Seducing Santa (Holiday Series Book One)

Chapter Sixteen ~ Santa, Can't You Hear Me?

“You! Over there! Yes, you! Come here right now and help hang up these lights! Come on, don’t dilly dally!” Mary ordered one of the many volunteers who had come to help set up the festival.

Grayson was setting up the sturdy wooden booths, pulling out his hammer to pound one of the corners together. He shook his head at Mary’s overbearing nature, but no one could deny she was good at what she did. It took a lot of work to put on these festivals every year and she always ensured they ran smoothly and on time.

Grayson stepped back and looked at his handy work, making sure that it was even. He pulled out his level and placed it on the built-in table, pleased to see the bubble exactly in the center.

“Mayor Holiday! Grayson!”

Grayson suppressed the urge to run and hide. Mary calling out to him could not be good. He saw her rushing toward him, clipboard in hand, with a determined look on her face.

“Mayor Holiday, It says here that they are predicting no snow today! I need you to double-check that the artificial snow cannons are set up and ready to go once you are done with the booths.” Mary instructed.

Grayson checked his watch, there was not much time left to get the booths set up before he had to go and prepare for the festival himself.

“Could you ask someone else to do it? I still have to go to town hall and set up there. You know, we leave the place open for emergency services, so I have to make sure everything is in order.” Grayson asked, knowing he might be poking the bear with his request.

“It will take you no time at all! Plus, you are the only person in town with keys to most of the buildings in town square. It will take me more time to call everyone up and ask them for access to their roofs. I really had the delivery man drop off the machines in front of the places they are needed. You just need to get them on the roof and plug them in.” She instructed, obviously not taking no for an answer.

Grayson sighed, rubbing the back of his head. There was no point in trying to argue with her, she always had a valid point.

“Fine, I have one last booth to set up and then I will go place the snow cannons.” Grayson accepted, making a note in his head to message Jeffery and hoping he could handle things on his own.

Mary looked pleased and simply nodded her head in affirmation, not saying thank you as she went. Grayson rolled his eyes and made his way over to the last booth, getting it up within fifteen minutes. He was just inspecting it when a familiar voice spoke up from behind him.

“Mayor Holiday, is my booth ready?”

Grayson turned around, not surprised to see Holly standing there. She had a few canvas bags full of items over her shoulders and in her hands, standing a bit lopsided since she was still favoring her left ankle. Without thinking, Grayson reached out to grab the bags in her hands, but Holly took a stumbling step back. It was obvious she did not want his help.

Grayson resisted the urge to snatch the bags away and instead turned back to the booth. He placed his level on it as he had with all the others for the final step. It was still a bit offset so he took out his hammer and pounded down one side and then the other until the level showed it was even.

“There, all ready.”He said, putting away his level and hammer.

“Thank you, Mayor Holiday.” She replied, sounding polite, but also distant.

Grayson watched her place the bags down in the booth, limping only slightly. His guilt for the things he had said to her back at the B&B overwhelmed him. He should have never said those things. The moment he had heard her scream and seen she was hurt, he had been in a panic along with a wave of inexplicable anger over her being foolish enough to have gotten herself hurt.

He had seen it was nothing too serious, but it had still done nothing to calm him down. In fact, as he had carried her inside, his anger only grew until he exploded. After he had left and gone back to Town Hall with the tree, he had sat at his desk and wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else. Unable to understand why he had reacted the way he did. Now, seeing Holly again, the guilt came crashing down on him and he knew he had to do something to bridge the divide he had made between them.

Holly was only wearing a thick holiday sweater, white and blue and snowflake themed, which was perfect for the occasion. Her light blue denim skinny jeans left little to the imagination, distracting Grayson as she bent over to go through the bags. It was getting chilly by the minute and that sweater would not keep her warm for long. Luckily, her dark blue boots with white fur on the top looked warm enough, but she would freeze to death without something to cover up with.

“I hope you brought a coat along as well, even though it's not cold enough for snow yet, it will still get rather chilly once the sun sets,” Grayson warned.

“Mayor Holiday, I am sure you have much better things to do than stand here and remind me to bundle up.” She countered, quickly walking past him and back toward the road.

Grayson followed her, trying to figure out the correct words to say but not knowing where to begin.

“Look, about the last time we spoke…”

“You mean when you made it very clear that I am not welcome here?” Holly interjected.

“I did not mean—“

“My recollection is not so poor that I do not remember your exact words, and I quote ‘you do not belong here’ unquote.” Holly recited, using finger gestures to represent the quotes.

They had made it to Holly’s car. A sensible silver Toyota Prius. She opened up the back and began pulling out boxes of decorations for the booth, all in silver and blue to go along with the wintery theme of the festival.

The festival tried to remain neutral in theme so that it could include all the different holidays in the season. They had sections for Hanukkah, Kwanza, and even Yule. Holiday may be a small town but it still had a diverse culture, the old lumber mill having brought over many different immigrants, and their descendants still living here today. Grayson noticed a few of those different holiday decorations in her boxes and wondered what she was planning on doing with them.

“I’m sorry for the things I said. I let my anger get the better of me.” He apologized, unsure of what else to say.

Holly had grabbed two boxes and looked about to set them down but Grayson was quick to grab them before she could try and pull away. She looked up at him, those blue eyes of hers burning like two tiny flames. She slammed the back of her car shut even though she had other boxes and snatched away one box from Grayson’s grasp.

“Why were you angry? I already told you I would leave it up to the people of Holiday what they wanted and wouldn’t push you further until we had a majority of their support. As the mayor of Holiday, shouldn’t your constituent’s opinion matter the most?” She argued, looking like she was ready to take on anything he had to throw at her.

She was absolutely right, his opinion did not matter if it was what the townsfolk wanted. In fact, he had failed the past two years in trying to find a replacement for the lumber mill that had employed most of the town. He was actually a failure as a mayor and if a company was willing to come in, who was he to stop them?

Deep down, though, Grayson knew his anger had not been caused by his dislike of the business she was trying to bring to Holiday alone. No, it was much more complicated than that, but he was just not ready to admit that just yet.

“You are right, what the people have to say is more important than whatever I think about it. I’m sorry I took my frustrations over failing the people of Holiday the past two years out on you.” Grayson admitted.

Holly’s face instantly softened at his honest words and she shifted the box she was holding to one hand and leaned it against her hip. Her free hand reaching up as she placed it on his shoulder.

“ You are not a failure. From what I heard about the mill, it was very much out of your control. Who could have predicted a beetle infestation taking down half a forest? Finding a new business to move in takes time, years even. I heard you negotiated bus routes with local towns so that those without transportation had a way to commute and that you lowered taxes and set up funds for those in hard times. You have done more for the people here than their own governor has,” Holly assured him.

“ Wow, someone has done their homework on me.” Grayson teased, trying his best to ignore how her comforting touch was doing things to his heart.

“Not just you, but the whole town. I had to do something while I was stuck in bed with a bum ankle.” Holly defended.

“Well, to be fair to the Governor. I had to work with him on the taxes and getting funding for the families. So, he’s not all that bad.”He joked.

Just then, a ping from Grayson’s phone pulled his attention away and he realized it was already getting late. He checked his phone, not surprised to see an anxious text from Jeffery asking where he was. He quickly typed a message back explaining he would be late because Mary roped him into setting up the snow cannons. Jeffery just responded with a panicked face emoji, but Grayson had complete faith that he would be fine.

“I really should start setting up,” Holly said, reaching for the box he was still holding.

“Here, let me help you.” Grayson offered, pulling the box away.

“No, no, I’m sure you have many more things to do. I’ll be fine.” Holly assured him. Grayson finally relinquishing the box back to her.

No matter how much he wanted to stay and help, he knew she was right. He nodded and said his farewell before heading across the street to start doing the arduous task of hauling heavy equipment.

He carried the cannons and their generators with a dolly to the roofs of all the buildings Mary had had the delivery guys drop them in front of. Making his way all the way around the square. By the time he got to the last one, it was already getting dark and the festival was just beginning.

The whole park in the center of the square was lit up with white and blue lights, and an ice rink in the center. A band was set up in the gazebo and was playing “Winter Wonderland” as carolers stood nearby singing along.

Winter-themed carnival games were just receiving their first customers. A group of young boys raced to the shooting gallery to knock down a parade of penguins while a young couple walked over to another game and the young man tried to win the girl a stuffed polar bear by knocking down ice blocks with a snowball.

The aroma of the food stalls wafted through the air as they started cooking up their delicious treats. Mrs. Claus’ Bakery sold all kinds of cookies and hot chocolate and next to it a latke stall served the delicious Hanukkah potato pancake treat.

Grayson’s eyes wandered over to the market where people sold their handcrafted items. It was the perfect place to find unique gifts for loved ones. Amongst them was Holly’s booth, which already had people lined up to look at the beautiful paintings she had made.

Grayson wanted to get a closer look himself, even though he knew he should be rushing back over to town hall. It couldn’t hurt to make a small stop along the way. He made his way down off the roof and out of the building across the street, glad to see that Holly was distracted talking to a family and did not notice him as he looked over her concept paintings up close.

It was not at all how he pictured the theme park to look like. It was like a holiday wonderland. Everything was heavily themed and focused more on family-friendly attractions. His favorite concept was for the North Pole area where they had an entire Santa’s Village planned, but he also noticed she had included other holidays too, like a Kwanzaa-themed show.

Grayson was impressed and from the looks on the faces of the children and parents who stopped to see, they were impressed too.

“Whoa! Look at that carousel! It has reindeer instead of horses!” A little girl exclaimed as she clapped her little hands together in excitement.

Grayson smiled and walked by to snatch up a brochure off the table at her booth before continuing on to town hall. He opened it up and found a lot of information on the different kinds of jobs they would offer, along with training. It even had salary information and the benefits McCormick offered its employees.

Grayson could not lie. He was stated to come around to the idea of a holiday-themed theme park. As long as Holly was in charge he knew nothing would go wrong.