Page 8 of A Curvy Wonderland (A Curvy Girl Christmas #3)

8

ELDAN

T oday, instead of waiting for everyone at the café, I took the Christmas tree farm’s Polaris and drove it down to meet Holly, Tatum, and Lucy at their house. When I pulled up, the two younger girls came running outside, Holly following behind and locking the door on her way out.

I watched her, intrigued, until a six-year-old stole my attention.

Lucy got up to me first, looking up at me with a smile that was missing one of her front teeth. “Are we driving this today?” she asked.

“I am,” I said. “You get to ride.” I nodded my head toward the back where several snow shovels waited for us including two smaller ones in the girl's favorite colors, pink and green. “We have some snow to shovel today.”

Tatum quickly said, “I call the front seat.”

She jumped in beside me, and Lucy pouted as she went to the back seat next to Holly, who climbed in. Today, her bright red winter coat was open, showing a pink shirt with curling font on front. I couldn't read the whole word, but I was sure it was something Christmas related.

Holly teased, “Not Santa’s sleigh, but it will do.”

“Way better than Santa’s sleigh, because it doesn't take any smelly reindeer,” I retorted.

Lucy looked at me aghast. “Rudolph doesn't stink.”

“Yeah,” Tatum agreed. “Take it back.”

I pretended to zip my lips and throw away the key. But Tatum pretended she had a fishing hook and cast it out toward where I had thrown the imaginary key and “reeled” it back in. “Here you go.” She pretended to unlock the zipper at my mouth.

“ Fine , I don't know if Rudolph stinks, but that Prancer. Pee-yew.”

Tatum laughed, but Holly stared at me in shock.

“What?” I asked, wondering if I had breakfast stuck on my face somewhere.

“You just told a joke.” She held up her phone, pointing the light at me like an interrogation lamp. “Who are you, and what have you done with Eldan?”

I shook my head. “Don't worry, I'm sure I'll come to my senses soon.” Then I put the Polaris into gear and started driving down the road toward the first house we were supposed to shovel today.

Over the last few days, several requests had come in for snow shoveling, so we had our work cut out for us today. Hopefully we could get four driveways done throughout the day.

No one was home at the first house, which could be good because we could get a lot of work done without having anyone around to talk with. If I noticed something about Holly, it was that she never met a stranger. Everyone was her friend, which meant they had long, friendly conversations.

So the five of us grabbed our shovels and got to work. Holly made it a contest with the girls to see who could build the biggest pile of snow, which kept them busy. The work seemed to go pretty fast. Especially with the radio in the Polaris playing. I had set it to a non-Christmas music station, but Holly quickly went and changed it to one exclusively playing holiday songs.

They grated on my ears like nails grated on a chalkboard. But the girl seemed so happy, singing along as they worked, that I found the music growing on me.

Once we were done shoveling the drive and sidewalk, I gave Tatum the jug of snow melt, and she sprinkled it over the cement to keep ice from forming throughout the day or overnight. Then we loaded back up in the Polaris, and I reached into the cooler in the back, getting snacks for each of them.

“Lunchables?” Lucy cried. “You're the best Eldan.” She was sitting up front this time, and she reached over wrapping her arms around me in a hug.

At first I stiffened, not sure what to do, but she was so happy that I reached out and awkwardly patted her back. “You're welcome,” I said.

While they snacked, I drove to the next house. The couple was just leaving, so Holly chatted with them for a little bit while I got the girls set up with their shovels. Once the couple left, the four of us fell into a rhythm, forming an unexpectedly productive team. It was nice to have something to do, to be able to focus on the work and how it made my muscles tired. Especially when I kept noticing things about Holly. Like how white snowflakes fell into her dark curls and then disappeared after a moment or two. Or how encouraging she was, always redirecting the girls instead of getting onto them.

This time when we were done, Lucy took a turn shaking the snow melt, and then I said, “Let's go to Scrooge’s for some lunch. It's on me this time.”

The girls were so excited, and when we walked into the diner, Scrooge called, “Same thing as yesterday?”

We all agreed and sat down at a table, warming our hands.

“Are you tired?” I asked Holly and the girls. “Or do you think we can handle another house?”

“Another house,” Tatum said.

Lucy nodded too. To be fair, the younger two didn't do as much shoveling as Holly and I did. They really spent more time playing around, so I looked at Holly to confirm, and she nodded. “I'll sleep good tonight though,” she said with a weary smile.

I nodded in agreement.

We ate, and then I paid before leaving the restaurant and going to our next house. Part of the driveway had already been shoveled, just enough to get the car in and out and a very thin path for the homeowners to walk, so we cleaned it up quickly. Then we got to the final house of the day, and an older man came outside with thermoses of hot chocolate for us to sip.

While we sipped the warm drink, he told us that he had hurt his back a number of years ago, so shoveling was really hard on him. He was so thankful for us. He even brought out a gas-powered heater so that we could warm our hands as we worked.

We were just about ready to go when he said, “Hold on, Santa told me to get you girls something.”

Tatum and Lucy's eyes lit up. “Really?” Lucy said.

Tatum said, “We are so lucky!”

I felt Holly’s curious eyes on me as the man went into his house. “Santa’s making more stops than usual this year.”

“Santa isn’t real,” I muttered.

She elbowed me in the side, tilting her head toward the girls.

I rubbed my side although it didn’t really hurt. “What? They didn’t hear.”

Before Holly could reply, the man came back with two small packages wrapped in the same bright red paper as before. The girls opened their presents, this time holding ornate, Christmas-themed picture frames.

That’s when I noticed the polaroid camera around his neck. “We should get some pictures of you to add in there!”

Holly smiled at him. “That’s such a great idea, Mr. Benson.”

He suggested that we all pose in the clear driveway, so that we could remember all of our hard work, and took several pictures so each of us could have one.

And holding the imagine in my hand, I was surprisingly grateful for it, that I would have a memory of this Christmas.

Maybe Holly was rubbing off on me, because that night before bed, I was having a hard time thinking about anything but the picture, and how beautiful her smile looked.