When Logan and I made it back to the Winter Wonderland scene, Elizabeth handed me a clipboard. Santa was already sitting in his over-stuffed red chair. There were a few adults making last-minute touches to the fireplace scene—adding a few ornaments on the Christmas tree behind Santa and duct-taping the stockings that just didn’t want to stay up firmly to the cardboard fireplace.

"If you could just write down the names of the children as they sit on Santa's lap and write down what presents they ask him to bring in the column next to their name, that would be perfect."

I looked over the sheets attached to the clipboard. There was space for fifty children. We were going to be busy for a while.

Elizabeth turned to Logan next, who I still couldn't look at without snickering at his outfit. "If you could help the smaller children get onto Santa's lap and then back down afterward, that's all we'll need you to do."

He swallowed and looked around before saying, "I don't know if I'll be able to bend over very far to get the little ones."

Elizabeth gave him a confused look. "Are you injured?"

He shook his head and cleared his throat. "No, um." He looked around again before lowering his voice to just above a whisper. "I don't know if you noticed, but this costume is just a bit tight this year, and if you don't want me to split my shorts in front of all those innocent children's eyes, I might need to be careful with my movements."

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she took him in. It was like she was actually seeing him for the first time since we'd left the back room. She cleared her throat. "My dear. You have grown. This doesn't fit you at all."

Logan shook his head. "Nope."

Elizabeth chewed on her lip as she tried to figure out what to do. Then she glanced at her watch. "The families should be here any minute. There isn't time for us to see if we have an alternative costume somewhere in storage."

"I'm not saying I need to change," Logan said. "Just trying to warn you what might happen if I bend over too far."

She looked at his shorts, and I couldn't avoid letting my gaze wander to his backside as she did. Yep, he was definitely crammed in there tight. If only I hadn't left my phone in the other room, I could have totally snapped a photo and sent it around as blackmail for what he'd done to me last night.

"How about we have you two switch spots," Elizabeth said, breaking me away from my revengeful thoughts. "Logan can take notes and Raven can help the children. Does that sound okay?"

I thought about saying that no, it wouldn't work out because I really wanted to have a good laugh at a possible wardrobe malfunction from Logan. But I decided to be nice instead. "Yeah. That works."

I handed Logan the clipboard and he mouthed, "Thank you."

"I might need you to write my mom a letter telling her that I've become a model citizen and have a heart of gold after this, okay?" I said to Logan as we walked onto the small stage where everything was set up.

"As long as you don't take any pictures to use for blackmail, I'll write anything you want."

It was like Logan could read my mind.

"Ten more kids and we'll be done," Logan spoke in a quiet voice when I came to stand by him. A cute three-year-old girl was sitting on Santa's lap, telling him that she wanted something pink for Christmas.

"Too bad," I said to Logan. Surprisingly, this helping-people-out thing was fun. Who knew helping bring joy to others could be fulfilling?

"You're just sad because you don't want to return that cute dress," he said.

"Oh, so you think it's cute?" I asked with a flirtatious tone before I remembered that I didn't flirt with Logan

"Yep. Pretty sure that's what I'd ask Santa to bring me for Christmas."

He smiled, totally flirting back, so I decided to take it as a compliment. "I'll make sure to whisper it in Santa's ear for you."

"Speaking of Santa…" He gestured at the little girl who now had her hands on Santa's face as she told him exactly all the pink things she wanted. "That little girl is just all sorts of adorable."

Did Logan just say the word adorable?

I looked at the girl. Her blonde hair was pulled up into curly pigtails with pink bows, and she was dressed in pink from head to toe. Even her snow boots were pink.

The girl spoke in her soft three-year-old voice, "I want a pink doll. Pink clothes. Pink backpack. Pink shoes…"

"Are you getting all that?" I asked Logan, eyeing his clipboard.

"Ah, yes." He quickly lifted the clipboard in his arm and started scribbling down notes.

"You forgot the pink unicorn," I whispered, and when I leaned in closer I caught a whiff of his delicious cologne.

He added unicorn, and in big letters above all the words, he wrote "Pink" with arrows pointing at everything.

I watched the crowd as the little girl went on and on. There were a few girls about our age huddled together with goofy grins on their faces. And they were all watching Logan.

"Don't look now, but I think you have some admirers in the crowd." I leaned closer to Logan as he continued scribbling the little girl's list.

His pen stilled. "Admirers?" He gave me a confused expression.

I pointed to the three girls who must go to the other high school in Ridgewater. "They're totally checking you out."

"In this ugly thing?" He made a face. "What's wrong with them?"

I laughed. "Maybe they have a thing for elves in tiny costumes."

He shook his head. "And maybe they need to have their heads examined."

I couldn't help but laugh. And when the tall red-headed girl in the middle winked at him, I laughed again.

"Please tell me she didn't just wink at me," Logan said.

"She totally did." I grinned. "I think she likes your costume. A lot."

Logan glared at me. "You seriously need to work on your lying, Raven. You suck at it."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

While Logan was trying to avoid the gazes and the little waves from his admirers in the back, I noticed that the little girl had finally finished her very detailed list of things she wanted for Christmas. So I helped her down from Santa's lap and held her hand as she descended the steps toward her father at the bottom of the stage.

I bent down so I was closer to the little girl's eye level. "Now make sure you be extra sweet and kind to your family, and I'm sure Santa will be able to do something about getting you your pink Christmas."

The little girl beamed up at me and said, "I be extra good."

I grinned back at her and patted the top of her head. "That's good to hear."

She ran over to her dad and threw herself into his open arms as she excitedly told him about all the things she asked Santa for.

When I made it back to the front of the line, I found that Logan had decided to take my duty over for me.

He handed me the clipboard as he carried a baby boy who couldn't be more than a few months old. "You take the notes. I'll take care of the kids. I gotta move around so I can turn my back to those girls. They're starting to weird me out."

I took the clipboard into my hand, resting it against my arm. "You know they're just going to be watching you from behind, right?"

He groaned. "Yeah, but at least I won't have to see it."

He carefully carried the baby over to Santa and set him on his lap. The baby instantly burst into tears and reached for Logan. And my heart kind of wanted to melt a little as I watched Logan pick the baby up again and gently bounce him to calm him down. The baby stopped crying, but instead of putting the baby back on Santa's lap, Logan knelt beside Santa's chair and held him close to Santa, so his parents could snap a photo.

Once the photo was taken, Logan carefully cradled the baby in his arms and carried him back to his young mother.

And as I watched the whole exchange, I couldn't help but think that Logan was surprisingly good with kids.

Who woulda thought the bad boy was a big softy?