snorted. “They might think they can escape, but the population is so limited in smaller communities, everyone knows everyone else.”
“Therefore, if a stranger comes to town, everyone would know him as a stranger?”
“Right.” She smiled his way. “You’d definitely stick out as a stranger, especially this time of year. In the summer, not so much. Droves of tourists visit North Pole in their RVs and on tour buses, but they eventually leave. Not many people come in the darkness and freezing temperatures of winter.” Her smile slipped. Some people left Alaska on business trips to warmer climates and greener pastures.
Her lips pulled into a straight line. She’d been so naÏve. That was old news. She’d since moved to Seattle and two years had passed. Mary shook her head to clear the cobwebs and concentrated on the man beside her. “Why are you coming to North Pole? Looking for a place to escape?”
“Would you believe I have business with Santa?”
“Maybe.” Mary stared hard at him. Something about the way he said the words didn’t ring true, but she hadn’t heard much from her father in the past few months. Since her father had found a life of his own and the new wife. Kim.
Nick glanced at her. “What’s Santa’s real name?”
The smile returned to Mary’s face. “Santa Claus.”
“No, really. What’s his real name?”
“For as long as I can remember, he’s always been Santa Claus. I’ve asked him hundreds of times what his real name was, but he never told me. He signs his name as Santa and his Social Security card and driver’s license all say Santa Claus.”
Nick shook his head, a frown dipping between his brows. “I don’t get it.”
Mary shrugged and settled back against her seat, refusing to fall into the trap of trying to explain the whole North Pole, Alaska, and the Christmas Towne phenomenon. Some people didn’t get it. The man next to her probably never would. His loss.
Bradley, the two-timing-bigamist, never understood it either. He’d laughed at the whole concept. He’d probably been laughing at her all along as well. Look at the dumb bumpkin from the sticks of Alaska, too stupid to see through his lies.
The fifteen miles to North Pole flew by. Her heart banged against the inside of her chest when her hometown came into view. Colorful Christmas lights sparkled year-round on the houses and the candy cane lampposts. She never tired of bright colors. Living in Seattle, she missed the cheery lights even in the summertime. As the Christmas Towne store came into view, tears welled in her eyes. Red and white diagonal stripes graced the boxy entrance. Pictures of reindeer and Santa’s sleigh stretched across the whitewashed exterior walls. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed home until she came back.
“This is my stop.” She stared at the building trying to imagine the first impression of a stranger to what she considered home. It looked like a red and white fantasy castle in the middle of the Alaskan landscape. The house beside the store was painted brown and trimmed with fake gumdrops and candy canes; the two buildings could have been out of any child’s most elaborate dream. The little cottage beside the store looked like a gingerbread house good enough to eat, covered in a fluffy foot of snow with drifts up to the windowsills.
A light still shone inside the store. Had her father kept the store open late for the Christmas season? Several cars and a North Pole police SUV stood out front. Christmas Towne had some of the best coffee in North Pole. Many people came all the way out from Fairbanks to eat dinner and buy gifts from the diner and store. They made it a shopping expedition complete with small children anxious to sit in Santa’s lap and tell him all their wishes.
“If you’ll park in front of the store, I’ll introduce you to my fa—Santa.” When he shifted the car into Park, she grabbed for the handle and jumped out, anxious to ask her father what was so important she had to fly home at the drop of a hat. At the same time, she didn’t want to let Nick get away without finding out what business he had with Santa.
Nick popped the latch on the trunk and lifted her suitcase as if it weighed nothing. “I’d appreciate that introduction.”
She led the way to the glass doors and entered. Inside, it wasn’t a mob of shoppers she ran into. Instead, she was met by North Pole police officer Trey Baskin and Chris Moss, one of Christmas Towne’s employees, Betty Reedy, the Christmas Towne baker, and her stepmother, Kim Claus.
They stared at her, their gazes shifting to the man beside her as though seeing her with a man was so unusual they were stunned into temporary silence. Mary sighed. So it had been a while since she’d brought a man home to North Pole—two years to be exact. And this one wasn’t even her man. “Trey Baskin, Chris Moss, Betty Reedy and Kim Claus, this is Nick St. Claire. He was good enough to give me a lift from the airport.”
Chris Moss, the teenager her father had befriended and hired on as full-time staff, was first to stumble forward, his face creased in a worried frown. “Mary, I’m so glad you’re here.” The pale tinge to his young skin set off alarms in Mary’s subconscious. Chris had been the most optimistic teen she’d ever known since her father took him under his wing.
“What’s going on?” Mary grabbed his hand and held tight, her stomach doing full gainers in a sea of airport food and acid.
“It’s Mr. Claus.” Sixteen-year-old Chris squeezed her hand, tears welling in his eyes. He opened his mouth to talk and closed it again.
Betty stepped forward, her happy face drawn and looking all of her fifty-five years. “Your father is missing.”
Nick schooled his face to show no shock. So, Santa was missing and Mary Christmas was his daughter. He really shouldn’t be astonished that the petite blonde next to him was Santa’s daughter. Not with a name like Mary Christmas and in a town called North Pole with streets like Santa Claus Lane and Snowman Lane. Why shouldn’t Mary’s father’s real name be Santa Claus? And given that Nick was sent by a dead man to help Santa Claus, it all made sense in a weird, surreal way.
Whatever the case, he knew his job remained here. If the dead man in Brooklyn had wanted Royce to help Santa, Nick was the first line of defense to find the man and protect him from the fate of his buddy back East.
While Mary questioned the officer and the tearful Mrs. Claus, Nick studied the people gathered.
He started with the boy, Chris, with his shaggy brown hair hanging down past his collar and a skater look to him. Dark circles smudged the skin beneath his eyes and his gaze darted around the room in nervous jerks.
Betty Reedy, the woman with salt-and-pepper hair, slightly rounded figure and soft blue eyes wrung her hands, her mouth pressed into a grim line. She reached out and pulled Chris into the curve of her arm and whispered something into his ear.
Chris nodded, jammed his hands into his pockets and stared down at his shoes.
Mrs. Claus was the most unusual of the group milling about the front of the store. She stood no more than five feet tall, her slanted eyes and pale skin marking her as of Asian descent. She carried herself ramrod straight, making good every inch of height she could, her sleek brown hair combed into a smooth
