Page 12 of Donner

"Do you want more room service, or would you like to go out?" I asked.

"I'd like to stay here, if that's all right?" He shrugged. "The hotel has a restaurant."

"That requires clothes." I kissed him again.

"Room service would require clothes," he said.

"Notably less clothes. Maybe our swim trunks. Maybe robes."

He hummed against my lips. "They have nice robes here. I like that idea."

When the food arrived, we both donned the soft terrycloth wraps provided by the hotel and sat properly on the couch closest to the door. Neither of us had bothered with our wet swim trunks, choosing instead to drape them over the side of the bathtub.

The hotel food was expensive but good. We chatted about everything from food to sports, our banter light and fun until I asked Jax about his job. I'd assumed he worked for a mall Santa or some other variety of the Christmas elf, but no.

"My team and I fly one of Santa's sleighs around the world on Christmas Eve," he said. "The rest of the year, we help out where we're needed. One year, I ran the dye mold for rubber wheels for toy cars. Last year, I helped my friend Derek ice a hundred cookies to thank the elves for their hard work. They made over ten thousand of those talking dolls everyone wanted before Christmas."

I stared at him, unable to get the angry words in my head to come out of my mouth. Santa existed! It had been easy enough to ignore his unanswered request when I learned he wasn't real. Now? I was furious.

Jax took my silence as a sign to regale me with more stories of Christmases past.

After he shared the tale of wind shear that nearly brought down their sleigh over Norway last year, I found my voice again. "Santa's real?"

He nodded. "Yes!"

"If he's real, why haven't I ever seen him? How did I not receive presents from him? He never answered me!"

"I'm sorry." Jax patted my shoulder. He looked so sincere when he said, "There are many Santas. There must have been some misunderstanding. When I go back, I can ask them for you."

I closed my eyes and counted to ten, reminding myself the entire time it wasn't Jax's fault. He hadn't teased me for believing in Santa. He wasn't to blame for the horrible treatment I received from my classmates.

Honestly, neither was Santa. How could one elf, or the many Jax implied, truly answer the needs of every child, especially when my need had been so selfishly specific? I'd asked for a best friend. Now, it seemed ridiculous. The most magical elf on the planet couldn't have made someone want to hang out with me, even if it was the one thing I wanted in the world.

"What did you ask him for?" Jax asked.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me," he said. He tucked his feet under him and leaned against my shoulder.

I wrapped my arm around him and kissed his hair. "I asked Santa to bring me a friend."

Jax looked up at me, his eyes sad. "Me, too. I didn't have many growing up. I met Derek in the Christmas University dorms. He was my roommate."

"He's your best friend?"

Jax nodded. "What about you?"

"Ferris was the closest thing I had to a friend." Just thinking of my fellow bouncer made me mad as hell. "Now, I don't know."

"I'll be your friend," Jax said.

"How would that work?" I asked. "You have to go back to the North Pole in two weeks."

"I'll spend every moment with you until then," he said. "And then we can keep in touch through texts and emails until I can come back for another vacation."

At the end of two weeks, I knew I would want more, but for now, I would take whatever I could get.

Chapter 7

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