Page 22

Grant

The kids ran screaming to the sleigh. Snow puffed up around them. Ethan tripped and fell but got up quickly. No screaming. No crying. No drama. He was fine.

“Let’s go, Papa! Let’s go now!”

I was Papa and Sugar was Daddy.

They had inherited Sugar’s blond hair but showed few elf characteristics. They were both little alpha shifters running around always trying to best each other.

Now, they climbed all over the sleigh. Jet and Siel were already harnessed. My boys jumped down and ran to pet them and feed them carrots and sugar cubes.

We were preparing our yearly visit to Santa’s Village to stay with their Grandpa Christero and Grandpa Sno. We’d done it every year, but now they were old enough to understand what Christmas meant, and to get excited about it.

Velvet leaped through the drifts, nearly as excited as the boys to be taking this trip. She followed them everywhere they went.

“Sugar,” I called. “Everything’s done. Come on. Let’s go.”

Sugar came out of the cabin with a couple more tote bags. “I was just checking through all the rooms one last time.”

“Good to go?”

“All set.” He placed the totes in the back of the sleigh behind the kids’ seat.

“All right, boys,” I called. “Come on. Let’s get you seated.”

The twins came running and jumped to the back seats. I belted them in. Velvet came to sit between them.

Sugar and I got in front, and I grabbed the reins.

“Why do you always get to drive?” he asked.

“They’re my cousins.”

He crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip.

“You want the reins?”

“Nope. Go ahead.”

I laughed and signaled my flying cousins to take off.

As we left the ground and became airborne, the twins squealed their delight. Velvet barked twice. The usual wind blew back my hair, but it was always warm in the sleigh.

“Can we fly through the stars?” Ronin asked.

“You’ll be seeing lots of stars for sure,” I answered.

The dark grew deeper as we got further north. When the cloud cover finally parted, the stars twinkled above us so bright you could see the glimmer of hundreds of dimmer stars between them.

The boys oohed and aahed. “Daddy, are those Christmas stars?” asked Ronin.

Sugar said, “All of them are special stars. You can think of them that way if you want to.”

“Like the stars that go on the tops of Christmas trees?” Ethan asked.

“Well, it’s hard to capture a star and hold it long enough to put on a tree. So, we make our own.”

“I’m going to make lots of stars when we get to Grandpa’s.”

The sleigh gave a little dip. We all let out startled yells. The reindeer sensed turbulence and were always able to navigate around it. Everything was smooth after that.

Soon, Santa’s Village came into view. The boys yelled when they saw the lights.

“Santa’s Village!”

“I see it!”

“I’m going to live there one day,” Ethan said.

“Me, too,” Ronin said.

I exchanged looks with Sugar.

He smiled. “They will fly for a Santa one day. My father is sure of it.”

“Have you forgiven him yet?”

Sugar glanced down. “Not in words.”

“In your heart?”

“I love him, but I still don’t like what he did. If he ever tries that with either of our kids, I’ll—” He didn’t finish his thought, but he punched his fist into his palm.

“I hear you. And I feel the same. Even though the spell did bring us together.”

“Yeah. That’s the part where I forgive him.” He sighed. “He has been an amazing Grandpa.”

“Yes. He has.” Whenever the kids visited, he took time off work to be with them. “So has Sno.”

“Sno is great with them. The twins love them both equally.”

We had never gotten the true story of whether Christero and Sno were a couple. But I thought they had to be. If they didn’t want to share that part of themselves with others, so be it. But they behaved as if they certainly had been lovers at one time, if not in the present. Sno was old now and used a cane most of the time, but Christero’s eyes twinkled whenever he looked at him. And Sno was devoted to Christero.

The Santas were immortals. How did an immortal love a mortal and not become broken-hearted for it? It was one reason I could see why Christero might hold back from the love of his life who was an elf.

Jet and Siel took us in for a smooth landing and we pulled up to the mansion to see Sno and Christero waiting for us on the porch. They both waved and came forward to greet us.

The boys hugged them both and we all helped carry the bags inside, the boys zooming around us in their excitement, Sno moving slower with his cane.

When we got inside, the twins ran off starry-eyed to look at all the decorations. They would have a room all their own next to ours this year.

Velvet scampered into the kitchen to see if Sno had left a treat in her bowl. Which he always did.

I faced Christero and Sno. “Thanks for having us again this year.”

“It’s not Christmas without family,” Christero said. He patted Sugar’s shoulder, which made Sugar smile.

Sno nodded, blinking away tears.

It was true. We were family. All of us. For which I was grateful. My own family, except for my cousins, had turned their backs on me long ago.

If it weren’t for Sugar coming into my life, I would be alone again this year, not knowing what I was missing, watching old Christmas movies and sharing a turkey leg with my dog.

But here my family met every year. My new family. I no longer hated Santa’s Village. Nor did Sugar.

Though we preferred our little cabin in the woods and raising our twins to appreciate nature outside of the village, the magical world re-opened its arms to us, as well.

In many ways, Sugar and I had made a full circle of our lives the day Velvet and I had found him in his ice bed.

Our bond flared deeper with our love every day.

“Come on,” Sugar said, breaking through my thoughts. “Let’s go put our stuff upstairs.”

“Coming.” I joined him at his side, as if I’d always been there and always would be.

THE END