Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 59022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
We stop by many little workshops where the dwarves are busy making all sorts of toys—I’m not joking—exactly like we imagined it would be when we were growing up.
Santa has a real, honest to goodness workshop.
A few of them. And there are dwarves or elves or whatever he’s calling them making presents for kids! They’re singing too! Literally whistling, singing and dancing around like they’re having the time of their life.
The toys are delicate looking, as though they’re one-of-a-kind pieces.
A child’s dream.
We stop at a shop called, The Cocoa Cottage.
“We’ll grab a drink here before we go on. I promise you’ve never had hot chocolate like this before,” Stetson says in excitement.
“And Shorty tops them off with different liqueurs he experiments with,” he winks at me. “He’s the village mixologist.”
Village mixologist? Now this, I must see.
“Let’s do this!” I answer with equal exuberance.
We step inside the shop, and I’m hit with the scent of cocoa, vanilla and toasted marshmallows. My mouth waters immediately and I find myself excited to try the drink and just soak in the ambiance. There’s a big fire crackling in a stone hearth in one corner. Shelves line the walls, stacked with jars of candy and a three-person band performs a happy folk song in another. Couples dance, drink and are just… merry?
Stetson pulls me toward the bar, and who I assume is Shorty walks up to us. He’s a pleasant looking tiny older man with a long grey and white beard and spectacles that look like they’re from the sixteenth century. He too is wearing a cap like Santa, but his is green and white. His smile is infectious.
“What can I get you?” His booming voice is filled with cheer as he turns the menu in our direction.
“We’ll take the Naughty and Nice flight and a Candy Cane Velvet,” Stetson sounds extremely excited. “And maybe a dozen of those chocolate rolls your wife makes so well.”
“Coming right up!”
“A dozen?” I laugh at him. “I’m going to assume they’re small.”
He gives me a wolfish smile.
“I’m a growing boy.”
“I don’t know how much more growing you have to do,” I shake my head at him.
He smiles mischievously, “you know—”
I cover his mouth with my hand.
“Don’t you dare!” I laugh at him, knowing full well I set myself up.
He kisses my hand and holds it against his lips for a minute longer making my heart race something fierce. He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me up against his hard body. His other hand moves to cup my cheek and lift my face up to his.
He doesn’t lean down to kiss me like I want, he just stares at me.
“I dare anything, Charlie,” he whispers.
I’m sure he does.
My hands lay against his chest as we gaze into each other’s eyes.
When he looks at me like this, I feel like he can see me. Really see me. Charlie with all her flaws and gifts. The little girl whose heart was broken by mom and dad. The rebellious teenager, the outcast, who went down a dangerous road for a moment in time, just screaming for her parents to pay attention to her. The young lady in her twenties who was determined to become something and turn her life around.
But deep inside, where I keep my secrets…
The little girl dreaming of having her very own fairytale.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“This hot chocolate is the best thing I’ve ever had in my life,” I can’t help but blurt out as Stetson and I walk down Candy Cane Lane.
Armed with our spiked hot cocoas and a dozen enormous scrumptious chocolate rolls, I couldn’t be happier. In fact, this might be the most perfect place in the world and it only seems to get better and better.
By the way, Candy Cane Lane is exactly what one would imagine it’d be.
Giant candy cane lampposts line the snowy path and are striped red and white, twisting like peppermint sticks. Every few seconds one of them flickers and sends sparkling glitter into the air, making this place seem even more magical than it already is.
With every step I take I feel like I’m stepping further into a childhood dream only rather than ask Santa for all my gifts, I’m ready to strip him naked and wrap myself up as one.
“It’s the best in the world,” Stetson agrees as he takes a bite of one of the chocolate rolls. It’s the second one he’s had in less than five minutes. He closes his eyes in pleasure and the look of ecstasy on his faces makes me burst out laughing.
“I have never seen anyone look that happy over food!”
He smiles sheepishly. He looks like a young boy right now, guilty, but charming.
“I have a sweet tooth,” he admits.
I smile, remembering all the donuts he ate on the buggy.
“On brand,” I return.