Embarrassing heat swept through her, spiked with a touch of justified anger. “I match the store,” she replied. “If you ever came by the place, you'd know that.”
Nicholas laughed now, too, while he settled his coffee cup on the counter. “You’re right about that, Ms. Head Elf. I’m not a regular customer. Well, I’m not really a customer at all. Never had much interest in the family business.”
“That's too bad. Your parents are really good at it,” she said. She forced an arm into her coat and picked up her purse.
“Christmas wasn’t always the family business,” Nicholas replied. “Before my parents opened the store, my dad used to manage stocks and bonds, and my mom used to teach university courses all around the world.”
“Mrs. Claus was a professor?” Molly asked. The idea of Mrs. Kerstman being anything but Mrs. Claus was strange enough to make her stop.
Nicholas shrugged. “People change.”
“Yeah, I guess they do...” Molly’s words trailed off. She put her purse on her shoulder. She'd get her pie from Hannah later. “I guess I’ll see you around the shop.”
“Actually, could you take me through a quick walk-through of the shop?” Nicholas grabbed onto his coffee cup and slid off the counter stool.
“A walk-through? Right now? But I just closed the shop,” Molly stammered.
“Yes, but you’re the Head Elf, aren’t you?” He motioned to her outfit. “Don’t you have all the power here? And all the necessary keys?”
“Oh. I... guess that’s true,” Molly said. She didn't want to go back to the store, especially with him. If he was this dismissive of her outfit, what would he think of the store? “Are you sure you don’t want to just wait until tomorrow morning?”
“Waiting until tomorrow morning would be inefficient,” Nicholas said as he stole a glance at his watch. “I think it’d be better to make the most of my limited time here. The sooner I can get out of here, the better.”
Molly frowned but took a deep breath. This was the Kerstmans’ son. It would be fine. Hopefully it would only take a few minutes and then she could be rid of him.
“Yeah. Okay,” she told him. “We can go to the shop right now.”
“Wonderful.” Nicholas’s tone sounded cheerful, but Molly didn’t turn to catch his expression, keeping her focus on heading out of the front door. The sooner they were done, the sooner she could be rid of Nicholas Kerstman.
Chapter 6
Nicholas
Ms. Head Elf was cute.
It’d been the first thing that Nicholas had noticed about her.
Looking past her borderline ridiculous outfit, he thought that her long legs, curly chestnut hair, and dark brown eyes all complemented each other. She was beautiful in a girl-next-door way.
When he'd first walked into the bakery, Nicholas had assumed that Molly’s Christmas-themed get-up had something to do with the annual parade in town, though he’d been certain that wasn’t for a few days’ time.
He’d never expected that she worked for his parents, just like he’d never expected that one of the first things he’d say to her would be such a harsh insult about her chosen line of work.
Nicholas blamed his foot-in-mouth disease on his lack of proper coffee. The flight out had been delayed due to weather. The coffee shop at the airport had been closed. When he'd arrived in town, the lack of coffee shops was startling. It was one of the many reasons he hated coming back here.
Nicholas reluctantly took in the sights of the town as they walked the short distance to the store. He tried his best to not let all the Christmas bother him too much. His eyes scanned over the myriad of adorned Christmas trees on every street corner, the singing from the carolers, and the way the hanging, glittering lights reflected off the pure white snow, making it almost seem like the snow itself was coming alive in different colors on the walkway.
“Candy cane?” Molly’s abrupt offer stopped Nicholas in his tracks. She held the candy cane out towards him.
“Uh... no.” Nicholas sucked in air through his teeth, because he knew that he was talking to a total Christmasholic, and any variation of no was going to be the wrong answer. “Sorry.”
“Huh. I’ve never had someone turn down a free candy cane before,” Molly said. She placed the candy cane back into her coat pocket as she turned back towards the sidewalk. “Welp. First time for everything.”
“Candy canes are just a fun way to rot your teeth,” Nicholas said, following in Molly’s footsteps. “People should really limit themselves more.”
“Yeah, you’re right. People should really limit their candy intake during Christmas,” Molly said. “I guess people should also limit their cake intake on their birthday.”
Nicholas wanted to laugh at Molly’s blithe dissection of his argument, but he asked a question instead. “I don’t think I caught your full name? Back at the bakeshop?”