Santa's Secret

“You’re popular, Delaney. People get excited when they see you. I don’t think anyone will fault you for having your bodyguard with you. Maybe you should ask Dom to do it.”

My eyes go wide at the suggestion of Dominic being my security detail. Something tells me he’d let someone get too close, thinking it’s funny.

“Yeah, never mind,” my dad says, laughing. “I have a feeling you and I just had the same thought.”

“It’s okay for Calvin to stay at the house?”

“Of course. He’s family.” Dad stands and comes over to me. He places a kiss on top of my head. “Duty calls though, sweetheart. I need to meet with the recreation committee about the festival.”

“Speaking of, I stopped by and saw Mrs. Winters before I came here. I volunteered to help with the play. I thought it’d be a good way to give back to t

he community,” I say, shrugging.

“Delaney, I think that’s a great idea. I was going to ask if you’d be interested in doing a meet and greet during the festival? We can build a booth, set some time limits. I just know so many people are excited you’re home and they all want to see you.”

“Like a kissing booth?” I ask, winking at my dad. He turns red and it’s not from embarrassment, but anger. The last thing he’d ever agree to is letting me have a kissing booth. I shrug. “It was worth a shot, but yes, I’ll do a meet and greet for you.”

“Thank you.”

He comes back and pulls me from my seat so he can give me a hug. “I’m so happy you’re home, Delaney. You’ve made this holiday even more special.”

“Thank you, Daddy.”

He sniffles as he pulls away, making sure I can’t see if his face. Once he’s out of sight, I start to clean up our lunch.

“He’s happy you’re home.”

I look at the doorway to find a woman, whom I’ve never met, standing there. “Thanks. I’m happy to be here.”

“I’m Shelby,” she says, walking toward me with her hand extended. “I’m the chairwoman of the recreation committee.”

“Nice to meet you.” I try to juggle the trash as best as I can while trying to shake her hand. Unfortunately, the bag falls onto the floor, open side down. Great, there’s going to be gravy and cheese curds everywhere. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries. Anyway,” Shelby says with a sigh. “It was nice to meet you.” She waves as she leaves his office. I look down at the mess, only to see gravy running down the front of my pants.

“Lovely.”

Twelve

Aiden

Holiday decorations line the street my parents live on. Everything from classic lights to a waving Frosty, and an inflatable Santa with a reindeer set haphazardly on a roof. People here don’t spare any expense when it comes to bringing holiday cheer.

Pulling into my parents’ driveway, my truck’s pelted with snowballs immediately. I try to look for the culprit, but only see multiple shadows. Whoever is outside, they’re leaving me no choice, but to sneak out of my truck. As stealthily as possible, I slide out, quickly realizing I’m not as young as I used to be. As luck would have it, my father plowed his driveway, leaving me without any ammunition to face my attackers. Thankfully, I’m a trained police officer and while I don’t participate in tactical training, I did learn a few things at the academy.

The edge of the garage is only a few feet away; I hightail it as fast as I can, without slipping, until I’m safely behind the wall. The pile of snow, left over from the plow makes for the perfect barricade. I situate myself behind the bank, and start assembling my arsenal of snowballs. My enemy heckles me from across the yard. The only problem I can see is my truck being in the way. Had I known I was going to be ambushed, I would’ve parked on the street.

“We know you’re out there,” the voice of my dad yells out, followed by the tiniest of giggles. Of course, my daughter is on his side.

“You can’t hide forever, Daddy—”

“No, don’t call him that.”

“I mean, yeti.” Holly laughs again.

“Yeti?” I yell back. “How am I a yeti?” I ask, even though one look at me clearly proves I’m heading in the direction of full on yetiness with the amount of snow covering my legs right now.

Without any provocation from me, a snowball flies toward my direction. It only misses by a few inches, but the eminent danger I fear causes me to launch a counterattack. I throw three snow bombs back-to-back blindly into the night, hoping to hit either one of my targets. A round of giggles leads me to believe I completely missed Holly and my father.