Page 41 of Santa Daddy, I'm Not the One

“Yes.”

Did he want me to stay?

“I don’t want to leave,” I blurted out. “I know when I just came here, I was desperate to go back, to live my old life, but now…” I gripped his hand and squeezed. “All I want to do is spend the rest of my life with you.”

“You don’t want to go back?”

I shook my head. “I want to stay with you.”

“But what about everything you have…your house…the store…money.”

“None of it matters without you.”

Nils picked me up with a laugh and twirled me around, his eyes shining. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

I laughed, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I love you.”

15

LANDON

The closing of Yuletide Crossing loomed over me, and a mix of excitement and dread churned in my stomach. It was a strange feeling, knowing that I had the option to return to my world, to the life I’d known before I’d ever heard of Twinkle Glen or found out Santa was real. But as the time drew near for the Crossing to end, fear gripped my heart with icy fingers.

Nils entered the stable where I was feeding the reindeer. I flashed him a smile, hoping my apprehension wasn’t showing on my face.

“Landon.”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been here long enough. What’s on your mind? Is it the Yuletide Crossing?”

I sighed and nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

“Understandable. Are you having second thoughts?” He wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“No. It’s just so final.” I placed my hands over his and leaned into him. “Can you tell me about the Yuletide Crossing again?” I needed to hear it to understand it fully.

“It opens a bridge between our two worlds and occurs mostly every month. You have to follow the alignment of the stars to find out when they will happen. Because it’s two different dimensions, you can’t exist with knowledge of both, so if you return to your world, you will forget everything from this one.”

Forget him? No. No way. He was the best thing to have happened to me. The idea of forgetting about everything, about Nils and Twinkle Glen, seemed unfathomable. A world without magic, without Santa, without the one I loved. Could I really make that choice?

I shook my head vehemently. “No,” I said firmly. “I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to leave this behind.”

“I’m glad. Tonight is my last trip to deliver the presents for all the children.”

I tilted my head back and looked up at him. “I heard you’ve pushed yourself the last two days, so tonight you’ll finish early.”

“For the Mistletoe Ball. I miss it every year, and it never bothers me, but I want to take you.”

I smiled at the thought. “I can’t wait.” Excitement bubbled up inside me, pushing away the shadows of fear. “It sounds magical.”

“It will be, especially with you there,” Nils said. “I have to go now, but if you get bored, the elves love playing board games with you.”

“That’s because I never win.”

Nils chuckled. “If you stick around, I’ll teach you all you need to know to beat them at their own games.”

My heart swelled with joy and anticipation as Nils left for his last trip. The stable felt empty without him, but a soft nudge of a reindeer muzzle reminded me I wasn’t alone. I smiled, thinking about the Mistletoe Ball and how special tonight would be.

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