Page 30 of Reindeer Flames
"You're not mad?"Silver wouldn't meet my gaze on the subway.
"Why would I be mad? This is wonderful news!" I laced our fingers together and kissed his knuckles.
"It's … unexpected. I didn't know I was in heat." He sighed. "I should have known. I never want to attend parties."
"I'm glad I let Donner talk me into going." If I hadn't won the time trials, I probably would have stayed home. I grinned, remembering the boost of pride when I beat Bopp. I was still riding high after telling him off in the hangar, too.
Outracing him was easy. Telling him off had been hard, but the look on Silver's face when I did had filled me with more than pride. I finally felt worthy of him, and of our unborn children. We might be Comets, but the generational trauma and bullying would stop with me.
"I need a nest," Silver whispered. "Two. One at the bakery, and one at home."
"Our home." My hands itched to pull the flyers from the front pouch of my bag, where I'd shoved them before we left Santa's office. We'd agreed to review them with Gold, and not before.
We got off the subway at Silver's apartment building. The elevator down still made my skin prickle with wrongness, but I shrugged it off.
"Would you prefer to live below ground?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"I like it, but I'd rather live with you." He squeezed my hand.
The elevator slowed to a stop, and the doors slid open. The air was fresh and warm, but I still couldn't shake the fear of being buried alive, should anything happen.
Silver's apartment was gorgeous, though, with the changing walls and colorful lights along the floorboards. "Can you bring this technology with you?" I asked.
"It's part of the building," he said, "not my magic."
It was magic, though. I wondered if we could hire someone to spell our new home the same way.
Gold hugged us both when we arrived at the bakery and then hugged us again with tears in her eyes when we told her what Santa 30 had said about our eggs.
"That's wonderful news!" She squeezed me hard enough to knock the air from my lungs and left me gasping for air as she turned to Silver, gripping his shoulders. "Where are you going to live?"
My vision was still a little blurred when I pulled the flyers from my bag. I tried to stay neutral, but the first one, a two-story brick with deep eaves and scalloped trim, was absolutely adorable.
"It's near the hub," Silver said. "Two stops from here on the subway, and a quick train ride to anywhere in the village."
"I love the trim," Gold said. "It's so cute!" She pointed to the bold red print to the right of the image. "Open house on Sunday. You two should go. Take the day off."
"But you've been working so hard while we were gone."
She shook her head. "This place practically runs itself, and it's not like we were busy. Laurie and I compared notes last night, and neither of us have seen much action from the villagers. Either they stayed home for their mandatory days off, or they went far away from here."
"That's strange, isn't it?" Silver glanced at me.
"It's the time of year when most of us want to prepare for winter." I assumed my teammates had spent the days winterizing their homes and baking their own treats.
"Besides," Gold said with a wave of her hand, "Laurie's coming over to experiment on some new creations, and you said you already had a new cookie?"
Silver smirked at the mention of Laurie, but he said nothing as he opened the remaining box of cookies. We'd left two boxes with Santa.
Gold frowned at the little red candies on top, but her eyes lit up at the first bite. "They're hot!"
"We could cut back on the candies?—"
"No! I'll ask Laurie to bring more! She sells cinnamon candies in her store. I never thought to add them to our snickerdoodles. Who gave you this idea?" She squinted at me, and I raised my hands in surrender.
"Not it."
"Santa 30," Silver said. "We already knew he had a sweet tooth, but he also seems to be a cinnamon connoisseur."
