Henry smiled as he glanced past Leo. “Then ask her.”

  Leo turned to see Gracie walking toward them with a backpack slung over one shoulder. She said, “It looks great, you guys.”

  “Ready for tonight?” Leo asked her.

  “I will be,” she said. “Got to run home for a shower first. Did they fix your costume?”

  Leo nodded. “I’m not sure how Peggy did it, because I required a whole lot of extra fabric.”

  Gracie smiled at him and began to walk away. “See you later.”

  Leo glanced at Henry and tilted his head toward Gracie to ask if it was okay if he left before they finished cleaning up.

  Henry mouthed the word Go.

  Leo moved quickly to catch up to her. “Hey, I’ll walk you to your car.”

  Gracie frowned at him before returning her gaze forward. “Okay.”

  As they stepped out into the cold, wind blew Leo’s open flannel shirt back, and she turned to look at him again. “This wind is— You’re not wearing a coat.”

  Leo shrugged. “Don’t need one. I burn hot like a furnace.”

  She scowled and dropped her gaze, but he noticed the way her lips turned up just the slightest.

  Leo wanted to keep her talking and said, “You were saying something about the wind.”

  “Yeah. The wind is going to make it hard to ski with our antlers.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought about that.”

  “I wouldn’t have either if I hadn’t seen last year’s parade. The tiny woman who was Rudolph was nearly knocked off her feet.”

  “Well, then,” Leo said, “I promise to keep you upright if you do the same for me.”

  She flashed him a smile.

  “I hear there’s a holiday party coming up.”

  “Yes.” A gust of icy cold wind blasted at them, and she tucked her chin into the upright collar of her jacket. “It’s a good time.”

  “Would you like to go with me?”

  “I—” Gracie cut her gaze his way. “You really aren’t cold?”

  He was a little chilly, but he knew that if he were human he’d be freezing. “Well,” he said, “maybe a little. Don’t worry, I’ll run back to the lodge to warm up. But first you need to say yes.”

  She chuckled, and when Gracie stopped to look into his eyes, Leo’s heart skipped a beat. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll go with you.”

  He broke into a grin. “Great. I’ll— I don’t even know when the party is.”

  Gracie laughed softly. “It’s Sunday night.”

  “Sunday night then.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “It’s a date.”

  “You should really go warm up,” she said.

  “Once we get to your car.” He began moving again.

  “Leo, you’re going to get frostbite.”

  “Nope. I’m good.”

  “You’re crazy.” She shook her head. “It’s a good thing I’m right over there.” She pointed to a red Kia wagon.

  When they got to her car, he waited until she was safely inside it, and when she motioned for him to go, Leo turned to jog back to the lodge. Even if he hadn’t been a polar bear, Leo wouldn’t have been bothered by the cold, because the warmth of his love for Gracie was rushing through his veins. He laughed at himself because he was as excited as a teenager might be after getting his first date.

  He ran back to the patroller garage, and he stepped inside to help Henry finish cleaning up. Leo rubbed his hands together as he walked over to where his friend was sweeping up stray pine needles.

  “So?” Henry asked him. “Are the frozen fingers worth it?”

  “They are. She said yes.”

  “Nice,” Henry said. “I hope it works out for you two.”

  “Don’t you worry, it will.” Because Leo wouldn’t settle for anything less.

  CHAPTER 6

  Gracie

  Gracie’s heart was still dancing when she walked into the home she shared with her mother. Her backpack thudded on the floor where she set it by the door, and she heard the sound of the TV playing.

  Margo Templeton called out to her from the couch. “Don’t get too comfortable. We need milk.”

  Gracie’s good mood began to vanish as she hung her coat on a hook. “Why didn’t you text me before I left? I could have gotten it on the way home.”

  “Does it matter?” Her mother turned from the couch to look at her as Gracie walked toward the kitchen. “What are you doing? Go.”

  “I don’t have time, Mom. Tonight’s the parade, and I have to shower and eat before I return to the mountain. I’ll stop by the store on my way home.”

  “What am I supposed to do for milk until then?”

  Gracie had a few things she wanted to suggest to her mother, but even a rational reply wouldn’t be welcome, so she gave the answer she usually gave. “I’m sorry I’ve inconvenienced you, Mom. I’ll do better next time.”

  “You darn well better. It’s about time you sacrificed for me instead of the other way around.”

  Her mother’s response was a familiar one that barely registered in Gracie’s brain. She and the foster kids that had cycled through the house during her childhood had been brought up to serve the woman who provided them with food and shelter.

  Gracie wasn’t sure when she began to realize that her mother did the bare minimum to get by and orchestrated her life to a place where most things were done for her. Once Gracie had graduated from college and had a full-time job, the foster kids stopped coming to live with them, and Gracie became the sole income for her and her mother. She opened the fridge to grab the leftover stew she’d made earlier that week and scooped it into a pot to place on the stove to heat up while she showered.

  “That better not be leftovers we’re having for dinner,” her mother said.

  Gracie didn’t bother to answer. If she’d made her mother’s favorite dish of chicken parmesan from scratch, her mother would tell her she didn’t feel like eating chicken that night. The woman was never happy, and Gracie had learned a long time ago to not take it personally. She walked to her bedroom to prepare for a shower.

  “Gracie!” Margo called out as Gracie got to the bathroom. “My wine!”

  She could tell her mother to get it herself, or just ignore the request, but Gracie walked back to the kitchen to get her mother a glass of wine instead. Anything else would have led to a temper tantrum. Having her daughter wait on her as she tossed out her statements of displeasure seemed to be what she thought mothers and daughters did.

  Gracie worried about her mother’s unhappiness, and she had tried to help Margo by finding her work, thinking her mother just needed a purpose in life. But the woman claimed she didn’t have the temperament or stamina for a job. Her mother preferred to entertain herself with television while Gracie took care of the bills. Gracie knew her mother was capable of fending for herself; she just chose not to.

  Once she had showered, Gracie made her way to the kitchen and prepared two bowls of stew to bring to the couch. She hated that they ate on the sofa watching TV, but her mother wouldn’t sit at the table and entertain a conversation with her daughter. Gracie knew she didn’t have to live this way, and she had tried to move out a few times, but each time she began to look for an apartment her mother had somehow manipulated her into staying.

  Gracie handed her mother a bowl and said, for her own sake more than her mother’s, “You should see the sleigh, Mom. It looks great, and the kids are going to love it.”

  “Frank’s hooking up with his neighbor,” Margo said over a mouthful of food.

  Gracie sighed. Her mother would rather talk about a character on her show than real life.

  Margo held out her wine glass in a signal for Gracie to refill it.

  “Right,” Gracie said softly. And even though this was normal behavior and she no longer let it bother her, her heart sank tonight. Tracy had helped her find the confidence to not let people walk on her at work, and the desire to stop her mother from doing it was growing. One day soon she’d get the nerve to say no. Wine splashed in the glass as she filled it, and she set it on the side table beside Margo’s place on the couch.

  The woman didn’t take her eyes off the screen and reached for the glass without a thank you. It made Gracie think of the occasional rude customer at Sugar Mountain who often had an excuse like a rough morning getting children to lessons. But her mother didn’t have a good reason, and it was in that moment she decided to take action.

  She wasn’t sure where her surge of confidence had come from. Perhaps it was because Leo, a strong, self-assured man who was attractive enough he could have almost any woman, had chosen her. Even though her first reaction was to believe it wasn’t true, she had grown emotionally in her time working for Tracy, and she knew she was worthy. She was ready to go after what she wanted. Gracie had also known for a while that staying with her mother wasn’t emotionally healthy, and tonight it was finally time to do something about it.

  “Mom.” She didn’t expect Margo to listen, but she needed to state her intentions before she convinced herself not to follow through. “I’m going to look for a place of my own.”

  Her mother continued to watch the TV, but Gracie noticed her brow knit when she handed her empty bowl to her. Not sure if her mother had registered what she said, Gracie took the dish along with her own to the kitchen. Spoons rattled in the silverware section of the dishwasher where she put them, and she rinsed the bowls before setting them on a rack. As she walked to her bedroom to grab her things, she thought about how she was going to see Leo soon, and a smile covered her face. Tracy had lined up the reindeer with Gracie and Leo as the pair in the back, and she was glad that they’d be close enough to talk.

  Her heart was light as she left the small home she lived in with her mother. She didn’t bother with a goodbye she knew Margo wouldn’t acknowledge because Gracie had more important things to think about and to look forward to. Like what to wear on her date with Leo.

  CHAPTER 7

  Leo

  Carla giggled as she flirted with Leo in the employee locker room where they were getting ready for the parade. “Whiskers look good on you,” the girl said as she leaned in closer than necessary, presumably to show off her cleavage as she drew on his face with a makeup pencil. Her charm did nothing for Leo, and he glanced at the door for the hundredth time, looking for Gracie.

  “Hold still, Leo.” Carla giggled again. “You’re like a child.” Her pencil clattered when she set it on the bench where he was sitting, and she lifted up a lipstick tube. “I think you need the red cheeks, too,” Carla said.

  “Sure.” Leo used the best good-natured tone he could muster. But when he heard the door to the locker room squeak open, he whipped his head toward it.

  “Leo!” Carla cried out.

  He didn’t listen, because Gracie had walked through the door, and when he noticed her face was makeup free, he grabbed Carla’s pencil from the bench. He smiled at the girl as he swiped the lipstick out of her hand, too. “Thanks.”

  She scoffed in surprise as he walked over to Gracie with a big smile. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, and her eyes shone with excitement as she looked up at him. “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself.” He held up the lipstick and pencil. “Want me to do your makeup?”

  She chuckled and tapped her cheek. “Not if it’s like yours. You have a lipstick streak.”

  “Oh.” He laughed and moved closer to her. “Fix it for me?” Her scent filled his nose and he inhaled deeply to get more as the desire to kiss her soft lips nearly overwhelmed him.

  “I—" She swallowed as if she was feeling the same desire. “Let me get something.”

  Gracie set her backpack down on a nearby bench and rummaged through it to pull out a small package of wipes. “Sit,” she said to him. She leaned in to wipe the lipstick off his cheek. “How did this happen?”

  Leo’s insides were trembling, because even though he couldn’t see Gracie’s cleavage under the turtleneck she was wearing, he was acutely aware it was there. “Bad makeup artist.”

  Gracie grinned at him. “I doubt that.” She stepped back. “There. You look cute.”

  “Cute?” He let out a low growl.

  She gasped softly, and he saw heat simmering beneath her flushed face. This time he was sure it wasn’t from the cold. “Cute— Reindeer are cute.”

  “Uh-huh, well, this one is fierce.” He smiled at her, pleased she was as physically affected by him as he was by her. “You need whiskers and red circles on your face, too.”

  She sat and turned her face up to him with a smile. “Is applying makeup your hidden talent?”

  “No,” he said with a low voice that was slightly gravelly from the passion building in his core.

  Gracie’s chest rose and fell with her labored breathing, and he scented her desire burning. She stared into his eyes, and he was frozen by her gaze for a moment before he managed to shake himself free from the trance. He whispered, “What you do to me, Gracie.”

  Her pretty lips parted before she squeezed her eyes shut as she smiled in what Leo believed was embarrassment. “Whiskers.”

  “Right. Whiskers,” he said, and he swiped the makeup pencil over her face.

  When he was finishing up the lipstick circles on Gracie’s cheeks, Tracy walked into the locker room dressed as Mrs. Claus. “Costumes, people! You’ve got ten minutes.”

  “I should give these back to Carla,” Leo said as he held the makeup he’d taken.

  Gracie chuckled, and she looked over at the three girls who had each been trying to win his attention. Fiona was glaring at them with crossed arms as the other two whispered and darted their gazes their way. “You’d better,” she said. “Before they file a police report for theft.”

  He flashed Gracie a grin before he left to return Carla’s belongings. After he changed into his costume, he sought out Gracie again, and the two grabbed their skis from the storage racks to make their way to the chairlift they’d take to the top of the beginner trail before hooking up to the sleigh.

  Sugar Mountain was not set up for night skiing, and the chairlift ride was dark and cold as Leo sat next to Gracie. A gust of wind blew, and the chair swayed as he felt the wobble of the huge antlers attached to the hood he’d tugged over his helmet. “You warm enough?”

  “Plenty warm,” she said. “This costume is helping.” She was holding her antlers. “These things are so awkward.”

  “Yeah. Rudolph is going to be in trouble with the next gust. Think she’ll go airborne?”

  Gracie laughed softly. “I hope not, because one of us big people will have to go yank her back down.”

  The way she looked down at her skis made Leo think Gracie might be insecure about her size. He leaned against her. “Have I mentioned how beautiful I think you are?”

  She slapped her mittened hand over her mouth and let out a tiny noise that resembled a squeak. He suspected it would have been a squeal if she hadn’t tried to suppress it. “It’s true, Gracie.”

  She turned to look at him. “Thank you. I find you incredibly attractive too.”

  He smiled. “Whew. I don’t know what I would have done if you’d told me I was ugly.”

  “I wouldn’t!”

  “Then how do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  Gracie laughed softly. “You are such a tease.”

  “Does it bother you?”

  “No.” She lifted her chin. “I think it’s cute.”

  They had reached the end of their ride, and the two laughed together as they slid off the chairlift. They were the two reindeer closest to the sleigh, and the pair grabbed the two black ropes resembling reins before zig zagging with the brightly lit sled across the trail toward the bottom.

  The elves in the front of the sleigh tossed out candy and hot drink vouchers to the children who ran to greet them, and Santa and Mrs. Claus posed for pictures. There were even a few photos taken of the reindeer, but Leo was grateful that Rudolph stole the show.

  After the parade was over and they were back in the locker room, Bud, the head of snowmaking who had dressed up as Santa, brought in a cooler with beers for the employees to enjoy as a reward for working that night.

  Leo grabbed two for himself and Gracie and led her outside to enjoy them. The wooden bench they sat on behind the locker room was cold and hard on his bottom, but Leo didn’t mind because it gave them privacy.

  Cold liquid with the metallic taste of cheap beer slid down his throat as he swallowed a sip of his drink, and he pondered how to tell her she was half werebear. He didn’t think it was fair to go much further with their relationship without her knowing the truth of why he’d come to Sugar Mountain. But the timing was delicate, because if she wasn’t all-in with him, she wasn’t going to believe a word he told her. He asked, “Do you like working here?”

  “I do.” She twirled her can of beer between her hands. “Tracy’s mentoring me to join the management team. One day, I’d like to be the head of a department.” She chuckled. “It sounds lofty, I know, but I’m going to get there.”

  “Not at all, but Gracie, you are meant for much greater things,” Leo said. “What if I told you that you have incredible power lying dormant in your genes? That the life you lead right now is like seeing things through a dirty window. That life with me— Well, it will be amazing.”

  Gracie studied him for a moment. “You’re serious.”

  “I am.”

  She frowned and then sighed. “If you had asked me that two years ago, I’d have said you were crazy. But—” She giggled. “I think I’m drunk.”

  “You’re not drunk. You haven’t even finished your beer. But you think you might be in love with me, don’t you?”

  “What? I—"

  He grabbed her hand. “I’m in love with you, Gracie. And I know you feel the same way.”

  Gracie’s mouth was open, and the flood light glittered in her eyes as confusion clouded her face. But Leo didn’t think she was afraid. He leaned in close. “Kiss me if it’s true.”