Page 51 of Santa of the Creek
“Who’s first to meet Santa Paws?” Helena asks when the silence stretches on awkwardly.
What happens next has nothing to do with me, I swear.
Echo cries out, “Santa Paws, you left me behind.”
Barky shoots across the room to say hello.
One minute Echo is on his feet, and the next the elf, my elf, is on the floor, red stockinged legs waving in the air.
“Fuck!” he says loudly.
There’s a stunned silence.
My brother, who for some reason has just arrived, has his head in his hands and his shoulders shake, obviously laughing.
“Where’s my Barky?” Geraldine says. “What did you do with him?
He isn’t anywhere to be seen. Echo rolls to his knees, looking hopelessly at me. Fortunately, Barky hasn’t been squished underneath him.
“Where has he gone?” Geraldine asks, as bewildered as the rest of us.
As everyone looked around, I see something wriggle behind the pitty. “Miss Jools, I think Barky is hiding behind Rina.”
Jools looks down and scoops up Barky. “He thought Rina would protect him.”
Echo collects Barky and cuddles him for a moment. “You’re a brave boy, aren’t you, Barky?”
Then he scratches Rina behind the ears. “Who’s a good girl.” He coos and fusses on her. She closes her eyes and thumps one leg in appreciation.
And just like that, everything is all right again.
I grin at Echo. “Goodness me, that’s a lot of excitement, Mister Elf. Is your ankle all right?”
He makes a big play of checking his ankle out and asking Barky to sniff it over. I have no idea why the dog cooperates, but he does.
Then we get on with the present giving, Echo and I taking it in turns to give the dogs their treats. I only receive one nip for my troubles.
I’m not surprised when Danny vanishes fifteen minutes after he arrives, tapping on his watch and waggling his fingers at Echo and me. At least he turned up.
I wave but Echo says, “Let’s give Collier’s Creek Mayor a festive goodbye.”
His clapping sets all the dogs off again. Danny grimaces at me, but at least he gets to walk out of the door. I’m still here.
But fifteen minutes later, Helena calls time on proceedings, which I’m relieved about, because Echo was going to have to leave me soon. “Let’s give Santa Paws and Mister Elf a round of ap-paws.”
There’s a collective groan but the applause is enthusiastic, and I hear more than one person say it was the most fun they’d had at one of these events. I say nothing when they suggest we should return next year. That isn’t gonna happen.
I thank Helena and everyone for coming, with a special thanks to the doggies for bringing their humans, and then it’s time to leave.
I’ve not taken more than five steps when Echo grabs my hand and hauls me out of sight of the grotto. We’re hidden between sacks of beef calf starter feed and a wall of boxes of lights for the festive season.
I put my hands on Echo’s chest. “What are you doing?”
“Kissing you before I go. I’ve wanted to do this all afternoon.”
My hands are trapped between us as he cups his hand around the back of my neck and kisses me. A moan is captured between us. I’m not even sure who moaned. All I know is I want his mouth on me forever.
“Oh my.”
