3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“Boys,” Monty’s mom, Sandy began as she stepped inside the room. When she saw me, whatever she was about to say was forgotten. “Monty, why don’t you go play with the little ones for a few minutes.”

As soon as the door shut behind Monty, she sat beside me. “Twinkle, first of all, I owe you an apology.”

Wow, wasn’t what I expected her to say at all. “You do?”

“Yes. It’s sad to admit but as children the idea of Santa being real is everything to us. Then when we catch our parent’s placing presents under the tree that childhood dream vanishes. So when you told us you came from the North Pole and Santa fired you, well,” she patted my knee. “Let’s just say my belief in your words wasn’t strong and for that I must apologize.”

“I’m so sorry you lost your beliefs. The Santas work hard to keep the dream alive in the children in the hopes they’ll carry it with them forever. Those beliefs are everything to the Santas.” Which makes what I did even worse. I’m such a ninny. I risked all those good children who hold onto those dreams losing their beliefs.

“I don’t know what you did to get the boot, and I hope you don’t repeat whatever those mistakes were, but there is one key point you’re missing here.” Sandy, Monty’s mother as I’d recently learned her name, watched and waited for the lightbulb moment. When it didn’t come she finished her thought. “Santa helped you find your mate. Many spend their entire life searching for that, but you were dropped in the lap of yours.”

Huh. Never pictured me with a mate before.

“Now I know my Monty isn’t the easiest to get along with. Nor the most outgoing, but I promise you my boy has a heart of gold. Once you get him out of bed.” She shook her head. “Even as a baby he slept more than we did. First time I mentioned it to the doctor he laughed and said that boy had more bear than human in him.”

“He hates me.”

“Hate is a strong word, sweetie. Monty is not a people person but when it comes to family, he’s there wherever and whenever he’s needed. When Seth and Emmy’s roof nearly came off during a storm, Monty braved the weather and did most of the repair work himself. He built this cabin with his own two hands. Stayed in a tent while he did it,”

Again with the head shake. “That boy is a stubborn one but when he cares he cares with his whole heart.”

How do you mate with someone you don’t know?

Someone so grouchy?

This was like one of those arranged marriages we’d all heard about.

“I’ve made such a mess.”

“How so?”

“How can you start a relationship when you’re literally thrown at someone?”

“Give it time, sweet boy. The two of you will find your groove, it just takes time.”

Time.

Something I didn’t have according to Santa’s letter .

“Come on, let’s get the boys to bring your stuff back so you can settle in. We’ve meddled enough tonight.”

“Can I um, just have a minute to myself, please?” If that sounded rude, it wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to catch my breath and rinse my face. Put on a bit of lip gloss too, that always made me feel better. Or at least it had in the past.

At this point, I had no clue who I was anymore. How quickly things had turned upside down. What I once thought was temporary I now knew was permanent.

“Will do but give me a hug first.”

I loved hugs just as much as the next elf though they were few and far between for me, but this one felt…different. It wasn’t forced or expected, it didn’t have a two second limit. Sandy let me stay in her arms until I was the one who pulled away first.

She brushed the hair on my forehead aside. “I can’t speak to your past, Twinkle, but you have a family now. Let us be there to help you.”

I’d always been a loner. No friends, no real family. I never went out of my way to join my fellow elves in after-hours festivities or parties. Ultimately, I’d done this to myself and had no one else to blame for it. If that meant I spent the rest of my years in a loveless relationship, then so be it.

That was my punishment.

Could be worse.

Probably.

At least the house was clean now. Guess I found one thing I was good at other than annoying people.

Something in the air shifted as I emerged from the room. Voices that had filled it were now silent. I was center stage in a play I hadn’t rehearsed for. I had no answers for myself, let alone for any of them and was thankful when Sandy took charge.

“Boys, why don’t you take Twinkle’s boxes to his room.” At Sandy’s order, Monty, Kody, Seth, and Joe picked up the packages and moved them in a single trip. When they returned, everyone said their goodbyes and I retreated to my new room to lick my wounds.

I plopped down on the floor and stared at the pile of boxes. With a heavy sigh, I resigned myself to the task at hand. “Might as well unpack. I’ve got no place else to go since no one wants me.” Monty got stuck with me, though I neglected to say those words aloud. Thinking them was hard enough.

“Well,” Monty’s unexpected response as he came into the room made me jump. “Sorry, but I wouldn’t say that.” He handed me a cup .

“You made me cocoa?” No one ever made me cocoa. I always had to get my own. Had to admit the sweet gesture made my hopeful heart dance.

“Yes, first time making it, so you’ll have to tell me if it’s edible.”

I feared the smile I gave came across as more of a grimace. “Ooh, tiny marshmallows.” That made his debut creation appear a bit less scary. Slowly, I tilted the cup toward my lips and sipped. “Mmm, nummy and it’s got a kick to it.” I took another sip. I’d never had spicy hot cocoa, and I looked forward to another cup of the spicy chocolatey heaven.

“The secret ingredient is cayenne pepper.” Monty was pleased with himself, as he should be.

“It’s quite a delightful change. Thank you.”

“Well,” Monty cleared his throat, obviously as uncomfortable as I was. “I’ll um, I’ll let you get settled. Help yourself to whatever you need. Make a list of anything missing and maybe we can make it into town in a few days to pick it up for you.”

“Thank you.” With a nod, he left, and I was once again alone and lost to my thoughts. I didn’t want to read too much into it. He was probably just being nice, but his olive branch was very welcome .

When I first got here, and while Monty napped, instead of trying to figure out what to do to in order to get back home or call out to Santa and ask, not that he would’ve responded, instead dove into what I do best. In typical Twinkle fashion I made Monty’s home habitable—by my standard and without asking. Of course, he was asleep, but I just couldn’t leave things alone. I didn’t care what he thought or that this house and everything in it was his. I didn’t focus on not having any of my things, honestly, I thought this whole ordeal was a joke and Santa twenty-seven would come and get me in a few days. Now that the truth had been revealed, it was a real game changer.

I was no longer Twinkle the elf.

The way I saw it I had two choices. Become Twinkle, the bear’s mate, or forever be Twinkle the statue.

On the upside, if I chose Monty I’d no longer be alone. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but this harsh reality check had messed with my head and had me questioning everything I’d known about myself.

Was I really such a horrible elf that banishing me from my home was warranted?

Better yet, would anyone even miss me?

I cried myself to sleep on the tattered stuffie I’d found in the closet and had claimed as my own.

When I woke the next morning the urge to get up and start the day wasn’t there. Normally, I woke with the sunrise, made breakfast and was off to work. Much the same had been done the few days I’d been here. Now I had to figure out a new norm. Do I cook breakfast for us both? Do I look for a job? I literally had zero useful skills outside the North Pole.

I could either lie here and fill my head full of what ifs or get up and find the answers.

Guess the day should begin with unboxing since I barely got through one last night before embarking upon my pity party for one. As I flung back the covers, fully expecting to see the elf uniform I’d fallen asleep in, it was instead…

“Santa. Flannel. Really?”

Now I feared what clothing awaited inside those boxes. The worst was confirmed as I opened the first one. “Flannel. Sweats. Jeans. Oh yay, hiking boots.” The boots sent me into a tear-filled frenzy. How much worse could this get? I mean, really. Did I look like a boots and flannel kind of guy?

“What’s wrong?” Monty burst into the room. “Twinkle, what happened? ”

I was at a loss for words and pointed to the clothes strewn around me and grabbed my ears. “My ears are gone!”

“Twinkle, I thought you were hurt. What’s going on?” Monty tugged on his beard as he sat on the floor beside me. “And your ears are there, they’re just no longer pointy.”

“Look at these clothes? Santa took away all my elf uniforms and replaced them with these!” I cried as I held the horrid garments up. “Does this look like something I’d wear?”

“Honestly, I don’t know and while I don’t see anything wrong with them it’s an easy fix. We can order you new clothes or you could, I don’t know, bedazzle them? Isn’t that one of those shiny sparkly things?”

“I remember those. Santas gave them out in the nineties.” Could I find one? “The boots and jeans wouldn’t be half bad that way but these flannel tops and sweats. Seriously, no.” Okay, my inner Diva had arrived.

“Why don’t you shower and meet me in the kitchen, and we’ll see what we can find online. Anything we order will be delivered to the post office in town and we’ll have to pick it up, but it shouldn’t take long. Give or take a winter storm or two. Do you need help hanging stuff up?”

Did I need help? Only with burning it.

“No thanks. ”

Monty let me be while I got to work. When my stomach growled I headed to the kitchen.

“Come on, have a seat.” Monty had a cup of cocoa ready for me and had set a plate of food in front of me as I sat. “I know my opinion doesn’t count, but I think you look good in flannel.”

“I wish I saw what you saw but it’s a no for me.” I was sparkly, shiny and I liked to twinkle like my namesake. With a healthy side of attitude. That was who I was. “I need to get a job, but I don’t have any real world skills.”

“That’s a worry for another day. Let’s get you what you need first and take it from there. You’ve had a lot thrown at you in a short period and you need time to absorb it and find your place.”

“Do you have a job?”

“I do though I don’t do much work during the winter months outside of emergencies. I’m a contractor and I do a lot of jobs in town as well as up here on the mountain.”

“That makes sense. Your mom told me you built this house.”

Monty set his fork down and took a sip of coffee. “I did. Took a bit longer than I’d hoped. That was the summer we had a few nasty storms that caused a lot of damage in town, so my time was diverted. But I’m pleased with how it turned out. Thank you, by the way, for cleaning it up. ”

Guess he wasn’t mad after all. “You’re welcome. Sorry I didn’t ask first.”

“Well, it’s your home now, too. If there’s something you want to change or, I don’t know, want frilly pillows or whatever, just let me know.”

Shocked didn’t even cover how I felt. Grouchy Monty was doing his best to be amiable. Even if his eye twitched while doing so. “You really wouldn’t mind if I,” I glanced around the living room, “brightened things up?”

“Considering you already did with the Twinkle lights.” Wait, was that a grin? “I’d say you were well on your way to redecorating.”

“Yeah, but that was before…” Before what? He got stuck with me. We got notified in front of his entire family we were mates.

Monty cleared his throat. “Twinkle, neither of us knew about the mate thing. Hell, I’d resigned long ago I’d be alone forever. This is as much a surprise to me as it is to you.”

“Only difference was you have a home, and I was taken from mine.”

Was it considered kidnapping if Santa himself did it?

“This is your home now, Twinkle. We move at our pace and in our own time. Sort of. ”

That one major piece hung in the air between us. There was only one way to mate and there was no way around that part of the deal.

Ugh, reindeer pooh!

“You look like you just swallowed needles. What’s going on in the head of yours?”

“Just the um, you know.” I swirled my finger around as though that made complete and total sense and explained everything.

“I don’t follow.”

There was no way he could because I made exactly zero sense.

“The um, the.” Deep breath, Twinkle. “Mating thing.”

“Mating thing?”

“I’ve um, never mated before.”

“Of course you haven’t. Mating is for life.”

He wasn’t getting it. Red-faced or not, this was something he should know. “No, I mean I haven’t m-a-t-e-d ,” I spelled the word out. “Ever.”

When the meaning hit Monty, he blushed. “Okay, good to know. How did you handle heats before?”

“We had pills we took. Our lives revolved around the Santa’s we served, and missing work was bad for us. It set us way back in production if we did plus everyone loved their jobs. We never got sick, only took vacations when the Santas told us to. Maternity leave was scheduled, really everything was scheduled in our lives.” Saying it aloud was exhausting. How had we survived the go-go-go of our daily regimented routines?

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

“That would definitely reduce your nap time.”

“There he is, the snarky Twinkle from the box.”

My turn to blush, he made me sound like the latest and greatest new toy. Maybe when you found your mate they turned out to be the one who got who you truly were. What others disliked about me Monty appeared to enjoy. Now to find a balance so I didn’t push him away by being…me.

“Come on, let’s clean up and then get to shopping.”

Working as a team was quite empowering and we had the kitchen in order in no time.

“Okay, take a seat beside me and I’ll show you what we’ve got.”

How close should I get? How close was too close? If our legs touched, would he pull away?

“Deep breath, Twinkle. I don’t bite, unsolicited at least,” Monty winked, and it did something silly to my insides. “Besides, you can’t see the screen from way over there. ”

Monty sat on the center cushion which did nothing to narrow down my seating selection. Finally, having overthought this far too much, I sat.

“Okay. Do you know your sizes?”

“No. Taylor had all that information back at the North Pole. He and his elves made all our uniforms.” Elves ran every aspect of our lives.

“Here’s my thoughts. Keep the clothes you’ve got,”

When I began to protest he held up a hand.

“Hear me out. There will undoubtedly come a time when you’ll need them, boots included. So um, I wouldn’t bedazzle all of it.”

I giggled, Monty’s face was equal parts humor and horror. Guess he wasn’t a bedazzle kind of guy. “Understood.”

“When we go into town to pick up the new orders, we can browse through the shops there as well. At least then you can try stuff on first and see how it fits. Though now that I think about it, wouldn’t the clothes and the boots he left you have a size in them? Here, turn around.” Monty pulled on the back collar of my shirt then checked the waist of my pants and I took off one of my shoes. “Perfect. Let me plug the sizes in.”

Monty handed me the computer. “Just grab a couple of things that catch your eye. Not sure if he left you any boxers but grab those if you need them too. I’d offer my clothes to you, but you’d swim in them.”

He was a tall, muscular man, and I wondered how big his bear was. Was it black or brown? Was he eight feet tall with big, long teeth and huge claws?

“What are you thinking about over there besides all those bright, shiny colors you put into the cart?”

When had he gotten up?

“Done.” I handed the laptop back for him to finish the checkout process.

“Alright, everything should be here in a couple of days. Now, back to my question.”

Time to take charge and knock this timid Twinkle to the side. “Can I see your bear? Is he big? Ooohhh I bet he’s furry with a big growl. Rawr!” I did a ridiculous impression of a bear but with Monty smiling at me like he was that made it fun. That smile of his, it just did something to me, and I came alive. Next thing I knew I was bouncing up and down on the couch.

“Okay, okay, let’s not break anything. Namely, you.” Monty watched as I sat on my hands to keep from fidgeting. “You are gonna be a handful, aren’t you?”

Maybe…

“I’ll do this, but I have to get naked in order to shift or I’ll shred my clothes. Are you okay with that?”

Was I?