Page 10 of Kringle and the Kraken

“Oh yeah. My parents and all five of my siblings. My grandparents passed away, but they used to live here too. Both sets. The Kringles have lived in Lifeboat for as long as any of us can remember.”

Levi’s brow creased again like he was trying to puzzle something out, then he shook his head slightly. “So what do you do, Kris? I mean besides hand out flyers for the local KELPS events.”

“About that. You don’t have to come. I mean, the guys would love it. They want to recruit three new members this year, but even one new person would be great.”

“No. I’m coming. Trust me. I want to.”

“Okay. I promise I won’t be offended if you change your mind.”

Levi smiled. “I’ll be there. Now answer my question.”

I held my hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I forgot for a second that you haven’t been in town long. My family and our family business is kind of infamous around here.”

“Infamous? Do you run a criminal enterprise or something?”

“God, I wish. That would be so much better than the reality. Alas, no. My family owns a Christmas tree farm and Santa’s Workshop experience, and in the offseason, my mom runs a wine and paint studio out of the workshop. I’m technically in charge of the tree farm since I’m not really into the whole Christmas thing.”

My impromptu date tilted his head to the side, studying me. “The whole Christmas thing?”

“Yeah. My name is Kris Kringle. It’s kind of a curse. In elementary school, all the kids used to call me baby Santa. My family’s business didn’t help. The number of times a kid passed me a note that was actually just their Christmas list was kind of ridiculous. At any rate, the whole thing kind of put a damper on the holidays for me.”

“I don’t celebrate Christmas, but I guess I can see how the magic was kind of ruined for you.”

“Yeah.” I held up my thumb and index finger with the tiniest space between them. “Just a little.”

“So you run the tree farm all year round?”

Before I could answer, a young man scurried over. “Oh my gods, I am so, so, so, sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr. Shoal.Please accept my deepest apologies.” He bowed his head a little like he was showing Levi respect.

“Uh, it’s totally fine. Not an issue at all.”

“No. It’s definitely a problem, sir. You’re, well, you’re you.” He beamed at Levi. “What can I get you?”

“I’ll have the shrimp udon and an order of pan-fried gyoza.”

“Anything to drink?”

“The house hot sake, please.”

“Yes, of course.” He bowed again, then turned to leave.

“Uh, did you forget something?” Levi asked, and the server turned around, looking completely confused.

Levi gestured to me, and the server, who hadn’t given his name, glanced at me for half a second before looking back at Levi. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were with someone.” He looked at me again and made a slightly sour face, then asked. “What are you having?”

“I’ll do a double order of crab rangoon, a large miso soup, and a pot of green tea.”

The server nodded cooly, gave Levi another glowing smile, and hurried away.

When he was out of earshot, I studied Levi, looking for signs that he’d thought that whole exchange was just as strange as I did. “What was all that about?”

My date chuckled uncomfortably. “It would take far too long to explain, but the general overview is that my father is a bit of a celebrity in certain circles, and sometimes that bleeds over into my life.”

“Family shit, huh?”

He nodded. “Family shit.”

“What were we talking about before he came over?”

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