Elves with Benefits (Reindeer Falls)

“Are they not hot anymore?” Sutton questions, already deflating. She slumps back in her chair with a disgusted sigh while shoving another cookie into her mouth.

“Still hot,” Lexi confirms, “but referring to them as the ‘threesome of hotness’ sounds really sordid.”

“The trinity of hotness?” Sutton suggests, seeming undisturbed by her creative usage of ‘threesomes.’

“That’s not any better,” Lexi says. “And possibly religiously offensive.”

“Uh, hello?” I interrupt because I can’t take it anymore. “Who are you guys talking about?”

As the only one of us who didn’t grow up in Reindeer Falls, this happens to me occasionally. There will be some important Reindeer Falls backstory that I’m not privy to, but honestly, it just adds to the magic. There’s always something exciting and new to learn about the best town on the planet—outside of the North Pole, of course.

“The Sheppard brothers,” Sutton explains, a wistful sigh in her voice. “Ryan, Jake and Carter. The three most genetically gifted males to ever graduate from Reindeer Falls High School.”

“Santa definitely blessed them with all the goods.” Lexi nods in agreement. “Even if they were always on the naughty list.”

“But sadly, they were not meant to be in Reindeer Falls forever,” Sutton continues. “They all left for college and never came back. Their parents sold the house and moved to Miami for the snowbird life and I suppose the boys all ended up in cities cooler than this one.”

I gasp. “Take that back!” I sputter.

Sutton rolls her eyes. “I love Reindeer Falls, Maggie. You know I do. But it’s not exactly a place young single men flock to. Our pickings are slim. Especially since the Winter sisters snatched up all the good ones.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Lexi agrees. “I tried to talk to Joe about it a few times, you know, to see if the boys were coming for a visit—”

“Who’s Joe?” I ask.

“My neighbor,” Lexi explains. “The one who passed away a few months ago. He’s their uncle. Or second uncle. Something like that.”

“Oh, right.” I say. “I know you loved that old guy.”

Lexi nods. “Ryan inherited his house. Carter inherited his dog. And I don’t know what Jake inherited.” She pauses, looking a little wistful. “I’m going to miss that dog. I was kinda hoping Uncle Joe was going to leave him to me.”

“Wait,” I say, putting all of this information together. “You’re saying that these three guys are moving into that empty house by you, Lexi?”

“I don’t know if any of them are moving in. I think they’re just in town long enough to claim their inheritances and sell the house.”

“You’re telling me that there are three, young, healthy, able-bodied men in that house right now?” I’m dumbfounded, to be honest.

“Yup.” Lexi nods.

“Three able-bodied grown men and their Christmas lights aren’t up yet?” I clarify one more time, hoping against hope I’m misunderstanding something.

Sutton drops her head into her hand and I think mutters something about me chasing the only available bachelors out of town with my Christmas enforcement shenanigans.

“Uh-oh.” Lexi laughs. “I think someone’s about to get a cheer violation slapped on their door.”

They can laugh all they want, but I take my duty to uphold the holiday standards of Reindeer Falls seriously. I’m already partially standing, bag slung over my shoulder, ready to go let these sons of nutcrackers know who the boss of Reindeer Falls is.

Or, at least, the boss of holiday cheer. I’m not, like, the mayor or anything.

“Aw, come on, Maggie,” Sutton says, grabbing me by the sleeve. “You’re not going to abandon our book club to go yell at some guys for lack of lights, are you?”

As if it’s that simple. As if there isn’t way, way, way more to it.

But I can tell Sutton’s not going to let me budge on this. So I sigh and drop back into my chair.

“Of course not,” I lie, as if I’m not itching to get out there right now. “After all, I couldn’t leave you two alone to make the decision, could I?”

“Right,” Lexi deadpans. “We might end up picking a Thanksgiving book instead.”

I brighten. “You know, that gives me an idea. There are a couple of great holiday crossover books that you two might like.”

They both groan, but I know deep down they love this.

After all, how could anyone not love Christmas?

Chapter Two

Look, I realize that my job might be a little bit ridiculous to some people. After all, I knew quite a few Scrooges back in my hometown of Phoenix. People who said that Christmas was too commercialized. Too stressful. People who didn’t bother to put up a tree and claimed all Christmas movies were trash.

Or the ones who tried, but without any real joy behind it. Like just tossing ornaments on the tree without any rhyme or reason. Or buying store-bought cookies instead of having a baking day. Or loading the entire family into the car to get pictures with Santa, but no one could enjoy it because of all the bickering.