Drakk (I was pretty sure) shook his head. “They don’t eat corn.”

“What about those red-and-green candies?”

Drakk was polite. “Ma’am, they’re herbivores. And ’sides, candy’d rot their teeth.”

Dr. Raymond beamed.

Aunt Esha shrugged then she handed grass to a beast.

I relaxed until she added, “Someone should correct the town’s website, then.”

My dad frowned. “Website?”

I rushed forward. “How come some have antlers and some don’t?” I asked of our guides. It was possibly all one word—Howcomesomehaveantlersandsomedon’t—I said it so fast.

Grandma Jo’s sharp gaze turned back to me.

Arthur shot me a look, which I ignored.

Axe, though, grinned. “Glad ya asked, little lady.” Me too, Axe, I thought as I saw Aunt Esha and Dad focus on his answer; Grandma Jo took an extra beat. “Male reindeer lose their antlers in November—”

“That means it’s the lady reindeer,” Drakk said, “who’re the ones who pull Santa’s sleigh on Christmas.”

Axe pumped his fist in the air. “Santa the feminist!”

Drakk whooped and clapped as loud as thunder.

Grandma Jo, Aunt Esha, and Dad joined them, laughing, the reindeer corn forgotten.

Hopefully.

Then I felt an unexpected bump in the center of my back that pushed me forward, nearly colliding with Arthur, which would have been embarrassing under normal circumstances but felt a thousand times worse given my unwelcome gift-shop moment. Fortunately, he seemed not to notice.

I could still feel myself blush, though. Ugh.

When I turned around, I found myself eye to eye with one of the lady reindeer—her antlers were impressive—who stared expectantly at me. Clearly, she knew the drill, whereas I was the newbie and needed to get with the program.

Happy to have something to do other than think about Arthur, I took a handful of grass from the bag, which the reindeer wasted no time in taking from me. Pushy.

“That’s Calliope,” Axe told me, nodding to my reindeer. “She’s gonna pull the sleigh along with Erato.”

He pointed to the one Arthur was feeding.

Aunt Esha perked up. “You named them after the Muses?”

Drakk shook his head. “That was Mrs. Sedgewick’s doin’.”

“We were gunnin’ for Sooner sports greats.”

“Vessels.”

“Sims.”

“The Boz—”

Thankfully Arthur then asked, “Where is the sleigh?” or else that list could’ve gone on a while.

An excited Axe drew Arthur and me to another side of the pen. Our two reindeer followed.

Axe pointed. “There.”

And indeed, there it was, in all its unique sleigh glory.

It was red like Santa’s traditional sleigh, with gold trim on the sides, three rows for seating, including the elevated driver’s perch, and—

Arthur tipped his head to one side. “Are those . . . wheels?”