Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Yule
“Did you just say your wife is on the naughty list? Again? Son, this is unacceptable. I don’t think there has been a Mrs. Claus in history that has been on the naughty list!” Papa Claus paced the floor, shaking his head as he muttered Christmas curses under his breath.
Maybe my father had spent too many years around panicking elves because the second I blurted out my issue, he’d spiralled.
“Calm down, dear. This is not the end of the world.” My mother tried to calm him, and I realized that was what she’d been doing for my whole life. For a split-second, I wondered if it was actually him, not the elves, that was the problem.
“Certainly not, but it could be the end of Christmas! The end of the Claus name! Call one of the legal team. We need to loop them in on this. We need to figure out how to get in front of this before things go south.”
Oh, brother. I’d come for some fatherly advice and he was about to turn this into a full PR crisis.
“Dad, we don’t need to loop anyone in! I just came for advice. She has completely blocked me out so I have no idea what she is thinking or feeling. No clue what she is up to or even how she ended up on the naughty list between the time I left her in the morning and the time I got to the office.”
“See, there is nothing to fret about yet.” Mama waved in my father’s direction, then turned her attention to me.
“Son, you need to go home and have a long conversation with your sweet wife. She needs your time and your ear. Take the day and give her that. Regardless of what anyone else thinks, the North Pole will not melt down around all of us if Santa takes the day off.”
I’d heard her say that exact phrase to my father multiple times growing up when he got sick or needed a day of rest around the holidays. I knew she was right.
“This has to be remedied by Christmas Eve.” Papa reminded me.
Sighing, I nodded my head. “I’ve done it before, I can do it again. At least I don’t have to worry about making her a believer before I get her off the list first, this time.”
“Thank the sugarplum fairies for small miracles," Papa grumbled.
Mama shot him a look. “Go to the kitchen and get a cookie. You’re grumpy.”
At the mention of cookies, my father beelined it out of there, grumbling the entire way.
Mama shook her head. “Ignore him. He is not handling retirement as well as he wants us all to think. You go home and give that sweet wife of yours the kind of attention she can only get from you. Everything will look brighter in the morning. Call us if you need anything else, but I have faith in you, son. You’re a good man and that girl loves you to the South Pole and back a million times over. ”
“Okay, Mama. Thank you.”
I gave her a hug and put on my coat before heading home. It was nearly noon, which meant we could share lunch together and then I would have the rest of the day to deal with my naughty Little elf.
And deal with her, I must. The fate of Christmas depended on it.
Crystal
I was equal parts nervous and relieved when my Santa Daddy came in the front door before lunchtime.
I’d spent the morning fretting while trying to keep my outward composure in check so as not to tip off Trixie that something was amiss.
It wasn’t too difficult as long as I kept her busy.
And I’d done that with great success as was evident by the fact that my countertops were covered with six different types of holiday cookies from all over the world.
People called the United States a melting pot of people, but the North Pole—positioned at the exact top of the globe—truly was.
It was the point where all cultures came together.
That was honestly one of my favorite parts of living there.
Yule entered the kitchen wordlessly, his gaze darting over the cookie-covered counters.
“Santa! Home for lunch? I was just about to whip up some sandwiches.”
“Thank you, Trixie, but no thank you. I actually took the rest of the day off to spend some time with my wife. Why don’t you go ahead and take the rest of the day off as well and grab yourself something for lunch on the way home, my treat.”
When he said the words ‘my wife’, his gaze came to me and locked on. My tummy danced with nerves and possibly a little excitement.
“Oh! That sounds lovely. Thank you, sir.” Trixie took off her flour-spattered apron and hung it up as she spoke.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for all your hard work.
You’re much appreciated.” He kept his eyes trained on me as he responded.
I tried to open my mind to hear if he was passing any thoughts to me, but he wasn't. It was nothing but dead air.
Something about that made the entire situation even more nerve wracking.
“Always my pleasure, Santa. I’ll see you tomorrow, Crystal, and we can make that Baklava we talked about.”
At the sound of my name, I startled and completely lost track of my words.
“Umm, yeah. Baklava. Right. Sounds great. See you tomorrow.” I fumbled through the goodbyes.
And just like that, my husband and I were alone. He kept his attention trained on me as he took off his coat and boots.
“How was your morning?” he asked.
I turned away from his knowing gaze so he couldn’t see my face when I outright lied to him.
“Uneventful.” I shrugged for good measure.
“Do you want me to make you a turkey sandwich? That’s what Trixie and I had planned to have.
I kinda have a taste for pizza though. Like pizza I used to get back in New York from that little corner place. ”
I jabbered nervously as I pulled sandwich fixings out of the refrigerator.
“Pizza sounds good,” Yule said from right behind me.
I turned to see him holding a box from the exact restaurant I’d been referring to. Instantly I could smell the yummy goodness wafting from the box.
“Jingle balls! That smells like heaven.” I reached for the box but he pulled it away.
“I’m not sure you deserve pizza, though. You’ve been pretty naughty.”
He raised a brow and my insides melted.
It was impossible to know how much he knew. He obviously had to have realized by now that I was on the naughty list. That had to be why he was home so early. But I couldn’t let him know I knew. It would ruin everything.
“No naughtier than usual.” I lied again and tried to reach for the box.
He moved it further out of reach and grabbed my wrist. “Lying to Daddy is very naughty, little girl.”
We stared at each other in silence for a minute. Him trying to get in my head and me trying not to give anything away. It was pretty tense.
“Daddy, I’m hungry,” I finally forced out. “If you’re not gonna let me have pizza, can I at least make a sandwich, please?”
That got his attention.
“I wouldn’t taunt you with food, but I need you to hear what I am about to say.
I know you have been naughty this morning and that you’re lying and keeping things from me.
After lunch we are going to have a nice long chat about all of those things and it is not going to be a fun chat. Do you understand me?”
I nibbled the side of my lip. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Go make some room at the dining table and I will get us some plates.”
He handed me the pizza box and I scurried away.
I’d been starving before he came home but after his declaration, my stomach was suddenly tight and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get anything down.
Moving some cookies around, I created enough space for the pizza box to sit and made extra room so we could sit and still have room to eat.
“What’s the plan for cookiepalooza?” Yule asked as he came to the table with plates and napkins.
“We were bored, I guess. Trixie is teaching me to make all different types.”
“I see that.” He looked around.
“Maybe you could take some to the office? The elves can never have too many cookies,” I suggested. I really had no plan for everything we baked and we’d definitely gone overboard.
“Maybe. Is that what Trixie was doing at the offices this morning?”
I straightened my back. “You saw her? I mean, I thought you were at the workshops all morning.”
I took a piece of pizza out of the box and shoved a huge bite in my mouth to stop the lies from coming. With my heightened nerves I was definitely going to give everything away if I wasn’t careful.
“I was there for a good bit, but not all morning.” He took a bite of his own pizza and eyed me skeptically.
“She had an errand, I guess.”
“You guess? She didn’t tell you?”
“Well she did, but, like, I didn't give her the third degree or anything.”
The ruse got harder and harder to keep under wraps the more questions he asked. I had to get the upper hand somehow, but I was so flustered I couldn’t think.
“What was the emergency at the workshop this morning?” I blurted excitedly when the question came to my mind. Asking him about work was a surefire way to get him talking and get his mind off of me for a little while. Hopefully for as long as it took to get my nerves under control.
Sure enough, he set his pizza down and sighed deeply as he launched into an explanation about maximizing performance and reducing waste and how the elves were at odds about what was more important.
And because they were at odds, work had stalled and they were in danger of falling behind with so little time before Christmas.
“I told you elves were overdramatic.” He finally picked up his pizza again.
“That sounds like you have a lot on your mind. Is there anything I can do to help?” I bit my bottom lip and gave him the most seductive look I could muster. Maybe I could distract him with sex.
“You’re not going to distract me with sex, little elf.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed. “Well why not? I promise it will be more fun than whatever you wanted to chat about.”
“Oh it absolutely would be more fun. Especially for you.”
My breath hitched in my chest.