“Yes.”
“Molly, no.”
“Nicholas, yes.”
“Molly, please,” Nicholas pleaded. “Please, no. Not this. Anything but this.”
“Sorry, but your mom gave the orders. Christmas Wishes provides the Santa for the parade today. Since your dad isn't here, that means you,” Molly told him. She popped a bite of roll into her mouth. “You just have to listen to kids' wishes in the town square. It won’t be so bad, I promise. At least I’ll be there with you.”
“You'll be there with me?” Maybe this wasn't going to be the worst thing ever.
“Yep. Mr. Claus and Mrs. Claus,” she said, pointing to him and then herself with a grin. “A winning combination, if there ever was one.”
His heart was doing that thing again where it beat way too fast in his chest. He tried his best not to let it show on his face as he gave Molly a grin right back. The idea of spending the day with her again didn't sound too bad.
“Then maybe it won’t be so bad, after all,” he said slowly. “At least I’ll get to see you in a different costume. Speaking of costumes, are you going to change into your Head Elf stuff once we open the store?”
“Nope. The Head Elf is taking a personal day,” Molly replied. She stuffed the last bit of cinamon roll in her mouth, getting a smudge of icing on her cheek. “The store is always closed on parade day. Everyone’s usually busy helping out with the floats and stages so it’s not like we get a lot of customers, anyway. And it gives us a chance to see the parade ourselves.”
He reached out and touched her cheek, wiping the icing away with his fingers. He tried to ignore the way his insides went to much when he touched her skin.
“Oh, yeah. The parade. My parents may have mentioned the parade once or twice...” Nicholas said, quickly pulling back his hand. His parents must have mentioned the parade at least a million times. “It’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it?”
“Kind of a big deal?” Molly smiled up at Nicholas. “Yeah, you could say that.”
* * *
Nicholas now realized that saying the parade was “kind of a big deal” was a massive understatement.
The town square had been transformed overnight with each and every storefront being painted with neon golds and silvers, applique snowflakes lining their windows by the dozens, and strings and strings of tinsel piled up on the street below. Everything was red, green, sparkly, or all three.
Even the smallest details weren't left out. The town and its inhabitants went all out. Previously decorated trees on the street corners had even more prominent decorations hanging from their limbs, and there were now candy canes painted on the pavement as well. Even the crosswalks had been repainted to look like the stripes on a candy cane.
Nicholas’ mind couldn’t wrap around the fact that the most Christmas-y place he’d ever been to in his life had somehow managed to get even Christmas-y-er.
Molly seemed comfortable with the Christmas-y-er transformation as she made her way down the pavement. “We’ll stop at Hannah’s first, before we head to the town square,” she rambled. “We can watch the parade for a little bit before we change into our costumes. I just want to make sure she’s got everything covered for her float.”
Nicholas nodded, still in awe of the marvelous sights that surrounded him.
If he didn’t know any better, Nicholas would even think that the town’s transformation was something magical, a feat that could only be accomplished by some kind of holiday enchantment. In reality, he figured it was probably something more like too much sugar and rum-spiked eggnog.
By the time they reached Sweetness & Light, Nicholas had grown used to the sparkle and shine of the streets. He leaned his elbows along the counter top, taking in the smells of coffee and baking goodies. There was a crash from the back and suddenly Hannah appeared, struggling with three giant boxes stacked on one another.
“Here, let me,” he said, quickly moving around the counter and taking two of the boxes before they could fall. Molly caught the door before it smashed into her friend.
Hannah grinned at him. “Thanks. Bring it around to the back.”
Molly held the doors as Hannah and Nicholas carried the heavy boxes out to the alley behind the shop. A large float sat waiting for them. Sitting in the center of the float, surrounded by fake snow and oversized brightly-wrapped boxes was a Christmas tree. Except it wasn't a real tree. It was two ten-foot tall plywood cutouts of Christmas trees slid into one another to form a four pointed tree. The strange part was that it was filled from top to bottom with small drilled holes.
“What is that? Why does it have holes?” Nicholas asked, staring at the strange tree.
“That's what I need your help with,” Hannah explained, pulling open one of the boxes they'd just brought out. “Would you guys help me? My driver's running late and we were supposed to get this done last night.”
The boxes were full of candy canes of various colors and flavors. Tied to each one was a small slip of paper. Hannah slid a candy cane into one of the holes in the wooden tree and suddenly Nicholas understood. The tree was a giant candy cane stand.
“What's attached to the candy canes?” he asked, holding one up.
“Prizes,” Hannah replied. “Mostly coupons for buy-one-get-one cookies, ten percent off, and things like that. All the businesses donate them. There are some good prizes in there, though. I donated a couple of chocolate cakes.”