Page 17 of The Selkie Santa

“They have everything. Spa, swimming pool, gym, sauna, a hairdresser, and a beauty salon.”

“Remind me to retire to this place.”

She almost retorted, “Yeah, Dina would love it.”

Harper took a deep breath and pulled herself together. She was reminding herself of her mom right now.

“Here we are,” she said and led him into the rather grand theater building. It was dark inside, and chilly, and as she led the way to the back of the stage, round to the props room, Harper was aware of Noah close behind her in the narrow space. So close she could smell his warm skin, that delicious Noah smell he always had after he’d scrubbed himself clean of fishing for the day and came to visit her at the café. The tang of spice, the smell of male, all wrapped into memories that made her heart jerk painfully.

She flicked on the light in the props room and Noah exclaimed, “Wow, all this for one Christmas show.” He stared at all the costumes strung around the walls and in boxes on the floor.

“They do other plays throughout the year. And I think they rent the space out too. Gran said the outfits for the Christmas show are at the back.”

As they rummaged through everything, taking out the different outfits and checking them out, it almost felt like old times, when she’d drag Noah to a thrift shop and make him wait while she tried on clothes. Except there was a whole lot of baggage between them now that was much bigger than any of the boxes in here.

“This looks like an elf outfit,” Noah said as he held up a small green and red dress, made of a soft felted material and scalloped like leaves at the hem

“Oh, yeah, I guess so.” Harper almost snatched it from him. But not before she’d registered Noah registering how teeny-tiny it was. She went back to searching, feeling suddenly hot all over.

“Here, I think this is mine.” Noah pulled out a big red Santa outfit.

When he held up the baggy costume, she forgot for a moment that she was angry, and burst out laughing. “That is way too big, even for you Noah.”

“What d’you mean, even for me?” He mock scowled, then made a punch at his flat abs. “I’ll try it on, shall I?"

Oh heavens.“Sure.”

“Don’t look.”

Before Harper could even reply he’d ripped off his shirt. Then his pants. Harper suppressed a little gasp at the sight of him in nothing but bright blue boxers. Gods, two months at sea had toned those strong selkie muscles even more—the guy was fully ripped. His tail flicked cheekily out of a slit in the back of his boxers, sleek and shiny.

Harper pretended to be engrossed in a rack of clothes, humming a Christmas jingle.

“Done and decent,” he said after a minute.

Harper spun round. Okay, so notcompletelydecent. She tried to stop her gaze from snagging on the slice of perfect pecs visible below the unbuttoned Santa jacket. Tried not to notice that when Noah tugged in the huge waist of the pants, a nice slab of tan abs was clearly on view.

“There’s no hole for my tail. Fuck this is uncomfortable.” He turned and glared at his tail bunched up in the back of his pants, the end just flipping over the waistband.

Harper giggled. “It looks like you’ve got a fully loaded nappy.”

“Crapped my pants, you reckon?” They stared at his reflection in the mirror on the wall, and then they were both laughing. “Probably did,” Noah said ruefully. “Coming to see you was enough to make me shit myself. I was that scared.”

She looked at him sideways and fiddled with the elf outfit in her hands. “What d’you mean?”

Noah turned to face her, bunching the enormous Santa pants around him with one hand. “Oh come on, Harps. You know we didn’t part on good terms. You never returned any of my callsand when I got back, Mal said you’d changed your number so I couldn’t find you.”

“But you did anyway.”

“Yeah, after I’d begged Mal on bended knees to tell me where you were.”

“Hmmm. He didn’t hold out for long.”

“I bribed him with my next catch of snapper. Why didn’t you want to see me?”

“You tell me, Noah.”

He looked at her blankly. There was nothing for it but to spit it out. “I saw Dina. While you were away. Coming out of the of the obstetrician’s office in old Motham.” She bit her lip to hold back the pain of the memory.

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