Page 43 of The Naughty List Agreement

Nick

Nice job this morning.

Cora hearted his message.

Cora

Want to come and walk through the festival grounds with me?

Nick

Give me an hour and I’ll be there.

Using her office bathroom, she changed out of the outfit she’d worn for the TV show into a pair of cream-colored jeans, chunky hiking boots and a long red sweater with bows on it. She pulled her red wool coat on over it and then perched her knitted hat on her head so that her hair framed her face.

Blowing herself a kiss in the mirror, she grabbed her keys and drove over to the festival grounds where workers were putting the finishing touches on the tree. She stood back to watch them, calling out advice when she saw an empty area. Perhaps she should actually get her own tree this year. For years she’d toyed with the idea of inviting the staff to her house for a party mid-way through the festival but never had because her own house was a Christmas-free zone and how would she explain that?

Except for that mistletoe that had appeared over her front door the night Nick kissed her and which was still there. She noted it each time she entered and left her home.

“Hiya.”

Nick wore his long red leather duster again, over jeans and boots, and this time she noticed that the leather was aged and worn and had some embroidering on the lapels. His beard looked freshly trimmed and she couldn’t help the snow globe in her tummy going crazy when she saw him.

He was starting to matter to her.

A man that wanted to be married was starting to matter to her.

The significance of that shook her to her core.

Don’t be stupid. This is temporary.

But that didn’t stop her pulse from quickening as he stood next to her, staring up at the tree. “This is a gorgeous tree. Have you thought about adding a paperchain to it?”

“No. Why would we?”

“So that everyone who visits could feel like they’re a part of the celebration.”

She was intrigued. Nick thought differently to her, and he liked the holiday which meant he had good ideas for how to make the most of it. “How?”

“You could have strips of paper that visitors to the festival could write their intention for the season or the new year on. Everyone would add a link to the chain garland and be part of the tree here.”

“Let me think about it. I’m not sure I have the staff to have someone working out here, and wouldn’t the paper get ruined by the snow?”

“Bari toys could staff it,” he offered, “and you let me worry about the paper. Think about it while you show me around. Has a lot changed since you fired me?”

She liked when he teased her, probably too much. That feeling of fear tried to take root but she shrugged it aside. At this moment, everything in her life was going well. For once she wanted to just enjoy it instead of waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

Cora seemed softer today and he liked it. She was probably as casual as she was ever going to get. He should be in the workshop, but Wils had reassured him that he had everything under control. Working on Cora was his most important task right now.

Santa’s Toy Village was enclosed in a large function space that had a façade of a castle in the style of the classic Bavarian fairy-tale ones.

“Really, Cora? This is your idea of Santa’s village?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“There’s nothing magical about this place at all.”

“It’s a convention space, Nick. It’s not the actual North Pole.”