Santa Close

Santa Close

blackgirlmagic221 · Ongoing · 70.2k Words

532
Hot
571
Views
3
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Santa Close is a tender holiday romance about love found in unexpected places and the quiet power of simply showing up. A financially struggling man takes a seasonal Santa Claus job to survive Christmas, he never expects to become part of a single mother’s carefully protected world, or to matter so deeply to her five-year-old son. Through small promises kept, shared moments, and the honest perspective of a child, a temporary role becomes something far more permanent. This story blends cozy Christmas charm with emotional realism, delivering a satisfying romantic journey that ends not in fantasy, but in commitment.

Chapter 1

Chop. Chop. Slide.

Max’s knife moved in rhythm against the cutting board.

He wore an apron over his bare chest, tied loosely at the waist, the fabric brushing against his skin every time he shifted. A faint sheen of sweat caught the light.

He leaned his hip into the counter, shoulders loose, head nodding as “Treasure” by Bruno Mars played softly from the small speaker balanced near the sink.

The apartment was alive with sound and scent.

Onions sizzled in the pan, turning soft and golden as seasoned beef strips browned at the edges.

Max sang along, loud and unapologetic.

That is what you are..,” he crooned, dragging the words out with theatrical enthusiasm. “You’re my golden star…”

He pointed the knife at the empty room like it was an audience. “You know you can make my wish come true.”

The song swelled. Max spun once, careful not to slip, then laughed at himself. Cooking nights were his favorite kind of night. No rush. No expectations. Just music, heat, and something honest coming together in a pan.

He slid the sliced bell peppers into a neat pile, tossed them into the pan and stirred.

“Almost there,” he told the food.

The pan hissed once and went quiet.

Max stood over the stove, wooden spoon frozen midair, listening to the silence. It felt personal. He turned the knob again. Nothing. Not even a flicker.

“No,” he said lightly, like it was a joke he had not quite understood yet.

Max leaned down, still humming under his breath as the music carried on without the pan.

He checked the burner, then straightened with a slow breath.

Max wiped his hands on the hem of his apron and crossed the narrow kitchen. The apartment around him was modest but intentional. Neutral walls. Clean lines. A couch that had come with the place, minimal decor. Nothing extravagant or accidental.

Max liked it this way. Abstract and calming.

He opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out the gas cylinder. He lifted it once, then again, as if the weight might change the second time.

Empty.

He set it down and stared at it for a moment, then laughed once, short and surprised. “Of course.”

The music kept playing, bright and relentless. Max let it run. He liked the contrast. He turned the heat knob one more time, just in case the universe felt generous.

It did not.

He slid the pan off the burner and set it aside. The beef glistened, uncooked centers visible, caught in the middle of becoming something better. He stood there, hands on the counter, breathing in the scent of food that would not finish cooking.

He turned the music down and wiped his hands on a towel. The silence that followed was gentler now, not abrupt. He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. Then, without much thought, his banking app.

The number blinked back at him.

He nodded slowly. “Yeah”

He could refill the gas tomorrow if he stretched things. Or he could wait a few days and simply eat bread, eggs, things that didn’t require much heat.

Max closed the app and tossed the phone onto the counter. He grabbed a loaf of bread and popped two slices into the toaster. Dinner adjusted itself.

He had been out of work for a month.

Not unemployed in the dramatic sense. Just between things. Contracts ended. Gigs wrapped up. People said they would call and sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn’t. Max had learned not to chase too hard. Chasing made things feel heavier than they needed to be.

He liked his life. He liked waking up without an alarm. He liked choosing his days. He liked knowing that if something stopped working, he could adapt without falling apart.

Still, there were moments.

The toaster popped. Max spread peanut butter thinly and ate standing up, scrolling through his phone with his free hand.

His phone buzzed.

He smiled when he saw the name.

“Ethan,” he said as he answered. “Tell me you’re calling to rescue me.”

“Define rescue,” Ethan replied. “Because I can offer pasta and unsolicited advice.”

Max laughed. “I’m listening.”

“What happened this time?”

“My stove quit on me in the middle of cooking.”

There was a pause. “That’s not dramatic enough. Say it again like it ruined your life.”

Max smiled despite himself. “My cooking fuel ran out mid cooking, and now I must face the consequences of my financial choices.”

“Now that’s more like it,” Ethan said. “You want to come over? I made too much pasta.”

Max hesitated. He pictured Ethan’s place, warmer, louder, always fun and lively. He liked being there. He also liked not being the friend who always accepted leftovers.

“I might,” he said. “Let me see how the night settles.”

“You say that every time.”

“And sometimes I mean it.”

There was a pause. Then Ethan cleared his throat. “So. Any luck on the job front?”

Max shrugged, though Ethan couldn’t see it. “Still quiet.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Max said, because it mostly was.

“Hey, so” Ethan started, voice shifting into something casual that never fooled anyone. “There is this other thing.”

Max straightened. “I knew it. You never call just to be kind.”

“Please. I’m always kind.”

“Dangerously kind,” Max said. “What is it?”

“There’s a seasonal job opening near my place,” Ethan said. “I thought of you.”

Max closed his eyes briefly. “Ethan.

“Just hear me out.”

“I am hearing you out,” Max said. “I’m also preemptively declining.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet. It pays well,” Ethan added quickly.

“No.”

“And it’s temporary.”

Max shoulders relaxed a fraction. Temporary usually got his attention. “Go on,” he said, against his better judgment.

“It’s a Santa gig,” Ethan said.

The word settled between them, heavy and absurd.

Max laughed once. “Absolutely not.”

“Why not?”

“I am not Santa,” Max said. “I do not look like Santa. I do not sound like Santa. I am thirty-three years old and I have tattoos on my arms. shit like that is usually meant for older people."

“Long sleeves,” Ethan said. “Solved.”

“This is not a problem solving situation,” Max said. “This is you pitching me nonsense.”

“You’re good with kids.”

“Not as Santa. I would terrify children” Max said. “Different category.”

“They provide the suit.”

“That does not help your case.”

Ethan pushed on. “It’s the City center. Photos. Events. A few weekends. It pays enough to get you comfortable again.”

Max did not answer right away.

He looked around his apartment. The clean counters. The half-cooked meal. The empty gas cylinder.

“I’ll think about it,” he said finally.

“That’s all I ask.”

They said goodbye a minute later. Max stayed where he was after the call ended, the quiet settling back in.

Santa.

He imagined the suit. The beard. The expectation of magic. The idea suffocated him.

He also imagined cooking dinner without doing mental math first.

Max picked up his phone again, the screen lit up. He was at jobjolt.com to see if there was any notification or miracle message. None.

Sigh

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Diaries Of A Hybrid And Her Mate

Diaries Of A Hybrid And Her Mate

2.3k Views · Ongoing · Sherryann Martinez
R18 MATURE CONTENT

Beautiful Aubrianne Ivanov, raised by her single mom, had a tough childhood. With low self-esteem, she became an outcast and was alone one too many times for her liking. Time spent at her part time job, she eventually grew into a brave, confident, and determined young woman who walked right into an opportunity that would change her life forever.

Will Aubrianne truly feel whole? Will she find what has been missing in her life? Will she allow herself happiness and joy? Will she find love, and most importantly, will she survive what's to come?

Join Aubrianne on her journey as she discovers who/what she is and navigates all the heartbreak, betrayal, drama, and exciting and thrilling events that come her way...

Excerpt:

She lay before him in all her magnificent beauty draped across his king-size bed in the most compelling and provocative way known to man or beast. And for Alpha Zayne, it was the most captivating view he had ever had the pleasure of seeing with his own eyes.

She stared at his every movement, lips slightly parted, her stunning brown eyes scanning every inch of his gorgeously toned and glorious body while heat radiated off of hers. He was HERS.

Her body trembled in delight and anticipation; she was ready and wanted to be with him in every way.

As innocent as she was, she wanted him to...no need him to take her in the worse ways, bringing her to heights of pleasures she had never experienced before.

Fuck she is beautiful, one fine specimen, and she is all MINE, MY MATE. A wave of pure unbridled possessiveness vibrated through Alpha Zayne. He thanked the Divine Moon Goddess, for she has truly blessed him.

He drank her in, eyes trailing up her toned sexy legs spread wide for him, and she gave him that come-and-get-it look.
Cursed Fates

Cursed Fates

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Taylor Ashcraft
Charlotte Sinclair was murdered at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. After dying, she wakes up in the body of another. She pieces together information from her first day as Aribella Voss, realizing that she's been reincarnated into a book she knew all too well. The only problem: She was fated to die in this story as well. She sets out on a mission to ensure that doesn't happen, but when she begins changing important parts of the story, she also changes the plot of the story she knew. Without the upper hand, Aribella no longer has idea what lies in her future.
Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt

Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt

1.8k Views · Ongoing · ashlennox8
Nyx would risk anything to save her dying sister. Even steal from a dragon. Even trust a prince who promised her a crown in exchange for the impossible.

But the prince lied. The dragon she touched bound itself to her soul and now she is trapped in the vampire kingdom with a king who has waited centuries for her return. King Caelan remembers everything. The love she destroyed and the great war she started. The lives she burned to ash with the very dragon now living inside her.

She remembers nothing.

He wants her to suffer for crimes she cannot recall. She wants to survive long enough to save her sister. But the bond between them refuses to stay buried and the dragon has its own plans. When she turns twenty and her fae powers awaken, Nyx discovers the truth is far more twisted than centuries of hatred.

The prince who sent her was the one who destroyed her family. The king who hates her saved the only person she loves. And the past life she cannot remember might be the key to stopping another war.

This time she will not run. This time she will burn the world herself if that is what it takes.
King of the Underworld

King of the Underworld

114.1k Views · Completed · RJ Kane
In my life as a waitress, I, Sephie - an ordinary person - endured the icy glares and insults of customers while trying to earn a living. I believed that this would be my fate forever.

However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”

But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”


Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.

She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Pawn of the Starless God

Pawn of the Starless God

1.8k Views · Ongoing · Dee Fietz
I was supposed to die alone in an alley.

Instead, a god found me.

One moment, I was bleeding beneath the neon glow of the city, my life slipping through my fingers. The next, a glowing blue screen appeared before my eyes, offering me a choice that was never really a choice at all.

Accept the Summoner’s Mark. Or die.

Now I belong to the Death Game — a brutal cosmic system where ordinary people are turned into Players, thrown into impossible missions, and forced to survive horrors designed for the amusement of gods.

Every trial has rules.
Every monster has a weakness.
Every victory comes with a reward.

And every reward makes me less human.

My name is Nerissa Valehart, and I refuse to be anyone’s pawn.

But surviving the Game means trusting the one man everyone warns me to fear.

Veyren Ashford is ruthless, powerful, and dangerously beautiful — a veteran Player with blood on his hands and secrets in his soul. He says attachment will get me killed. He says love is a weakness the Game always punishes.

Yet when death comes for me, Veyren is the one standing between us.

In a world where gods gamble with mortal lives, monsters hunt from the shadows, and desire may be the deadliest weakness of all, I have only one goal:

Survive long enough to cross the board.

And make the Starless God regret choosing me..............
BROKEN TRUST

BROKEN TRUST

6k Views · Completed · O.J Thewriter
She broke their marriage. He walked away.

Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.

Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.

Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

948.4k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms

After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms

1.8m Views · Ongoing · Louisa
Dear readers, this novel is coming to an end soon. I highly recommend another fantastic story of the same genre:


I’d appreciate all your support, thank you so much!
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.

On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...

Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.

George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.

His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"

Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.

When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.

"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"

George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"

"I'm afraid that's impossible."

Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."
First Taste in a Century​

First Taste in a Century​

974 Views · Ongoing · Sherry
Fresh out of college and fumbling through his first year in the real world, twenty-two-year-old Lysander wanders away from a friend’s party and into an isolated forest. There, he stumbles upon the high-tech laboratory hidden within the ancient castle of Vivienne—a vampire who has spent one century cultivating solitude. Disgusted by the intimacy required to hunt, she long ago withdrew from humanity, passing the endless decades perfecting homemade synthetic blood rather than sampling the countless varieties of plasma she grew tired of.

But Lysander’s arrival spells disaster. In a clumsy accident, he doesn't just ruin dinner; he obliterates her state-of-the-art scientific instruments. With her life’s work destroyed and her synthetic supply cut off, the scent of his living blood overwhelms her engineered senses. Forced to break a century-long abstinence, she takes what she needs, only to find herself addicted not just to his taste, but to the man himself.

Using the equipment as a flimsy excuse to lure him back, Vivienne battles a terrifying new obsession. She craves his body despite believing he’s taken, despising her own weakness. Meanwhile, Lysander’s initial terror curdles into a forbidden fascination. Can a relationship survive when one person feels everything, and the other only hungers?
Offside With You

Offside With You

2.4k Views · Ongoing · Eanie Ruth
For eighteen years, Aveline Carter has lived in the shadows, forgotten by a mother who only seems to see her identical twin brother, Asher Carter, whose heart disease demands constant care. She resents him until the night she finds him lying unconscious on his bedroom floor.
At the hospital, Asher falls into a coma. His scans reveal bruises, internal bleeding and signs of prolonged physical abuse. Broken and furious, Aveline vows to expose the cruelty hidden behind the prestige of Crestwood Academy.
Cutting off her hair and disguising herself as her brother, Aveline infiltrates Crestwood Academy and fights her way onto the hockey team determined to unmask those responsible. Revenge should have been simple until she meets Kieran Hampton, the team’s arrogant and sharp-eyed star player. From their first clash, tension ignites. Aveline is certain he’s guilty and has no problem making his life miserable, but their undeniable chemistry only draws them closer with every confrontation.

While Aveline focuses on the wrong target, the real threat stands closer.

Cassian Thorne seems strange at first, his interest in her uncomfortably personal yet he gradually becomes her friend. Meanwhile, Kieran despite believing Aveline is male finds himself drawn to “him” in ways he can’t understand. When he uncovers her true identity, he chooses to protect her at all costs even as she refuses to trust him.
Revenge turns to grief when Asher dies, leaving Aveline drowning in guilt for falling for her brother’s supposed tormentor. Questions remain unanswered, and the truth is far darker than she imagined because Asher Carter was never just a victim. The bullying wasn’t just random.
As secrets unravel and loyalties shatter, Aveline must face one devastating question: what happens when the brother you were ready to destroy the world for isn’t who you thought he was?
The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2

The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2

1.1k Views · Ongoing · Kassy Rae Wall
Pythia comes from a long line of dark witches, she killed her mother for her reckless behavior and becomes the queen of the dark witches and teamed up with the Great White Witch and the vampire queen to fight in the battle to keep the balance in all the different worlds, she meets her mate, Tye in the great battle. Tye is the great white witches brother and a alpha. Together they will embark on a battle to correct the elders and take a step forward to peace among the dark witches, the road is long especially when they find out Pythias true royalty line. When realms collide and the moon goddess has to step in and not only aid because of the new found threat but to tell the secrets she has helped keep hidden for many years, Pythia is forced to train harder, work harder and plan for the absolute unexpected but, as she learns her true powers she starts to realize that she can handle anything that may threaten her and her family.
The vampire queen (Ambrosia) and Pythia will become close and discover the true origins of their pasts. They rely on each other when their mates are not around. New family is discovered and it is time they all come together to face one of the toughest moments in the dark witches history.
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

939.4k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!