A Christmas Seduction. Daire St. Denis

and his name is Papa Noel.”

      “Really?”

      “Mmm-hmm. You think about it, not every place is cold. A sled doesn’t work where there’s no snow. Papa Noel? He doesn’t have reindeer and a sleigh, he’s got a pirogue—you know what a pirogue is?”

      The kid shook his head.

      “It’s a flat-bottomed boat that skims nice and light over the swamps.” Thad glided one hand over the other to illustrate. “Now...instead of reindeer, what do you figure pulls Papa Noel’s pirogue?”

      “I don’t know,” the kid said.

      Thad glanced up. Jolie’s eyes were as wide as the boy’s. Her gorgeous mouth parted a bit.

      “Gators.”

      “No.” Again, this came from Jolie, not the kid.

      “Oh, yeah,” Kaylee, the young newlywed said. “I had a storybook about Papa Noel when I was a kid.”

      “Well now, if it’s written down in a book, that must make it truth.”

      The boy nodded as if that made perfect sense, and Thad went on to explain how in Louisiana they set up huge bonfires on Christmas Eve to light the way for Papa Noel because it could be so dark at that time of year.

      “Can we light a bonfire?” The boy looked at Dillon excitedly. “Can we? So Santa doesn’t get lost?”

      Thad didn’t wait for Dillon to answer. Pointing to the big fireplace, he said, “We don’t need bonfires. We got a fireplace to let him know where we’re at.”

      His story led to others in the group swapping their own, and while Dillon talked, Thad got up to refill his glass with eggnog, smiling as he ladled. What was it about this year that felt so different? It’d been almost twelve years since he’d left NOLA. Since Katrina and everything that came before. But this was the first Christmas he actually felt like he belonged somewhere.

      It was nice.

      A soft step followed by the scent of peppermint alerted Thad to her presence.

      “That was quite the story,” she said, her voice husky and low.

      Thad shut his eyes before answering because he already knew why this holiday felt different.

      Jolie.