Elf on the Beach by TJ Nichols Read Free Book Online Page A

realize that if nothing else. He regretted not spending Christmas Eve with Roone or making the most of the short time they had together.
    He woke up more times than he cared to count during the night. He wanted to blame the heat, but that would be a lie. Even though the temptation to get up and check on things burned in his veins, he made himself stay in bed until his room lightened to gray, until sunlight slunk through the gaps in the curtain.
    By then his hands were shaking. What if it had all been for nothing?
    He didn’t want to go out there and find his stocking flat, the beer undrunk, and the cookies stale. He just couldn’t. So he closed his eyes and pretended he wasn’t avoiding facing the truth.
     
     
    R OONE KNOCKED on the door. He had the right flat. He’d dreamed of the address. Had the urge to get here and had caught a lift with someone else from the hostel who’d been going in the same direction. Some people would call it luck. Roone knew better.
    He tapped again. It was still early, and he didn’t want to wake the whole apartment block.
    He swallowed, suddenly nervous. What if Kyle turned him away despite what he longed for. That was why he was here…. Kyle’s desire had called to him.
    The door opened. Kyle was there, dressed only in a pair of shorts and a grin that lit up his whole face. “I knew you’d show up.”
    Roone smiled, not daring to hope too hard. “Did you now? How’s that?”
    “Because of this.” Kyle held up a ticket to the North Pole. That was no regular airline ticket.
    Roone reached out but didn’t touch it. If that was what he thought it was….
    “What on Earth did you wish for?” While it wasn’t uncommon for elves to return from their year away with a human partner, humans didn’t just get invited.
    “I wanted you to find your decision, and I wanted to know more about your world. Was that the right thing to do?”
    Roone lifted his eyebrows. “How did you know that the magic wouldn’t work on me? That I can never get what I wish for?”
    Things went his way, and his life was filled with magic, but he didn’t get wishes like humans did. Even as he’d gone to sleep last night—late because he’d been celebrating with some of the other tourists in the hostel—he’d been thinking about what he was going to do. This morning he’d felt sure. He was going home, and he was going to put himself on the path to becoming a messenger elf, so that once a year he’d get to travel the human world.
    He knew he was setting himself up for a whole lot of hard work. But everything he’d done and seen this year had cemented that desire. Wasn’t that what the purpose of the year was? He’d found the calling.
    He’d found Kyle.
    And Kyle had found magic.
    Roone wanted to kiss him. So he did. He put his palms on Kyle’s cheeks and placed a quick and joyful kiss on his lover’s lips.
    “I didn’t know. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I’m sorry for being a dick yesterday.” Kyle lowered his gaze as though embarrassed. He stepped back. “Did you want to come in?”
    “What I was saying isn’t easy for people to accept, even if they are staring at the truth. But I’m glad you took the chance.” Roone closed the door behind him and leaned on it.
    “You took a chance on me. You didn’t have to say anything.”
    Roone could’ve kept quiet, but this was the first time all year that he’d been able to say what he was. When Kyle had started noticing, he’d wanted to be able to share. He looked at Kyle and the ticket and knew he did want to go home, because he wanted to be able to share the magic with others. He didn’t want to be human with only a memory of what could be, surrounded by people who had given up.
    “What are you going to do now?” Roone pointed to the ticket.
    Kyle stepped in close. “Well, I know this elf, and I was hoping he’d teach me how to snowboard.”
    “You know you’ll be stuck there for a year. Then you have to decide if