Page 15 of A Beginner's Guide to Christmas Miracles
“Unless you can make something appear out of thin air, I don’t think you can help,” she muttered.
“What got lost?” Beck asked gently. “We can help you look.”
Victoria let out a mirthless laugh. “Lost implies it was ever here to begin with. I can’t believe this. I amnevertrusting someone else to do a job that needs to get done again.Never.”
“Victoria, what’s going on?” Nach asked, and when she looked over at him, she took a deep breath, seeming to calm down a bit.
“We need a permit to do fundraising. Our Santa pictures, the breakfast we host, and the holiday market in the gym are some of our biggest events for raising money. They enable us to buy presents for families that don’t have enough. We buy Christmas meals with that fundraising money. Heck, that money is used for programs all year round. And it’s gone,” she finished, her breath hitching.
“Someone stole the money from last night? Oh my god, Vic! We’ll call the cops! But the other events haven’t happened yet, and we’ll still make a ton of money from those. It’ll be ok, even if we don’t get the missing money back,” Beck assured her.
“No. Thepermitsare gone. As in, I don’t think that useless assistant that I had ever filed for them. Town hall called after last night’s events, saying they don’t have them on file, and we can’t hold the rest of the events without them,” she cried out.
Beck gasped. “I can’t believe that the town would be so… so… unChristmasy!” Beck seethed.
Victoria gave a watery laugh. “Oh, Beck, I do love you. It really isn’t their fault though. They felt awful about it. But those permits have to do with town ordinances, police officers on duty, parking, vendors, nearby store hours, and a million other things. They could have fined me for last night’s event, but they aren’t going to. But it means we can’t hold any more events, and by the time new permits go through, almost all the events I set up will have passed. When she said they didn’t have copies, I figured that useless sack of poop I called an assistant hadn’t filed them like I asked, even though he definitely withdrew the money. I knew he was rotten, which is why I fired him, but I just… I don’t even know. I just hoped, I guess,” she finished lamely.
Beck sat down in the spare chair, feeling deflated. Well, shit. Helovedall the Christmas events at the center. He volunteered at quite a few of them, as did Alan.
He looked over at Nach, who was looking through a binder, and he was about to say “Bless you,” because the guy totally looked like he was gonna sneeze, but then Nach asked, “Do they have a round seal on them?”
Victoria sat up. “Yes,” she answered, and Beck swore she was holding her breath. Hell, Beck was holdinghisbreath.
“And a stamp with the city name?” Nach asked.
“Ohmygod!” Victoria yelled out, jumping up and rushing over to Nach. She grabbed the papers he had in his hand, flipped through them, and then actually leaned over and kissed the man on the lips.
Beckalmostfelt jealous, but since Nach looked awkward as hell about the whole thing, he had to resist laughing instead.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!” she burst out, flipping through them. “IswearI looked there, like, three times!”
At that moment, her phone rang, and she rushed over, picking it up. “Hello?...Yes!...Yes, I just found our copies of them too!...The extra policewerescheduled already?...Marcy, that’s fantastic! Just hold on one second.” She turned to them, covering the mouth piece on the phone. “Marcy just found the town’s copies, too! Thank you so much, though—you guys helped save Christmas! I gotta take this. You all good?”
“Yup, just checking in. We’ll let you get to it,” Beck answered, grabbing Nach’s hand.
“Thank you, guys,” she said, then she looked at Nach. “You really are a miracle worker,” she announced, then she waved them both off as she went back to her phone call.
Beck led them out of the center, still tightly clasping Nach’s hand. “Ready to head home, my sexy Santa?” Beck asked.
Nach blushed and nodded. Adorable.
Beck was really glad they’d grabbed a late lunch in town, because he suddenly couldn’t wait to get Nach back to an empty house. His sexy Santa deserved some rewards for all his good deeds today, and Beck had some definite ideas in mind.
CHAPTER9
Nachielus
It had beena lovely day with Beck, and Nach was amazed at how perfect his elf really was. Beck brought smiles and joy to everyone he talked to, and Nach loved seeing him spread happiness to all his acquaintances. It seemed like everyone who knew Beck loved him; Nach even had a moment or two of uncharacteristic possessiveness flare up, but Beck seemed oblivious to any flirting, holding Nach’s hand and shooting him grins and winks all day.
Nach might have possibly helped out a bit in spreading some joy, too.
But really, could he be blamed? He was an angel of joy and fulfillment. It was hisjobto bring people joy, to see them fulfilled. So when people were upset or sad or feeling hopeless, well, it was only right that Nach helped out a bit, wasn’t it?
And did any of those thingsreallycount as miracles? They were all so mundane—finding toys, getting people to confess feelings, moving a few clouds with snow in them. Ok, so fine, creating permits out of thin airprobablycounted as a miracle, but surely only a teeny tiny one. Nothing to call upper management’s attention to him, or at least he hoped not.
“Oh!” Beck cried out, stopping. They were heading back toward the car since the sun was setting and it was getting chilly, but Nach noticed a large sign advertising “Christmas in the Park,” and sure enough, it seemed that vendors and stands were set up in the public park down the side street.
“That looks lovely! I wouldn’t mind a walk through,” Nach assured Beck, smiling.
