Page 6 of Santas' Elf

The oven dinged, and he chuckled. “Let me get the garlic bread out, then you can tell me about it while we eat.”

“Deal,” I agreed, sliding my hands down to squeeze his ass before I let him go.

He smiled. “Feeling frisky already?”

I pecked his lips again. “Always.”

“Normally you have to relax first.”

“Lies,” I argued, grinning.

“Ok, I’m wrong. You’re constantly walking around with a hard-on.”

I laughed and kissed him again. “I love you, you big dork.”

He hummed. “I love you too.”

I forced myself to let him go, then walked over to the silverware drawer. I grabbed what we needed and set the table while he plated dinner.

“So, tell me about your day,” Warren said as we dug in.

I shook my head. “You first. I’ll start babbling and talk through all of our recap time.”

He laughed. “It was a fairly normal day for me. The standard rush of people looking at the calendar and trying to get documents before the end of the year has started.”

“You can handle it, right?” I asked, worried that it would be too much without me around.

Warren smiled. “I’m fine, Love. We have good staff, and all the regular customers are being handled. We can turn down new business if it’ll stress everybody.”

I reached across the table and laced our fingers together. “Ok.”

He squeezed my fingers between his. “Other than the expected end-of-year influx, not much has changed since you left the office yesterday.”

I laughed. “It’s strange that it’s always the same day that Santa starts.”

He shrugged. “I think that’s just the way it is. Mid-November is when the holiday season gets going, and it’s also when procrastinators realize they need to get a move on if they’re going to get their documents before the end of the year.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Now,” he said, running his thumb along mine. “Tell me how your day went.”

I grinned. “The temps—as usual—got off to a shaky start. But our new photographer, Benny, was great with the kids.”

“Rosa’s not there anymore?” Warren asked, raising one eyebrow.

I shook my head. “She’s pregnant, very pregnant. She stopped by during our break and looks ready to pop. There’s no way she could be on her feet for those long shifts.”

“Ah. So the new guy is Benny?”

I nodded. “Yeah. He’s a string bean of an omega with brown hair. He fits the role perfectly though. He kept a smile on his face all day, bantered with me about how excited he was to beable to come down from the North Pole, and made sure that all the kids had great photos. He even told me what Rosa’s current pregnancy craving is so that I could send her something more personal than flowers.”

Warren chuckled. “Sounds like a keeper then.”

“I can’t wait for you to meet him. I think you’ll love him.”

“High praise,” Warren teased. “But given how excited you are, I probably will.”

I grinned, and our chatter turned to more mundane topics as we finished dinner. Then we spent a couple of hours watching our favorite shows.