Tropical Holiday Tails - Zoe Chant Page 0,13

pulled his hands away from his eyes.

“I found a Russian grocery in the next town over,” she said, hopping in place. “I wasn’t sure what was traditional for Christmas, so I got a little of everything. I even got the ingredients for piroshki, though I’m not confident I can make them; there are about a hundred recipes on the Internet. And I made Olivier salad. I couldn’t believe how much mayonnaise it called for. There’s this can of herring stuff I can’t read, and something called meat jelly, and Tom made deviled eggs, but they’re probably Americanized.”

Lars stilled her mouth with a kiss. “It’s perfect,” he said.

Tom cleared his throat behind them. “I didn’t get you anything except the deviled eggs,” he said with a shrug. “I figured you were getting my sister, and that ought to last me a few holidays.”

Julie laughed and pulled off her coat. “Where do you want to start?” she asked eagerly. “I’m starved!”

“I want to start with your present,” Lars said. “There are two parts!”

He rummaged into his bag and withdrew two wrapped packages. One was thin and light, the other thick and heavy. Julie mimed staggering when he put it in her arms. “Which do I open first?” she asked eagerly. Lars put the lighter one on top.

Julie put them both on the last clear place on the counter and tore the wrapping off the tablet, already in a sturdy case and loaded with books. Lars hadn’t been able to discern a pattern from her reading habits, so it had mysteries, thrillers, romances, children’s books, some non-fiction about Egypt mythology and a wide selection of classics.

“Oh,” she said in awe, as Lars showed her how to navigate the screens and adjust the font. “So many books and it’s so tiny and light. I’ve always wondered how it would be to read on one of these. I worried I might miss the feeling of a real book in my hands.” She looked up at Lars in alarm as she seemed to realize how that might sound. “I mean, I’m sure I’ll love it,” she said swiftly.

“That’s why I got the next one,” Lars said with a grin.

Julie laughed as she tore open the paper. “You got me War and Peace,” she exclaimed. “In Russian!”

“First edition,” Lars said. “I couldn’t find a signed version.”

“It’s perfect,” Julie said, putting it down and falling into his arms. “I love it. I’ll learn Russian immediately. Da! Nyet!”

“I got you something, too,” Lars said, looking at Tom over Julie’s hat.

Tom looked uncomfortable. “I hope it’s on par with deviled eggs,” he said awkwardly. “Because seriously, I didn’t get you anything else.”

Lars fished into his pocket around Julie’s arms. “I didn’t wrap them,” he said apologetically.

But Tom seemed to think this leveled the playing field as he opened the envelope. “Airline vouchers?”

“I want you to come visit us in New York. They’re good for a year.”

“Thanks,” Tom said gruffly. “That will be great.”

Julie, still wrapped around him, gave a sigh of contentment. “This is the greatest Christmas I’ve ever had,” she said happily. “You picked these gifts like a pro.”

“Like a pro?” Lars had to ask.

“A professional,” Julie clarified.

A professional. There was the word he had been looking for so long. He had to laugh out loud at himself and bent to kiss Julie as Tom gave a groan of disgust.

“Merry Christmas, everyone,” Tom said, turning to plug in the twinkle lights on the little tree.

“Merry Christmoose,” Julie laughed near Lars’s ear. “Let’s eat!”

One hilarious extra…when I was writing this, I didn’t know how to write the å character on my keyboard, and I wrote moose as alg instead of ålg. Which happens to be algae in Swedish, not moose! Fortunately, I had a Swedish friend read it before posting it on the webpage. I will always picture Lars thinking to himself, “I’m an algae…”

A Recipe for Happiness

Chef and Magnolia were two characters I never expected to fall in love with; they were meant to be bit players in the background. But you try telling Magnolia to stay to the background! With every book in the Shifting Sands series, I got to know them a little better, and I was delighted to expand their story in Tropical Lion’s Legacy and introduce the crossover with the Shifter Kingdom series.

It was even more fun to go back in time and explore their origin story. A version of this story was available at my webpage briefly during the holidays of 2019, but I