Page 7 of Sleigh Rides With St. Nick

"But I should really go now," I said."If that is Zeus, then I need to make sure Laila is okay."

He nodded."Understandable.Perhaps I'll see you in a bit, but if not, I look forward to dinner on Thursday," Nick said.

"Me too."I gave him what I hoped was a warm smile, not wanting him to think that this was some kind of ploy to get away from him, when I was really just concerned for Laila.Though I supposed I had given him my number already.

I waved goodbye, regretting that I'd probably have to wait until Thursday to talk to him again, but knowing that it was probably for the best.

Chapter3

NICK

I stared at the ledgers in front of me and ran a hand over my face.As much as I didn't want to admit it, I had no idea what the accounts said.It had been hundreds of years of running a business and I still couldn't get it right.It wasn't that I didn't try, it was just that my talent lay in other parts of the business, mostly in product design and development.

Logically, I knew that was what Pieter and I hired accountants for, but I should still know the state of our business.It was so much easier when things were simpler and it was nothing more than me and my tools in a shop.Perhaps I should ask someone from accounting to come up and talk things over with me so I at least had some understanding of what I was looking at.I reached out for the phone, only to stop when the door opened.

I looked up to find Pieter stepping inside with a serious expression on his face.

"I thought you spent the whole weekend with the guy you met at the Jinx party?"I asked him.

"I did."

"Then why do you look like you're about to tell me something both serious and horrible?"

He chuckled and pulled out the chair on the visitor's side of the desk."I'm not.We've got a meeting with the account manager from Miracle Marketing Solutions."

"Ah, right.I lost track of time.I had some notes somewhere," I said.

"Mmm.This wouldn't even be necessary if you just let us have an in-house marketing team," Pieter said.

"We have an in-house marketing team."

"We have a graphic designer who focuses on our packaging and every now and again puts together a post for social media.We don't have a proper marketing department."

I sighed."All right, fine.After the Christmas season is over, we can hire someone.Or maybe we can poach whoever they send if they do a good job."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Pieter said.

I snorted."You own half the company, you don't have to hold me to anything."

"True.But we'll talk about that after Christmas is over.We need to focus on the last-minute push.It's three weeks until Christmas, we can catch all of the people who are running behind on their gift shopping.That should get some toys out of the door," he said in a matter-of-fact tone I'd gotten used to over the years we'd been companions.

"Is that a problem?I was looking at the accounts..."

He snorted."Are you really trying to tell me you understand them, Nick?"

"I understand the basic number.We're making profit.And both of us are living comfortably."

"We'd be living comfortably even if we weren't making profit," he pointed out."Investing in the railways in the eighteen-hundreds really paid off."

"Mmm."

"But if you want the company to keep bankrolling your charity work, then we need to make more money."

"I can pay for it myself if it's an issue," I responded.

"Not the point, Nick.The charity coming from the company also looks good.Maybe this year you'll finally use it for marketing."

"Absolutely not," I responded firmly."I don't want it becoming a massively gimmicky thing.I do the sleigh ride and gifts because it brings joy to the kids, not because it looks good for the company."

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