The Reindeer's Secret Santa Gift Read online

  What was he doing? Why was he torturing himself? Losing Janelle was hard enough, he wasn’t sure he could survive losing Mira, too. Why was he staying away? Well, because… He tried to reach for all the reasons why and he came up short. Yesterday, in his guilty haze, they had seemed so real, but now he wasn’t sure.

  He wanted nothing more than to call Mira, to run over to her apartment and beg her to be with him. Hell, he’d even sip egg nog and watch Home Alone fives times in a row if she wanted it.

  Did he really think he would not love Mira as ardently as he had Janelle? It had been different with Janelle. She was wild and taunted him no end, and they butted heads over and over, and he loved every second of being with her. He knew he wanted her from the first moment he saw her. But with Mira, it was different. He wanted to take her, curl around her and protect her from the world, and yeah, the truth is he wanted her the moment he saw her too.

  While Janelle had been as pigheaded and brash as him, Mira was sweeter and softened him. Was he less passionate with Mira? No, he didn’t think so. Did he love her any less? Nope, definitely not he thought vehemently. Did he honestly believe that a mating with Mira would not be true? That she would not form the other half of his heart? Not for a second – though he felt thoroughly soppy for thinking about anyone being the other half of his heart – but that wasn’t the point.

  So if he thought all that, what the hell was he doing?

  Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as his assistant opened a drawer searching for a new marker pen or something.

  His assistant let out a sound resembling, “Gah!” Then he fell back on his ass.

  Everyone at the meeting watched, aghast, as a huge blow-up reindeer started inflating as it popped out of the drawer. A note fluttered to the ground and Branch scooped it up.

  It said, ‘Since the last one wasn’t to your taste, try this one for size!’

  Yep, he’d found his brother’s Secret Santa gift. His mind flickered back to his brother’s last present – the male sex doll.

  Branch stared at the reindeer for a few moments and then threw back his head and roared with laughter.

  Thirty-Four

  “You okay?” asked Temp.

  Mira was virtually hiding in the kitchen, preparing plates of sandwiches and cookies for the party. She was supposed to be playing Santa’s Elf – correction, Santa’s Chief Elf – but she had begged Temp to replace her. She just couldn’t find a way to dredge up any good cheer for the kids. Thankfully, Temp had managed to find a willing participant or unlucky victim depending on how you looked at it.

  “I’m fine,” said Mira.

  She would be at least. It wasn’t the end of the world. So, she’d been dumped. She’d been dumped before, and she would get over it. It just didn’t seem like it at that moment. No, at that moment she wanted to hang around in her PJs eating ice cream and singing along to sad music while browsing the cat adoption websites. She told herself Branch wasn’t anything special – just a good looking guy in a tailored suit. Though, she didn’t really believe that. Being with Branch had felt so different to being with anyone else. Being with him had felt so right like they were made for each other… But no, she’d get over it… eventually.

  There was a loud cheer from the party.

  “What’s going on?” asked Mira.

  Santa had already distributed gifts. She didn’t think Temp had any big surprises up her sleeve.

  “I don’t know,” muttered Temp.

  Temp made her way out the kitchen to investigate, and, curiosity getting the better of her, Mira followed.

  The cheers had started turning into loud ‘awws.’

  “Where in the world did that come from?” exclaimed Temp.

  “What?”

  Mira bustled past her and halted at the sight of the huge reindeer currently being petted by a dozen kids. His antlers were covered in lights and decorations, and he was already sporting lots of sticky handprints from the kids, but there was no mistaking who he was.

  Mira whipped around to find Mal. He was standing in the corner with a nonchalant expression on his face.

  Yep, that reindeer was definitely Branch.

  “I’m just not sure it’s appropriate to have a wild animal in here,” muttered one of the parents, who was busy restraining her squirming child from rushing forward to pet him.

  “Don’t they have ticks?” added another.

  Branch obviously heard them, and he forlornly hung his head. Mira rolled her eyes and walked towards him.

  “He’s perfectly safe,” she said and rubbed his ear.

  He lifted his head and appeared to be smiling at her. Was this a parting gift to her? To treat all the kids to a real reindeer. At least he was easier to deal with in reindeer form.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked him. He pressed against her touch and let out a honking noise. “Hmm, not a talker, huh?”

  Some of the parents gave her funny looks. She wasn’t reassuring them at that moment.

  “I guess we’ll talk later,” she murmured, though she wasn’t sure she really wanted to.

  For now, he could make himself useful.

  “Okay,” she called, “who wants a ride on a real reindeer?!”

  Thirty-Five

  “Ooh, I thought that gum would never come out,” said Mira as Branch emerged from the shower.

  He had spent a good three hours giving rides and allowing the kids to pet the hell out of him. After that, he had shifted, begged her to talk to him, and crazy or not, she had agreed. He had somehow hustled her to his house – she was a little unclear on that part – and she agreed to wait while he showered to rid himself of the sticky finger marks and yes, bubblegum.

  “Yeah,” he agreed running his hand through his hair.

  “Sorry. Little Junie does like her pink bubblegum.”

  Branch stared at her for a moment, and Mira fidgeted under his intense gaze.

  “Do you want another drink?”

  Mira shook her can of soda. It was virtually full. She’d been too nervous, too distracted to drink it. She had merely waited for him to return, worrying more and more about what he was going to say and occasionally chuckling at the state of his half-assembled Christmas tree.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Mira, I’m sorry…”

  She sighed and put her can on the coffee table. “I know, Branch, can we not do this again?”

  Branch surged forward to kneel in front of her. Her heart was damn well trying to beat itself right out of her chest.

  “I was wrong,” he said firmly. “I thought I only had one chance at happiness, and I thought that was gone. But I was wrong. You showed me that. I want to be with you. Can you ever forgive me?”

  Mira blinked at him for a few moments. “Yes,” she murmured before she even realized she was saying it.

  She wasn’t really expecting him to say that, but boy, she wasn’t about to do anything crazy like say no. She loved him and she wanted to be with him. Sure, he had hurt her, but not on purpose. He made a mistake, and not one she wasn’t very prepared to forgive.

  Branch stared at her in disbelief, almost as surprised as if she’d just slapped him with a glove and challenged him to a duel at high noon.

  “R-really?” he spluttered.

  “You seem surprised?” she chuckled.

  “I am; I thought I was in for at least a couple of months of hard groveling. I had a whole plan worked out involving jewelry and wooing…”

  Mira shook her head and smiled sadly.

  “Branch, we met less than two weeks ago – I don’t blame you for having some doubts about us. But I don’t want to have any regrets. I already lost one man I love this year; I don’t want to lose the other.”

  His face lit up.

  “Though, there’s no need to abandon the jewelry or the wooing – I’m open to both,” she added hastily.

  She’d heard diamonds were a girl’s best friend but was yet to put that to the test.

&
nbsp; Branch took her face in his hands and gave her a thorough kiss. “I love you, too.”

  “You don’t have to say it,” she mumbled a little woozily. His kisses really could knock the stuffing out of a girl – in a good way, naturally.

  He smiled crookedly. “No, I do.”

  Just about every part of her shimmered with joy.

  “I still think we should take it slow,” he said.

  Branch wrapped her in his arms and inhaled her scent sending delightful shivers through her body.

  “I agree,” she murmured. “Also, there’s something you should know about my name – and I only admit this to people that I trust…”

  “Oh?” he grunted distractedly.

  He was far too busy sniffing to pay much attention.

  “Yeah, Mira is short for something…”

  “Mmmm?”

  “It’s Miracle, okay? My full name is Miracle Hope Destiny Orlando Minnie Jones.”

  Branch paused. She was expecting a burst of laughter. She always got a burst of laughter. He merely pulled back to look at her.

  Mira shrugged. “My mom is… nuts.”

  Her mom was always a bit of a hippy and well, Mira had been conceived at a certain theme park in Orlando, and Minnie was her mom’s favorite animated character from said theme park…

  “Miracle,” he virtually purred.

  “Yes, it’s silly,” she said as she tried to duck her head in embarrassment.

  Branch cupped her chin not allowing her to hide even for a second. “I like it. You’re my Christmas Miracle.”

  Mira beamed. “Does this mean you actually like Christmas, now?”

  “Well, it’s certainly growing on me. By the way, I have your bra.”

  She snuggled against him. “Good, I was wondering how I was going to get it back.”

  “I was considering ransoming it back to you if you didn’t give me another shot.”

  “You monster,” she teased. “That’s my favourite bra. I’ve been unsupported for the last two days.”

  “Really?” He perked up even more at the news. “Now that is something I have to see…”

  Mira giggled as Branch ineffectively tried to tickle her out of her clothes. It was going to be a good Christmas after all.

  Epilogue

  One year later

  “Ooh, my feet are killing me. Lugging around these two all day is hard work.”

  Branch gave her a smug look.

  “You can wipe that expression off your face,” said Mira sternly.

  He didn’t; it just got smugger.

  “We’ll take it slow, he says,” she muttered.

  “Hmm?”

  “A year ago today in this very room, we agreed to start dating and to take things slowly.”

  Branch shrugged. “And we did.”

  Mira rubbed her swollen stomach – swollen due to being eight months pregnant with twins.

  “This is not slow,” she told him with mock disapproval.

  Branch chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “I was as patient as I could be.”

  Mira snorted. “Sure.”

  He took her hand and tenderly kissed the palm. Mira smiled in happiness. She had everything she wanted, the man she loved and a huge family who never allowed her to feel lonely even for a shade of a second. The herd accepted her with no fuss – even Maris, but then she had found her own mate and was more than happy with him.

  The year had flown by in a whirlwind. They had dated and then mated, and now they were expecting two bundles of joy – who already had black belts in karate if the kicks she was receiving were anything to go by.

  Mira still helped Temp with her charity, but thanks to Branch, she was now co-owner of the sandwich shop she used to work for, and she was baking and selling her treats on a regular basis. Or, maybe more of a part-time basis – being the alpha’s mate came with other responsibilities. Well, not really responsibilities – more like making sure the herd were happy. Branch was their absolute ruler, but she was kind of like… it was hard to explain, but it was easier to think of it in terms of Star Trek. Branch always groaned when she brought it up, but she liked to think that Branch was Captain Picard and she was Counselor Troi, though she was definitely not going to hook up with Commander Riker – it was the Captain all the way for her.

  She didn’t deliver sandwiches anymore. Or at least only to Branch - if he asked nicely. Eh, honestly he didn’t even have to ask – she’d take any excuse to drop in on him for a little afternoon lovin.’

  This year, Mira had devoted herself wholeheartedly to the herd Christmas events, and even Branch hadn’t looked to them with such dread. She smiled at the picture of her dad on the mantle – her favourite picture where he was dressed as Santa and smiling for all he was worth. It had pride of place right next to a picture of Branch’s father. Neither of them could be there, but she liked to think that they’d both be proud of her and Branch. Her dad especially, given that she had Branch put up over four thousand Christmas lights that year. He cussed and complained a lot but he did it anyway, and she loved him for it.

  “My mom wants us to go to her house for dinner tonight, but we can skip it if you like,” he offered, with only a mildly hopeful glint in his eye.

  “Nope, we’re going – your mom is actually making figgy pudding, and I want some even if you have to carry me there.”

  Branch sighed, resigned to his fate and then chuckled. “You got it.”

  Mira snuggled against him. “Love you.”

  He smiled. “Love you too, my Miracle.”

  The end

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