Chapter 11
One week until Christmas and four people were out sick. Life could really be unfair sometimes. Holly popped a mint creme into her mouth and then shimmied into the elf costume. A huge grin crossed her face when she remembered back to the last time she’d had to squeeze herself into one of them. It had been one of the lowest points of her life. Finding the mortgage, learning about her mom’s illness, having no guests for weeks. Absolutely the worst day of her life. Then she remembered that was the day Mason had checked in.
She felt a brief stab of pain, then continued smiling. So it hadn’t been the worst day after all. She refused to think of their time together as anything other than wonderful, even though she’d messed it all up at the end. And despite having to sing the elf anthem that night and probably having to work the gift shop after dinner, her smile never faltered. She’d had a good long talk with herself while she folded towels and decided to reach out to Mason. If nothing else, she thought she’d like to be his friend. No, she took that back. Her hopes were much higher than that.
She’d sent him an email about a week ago, five days to be exact. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t counting. He still hadn’t written back but Amanda told her he had signed quite a few new clients so was probably as busy as she was. She’d thought about getting Amanda to talk to him for her, but decided to be an adult and wait it out. If the new year came and went without hearing from him, she’d sink to that level.
Other than her love life still being nonexistent, she had nothing to complain about. Everything else was continuing on its upward rise. A few sick employees couldn’t bring her down. Mona straggled backstage and bumped off of her like a zombie. She turned her head and had a coughing fit, then searched around in her locker for her costume.
“I’m wearing it,” Holly said. “You just now knocked into me. I thought you went home three hours ago.”
Mona looked at her and blinked heavily. “Oh, Holly. I didn’t see you there.”
“Go home,” she ordered. “Have Bernie drive you in the reindeer van if you don’t think you’ll make it.” Mona swayed and turned in a circle, trying to find the door. “Come on, let’s find Bernie. It’s clear you can’t drive yourself home.”
She raced to take care of Mona and got back just in time to hustle on stage and sing. Backstage again, she realized she only wanted to sit there for a few minutes. It was a Santa performance night so she knew even if she didn’t hear his voice, the thunderous applause would wake her if she dozed off.
She did doze off, being awakened by Emile’s voice introducing Santa. Even their chef was pulling double duty that night. She found herself a place behind the curtain and settled in to listen to the performance.
“Ahh, Santa. So good for the soul.” She’d need to be revitalized so she could do the shift at the gift shop after dinner.
A hush fell over the diners and the music to White Christmas soared. She never once got sick of it, especially not when Santa sang it. As much as she loved Bing Crosby, nobody could sing it better than her Santa. She closed her eyes and waited for his smooth, crooning voice to take it away.
Her eyes flew open and she jumped up from her spot behind the stage. A terrible caterwauling was taking place out there. She thought it might have been singing, at least the horrendous gargling sounded like the proper lyrics. An uproar from the audience made her scramble for the stage. Whatever drunken bozo had gone up there— She stopped, confused, at the edge of the stage to see the real Santa standing there chuckling merrily at the atrocious performance.
“What the heck, Santa?” she hissed, pushing past him. “This isn’t funny.”
She stopped once again as soon as she set foot onstage and saw who was murdering one of the prettiest songs in the history of Christmas. She blinked and looked again. It really was Mason.
He stopped as soon as she came onstage. “Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, for putting you through that,” he apologized into his microphone, keeping his eyes glued on Holly. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, either. He was in an awful Santa Claus costume, just awful. It looked like it had mange. But he was as handsome as ever, standing there smiling at her. Why was he torturing her diners, though? “I hope I didn’t ruin your appetites,” he continued smoothly. “But this place is booked solid until March and I needed to get the attention of this beautiful elf right here before then.” The disgruntled murmurs turned into awws and Holly felt her breath hitch in her chest. “So I bribed the real Santa to let me make this scene. Yes, ladies and gentleman, the real Santa takes bribes.” The audience cracked up and Holly rolled her eyes. “And he’s also about to sing for you, but—” he lowered the mic to his side so the audience couldn’t hear. “What do you say, Holly? Give it a real go this time? I’m going to feel pretty stupid if you say no.”
Was it really happening or had she fallen asleep backstage? She glanced out at the audience. They were all leaning forward, waiting to see what she did. Father Christmas, why was she still standing there? Mason took a step toward her, breaking her trance. She ran the rest of the distance to him and threw her arms around his neck.
“Okay,” she said breathlessly, bursting at her velvet seams with happiness. This was so much better than an email reply. “We can give it a real go.” He twirled her and the audience burst into applause. “But this is insanely embarrassing,” she said against his neck.
He kissed her, a quick one. She was certain the ham was trying to get more applause. The diners didn’t let him down. With a grin, he whisked her off stage. The real Santa high fived him as he made his way out to even more thunderous applause. Mason backed her against the wall and kissed her again. A much more satisfying kiss than the one onstage.
As the music rose again, she pulled away. “I can’t believe you’re here. This is crazy.”
“No, not crazy,” he said. “It’s a Christmas miracle you said yes.”
“I think you might be exaggerating,” she said, her cheeks heating up. Could she be so special to him he considered it a miracle? She didn’t mind it and stood on her toes to kiss him again. It was like no time had passed at all. She felt as comfortable around him as she had before, and yet with the same dizzy excitement. Goosebumps ran up and down her arms. “I - I want to explain to you why I acted so bizarre when you were here before. It wasn’t because—”
He stopped her with a kiss. “There’s nothing to explain,” he said. “It was timing, that’s all. But I couldn’t stop thinking about you, you couldn’t stop thinking about me?”
She nodded her head vigorously. “I couldn’t,” she agreed. “What about— are we going to try long distance? I’m okay with that. It’s just that I’m so busy …” It wasn’t two minutes into their reunion and already she was fretting. She forced herself to calm down and enjoy whatever time she had with him.
He beamed at her. “Can you come with me for a little bit? Wait, that’s not really a question, because I’m going to carry you out of here like a sack of presents if you say no.”
“I have to take the gift shop after dinner. I’m short-staffed.”
Santa walked off the stage and she only then noticed the music had stopped and the applause was dying down. “I’ll take the gift shop, Holly. You go with the young man.” He winked at Mason as he continued to stride past them to the locker room.
“How much did you pay him?” she asked incredulously, then shrugged. “I guess I’m going with you.”
“Then it was worth every penny,” he said. He took her in his arms and gave her one more heavenly kiss. “Sorry, I was starved for them all this time.”
“Don’t ever be sorry for that,” she said, blushing. She had been plenty hungry as well. He grabbed her hand and led her toward the exit. “Mason! I’m still dressed like an elf.”
He gestured at his Santa suit. “Then we’re perfect for each other.”
***
He kept his lips clamped as he drove, refusing to say anything about where they were going until they got there. Holly noticed they were heading toward town, which was fine with her. It was especially pretty on these December nights with all the lights the town council had strung across the main street and around the shop windows. The renewed popularity of the inn had revived the town as well and everyone there had reported to her that their businesses were booming.
He turned on the radio and to her surprise, it was tuned to a channel playing Christmas tunes. Of course, the big day was only a week away. Everyone loved holiday songs a week before its holiday. But could Mason handle Christmas all year long?
Stop worrying, keep enjoying, she admonished herself.
“When you answered my email that first time,” he said, glancing over at her. “You said everything was great, partly thanks to me. What did you mean?”
“Well, you brought Amanda here, and she posted a video to her followers and the floodgates opened. I never really understood why you stayed on that whole week and why you had your meeting with her at the inn, but I’m still grateful.”
He reached across the stick shift and took her hand. “I stayed because I was bewitched by an elf.” He wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound right.”
“You’re mixing up Halloween with Christmas, that’s why.”
“And I offered to have the meeting at the inn because I thought it was a great place and figured Amanda would like it, too. Honestly, I don’t know if she would have signed with me if it weren’t for the inn, so you’re partly responsible for me getting my biggest client so far.” He tilted his head. “Probably all the way responsible.”
“I think it was more likely because you’re a good agent. She told me about that big cosmetic campaign you got her. She said it was all because of you she’s going to travel the world and meet people in real life and not just on the internet.”
He grinned. “I guess I’ve made quite a few people’s lives better.”
She playfully swatted his hand away after a smug statement like that. “It’s difficult to take you seriously in that mangy suit.”
“It was the best I could do. Not everyone has access to the North Pole like you do.”
They pulled up alongside the curb on Main Street and he hurried around to open her door. She shivered in the night air. Thinking her velvet elf costume would be warm enough, she’d failed to grab her coat as Mason hurried her away from the inn. He put his arm around her and pulled her close to him and they strolled along the sidewalk, taking in the lights.
“So, about that long distance thing,” he started, suddenly seeming nervous. “With me in the city and you being a workaholic, we might see each other a couple times a month at most.”
She smiled ruefully, knowing he was joking when he called her a workaholic, but also knowing it was true. “It doesn’t sound too bad,” she said. Anything was better than nothing.
He paused outside of Waverly’s bakery, or what had been Waverly’s bakery, and looked at her seriously. “What if we could see each other every day instead of every couple weekends?”
“That sounds better,” she said. “It sounds like a dream.”
He turned her so she faced the empty bakery window. “Notice anything different?”
She looked at the chalked over picture windows and shrugged. Then gasped. He didn’t. Did he? “The for rent sign is gone,” she said. “Mason, what is this? What did you do?”
“Don’t feel pressured,” he said, taking both her hands, swallowing hard with nerves. “I’d been fed up with the city for a while but didn’t realize it until I spent the week out here. I fell in love with this little town and besides, it’s going to save me a fortune not paying Manhattan rent. This is all my decision. It didn’t have anything to do with you.”
She tilted her head back to better see him. “Nothing?” she asked. “It was just the town you fell in love with?” She had never been so brazen in her life but hoped that big risks came with big rewards.
He smiled and his eyes softened. There was no more nervousness about him. He pulled her close. “It had a lot to do with you,” he said. “And no, the town isn’t the only thing I’m in love with.”
Her eyes filled with happy tears, but she pulled away. “What about Christmas?” she asked. “It’s every day of my life, you know. Do you think you can live with perpetual Christmas?”
He leaned in. “If it comes with perpetual Holly, then yes. I can live with it quite happily.” He nudged her under the awning of the building and pointed up. “Now, check that out.”
Hanging above their heads was the biggest ball of mistletoe she’d ever seen, and she’d seen a lot of mistletoe in her lifetime. Before she could think of anything else to say, he settled everything with a kiss that promised many, many merry days to come.
The end.