Carol was baking in the back of the bakery, rolling out gingerbread dough for gingerbread houses, thinking about what had happened between her and Ethan. She couldn’t believe they’d frikkin’ kissed underneath the mistletoe!

Carol was conflicted. She knew that bad boys were just that – bad. She’d spent her adult life trying to stay out of trouble, away from the world she’d once been part of…but now that Ethan was in her life, she felt as if she was getting pulled back in. She wasn’t sure if she was being pulled in as if she were being pulled into a hug that promised protection and safety, or whether she was being pulled in as if she were being pulled into a whirlpool from which there would be no escape. All she knew was that when she was being pulled into Ethan’s arms, things had just felt…right, even if they were wrong.

She heard a knock at the back door. She wondered who it was because Krampus and Ethan didn’t bother knocking.

“You minding getting that, hon?” called Avery from her office.

“On it,” said Carol, wiping her hands off before going to the back door.

Outside, there was a man with a clipboard.

“Are you Carol, Carol Carter?” asked the man.

“Yes, why?” asked Carol.

“Sign for your packages, please,” said the man, passing Carol the clipboard.

“Uh, okay,” said Carol, signing the clipboard. “I haven’t ordered any packages, and certainly not sent here.”

“Look, lady, I just deliver the packages,” said the man. “Come with me.”

Carol walked with the man. There was a giant semi-truck parked outside the bakery. The man pulled up the metal curtain of the trailer. In the back of the truck were bunches of boxes, all addressed to some random company.

“None of these have my name on them,” said Carol.

“The company isn’t sending you a package,” said the man. “They’re sending you the entire truck of packages. There was no need for us to relabel them. Now, where do you want these?”

Avery hopped into the truck.

“Hey,” said Avery. “I wondered where you went, Carol. What is all this?”

“I don’t know,” said Carol.

Avery picked up a box.

“This is from a fancy chocolatier in Paris,” said Avery, putting the box down. “This one is from Switzerland. Did you order these?”

“No,” said the man. “And she doesn’t owe any money either. We just need to put these packages somewhere. Alternatively, I can leave you the keys, and the company’ll have me put up somewhere.”

“What company?” asked Carol.

“I’m not at liberty to say, ma’am,” said the mysterious man. “I’m just paid to make sure you get these packages in time.”

Avery had opened up one of the cardboard boxes with a pocket knife. She reached inside. There were bars of luxury chocolate.

“Leave the keys,” said Avery. “Carol, we’ve got some baking to do.”

Carol helped Avery open up the packages, using her keys to open box after box. Carol opened one box and, inside, found a fancy dress.

“Uh…this isn’t chocolate, is it?” asked Carol, fingering the lace and silk of the red and green dress.

“That’s not hot cocoa — that’s haute couture,” said Avery.

Carol opened another box. Inside, there were more practical items — brand new flannel lined jeans, plus-size. In another box, there was a set of waffle-knit long-sleeved shirts, as well as long johns and some warm wooly socks.

In a large box, there was a brand-new winter coat — a long silver puffer jacket. In another box, there was a red wool pea coat. Carol opened a square box. Inside, there were brand new winter boots, perfect for walking in the snow.

“I don’t understand,” said Carol, putting down the boots. “Why would someone send me frikkin’ shoes like I’m Cinderella or something?”

“You just answered your own question,” said Avery. “You probably have your own fairy reindeer — err, I mean, godmother.”

“Reindeer?” asked Carol.

“I got my words mixed up,” said Avery. “Never mind what I said. Pick out some new clothes to put on, so you’ll be warm for your walk back to your house. Then, go load that up into my car, and I’ll drive it all to your house tonight.”

Avery did an inventory of the chocolates with Carol and figured out their plan of action. They carried the boxes of chocolate into the bakery. Carol started mixing up their standard chocolate chip cookie base. Soon, Krampus and Ethan came into the kitchen.

“Hey,” said Carol, working on measuring out more eggs for the next big batch of dough. “I can’t help you guys today. Krampus, your order is over there.”

“What’re you up to?” asked Ethan. “Get some kind of a special delivery?” Ethan looked over Carol. He already knew the answer to his question. After all, she was wearing a new set of clothes, a set of clothes that didn’t have rips, stains, or the tell-tale softness of well-worn clothing. He was glad to see the clothing fit her perfectly. Ethan took a mental note — he owed his secretary a huge belated Christmas bonus for having outfitted Carol in practical but elegant clothing.

“Yeah, how did you know?” asked Carol with a frown.

“Saw Avery outside,” lied Ethan. “You need help with the baking?”

“Can you two help Avery carry the boxes into the kitchen?” asked Carol.

Ethan and Krampus left the kitchen and came back with boxes of chocolate. Avery directed Ethan and Krampus while Avery also prepared the chocolate for the various pastries, turning the luxury ingredients into chocolate chips, chocolate sauces, chocolate frosting, and all other forms of chocolate that Carol would need to complete the recipes.

Carol whipped up a bevy of delicious desserts on the fly. She made cookie sandwiches filled with a Moroccan mint chocolate ganache. She made peanut butter cookies dipped in milk chocolate for the kids. She’d even made a special batch of cookies for a certain someone and made sure to pack those in her bag before anyone noticed what she’d made. Of course, anything she couldn’t figure out how to use went into some sort of exotic chocolate chip cookie.

After Ethan and Krampus had finished carrying in boxes, they were put on a different kind of box duty. Ethan labeled and filled the boxes, while Krampus put them in the truck. Ethan and Carol were working in very close quarters. Half the time, Carol couldn’t tell if the heat she felt was coming from one of the ovens or whether it was radiating off of Ethan’s body.

They worked for nearly half a day. Barbara manned the front of the house while Carol, Avery, Krampus, and Ethan baked up a storm. Finally, Carol opened the oven for the last time that day.

“Okay, that’s the last batch,” said Carol, portioning Swiss milk chocolate filled sandwich cookies off of a cooling tray and into a box. “What now?”

“Krampus and I can drive the cookies to the office tonight,” said Avery. “You have the night off, Carol.”

“You too, Ethan,” said Krampus. “Come help me and Avery arrange the boxes in the truck.”

Ethan followed after Krampus and Avery. When they were in the back of the truck, Krampus pulled out a snow globe.

“Whoa, what are you doing?” asked Ethan.

“You’ve proved to me you’re ready for The Ride,” said Krampus. “Tonight, relax, do whatever you want. Just make it back to Camp Kringle by eleven, because we’re leaving at five. You can use your shift tonight, but tomorrow, you’ll have to swap the shift back into the snow globe.”

“Got it,” said Ethan.

Ethan touched the snow globe and felt the familiar exchange of power.

Ethan’s bear roared. He smiled. He had a lot to tell his bear, but it was best if he just showed his bear. Ethan explained that he’d surely found his fated mate and that his bear would meet her shortly. He left the truck and went back into the bakery.

“Hey, you ready to go?” called Avery.

“Coming,” replied Krampus, leaving the back of the truck. He pulled down the truck’s door, and Avery locked it up. They got in the truck. Avery, the better driver, took the driver’s seat. Krampus took the seat next to her.

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,” said Krampus. “Find a secluded place to take this truck. We’ll use my chain to warp to The North Pole and warp back.

“You’re going to teleport a whole frikkin’ truck to The North Pole?” asked Avery.

“You Christmas elves and your mistrust of demoncraft,” said Krampus, shaking his head. “Don’t forget to use the teleportation feature I installed on your SUV last year to bring last year’s temp up to The North Pole.”

“I can’t believe Santana still hasn’t changed the rule about letting me tell my girls about Christmas magic,” said Avery. “Sure – he can tell me who to hire, who’s Fated to be with the lumberjack, but no – he can’t let me frikkin’ do anything! Meanwhile, Pandora’s going around hanging up mistletoe like it’s her frikkin’ job!”

“Your girls are always on The Nice List – and that includes Pandora,” said Krampus. “My boys, well, they’re bad boys. They wouldn’t be up here if they weren’t on The Naughty List. They’ve learned about Christmas magic because it’s disclosed on a need to know basis, and they need to know.”

“But doesn’t Christmas magic run on belief?” asked Avery.

“It has to be true belief,” said Krampus. “A girl pretending to believe in Christmas to appease her loony boss, that doesn’t cut it. Plus…if we reveal the secret of Christmas magic to the gals, then, they won’t have the opportunity to learn it from the bad boys. That just makes it harder for those bears to get off The Naughty List.”

“Says the demon who didn’t remind his ward that he doesn’t have a mate mark,” said Avery. “Says the demon who’s been on The Naughty List since the day he was born.”

“Shit,” said Krampus. “I knew I forgot something. Why didn’t you speak up?”

“That boy’s not my problem,” said Avery.

“Sometimes, I swear you must belong on The Naughty List,” said Krampus.

“What’re you doing tonight?” asked Ethan as Carol finished cleaning up the bakery.

“I was thinking about just going home and ordering Chinese food,” admitted Carol. “I’m going to need the sleep and energy to survive tomorrow’s catering job.”

“And here you were, giving me a hard time for working on Christmas Eve,” said Ethan. “If that’s bad, is working on Christmas Eve Eve doubly bad?”

“If I let you join me, will you get off my case?” asked Carol.

“Is that your roundabout way of admitting you want to spend Christmas Eve with me?” asked Ethan, stepping out into the snow.

“Not all of it,” said Carol, closing up the front door. “It’s not like this is a date or anything.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” said Ethan.

“Trust me,” said Carol. “You’d know if we were going on a date.”

“Well, I was thinking, if you didn’t have anything planned for the party…would you want to go with me, as my date?” asked Ethan. “After all, you heard what Avery said while you were baking. Santana’s got his own crew that’ll handle laying out the desserts.”

“It depends,” asked Carol. “Will you tell me who you got for Secret Santana?”

“No frikkin’ way,” said Ethan.

“Ugh, you passed,” admitted Carol, crossing her arms. “I wanted to see if you’d spoil the surprise. I am excited to see who everyone else got.”

“I thought you didn’t like Christmas,” said Ethan.

“It’s not as bad as I thought it was,” admitted Carol. “I guess I just never spent it with the right people before.”

“You didn’t have nice Christmases growing up?” asked Ethan.

“I’ll put it this way,” said Carol. “The only fun that happened in my house was from my parents doing drugs, not kids playing with toys.”

“I’m so sorry, Carol,” said Ethan. “I had no idea.”

“Part of all this Christmas fun I’ve had out here makes me sad,” explained Carol. “I think about my messed-up family and wonder why they couldn’t’ve had their act together, just for two short days, to make my Christmas special, heck, to make it normal. Part of me is just grateful I made it out of that situation clean, not an addict or anything, and that I’ve finally had a pretty nice Christmas.”

“What’ve you always wanted to do for Christmas?” asked Ethan.

“Honestly?” asked Carol. “I’ve always wondered if building a snowman is really any fun. Everyone in the movies looks like they have fun building snowmen, but I don’t see the appeal.”

“Building a snowman is a ton of fun,” insisted Ethan. “Let’s build one tonight.”

“Tonight?” asked Carol. “Where?”

“Wherever you want, wherever there’s snow,” said Ethan.

“Won’t it look a little silly, a grown woman making a snowman?” asked Carol.

“Come on. Do you have a yard? We can make one in your backyard,” said Ethan. “I’m sure nobody is going to peep at you there. Trust me, nobody cares about a big woman building a snowman.”

“I said I was a ‘grown woman,’ not a ‘big woman,’” said Carol.

“In my book, grown and curvy are the same,” said Ethan.

Carol and Ethan walked to Carol’s rental unit a few blocks away. Carol and Ethan went to the backyard which had a healthy layer of snow. Ethan’s bear roared and begged to come out and play. Ethan hadn’t let his bear play in the snow in the longest time! Ethan promised his bear that he’d find a way to play in the snow with his bear. The bear just had to give him time.

“Okay, how do we do this?” asked Carol.

“It’s easy,” said Ethan. “Make one big ball. Then, put a smaller ball on top of it, then, one last smaller ball.”

“Kids can do it,” said Carol, talking herself into it. “How hard could it be?”

Within ten minutes, Carol was close to giving up. She couldn’t get the middle ball to stay on the snowman. Carol looked at what Ethan was making. His snowman was already halfway built, and he was working on putting the head ball on top of the middle ball.

“Are shifters just magically good at building snowmen, or is there some trick you haven’t taught me?” asked Carol.

“Practice makes perfect,” said Ethan. “Here. Let me help you. I’ll hold the snowball while you pack it together. I’ll keep it from crumbling.”

Ethan crouched in the snow, on his knees, and helped Carol build the middle ball of the snowman, and then, the head.

“Great, I built a snowman,” said Carol, looking at the lumpy snow effigy in front of her. “Can we go watch a horror movie or something?”

“Uh-uh,” said Ethan. “There are no features on this snowman. He needs some eyes and some buttons for his jacket. Oh, and two arms. Look around the yard for some medium size stones. I’ll look for the other arms.”

Carol found three stones. Ethan found two twigs and gave them to Carol to poke into the snowman’s middle snowball, to form two arms. Then, he and Carol searched for the last two stones they needed to complete the snowman.

“Two eyes,” said Ethan.

“I know how many eyes a snowman should have,” said Carol. “It’s based on a human, and I’m a human if you haven’t guessed already, not a three-eyed alien from Mars. Actually, scratch that. Do three-eyed aliens from Mars celebrate Christmas? If not, sounds like those are my kind of people.”

“Ha-ha,” said Ethan sarcastically. “Just put on the eyes, alien girl. On Earth, people usually have two eyes.”

Carol put two eyes on the snowman.

“What do I do with these again?” asked Carol.

“Put them in a line down the center of the snowman,” said Ethan. “Be careful. That ball already has two twigs in it, so it’s delicate.”

“Got it,” said Carol, placing the stones down the center of the snowman. “I don’t get what that’s supposed to be. A belly-button and two sideways nipples?”

“They’re coat jacket buttons, but more importantly, it’s tradition,” said Ethan.

“Fine, and we’re done with this tradition now,” said Carol.

“Not so fast,” said Ethan. “We need a carrot for the nose.”

“You should’ve said that before,” said Carol. “I don’t have any carrots in the house. Do I look like I eat carrots?”

“There has to be something in that house that can work as a snowman’s nose,” said Ethan. “Let’s go through the kitchen together.”

Ethan went into Carol’s kitchen and went through all the shelves. He finally found a jar of Vienna sausages and opened it.

“You can’t be serious,” said Carol.

“Here,” said Ethan, passing Carol the slimy meat finger. “Give that snowman a nose.”

“Ugh, gross,” said Carol, carrying the sausage to the snowman and popping it in the center of his face. “At least we’re done now.”

“I still have to finish mine,” said Ethan. “You gonna help or just watch?”

“Fine, what do you need help with?” asked Carol.

“Just compact the snow with your hands, gently,” said Ethan.

Carol gently padded the snow with her palms as Ethan worked with the snow. Ethan went and found more twigs and stones and gave them to Carol to use to decorate the snowman. Carol got up and moved to the front of the snowman. Carol realized Ethan hadn’t made a snowman, but a snowwoman. The snow woman was shorter than the snowman. Her butt ball was huge. She had a medium sized torso ball, but it had two big lumps on the front.

“Did you have to make her tits so big, Ethan?” asked Carol.

“I made her ass big too,” said Ethan. “I love a big, beautiful woman, even one made of snow.”

“I’ll put the arms and eyes and buttons on her, but I’m not touching those gross sausages again,” said Carol. “I can’t believe Avery left those in the pantry. Yuck.”

Ethan went inside and grabbed the can of sausages. He carried the can outside and put a sausage in the face of the snowwoman to form her nose. Then, he took two more sausages and stuck them in the snowwoman’s chest.

“Eww, Ethan, what the heck?” asked Carol. “Why did you give her two extra noses?”

“Those aren’t noses,” said Ethan. “Those are nipples.”

“You gave your snowwoman sausage nipples?” asked Carol, incredulous.

“Hey, she’s my snow-BBW, and she needed some nipples,” said Ethan, poking the nipples further into the snow. “There. Is that better?”

“Not by much,” said Carol, rolling her eyes. “You’re supposed to be the one that’s good at this.”

“I bet I could make much better stuff out of snow than you can, and I can do it while in my shift,” said Ethan.

“You’re on,” said Carol.

“Stay out here,” said Ethan. “I’ll be back.”

Carol started working on her snowman as Ethan went into her house. Ethan stripped down in the living room and put his clothes aside. He shifted into his bear form in a clear space and plodded out to the snowy backyard.

Carol knew Ethan was going inside to shift. When she felt a big, warm, furry animal cozy up next to her, she was still shocked to see that Ethan had turned into an actual bear. She ran her hands through his coat and looked into his caramel brown eyes. It was definitely Ethan.

Ethan walked to a free section of the yard and started to build. He used his big, wide paws to shift the snow from one place to another. He used the tips of his claws to draw fine, thin details and carve away snow in slices. Ethan watched as Carol struggled to build her snowman alone but this time, let her figure things out for herself.

Ethan had thought about what he’d do if he’d gotten his shift back many a time. The thought ran through his head most nights at Camp Kringle. He’d always been a planner, a schemer. That’s what had gotten him ahead in life, in the world of business. He’d always been two steps ahead of the competition, prepared for the competition to be one step ahead of him, but, when he was around Carol, he found that all his plans fell to pieces.

Ethan hadn’t used his phone call to call some of the best minds in the world and figure out a solution to his quandary, to ensure he didn’t lose his shift. He’d called his secretary and arranged a large delivery of chocolate to the Bear Claw Bakery.

Ethan had bought a lot of things.

He’d bought mansions.

He’d bought private jets.

He’d bought boats.

He’d even bought penis enlargement pills that hadn’t worked – because his penis was already huge.

He’d never bought a woman chocolates before.

He’d always had his secretary send women nice things for him, so at the very least, that hadn’t changed. He’d never spent a million dollars on a single gift for a single person before. He’d never taken the time to pick out the perfect gift for someone, and the irony of it was, he didn’t even have his real gift, his Secret Santana gift, ready for Carol.

Carol watched as the giant animal across the yard seemed to merely play around in the snow. Ethan’s bear was big – real big. As the bear snapped at the storm with its mouth, catching flakes on its long, lolling tongue, Carol caught site of razor-sharp teeth. Ethan was fast and strong. He had an animal advantage over her. It was intimidating on a visceral level. Her instinct was to run from it, but her heart overrode her natural instincts and told her she was just as safe with the big, brown, furry bear as she was with Ethan when she was underneath the mistletoe with him. That bear’s paws were probably just as warm and comforting as Ethan’s arms.

She finally finished built her snowman and declared, “I won!”

The bear roared back at her and moved away from its snow mound. Carol started to walk inside, but the bear came up to her and gently took her jacket sleeve in its mouth. The bear gently pulled, and when Carol followed, the bear let go of her sleeve. Carol followed the bear to the snowbank where it had been playing around.

Carol looked at what the bear had done. Ethan had piled up snow, smoothed its surface, and then, used his claws to carve the snow as if it were marble. The scene in front of Carol was of her in the bakery, rolling out dough. Carol was drawn with beautiful curves, in a nice dress that showed them off rather than her dowdy bakery uniform, and, next to her, there was a bear.

“Ethan, that’s amazing,” said Carol. “Wait here. I want to make this last forever.”

Carol went inside and came back out with an instant film camera. She took the camera and took a picture of Ethan and the snow carving together.

“Come on, before you catch a death of cold,” said Carol. “You get changed, and I’ll make us some cocoa.”

Ethan followed after Carol. Why was he able to express his feelings to her as a bear, but, as a man, the upcoming words just melted in his mouth like the falling snowflakes melted on his warm fur?