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Juliette glances at me, and her own lips curve up as she sees me smiling. I scowl at her, and she gives a short laugh and looks back at Missie.
She comes through the doors and gives us all a hesitant smile. We’re all here—James, Henry, Tyson, Juliette, and Damon’s down too from Wellington. Zelda gets up and runs over to greet her, and she bends to give her a kiss and ruffle her ears before straightening.
“Hello,” she says brightly. “I’m so sorry to interrupt.”
“No worries,” James says. “What can we do for you?”
Her gaze skims briefly over me before she addresses the room as a whole. “I was wondering whether one of you kind gentlemen would be able to help me. I made the mistake of volunteering to help out with the school’s end of year Christmas fair, and it’s my job to organize a replacement Santa for the day because the one we did have organized has had to withdraw. The trouble is that the few guys at the school are all busy doing other things, and any men I know outside the school are also busy. I could put a call out to the parents, but before I did that, I thought I’d ask whether any of you would be available to help. It would be this Saturday, from eleven until about three.”
“I’m so sorry,” James says, “I would, but I’m off to Australia to visit my dad on Friday.”
“I’m going back to Wellington tomorrow,” Damon says. “Sorry, or I’d happily do it.”
“Gaby and I are going with him,” Tyson states. “She’s helping Belle with some last-minute wedding stuff.” Damon and Belle are getting married just after Christmas.
“Henry?” Juliette asks. “You’ve done it before haven’t you, for one of the department stores?”
“I did,” he says, but he sends a hopeful Missie an apologetic look. “But I’m picking my sister up from the airport at eleven and driving her down to see our folks in Queenstown.”
“Aw,” Juliette says, “I was looking forward to seeing you fat and hairy.”
Henry mutters something about not having to dress up to look like that, and I give a wry smile as I tap on my laptop, noting where everyone is at the weekend. I like to keep an eye on staffing just in case there’s ever an emergency in the building.
I finish typing and realize the room has fallen quiet. Without lifting my head, I glance up. Missie has obviously gestured at me, and the others are all shaking their heads.
“Never going to happen,” Damon says, amused.
“Alex as Santa?” Juliette snorts. “That’s like asking Jason Momoa to play Tinkerbell.”
Missie giggles, a sound that’s so delightful, I immediately decide to do whatever she’s asking me. “You’re not quite what I had in mind,” she admits, eyes sparkling. “You’d need a lot of padding.”
“Santas are supposed to be fat, jolly, and laugh a lot,” James points out. “He’d be the worst Santa in the whole history of Christmas.”
“I can be jolly,” I protest. “I know tons of Christmas jokes.”
“Like?” Damon asks.
“What do you call Santa’s little helpers?” When everyone shrugs, I reply, “Subordinate Clauses.”
That makes them all laugh, and James says, “God help the children.”
“He used to be a stand-up comedian at uni,” Juliette tells Missie.
Her jaw drops. “Seriously?”
“You’d never know it from his grumpy demeanor, but yeah. He was pretty good at it.”
“I’m seriously funny,” I say.
Missie meets my eyes, and hers are filled with warmth. “Would you do it?” she asks softly. “You’d be saving my bacon.”
“I like bacon,” I reply. “So yeah, sure.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it.” She gives everyone a smile. “See you on Friday for Finn’s physio.”
“Bye,” they all say, and she slips out and jogs back to the lobby.
Everyone looks at me, and they’re all grinning.
