Page 22 of Reindeer Flames
Sounds of an orchestra playing Christmas songs drifted to us through the trees, marking the ceremony's last act. "I need to get back," he said. "Thank you for this. I wasn't sure I could get through the rest of tonight's practice." He chuckled. "Now I have too much energy. All I want to do is take you home and repeat what we did two Fridays ago."
I shook my head. "Go to work, or Santa 30 will never forgive me for corrupting his favorite Comet."
He pressed his lips to mine for one last kiss, and I stepped back to give him room to walk past me onto the snow packed trail back to reality.
"I'm nobody's favorite Comet," he tossed over his shoulder.
That wasn't true at all. He was my favorite, if no one else's.
CHAPTER 10
HART
The Monday morningcoffee and snack order was lighter than usual. When I arrived at Santa 30's office to drop it off, I found it empty. Neither of his office elves sat at their desks, either.
"We have an emergency," Santa said when I deposited the bag of cookies and two cups of coffee on his desk. "I need your help."
"Anything." I'd grown up with Santa 30. He'd always been more than my dad's boss. He was a family friend, even closer than my extended family.
"Have you heard about the salt shortage?"
I nodded. Silver said he would need more salt to make his gingerbread cookies.
"Then you know how important it is to keep Silver and Gold in stock. It will be in short supply this year, and the Christmas Village bakeries have first dibs on the remaining salt." Santa shook his head and grumbled, "It astounds me that the village bakeries still can't make a decent cookie after all these years." He reached for the bag of sugar cookie stars Gold had put on top of two boxes of cookies. "Two different bakeries used salt instead of sugar to make their entire orders for the tree-lighting ceremony. They don't even look alike!"
No wonder the village stores were out of salt. I didn't want to argue about the visual differences, since I couldn't tell them apart. Bopp had filled our sugar bowl with salt once. Our granddad had to go to the emergency clinic because it gave him heart palpitations. I'd put a spoonful in my cherry blossom tea, making it even saltier.
"What do you need me to do?" I asked.
Santa took a bite of his cookie and offered me the last remaining star with little silver and gold flecks on top. I held up a hand and shook my head. I couldn't possibly take the last cookie from Santa.
"Offer to take Silver south to Denmark. Salt is cheap there. Not as cheap as Russia, but it's in our delivery territory. And it's not Russia," he muttered under his breath. "It might take a while to talk him into it, but when he is ready, I'll give you the map to my vacation home, a letter for the wholesale retailer, and a practice sleigh."
Our practice sleighs were nothing but runners beneath a flatbed. They didn't even have a cockpit. "Won't Silver be uncomfortable riding back there?" I asked.
Santa laughed. "He's a dragon. If he wants, he can fly."
"Couldn't he carry the salt by himself, then?" I hadn't seen Silver's dragon form yet, but I assumed he was as big as a house.
Santa's eyes twinkled as he shook his head. "He would need to make several stops to rest. Dragons are magical creatures, but they don't have magical flight like yours."
Magical flight. So that was why we never tired in the air, even when we worked our muscles to the max.
"Together, you'll save Christmas for the Scandinavian children. Our workshops run on Silver and Gold's cookies, Hart. We're counting on you."
I had a feeling Santa chose me for this mission with an ulterior motive. Did he know Silver and I were dating?
Who was I to argue? I meant it when I said I'd do anything for Santa.
Silver agreedthe moment I asked. He didn't even stop to ask Gold if he could go. "We're almost out of salt, and our friends could use more, too."
I frowned. "He's only sending me," I said. "I don't know how much salt you need, but I can only carry so much on a practice sleigh."
"I'm sure it will be enough." He patted my shoulder. "At least it's not flour or sugar. That would get heavy."
He ran into the back to tell Gold where we would be for the next couple of days. When she shoved through the swinging doors and marched past the counter to our table, I stood with both hands outstretched to pacify her. Did she think I was trying to kidnap Silver?
Instead of yelling at me, or even asking my intentions with her brother, she pulled me into her powerful arms and squeezed until I couldn't breathe.
