Unwrapping Mr. Roth (11 page)

“We could live in peace there. We’re tree nymphs, Gillian.”

“And, what, being around trees makes you nicer?” Gillian couldn’t help herself. They were like those girls in high school who were only nice when other people were miserable.

Horty flipped her heavy sheath of hair from one shoulder to the other. “No.”

“Okay. You have to make this worth my while, ladies.” Tapping her fingers against her thigh, the sparkle of the ruby on Gillian’s right hand gave her an idea. Nick wouldn’t wheel and deal with them, but she would.

Gnawing her lip, she glanced at him, and he returned that same neutral stare. She knew better. His face read, “Gilly,
don’t
.”

She was
so
going to.

Fixing her gaze on the Ho’s, she asked, “What kind of war spoils are you girls holding onto?”

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Nick hissed.

The Ho’s obviously didn’t hear him, as Holly started counting off on her fingers. “We’ve got a mirror portal, the Redcap queen’s garnet crown, some exquisite stallions, the former Brownie prince’s entire library, a mermaid call, an entire suite of Gnome-built furniture, and a birth control ring.”

Gillian’s eyebrows shot up at that last thing. That was a use for magic she hadn’t even begun to conceive of. Maybe there were some perks to living amongst the supernatural. With all that time on their hands, they probably had plenty of creative sparks.

“Deliver the mirror and furniture to the palace,” Gillian said, tapping her index finger to her chin. “Give the ring to Kori.”

A green-tinted head popped up behind the plants.

“For the
future
, you understand me Kori?”

“Yes, Aunt Gillian,” Kori muttered.

“Return the crown to the Redcaps and the books to the Brownies. You can keep the rest. When I have confirmation you’ve delivered those items as well as your resignations from the Santa Inc. board of directors, the Black Forest land is yours.”

The Ho’s huddled.

“Gillian,” Nick growled.

“Hmm?” She looked up at him on his mother’s lap, and smiled serenely as if they were just about to depart for their honeymoon. She was only doing the job she didn’t want. “Yes, Nicky?” she asked sweetly.

“What are you doing?”

“Playing queen.”

“You’re out of line.”

“No. I’m
not
. That’s what you get with me as queen. I’m not the kind of lady who’s gonna sit idly by and watch shit unfold in front of me when I can be
doing
something. I’m no one’s toy or pretty bauble. I didn’t go to school to be some dick’s arm candy. I put myself through college and work my ass off because that was what my grandmother expected of me, so if you think I’m going to sit around and watch this bullshit escalate for no reason, you’ve got the wrong lady. If you don’t want that from your queen, perhaps you should get rid of her.” She knew her grin was downright predatory, and she didn’t care.

Finally
, his expression cracked. No more neutral blankness, but pure hostility. She’d gone and gotten Santa pissed, and for some reason, she didn’t feel as joyous about it as she’d hoped.

“It’s a deal!” Horty said, joining hands with her sisters and they all danced around in a circle like schoolchildren.

Gillian stood and grabbed her champagne glass. “You can thank me later. Preferably from an entire realm away.”

Gillian figured she was on the downslope of elf matrimony when Nick didn’t fetch her to discuss gift deliveries on the morning of the twenty-fourth. She figured he was calling on a shaman or someone who could undo the bonds of their marriage. Until he got around to fetching her, though, she’d tie off loose ends. Squaring away the nymph girls was the biggest loose end of all. She hated abandoning those girls, but they had to understand she didn’t belong there. She was just human. She did know, however, of one human who might actually be suited for the place.

Gillian teleported to North Carolina and knocked on the door of Terry’s mother’s trailer.

Gillian waited on the concrete block steps, flapping her arms at the blustery wind and wishing she’d grabbed a cloak on the way out. She had a lovely warm red one back at the palace that she skulked around in. Technically, it was Nick’s and had probably been very expensive considering the ermine trim, but she was feeling extremely finders’ keepers lately.

And maybe she just liked the way it smelled. Like Drakkar Noir and Christmas spirit or something. She choked down a sob, and cursed the Fates for tossing her into the mess in the first place.

Why can’t I let myself have this?

Maybe because it didn’t feel real. It was too
much
for a girl like her who wasn’t used to having anything.

Terry pulled back the seventies-era floral print curtain over the door’s window and then yanked the door open. “Ooh, girl! Ain’t you a sight for sore eyes?” She pulled Gillian into one of her usual overenthusiastic hugs and rocked her side to side.

Mood lifted, Gillian chuckled as soon as Terry gave her enough air to do so.

Terry was wearing one of the
Vampires are Real!
T-shirts Gillian always teased her about, and suddenly, the idea wasn’t so crazy.

“Come on in!” Terry said. “It’s cold out there. Did you get your check, too?”

“My check?”

“Your paycheck.” Terry shut the door and walked over to the large console television set that played a soap opera Gillian thought had been cancelled.

“I found it shoved in the mailbox in an envelope addressed to me. Didn’t have postage on it. Just showed up out of the blue.”

“Oh.”
Thank fuck for Agnes and her administrative efficiency.
That lady was
quick
. “Um, yes. I got paid.”

“Girl, I was so glad to see it. Oh! I saw Kurt. Weirdest thing. He found Gina wandering around in his office and trying to find her way out.”

Gillian gulped. “Oh yeah?”

“Yup. Got his rent money off her, I hear. Oh, and he said you had a whole bunch of gifts for him to hand out to the kids. That was real sweet. Took him a while to track ’em all down, but he said they just raved on and on about them.”

“That’s nice to hear. I miss those kids.” Gillian cleared the pile of laundry off the plastic-covered sofa and sank into the corduroy monstrosity.

“So, what you been doing since the school closed? Ain’t seen a lick of you.”

Gillian flinched. “This and that. I…got married, but we’ll probably get an annulment. Wasn’t meant to be.” She swatted a long white-blond hair off the leg of her black pants. Apparently, Santa’s way of being everywhere at once was inadvertently leaving little pieces of himself behind.

“Hold up,
married?
” Terry’s voice took on a stratospheric pitch. “That don’t sound like you.”

“I had a moment of weakness.”

“Anybody I know?”

“No, he’s from out of town.” Gillian sniffled. “
Way
out of town.”

“Well, I’d like to meet him before you dump him.” Terry swatted at her and giggled. “Say, you want a drink?”

“I can’t stay long. I actually came out here to see if you had a new job lined up.”

Terry shook her head. “Nope, not a thing. Plus everything is so slow this time of year. Probably won’t get called in for anything until after New Year’s Day.”

“That’s true.” Gillian twiddled her thumbs for a moment, thinking how best to make the proposition. If she played her cards right, the girls would have a house matron. If she did it wrong, Terry would be picking up her phone and dialing for an ambulance and straitjacket for Gillian.

“T, I know how you feel about our, uh, blood-sucking cousins.”

Terry’s eyes went wide and she shook her head, “Oh yeah, girl, I think one must have rubbed up against me at Christine’s Tavern last week because I still can’t get my energy up.”

“Oh, that sucks for you. No pun intended. What do you think about elves?”

Terry shrugged. “Ain’t never seen one, so I reckon they don’t bother me.”

“And have you ever worked with pubescent girls? Ages, oh, twelve through sixteen, seventeen?”

“Is this an interview? Hold up, do I need to go take out my piercings?” She pointed to barbells in her brows.

“Yes to the first thing, and the second isn’t necessary.”

“You ain’t foolin’, are you? What kind of job? You hooked up with a new school?”

Gillian sucked in some air and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I suppose you could call it that.”

“In that case, I used to be a bus monitor for the middle school and sometimes I volunteer to help with scout troop outings.”

“I didn’t think you were the outdoorsy type.”

“Girl, fuck the outdoors. I take them to the movies and stuff when their mommas forget to buy craft supplies.”

Gillian snorted. Terry had always been the go-with-the-flow type. That’d come in handy around the unpredictable weirdoes in the palace, for sure. “How would you feel about a live-in position?”

“Depends. Where is it and what does it pay?”

“The pay is very good. As far as where, well…” That was hard to explain. She wasn’t quite sure where the palace was.
Somewhere between Germany and the next realm
was the way Eldora had explained it, and Gillian tried not to think about it because she liked not having a broken brain. “Europe-ish,” she hedged.

“
Europe
?” Terry’s eyes went wide. “Well, you know I can’t speak any languages other than English.”

“That’s fine. Everyone where you’re going speaks English perfectly well.”

“Well, shit, when do we leave?”

“You’re interested? I haven’t even told you what the job is.”

“It pays, right?”

“Yes.”

“And I’ll have someplace to live?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then let’s go. Tell ’em not to hire anyone until I have a chance to try for it.” Terry strode purposefully across the room and grabbed her puffy coat from the back of a chair. “Tell me about it on the way. Let’s make tracks.”

“No need to rush.” Gillian locked the door, turned off the television, and then looped an arm around one of Terry’s. “The travel time isn’t as bad as you’d think. Swallow.”

“Huh?”

“Swallow now. For some reason, that staves off the dry heaves on the other end.”

Terry furrowed her brow, but did what Gillian said.

“Here we go.” Gillian teleported them, and grinned at Terry’s startled yelp as they faded from the trailer.

***

Gillian and the nymph girls stayed up late giving Terry an orientation and a bit of hazing. Terry had adapted surprisingly well given the circumstances and hadn’t batted an eyelid when they’d materialized in the palace sitting room the girls tended to cluster in.

Terry had simply looked around then shouted, “Oh, shit! Is that real suit of armor over there? Is anyone in it? What video game is that? Can I get ‘next’?”

As the afternoon of the twenty-fourth faded to eve, Gillian tried to be cheerful. The eggnog was plentiful, the ten-foot tree in the parlor was awe-inspiring, the Christmas carols playing on Eldora’s old gramophone were joyous, the girls were spirited, the buffet dinner was the stuff of dreams, and Gillian was
crazed
.

Being antagonized by Nick was a far less painful thing than being ignored by him. She wanted Nick to pay attention to her. Whether or not she played nice when he did…
well
. She couldn’t help it. He just flipped some switch in her. Maybe she really was the brat he’d accused her of being.

Around four a.m. palace time, the party started winding down. Eldora bailed first and went to bed followed by most of the girls, and trailed last by Terry. Kori lingered for a while chitchatting about how stoked she was that the Ho’s would be popping in less frequently. Then she stretched, yawned, and looked at the clock on her phone.

“Hmm. Uncle Nick should be back at his apartment by now. I hope he didn’t get into any trouble this year.”

“Trouble?”

Kori shrugged and jammed her feet into her bunny slippers. She was all the way at the door when she said, “Every single year.”

“Am I supposed to…” Shifting her weight, Gillian wrung her hands. “I mean, is there something I should be doing?”

Kori poked her head back into the room and locked her tinsel gaze on Gillian. “I’m just a kid, Gillian.”

“Right.
Just
a kid. You have reasonable opinions on everything else. Why not this?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, folks around here tend to be kind of messed up when it comes to romance. I’ve watched a lot of your human television shows and could probably cook up a scheme for you if you really want to hear it.”

“Life experience tends to provide better insight to this sort of thing, but thanks.”

Kori drummed her fingertips along the doorframe and chewed on the side of her mouth for a long while. “I don’t know what to tell you. I hope you figure something out ’cause I want you to stay, but I’m used to not getting the things I want.”

“Me, too. I had to steal my grandmother’s houseplants after her funeral, for Chrissakes.”

Kori’s smile was soft. “You’re the queen of the elves. You should get what you want.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why not?”

“Because other people are involved. My family taught me that. You can’t make people want the same things you do, even if it’s the best thing for them.”

“But you can ask them, right? You can compromise, or do your part and try to?”

Gillian turned her hands over in concession.

Kori waved goodnight and went away.

Gillian sat thinking for a while, staring at the twinkling lights on the tree and admiring all that shiny silver tinsel.

Compromise with Nick Roth?

It seemed a futile endeavor, but she could try. What did she have to lose?

He was domineering and aggressive, but he had soft spots. They were the things that drove his passions and made him behave the way he did. His practicality was why he was the king. His weaknesses were why he was Santa.

Apparently, he was becoming
her
weakness.

Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

She was unused to being offered so much. Maybe that was why she didn’t recognize it as something she wanted.