Are you still free for dinner tonight? Charlie smiled when he received a text message from Holly later that afternoon. After assuring her that his schedule was still very much wide open, Charlie began putting together everything he would need to get his grand scheme in motion.
The sun had only been set for about an hour as Charlie strolled down the street towards the bakery. Holly was waiting for him outside. She was all bundled up in a winter coat, a knit cap, a scarf and mittens. She rubbed her shoulders anxiously and stared up the street.
"Worried I wouldn't show?" Charlie questioned from behind her.
"Not, it's just been a while since I've…been to dinner." Holly explained.
"Ah." He nodded. "Me too. I was thinking before we ate, we could take a nice walk."
"Nice? It's freezing out here, Charlie." She shivered.
"Is it?" He asked, looking up at the sky. "I hadn't noticed." He shrugged. "Luckily, I know this great bakery that makes some pretty good hot cocoa. Be right back. Charlie ordered two hot chocolates from Katie inside the bakery and returned to Holly within minutes.
"So where to on this walk of ours?" Holly held the cocoa high so that the steam warmed her face.
"I figured we could look at some lights and talk." Charlie answered. He led Holly to a neighborhood nearby where he knew almost everyone one for several blocks had decorated their lawns. "Now that the family business is no longer in danger, I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you."
"Are we talking you're secret a mass murder kind of honest or…" Holly bit her lip trying to hide her smile.
"No." Charlie laughed. "Nothing like that. I told you that my family business is a toy factory, what I didn't tell you is that our family business is the toy factory. My dad is Santa Claus."
"Charlie, everyone's dad is Santa Claus." Holly whispered to him.
"No, no." Charlie shook his head. "My dad is the Santa Claus. Let me try something else." He closed his eyes, clapped his hands together and then opened his eyes. Immediately large fluffy snowflakes began to fall from the sky. "Holly, I have a very important job. One that brings joy to people around the world. A job that helps preserve life and makes winter landscapes beautiful."
"Are you also Santa?" Holly raised an eyebrow at him.
"No. I'm Jack Frost." When he was sure there was enough of a flurry for low visibility around the block, Charlie dialed back only the snow in he and Holly's immediate area. With a snap of his fingers, Charlie was dressed in his pin stripped suit again.
"Yeah, I'm gonna need a longer explanation than that." Holly gasped.
"I thought you might." Charlie smiled. "I have a very exclusive reservation for us at a table in the North Pole." Charlie held out his hands for Holly to take it. When she hesitated, he retracted it. "Or we could hit up an Olive Garden."
"Are you for real right now?" Holly demanded. "Table for two at the North Pole please." Holly stuck out her hand and waited for Charlie to take it.
"This is the North Pole?" Holly asked as she and Charlie landed just a few feet from the Frost Cabin. She took in the sight of the charming cabin in the middle of nowhere. It seemed nice enough, but it was hardly the spectacle she'd imagined the North Pole would be.
"No," Charlie shook head. "This is where I live." Close your eyes. He guided Holly so that she was turned 180 degrees. When she was in the right position, he told her to open her eyes again. "That's the North Pole."
"This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen!" Holly breathed as she looked at the idyllic village below. Even from a distance she could see several rows of houses, the exterior of the Main Workshop and the Town Square. "It's like something out of a picture book! It's everything I thought it would be, but so much more at the same time. Can we…are we going to go down there?"
"I promised you dinner at the North Pole. Legally, my house is just outside of North Pole city limits, so we'll have to go down there to keep my promise. Besides there's some people, elves, that I want to introduce you to."
Charlie held Holly's hand as he led her through the snow towards the only two-story house in the village. As if Jess and Bernard's house didn't already stand out enough, the building was painted silver. The paint was a true silver paint that shimmered in the moonlight. Charlie knocked on the front door, Jess opened the door and greeted them with a smile.
"You must be Holly." She guessed, ushering them both inside. "I've heard a lot about you from Charlie and Jack. You can just hang your coat there." She pointed to a coat rack which Holly used to hang her winter coat. "I'm Jess, Charlie's…"
"Charlie's older sister." Holly interrupted. "I remember from when we were younger. I love your house. Where on earth did you find silver house paint?" She asked following Charlie and Jess into the kitchen.
"Bernard and I have a friend who can make almost anything." Jess explained. "I'm told it took him three years to perfect the formula. Bernard, Hon, we have company." She told her husband. Bernard was sitting at his usual spot at the table, a stack of papers before him.
"Alright, just give me a minute." Bernard sighed, his eyes scanning the document in his hands.
"Bernard what is all this?" Charlie asked. He tried to peek at the paperwork, but Bernard slammed a hand over the nearest pile, shielding it from his brother-in-law. "Sorry Charlie, but you're not the big man yet." He commented without looking up from what he was reading.
"C'mon." Charlie rolled his eyes. "Its two more days. You really think I'm going to go rouge in the final quarter?"
"Stranger things have happened." Bernard quipped.
"You'll have to forgive my husband, Holly." Jess insisted. She sat down and invited Charlie and Holly to do the same. "For everyone else, the workday has just about ended. Bernard is very dedicated to his work and he has a habit of ignoring things around him when he's focused on it."
"I totally get it." Holly replied. "After Halloween it's a miracle I ever remember I need sleep, let alone find time to do it."
"He's started on the post-Christmas time off requests." Jess explained to Charlie answering her brother's question.
"Wait elves have to put in time off requests?" Holly remarked with surprise.
"How else would we known when they wanted to go on vacation?" Bernard questioned. "We should have created the ER department centuries ago." He marked something off on the sheet Infront of him and placed it face down at the top of a pile. He picked up the next request form from the top of another pile. "Of course, we didn't need an ER department when I was Head Elf because I knew how to multitask…" He mumbled mostly to himself.
"Bernard is the Head of Elvish Relations." Charlie explained. "Anything that would go through HR at a normal company now goes through Bernard."
"Yes," Bernard agreed, looking up from his paperwork. Which means that this year I'm not only in charge of approving time off requests, I'm also in charge of drafting a treaty and a residency contract for the new Jack Frost, a welcome packet for the new Santa, a good-bye debriefing for the old Santa and a transition strategy for Curtis all due within the next three days."
"You can just give me the Cliff Notes version of the welcome packet." Charlie shrugged. "I was here for Dad's first Christmas, remember? I think I've got a pretty good idea of what the job entails."
"We'll see about that." Bernard scoffed. He clicked his tongue for good measure.
"Bernard, dinner time. C'mon." His wife insisted. "Do I need to make it an official order or will you clean this mess up?"
"Fine, fine. I work on it after dinner." Bernard snapped his fingers and the paperwork disappeared.
"Wish I could do that with my work." Holly remarked.
"Holly Green." Bernard said her name as he looked into her eyes. "Your first Christmas gift from us was grey baby blanket with a zebra embroidered on it. Zebras were your favorite animals until you turned sixteen. Your favorite Christmas present from us was a hummingbird ornament from the year your grandmother died. Hummingbirds were her favorite animal. They're yours now too."
"That's a cool parlour trick." Holly marveled is that an elf thing or a Bernard thing?"
"Bernard." Charlie and his sister answered at the same time.
"Okay, Charlie you promised me two things, dinner and an explanation. I've yet to get either one. What's going on?" Holly demanded.
"Well, dinner's ready so we can do both." Jess insisted. She placed a salad in the middle of the table and a basked of breadsticks next to it. "I may have head from some reliable sources that your favorite restaurant is Olive Garden. They won't deliver this far North, but we've got an amazing kitchen staff in the main workshop."
A/N: Not much too say on this chapter, little bit of a filler, but Holly's finally in on the family secret! Next Chapter continues with dinner Jess and Bernards and maybe a tour of the workshop? Still to come, how will Holly feel about Jack's new career? How is Jack going to feel about Charlie telling Holly? And what is the ominous secret behind the Jack Frost? We'll just have to keep going to find out!
A huge thank you to everyone for reading & enjoying this story! I still cant believe this is a sequel to a story I started in 2014. I definitely didn't think seven years ago Christmas With the Calvins would do as well as it did, let alone have a sequel that people still enjoy. An extra special thank you to start, ghostwriter, jsmares22, authumn leaves, user2202021, & hearthave for your reviews of Chapter 11! I'll be back iwth more chapters, it may not be soon, but I always come back. 3