Mistletoe and Roses: A "The Santa Clause" Story (Bernard x Female OC Book 2)

The Mrs. Clause

"There's got to be a mistake," Dad tried to hand the list back to Abby, but she shook her head.

"We don't make mistakes... I'm sorry Santa, please... excuse me. I'll go find Curtis for you," Abby nodded at Bernard as she left the tray with the leftover cocoa on Dad's desk and left the room.

"How could this happen?" I took the list from Dad and squinted my eyes at Charlie's name, thinking that maybe it was just a typo or something.

Who was I kidding though, magic elves don't generally make typos.

"That's not the bad news you were whispering about earlier?" I set the list back down and looked at Bernard.

"I- uh," Bernard said but was interrupted by Curtis rolling in the large magnifying glass... thing. We never came up with a name for it, but we had it specially crafted for Dad after he complained enough about not being able to see things clearly.

"Oh boy," Dad sighed and muttered under his breath, "Don't tell me there's more."

"Great! You told him! Now let's get you dressed for that meeting!" Curtis gave a big relieved smile.

"Oh great I forgot we had a meeting today," I sighed, flopping onto the big red sofa behind me.

"I can't have the meeting here, I'm going to have to go see Charlie," Dad shook his head. "Now what's that thing in here for?"

"Sir, you can't just skip a council meeting," Bernard put his hands up, again, beating around the bush to any question that was being asked.

"Tell him now!" Bernard hissed into Curtis's ear.

Despite us not being supposed to skip any council meetings, a meeting was the last thing I wanted to attend right now either. I was going to go to Charlie and... well I don't know, but definitely speak some strong words to him.

"Tell me what, guys? Come on, come clean." It was obvious that Dad was getting just as annoyed as I was with them acting so weird.

"Santa... there's a clause." Curtis began explaining.

"That would be me," Dad made an obvious face.

"No I mean there's another Santa clause," Curtis continued to explain poorly.

I looked up at Bernard who was slightly swaying side to side, his lips tightly pressed together, and his chin resting on one of his fists.

"Curtis, in case you haven't noticed, this time of year, the malls are filled with other "Santa Clauses."

"Yes, but there's another Santa " clause" . There was a first clause, but there's also a second clause. "

"Get on with it!" I was losing my patience with the two elves in front of me dancing around the problem. "Just spit it out!

Dad breathed an impatient sigh as well, waiting for Curtis to finally tell us the whole point of his clause talk. Curtis gave me a dirty look before continuing.

"When the last Santa fell off your roof and you put on his coat, you found this," Curtis held up the little Santa card.

"Right, "He who wears the coat takes on the responsibilities of Santa Claus... yada yada yada, something like that and the rest is history.

Right?" He gave a proud look as if remembering that much was impressive.

"But it seems our number... three elf, keeper of the handbook," Bernard turned and gave Curtis a look, "Overlooked, the single. most. important. detail in the history of Christmas!" Bernard yelled in his face.