Page 18 of Naughty Elf: Shimmersnap

“Yeah,” I said. I looked around at all the twinkling lights, the families and couples all smiling and laughing together, enjoying the holiday festival.

“Would you like to walk around?” Walter asked. “They have a lot of great booths. There’s even one that has specialty flavored candy canes. You can buy one as tall as you.”

I laughed. “No, you can’t.” If such a thing existed, I would already know about it. “I would really like to walk around, though. Will you come with me?”

Walter held out his hand, and I slipped mine into his, linking our fingers together. “I’d love to,” he said.

“What’s your favorite thing about Christmas?” I asked. We kept our pace slow so we could see the different booths. There were ice sculptures and other fun decorative items lining the walkway. I was fascinated by all the things humans did to decorate and celebrate the holiday, but having Walter close by like this had me distracted.

The snow continued to fall in large flakes, lazily making their way to the cold ground.

His brow furrowed. “I don’t know that I have a favorite thing.”

“Surely you have a favorite memory from your holidays.” I snugged in closer to him, bathing in his warmth. As an elf accustomed to the North Pole, I didn’t really feel cold, but if that was what it took to be close to my Walter, then I would pretend.

I could have used some of my magic to peek at his holiday memories, but I didn’t wish to intrude. I wanted my mate to tell me about these things himself.

“I, uh, honestly, we didn’t have great Christmases growing up. My dad was a bit of a drinker. He didn’t enjoy celebrating, andif he did, he wanted to celebrate at a bar, so we just didn’t do a whole ton.”

My heart ached for him. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

Walter shook his head. “That’s all right. I’m surprised I even told you that. I don’t talk about it a lot.”

“It’s not too late to make new memories,” I said. “Like this Christmas. Look around, there are so many cool things here. You’ve already done the hot chocolate bar. I saw you sneaking in several cups.”

Walter chuckled. “I did indeed enjoy several way-too-sweet cups of hot chocolate.”

I wrinkled my nose. “There’s no such thing as too sweet. Now, what if we went to the little ornament-making station?”

“I don’t have a tree to put it on. I don’t really need an ornament.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter. Just set it on your desk. Set it on your mantle.” I winced as I said the words—little did he know he would be setting the ornament next to me if he did that. With any luck, I wouldn’t be on the mantle forever.

Walter’s lips curled into a grin. “I do have one Christmas decoration, a cute little elf that sits on my mantle. Only I keep him out all year. I got him at an estate sale last February. He’s the cutest thing.”

Aw. Walter thought I was cute as a figurine. Progress!

“See, festive!” I joked.

“I’ll show him to you when we get home.”

Alarm bells started ringing in my head. Abort, abort! He couldn’t show me the elf. I was the elf. I couldn’t be there on the mantle and right next to him at the same time.

Walter tugged me toward the ornament-making station. “You make one too. We’ll have matching ones.”

I couldn’t resist that smile. I lived for that smile.

“Of course,” I said.

The ornament we ended up making was a wooden wreath that was also a picture frame. The people running the booth snapped our picture and printed them right there so both Walter and I had a copy. He painted his wreath green with a red bow. No embellishments; meanwhile, I spent a painstakingly long amount of time to get the sparkles just right on the branches so that it looked like snow.

I held it up to him for inspection.

“It’s gorgeous,” he said.

“I like yours.”

“I’ll trade you,” he said and held out his to me.

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