Page 23 of Sleigh Rides With St. Nick

"Ivy," I responded."Is that...no, forget I said anything."

He snorted."Yep.Unfortunate, isn't it?Reindeer shifter parents have a bit of a weird sense of humour.Unfortunately for their kids, it's not that funny."

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged."You're an elf-for-hire, you've got it just as bad."

I almost contradicted him, but when I thought about it, he wasn't entirely wrong.It was fine for situations like this where I was the one who'd suggested putting on an elf costume, but it was different when I'd done it because I had to.

"All right, are you both ready?"Nick asked, coming back around.

Rudolph nodded."Just let me put the harness on.It's much less embarrassing if I do it myself."

I was about to ask what he meant when he slipped it over his head and shifted into a reindeer right in front of me.

"Great, we should get into the sleigh," Nick said, hooking a white beard over his ears."Do I look the part now?"

I studied him for a moment, appreciating that he was going the extra mile with the costume.Though I supposed it made sense.People had an image in their mind when they thought of Father Christmas, and it definitely didn't line up with the hot man he was.

"You look great.Kind of cute."I leaned and kissed his cheek.

He chuckled."Don't let Mrs Claus catch you."

"Mmm, don't want her to think you're having an affair with an elf."

"Absolutely not."He climbed into the driver's seat."All right, when we get out there, wave."

"Wait, wave?How many people are there going to be?"

"A few."He shrugged."I've been doing this on the same street for over a hundred years, people come to see it."

"Right."

He held out his hand glittering magic lept from it and encompassed the sleigh, lifting it ever so slightly.

"Wait, we're not being drawn by Rudolph?"I asked.

"Oh, definitely not.This sleigh is way too heavy to be drawn by one reindeer.He's just there for optics.That's why I hired a shifter to do it.That way, Rudolph knows that he doesn't have toactuallypull it and doesn't get himself hurt."

"Ah."I hadn't even thought about things like that.It made me feel a little out of place with helping him.But it was too late to back out now, especially as I'd promised to help.I pulled my hat out of my bag and put it on my head, securing it with a pair of bobby pins so it stayed in position.

"You can stick that under the seat," Nick said, gesturing to my handbag.

"Thanks."I did as he suggested just as a loud clunk filled the air and the huge doors in front of us swung open.There was a surprising bite in the wind that hadn't been there when I was outside before, but now I was in the sleigh, that was definitely the case.

Rudolph started plodding along, keeping surprisingly even time with the sleigh without Nick having to call down to him about it.Perhaps this wasn't the first year he'd been hired by Nick.

I wondered if this was going to be a one-off for me or if I'd help him in the future.My gaze slipped to the man beside me and I realised that if I was considering helping him at this event again, then perhaps there wasmoreI was thinking about too.

I banished the thoughts.Right now wasn't the time to dive into how I felt about our kiss the other night, especially when it became clear that Nick hadn't been exaggerating about people showing up to see him.The street was lined with children and their parents cheering and waving.

I took a deep breath and followed Nick's advice to wave at them all, smiling widely and hoping I looked just like an elf should.

We reached the end of the street where a grotto had been set up.Nick waved his hand and the sleigh came to a stop.He was probably only able to use magic so blatantly because the humans in the audience would think it was a well-produced illusion, just like they'd think my ears were just good prosthetics.It was easier to believe those things than to consider the fact that magical beings might walk amongst them.

"If you get in the back of the sleigh and hand me presents when I ask for them, that would be great," he said.

"Will do.How do I know what's what?"

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