chocolate and not a mix out of a can.
Celyn began to giggle as he lowered his mug back to the table.
“You have cream on your nose and mustache.” Grabbing one of the spare napkins piled by the wall, she half-rose to her feet and reached across the table, wiping at his nose and upper lip.
“Yeah, that happens,” he chuckled once she finished and sat back down. “Eating sugar coated donuts is worse. It gets in my beard and I end up having to take a shower to get it all off.”
Celyn giggled again as she turned her focus to her plate. They remained silent as they ate, but once he finished his pie, Enrico rested back in his seat with one hand wrapped around his mug and watched her.
“What? Do I have whipped cream on my face?” Celyn asked as she patted at her cheeks and chin.
“No, I was just trying to figure out the answer to my question. But I’m pretty sure I’m wrong,” he said as he began folding a clean napkin. He’d folded so many origami animals in his spare time he didn’t need to watch what he was doing.
Celyn yawned as she watched his hands. “I’m sorry, I forgot the question.”
“When you were eight years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
He waited as she stared over his left shoulder while she reached back into her memories.
“Eight years old,” she murmured. “I think that was the year Cedar tried to convince me that Santa wasn’t real and I ended up wanting to grow up and be Santa Claus.
Having a birthday the day after Christmas sucked until my grandmother began celebrating half birthdays with us on June twenty-sixth.
Then I didn’t mind being born on Boxing Day so much. ”
“Sounds like your grandmother was a smart lady.”
“Oh, she was. She was also the one who convinced me that, despite everyone else telling me I should go to college and then go into the military, I should do what I wanted. So I went in right after high school while Cedar went to college. He joined ROTC in college and then active duty once he graduated. And now I’m out after ten years, taking care of his family while he’s in the Middle East.”
Enrico had not expected Celyn to get sad and decided it was time to change the subject and get her mind back on him and not the past. Leaning over the table, he whispered, “I want you, the sooner the better. Is there somewhere we can go to be alone?”
His breathing froze in his lungs when she leaned in and whispered back, “I want you, too, but you can’t come home with me.”
“Can we be alone at the bar?”
Her eyes widened as she thought of his suggestion before nodding. “Let’s go.”
Enrico left money on the table after they rose.
It only took a few short minutes to return to the back door of the pub.
Celyn used her key to unlock the door and led the way inside.
Once inside, he pulled the door closed, and flipped the lock to ensure they would not be interrupted while she dealt with a nearby panel that controlled something.
“Turned off the video cameras,” she whispered once she was finished.