Chapter 21
Fliss had texted her to meet at Calvin’s for drinks.
Nick was playing hockey with Jack and his friends so she wouldn’t see him tonight.
Her house seemed dark and cold compared to the lights and decor of the festival.
It had never bothered her before but did now.
Before she could stop herself, she went and ordered a lighted garland and pre-lit tree from one of the online vendors and then went out to meet her assistant.
Christmas was tough for her. She didn’t allow herself to face all the reasons why she kept to herself and made sure she was so busy year after year.
This year, though, things were different.
For a start, Fliss, Hannah, and Cora had started having either lunch or breakfast together every day.
And then, of course, there was Nick. Nick…
Walking into Calvin’s, she spotted Fliss at the bar dressed in a pair of gold sequined pants and a cream sweater.
She waved when she spotted Cora. Making her way through the crowd, she spotted another familiar face: the woman from the video footage.
The mom who was trying to make Christmas special for her kids.
She had a nametag on and was serving drinks, so she’d obviously gotten a job.
That was good, but Cora still wanted to do something special for her.
Nick and his damn good-deed mantra. Fliss grabbed Cora’s hand and hugged her close before she made it to the table.
“I invited Hannah and Cindy. You don’t know her—she’s one of my cousins. ”
Cora felt her normal panic at meeting new people in a social setting. She tried to shrug it aside but knew her reaction was written all over face. “Sorry, for not giving you a heads-up. Cindy just showed up and Hannah—”
“Needed some adult conversation,” Hannah said, as she brushed by them toward the bar. “What are you drinking, Cora? This round’s on me.”
“What are you having?” she asked.
“The Winter Wonderland-inspired frosted martini,” Hannah said. “Looks like your influence has leaked into town.”
Cora flushed a bit as satisfaction filled her. “I’ll have one too.”
Cindy had a Guiness in front of her and was dressed in enough flannel to make even Nick jealous.
She had two shirts on, one buttoned to the neck and then another draped over it.
She had a row of earrings in both ears similar to Fliss, but Cindy’s were all leaves.
Her hair was dark brown and she wore it pulled up into a ponytail, revealing her shaved head with tattoos of a thorny branch with small blossoms on it.
“Hi, I’m Cora. Nice to meet you,” she said as she took a seat on a stool next to Cindy.
“Hey. Thanks for letting me crash.”
“I’ll go help Hannah with the drinks and see where our nachos are. Want anything?” asked Fliss.
Cora hadn’t decided how long she was staying but she couldn’t drink on an empty stomach so asked for some chicken tenders.
Cindy held her glass loosely in both hands and kept looking around the room.
Tension seemed to vibrate around her. Cora took a deep breath and told herself to be a big girl and engage in small talk. “You and Fliss are cousins?”
“What? Oh, yeah. We both work for the family business,” Cindy said.
“Except Fliss works for me. Do you have two jobs too?”
Cindy shrugged. “I do some hours at the Y. Coaching the girls’ soccer league.”
“You both need to set some better boundaries,” Cora said.
“It’s family. You know how they can be.”
“Actually, I don’t. I’m not close with mine,” she said. Luckily Fliss and Hannah arrived with the drinks and a report that the food would be delivered soon.
“I wasn’t sure you’d make it tonight, Hannah,” Cora said while the cousins chatted. “Is Max feeling better?”
“A bit. My parents are taking him and Sophie to a screening of Elf downtown tonight. Mom insisted I needed a break and shoved me out the door. I’m not allowed to text her for updates until they’re out of the movie.”
“When is that?”
“A little over an hour left,” she said. “Goodness, when did I become this woman?”
“When you had kids. You love them and they give you so much. You told me yourself right over there,” Cora said, pointing to the table where she’d crashed Hannah’s date with Nick.
“Exactly. I think I’m losing myself, though. My mom hinted at that when she forced me out of the house. Told me I would still be a good mother if I took some time for myself. I think I needed to hear that.”
“I agree. So no talk about Max or Sophie tonight. Tell me about Hannah. Have you always been crafty?” she asked.
“Not really. I made quilts and clothes for my own dolls—”
“I’m gonna stop you there. You’ve always been crafty.”
Hannah laughed at herself. “Yeah. I really like it. Basically, I’m an eighty-year-old in a thirty-year-old’s body. Always have been. Sam used to tease me about it.”
Cora put her hand over Hannah’s. Now that she’d had a chance to get to know her, she saw the other woman in a new light. They truly weren’t that different from each other.
Both wanted to be accepted for who they were. The difference was that Hannah had herself figured out way before Cora had. “I never met him. What was he like? If you want to talk about him. If not, that’s okay too.”
“I do. My friends are all careful to never mention him,” Hannah admitted. “I cry when I talk about him.”
“If I ever fell in love and lost that man, I’d cry too,” Cora said.
Hell, she wasn’t even in love with Nick and she experienced separation anxiety when they weren’t together—which was a big red warning for her.
She didn’t need people. Still, no matter how many times she repeated that to herself, it didn’t feel true anymore.
“How’s it going with Nick?”
“Good, I guess. I’ve never really had a proper relationship before—if that’s even what we have. I’m too … high maintenance would be a nice way to put it.”
“No!” Hannah said with fake horror.
She smiled at the joke. The grief she wore like an ill-fitting jacket seem to have loosened.
“I like you two together.”
“Me too,” Cora admitted.
The food arrived and Cora dug into her chicken while Hannah talked. She remembered the conversation she’d had the last time she’d been here. Nick asking about her favorite Christmas memories. This was one. This special night with these women who were becoming her friends.
“Wassailing?” Cora didn’t seem convinced a few nights later when she was naked in his arms. She’d asked a million questions about the tradition, unsure that singing and drinking cider was going to increase attendance or sales at the Winter Wonderland festival, but Nick convinced her to give it a chance.
Traditionally, wassailing was celebrated as part of Twelfth Night, which was in January.
But in recent years more people did it in the lead-up to Christmas.
Crowd numbers were holding steady at the Winter Wonderland, but Nick needed to foster more community spirit, and a group sing would go a long way toward helping.
“It’s an ancient tradition where you drink hard cider and walk through the woods, awakening the spirits. It’s a no-cost way of promoting the festival,” he said.
She chewed her lower lip, looking cute as she weighed his suggestion. “The paperchain intention station has been a massive success.”
“It has.”
“What if you get a big head from all this?”
“I thought you liked my big head,” he said, rolling her naked body under his and sliding into her.
Her back arched and her head fell back as she took him all the way inside her. Her legs came around his hips, her arms around his shoulders, fingers into his hair as they moved together.
Pressure grew on him every day that he didn’t have a wife, and it was only when he was in bed with Cora that he didn’t pay attention to it.
The solution to everything seemed more obvious when they were together and talking about the festival and Christmas.
In these moments, Gold Lumen stirred the air around them and his heartbeat steadied as if … as if she was the answer.
She ran her hand down his back, cupping his ass and arching to whisper directly into his ear.
“Stop teasing and fuck me.”
“I like this,” he said, deliberately slowing down his thrusts to draw out her pleasure. Her body was soft and welcoming, taking all he had to give.
“Don’t you like it when I come around you, squeezing hard?” she asked, her hot words channeled directly into his ear making his dick jump. He was holding on by a thread but there was no reason to because coming inside Cora was heaven.
“I love it,” he said, against her neck, kissing her lightly there. “But I also love just being inside you. I don’t want this to end.”
“We can do it again,” she promised. “However many times you want.”
The control he’d been exerting disappeared and he thrust harder, deeper, quicker until he was pounding into her. Their mouths merged together until his orgasm roared through his body, emptying him into her as she arched under him, nails digging into his shoulders as she climaxed under him.
He rolled to her side, one arm resting on her lower body, her hand on his arm, tracing his tattoos.
They were the outward manifestation of the promises he’d made when he agreed to become Santa Claus.
The oath he’d taken wasn’t one he intended to break and he was now convinced that Cora was the one he needed at his side.
But telling someone who didn’t believe in Santa Claus that he actually was Santa Claus wasn’t going to be easy.
“Okay, so how would I set up this wassailing?” she asked.
He laughed at the way she jumped back to their conversation.
“We’d announce it on socials and on the news and invite people to come to the wooded area at the back of the festival grounds.”
“I’m guessing the main song will be ‘Here We Come A Wassailing?’”
“Of course, but there are a handful of other traditional songs too. Normally it’s done in January so it’s not really carols, but we can use it as a chance to go singing together and not worry too much about what songs we choose.”