Ivy paid for two cups of cocoa. “Excuse me, but what happened to Phoebe Huddleston?”

The church ladies exchanged a knowing look. “Oh, she and that young man wandered away quite a while ago,” one of the women said, winking. “But we promised not to tattle to her grandmother that she left early. You’re her friend Ivy, right?”

“Yes.”

“She told us to tell you everything worked out just fine. And thanks.”

Despite the cold, Ivy felt the same warm feeling settling over her body, and she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the cocoa.

“Seems like you managed to help your friend after all,” Lawrence observed. He clutched her arm a little tighter. “Say, do you think we could find a place to sit for a spell? These old legs of mine are suddenly feeling pretty weak.”

“Of course,” Ivy said. She took out her cell phone to check the time. It was five after eight. And she had a text message from Ezra:

Come early, okay? There’s someone who wants to meet you.

“Lawrence, would it be all right if we dropped by Santaland? There’s somebody there who my real estate agent wants me to meet. When I was by there earlier I noticed that there are lots of benches, and you can rest a little bit before I take you home.”

“Whatever you say, Ivy. I hate to be a burden, especially when you’ve got a big night planned with your young man.”

“You aren’t a burden, Lawrence. You’re an absolute bright spot in my life.” She deftly typed a response to Ezra’s earlier message:

On my way.

Ivy steered them in the direction of Santaland. The crowd in the square seemed to have thinned out substantially, and when they entered the gingerbread entrance to the village only two children and their mother were still waiting in line. As Ivy and Lawrence approached, a costumed teenage elf approached.

“Hey, uh, sorry, but Santa’s only here for another ten minutes, so nobody else can get in line now. He’s, uh, gotta get back to the North Pole, you know?”

“I’m actually a friend of Santa’s,” Ivy told the kid. “We’re just going to sit on one of the benches and wait for him to get off shift.”

The kid shrugged. “Cool. I guess.”

They found a bench at the edge of the platform and sat down. A pair of towheaded children, a boy and his sister who looked to be about five or six, were inching toward the throne, glancing backward at their mother, who seemed to be coaching them from the sidelines.

“Come right up, children,” Santa boomed. “Have you been good this year?”

The little girl stuck her thumb in her mouth and backed away, but her younger brother hopped right onto Santa’s lap. Ezra glanced over and smiled broadly when he saw Ivy and her companion. He gave them a quick thumbs-up and mouthed, Five minutes.

“He makes a pretty convincing Santa,” Lawrence observed. “Of course, he’s not as plump as Santa Bob was, but the children don’t seem to mind.”