Read The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance for Free Online

you get paid for the whole day’s hours.”
     
    “No Santa time today?”
     
    “Doesn’t seem so.”  Bill Poole rubbed at his bald head.  “The Baptist church cancelled their group coming for Santa pictures about twenty minutes ago, and that was the only big group we had coming tonight, right?”
     
    “I had two other families cancel their appointments, and I doubt we’ll be getting any walk-ons tonight.”  Jolie sighed.  “Damn.  Two Fridays before Christmas, and we have a whole weekend lost to a freak snow storm.”
     
    “And ice,” Charlie added.  “My dad was giving me updates every ten minutes at home.”
     
    Bill nodded in approval.  “I’ve got my youngest texting me any changes he finds on the net.”  He waved his ancient flip phone at them.  “Home from college, got to make him earn his keep.”  The phone made a loud noise and Bill promptly dropped it.  “Whoops!  There he is again!”
     
    “Maybe we should just lock up, mom.”  Willis put his arm around his mother’s shoulders.  “Why don’t you go get Elvis and head over to the big house?”
     
    “But the reindeer! And I need to close up everything.  Put a message on the phone line, the website--”
     
    “I’ll handle that.  Well, the phone and the physical things here.  You get Elvis and head out.  I’ll stay in the cabin here to make sure the reindeer are okay.”
     
    “Oh boy, we are in for it, people!” Bill suddenly shouted.  He snapped his phone shut. “My boy is telling me that the weather people think the ice is going to start in the next half hour. Everything is shut down for four counties.  They think we’re going to have one historical winter storm.”
     
    “Fuck,” Charlie said for all of them.  “I’ll grab the cameras!”
     
    They all frantically set to work getting as much of the delicate electronics and cloth banners of Christmas Tree Town inside as they could.  Jolie ran down to the barn, and they could all hear her shouting at her nephew Elvis to muck faster.  Willis disappeared to batten down the hatches in other areas of the farm as much as they could in such a short window.
     
    “You sure you don’t want to head out?” Bill asked her as they dragged Santa’s throne inside the storage shed.  “I’ve got a big truck that can drive through anything.”
     
    “It’s fine!”  Charlie shouted.  The wind was starting to pick up.  “My friend’s place is just down the road.  We were planning a girl’s night anyway!”  Which was half true. They had planned a late night girl’s debrief after her date with Willis.  Ice cream and boy gossip with shitty dance movies, the best kind of night.  
     
    They all met by the barn.  Charlie got to finally set her eyes on the infamous Elvis.  He was a gangly guy, obviously going to be as big as Willis once he grew into himself.  He hunched down in his hoodie and wouldn’t really make eye contact with anyone else.  Willis ruffled the teen’s hair through his hoodie even as the kid tried to duck away from his hand.  
     
    “You take care of Aunt J tonight, all right?”  Willis was telling his cousin.  
     
    The teen muttered something into his hair that Charlie assumed was an affirmative.  
     
    “We best all get out of here,” Bill told them.  
     
    Bits of ice and snow were just starting to come down.  Charlie turned up the collar of jacket.  “Anything else that needs doing?”
     
    “Not by you!”  Willis told her.  “Everyone, in their cars.  I’ll follow you guys down with the truck and lock up.”
     
    Once they were in the parking lot, Bill waved at everyone before hauling down the road and off the farm.  Jolie bickered with Elvis while Willis made sure they both got in the beatup range rover.
     
    “It’ll be fine, mom,” Willis promised.  “Everything will be all white and Christmas-card perfect by tomorrow, and we’ll make up all the lost business.”
     
    “Or it will be a mud