Page 19 of Wrap Me Up

He whips his head towards me. Those brown eyes grow wide. “No one.”

“If you’re irritated at Snow and Dylan, it’s not their fault. They’re still learning and you need to give them a bit of grace.”

“It’s inconveniencing us all,” Fruitcake mumbles.

“How so? Because until they took over the weather barrier, we knew nothing but the cold.”

“Yes, but now—”

“How about instead of grumbling you find something to be happy about? Like you still get to be the reindeer herd specialist even after that prank you pulled on Snow the other year. If I was in charge, I would have yanked you so fast your head would spin.”

He mumbles something I can’t hear. “What was that?”

“Nothing. I. Nothing.” Fruitcake picks up his pace and pulls ahead of me.

“That’s what I thought,” I say under my breath. Don’t bad mouth my besties. Snow and Dylan are doing the best they possibly can.

Once I make it to my apartment, I go straight for a quick shower. Then it’s over to the studio. I’m sure Snow and Dylan won’t mind me getting starting instead of grabbing our hot chocolate. We have so many orders to get through before the cutoff. I’m a little worried about it now. I shouldn’t be. We’ve had more in past years, but for some reason I’m starting to slowly panic.

I’m halfway through my first order of the day when the door that connects my studio to Dylan’s opens, bringing Snow and Dylan into my shop. I blink up at the light coming into the windows at the top of the workshop and realize I must have been at this for hours. No one else has showed up. I don’t even know when I started, but it must have been early for my besties to investigate.

“Saw the light was on.” Dylan hands me a blue to-go cup. I breathe in the hot chocolate steam before gulping a few mouthfuls. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s always perfect drinking temperature when he orders. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just have a lot of orders to get through.” I lift the harness in my hands. Thankfully, I’ve been so into the job I haven’t been distracted by Noel, but I wouldn’t mind if I were.

“Soooo,” Snow starts and bounces on his toes. “How was the date?”

I set the harness aside and fan myself. “Amazing.”

“Ohhh, you got laid,” Snow says as Dylan’s cheeks burn bright red.

I shrug. “Maybe, maybe not.”

“You always kiss and tell,” Dylan says.

“Well, I think this time I’ll keep things to myself.” I stick my tongue out and bite back a laugh at Snow’s pout. “Okay, I’ll tell Snow, but not you.” I poke my bestie in the stomach. “You don’t appreciate my stories.”

Dylan huffs and rolls his eyes as he drags a chair over to my worktable. “I don’t need to hear your stories.”

“I do.” Snow waves his hand in the air as if he’s trying to get a teacher’s attention.

“Enough about me.” I side-eye Snow. “For now. How are you guys? What’s going on with the weather barrier?”

Snow nibbles his bottom lip. “That would probably be my fault.”

Dylan takes Snow’s hand and kisses his knuckles. They are so damn cute. “It’s no one’s fault.”

“You say that, but I could not concentrate this morning. I still can’t. My mind keeps racing about all our responsibilities. There’s so much to do. And we’re just apprentice Santas right now. Can you imagine—”

Dylan scoops Snow into his arms. “Take a deep breath. We’re not there yet. Santa and Jack won’t let us down. We just need more practice. It hasn’t even been a full year and there are so many more to go.”

“I know.” Snow slumps into Dylan’s shoulder.

“I’ll help you relax tonight.” He trails kisses down Snow’s jaw.

“Guys. How about ya not get freaky in here?” Not that I haven’t had dreams of Noel doing just that.

“Sorry,” Snow says. “How is the gift exchange going?”

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