Page 1 of Run, Run Rudolph
Chapter 1
~ Tamara ~
Was Travis Tritt single? And if so, how old was he? Because that man sure could croon some Christmas carols, and the rightness of his voice singing All I Want for Christmas Dear is You sent my mind spinning down romantic avenues as fat snowflakes flew past my windshield.
It was the night before Christmas Eve in the Rocky Mountain foothills, and I loved a white Christmas—which it most definitely was. Although the winter storm was maybe a bit too thick for my liking as I drove home from a family dinner. Tonight, my mom, after giving up on trying to convince me to take another crack at dating my ex-boyfriend Kade, had come dangerously close to badgering me into accepting a date with my former high school English teacher. The man was only four and a half years my senior, but date Mr. Devilson? No way. His real name was Mr. Derekson, but none of us had called him that. I might be single, and I might not have someone to curl up with in front of the fireplace in my old farmhouse tonight, but I wasn’t desperate.
Dejected about my options? Most definitely.
But I left the desperation for my mother. Ever since I’d moved back home last summer to reunite with my ex-boyfriend, Kade, she’d renewed her mission to get me down the aisle before ‘all the good ones were taken.’ I think she might have hidden in her room to cry it out when our romantic reunion had only lasted a few weeks.
Or it could have been the very public way it had combusted, and the delight in which the gossips had swarmed her in hopes of getting the straight goods under the guise of returning old casserole dishes or borrowed books. I was pretty sure my mom now had more of both than she’d ever loaned out.
To rights, the final breakup fight between Kade and I had been rather epic. We’d covered everything under the sun, from who had changed the most in the years we’d been apart, to whether or not his recent ex-girlfriend’s botanicals (AKA herbs, supplements and vitamins) actually worked and were worth the high prices, to who’d scratched his new F-150.
The answers: me, maybe, and me again.
Yes, my time in the city had changed me. Everyone kept saying that, and yet my life didn’t feel that much different. Same small town, a job that was going nowhere, no horses of my own, and still single.
Although, I did have a better sense of myself now, and was more willing to stand up for what I wanted. Hence the epic break-up fight.
As for the scratched truck, Kade didn’t have any evidence, and my lips were sealed forever, due to the way he’d defended Jannifer’s botanical vitamins with a vigour that had raised my hackles to their fullest, prickliest heights. I’d died on that hill—one so mighty that if I ever even needed so much as a bottle of Vitamin C, I’d have to drive to the next town over and buy them in secret, or hear about it until the end of time.
Back to the truck. There was only one witness to the paint scratching, and that was Kade’s super-smart, handsome, womanizing older brother, Haden. He’d been there when I’d backed the borrowed pickup and horse trailer past a fence post, and had accidentally screeched along some barbed wire.
I was pretty sure Haden wouldn’t give me up to his sibling, though. He tended to avoid me and my endless curious questions about animals—he was a veterinarian. However, over the years, I’d caught him smirking with amusement whenever I’d finally make a dig or two back at Kade. It was likely nothing more than some sort of sibling rivalry, and the resulting joy at seeing his gregarious, do-no-wrong younger brother get a bit of pushback.
It certainly didn’t stem from a fondness for me, a woman eight years his junior. And anyway, I was a bother to him, someone often in need of rescue. I was so clueless about being a bother that Kade had needed to pull me aside when I was seventeen and give me a heads up. I’d bothered Haden for years, assuming his patient kindness and depth of knowledge was an invitation to pummel him with questions.
Really though, was it any surprise that I’d been led on? Haden had a whole fan group in Eagle Ridge, as well as the surrounding county. They ran a constant parade through his veterinarian clinic with what I suspected were fake emergencies. I was also fairly confident that he loved it, as I’d never once, in all our years of sharing the same town, seen him with the same woman more than a time or two.
Yeah, he was that guy.
On top of it all, he was a practical small-town vet, sure and reliable. And I was the gal with the ooey-gooey love for my little fur babies. He didn’t do ooey-gooey. How was he even brothers with Kade, who’d found my fur-baby tendencies adorable?
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and grumbled to myself. At least Haden would no longer have to suffer through seeing me at the Powell family dinners, vacations, or other family events. He’d always slip in just in time for Christmas Eve dinner, bordering on being late as he took the spot on my other side at his mom’s big table. I suspected he hid out somewhere until supper because of me.
Come to think of it, Haden might reveal my truck-scratching secret to his brother. But, if he was the good businessman I believed him to be, it would be in his best interest not to. After all, I was the primary guardian of my landlord Carl’s ageing horse, and Haden would want to ensure those hefty vet bills got paid out to his clinic, and not his back-up veterinarian friend one town over, who generally dealt with his overflow emergencies.
I slowed my car as another wash of flakes reduced my visibility, and I squinted out into the night, waiting for the snow burst to wane. When it did—and still feeling the sureness of the hard-packed, snow-covered gravel road beneath me—I sped up again.
My life might not be perfect, and it might be lacking a husband and kids, but at least it was, for the most part, filled with things I was choosing for myself. That included everything from my wonderfully cheesy horse-themed Christmas sweatshirt to my rented farmhouse and barn, to the semi-adopted horse, Dolly, and my new job as a teacher’s educational assistant.
Even my bestie Char could see I was happy to be back in the country again after my stint in the city with her…although, she worried I wasn’t finding enough adventure. Which I could understand. Some days I was lonely, and wondered what I was doing with my life. Was I wasting my best years? Would I ever find anyone out here?
Days like that had me tempted to drop it all and move closer to the Spruce Meadows horse training facility in the slim hope of getting to work with horses. I was inexperienced, but maybe I could muck out barns or back up trailers. Or just muck out barns. I didn’t have a great track record with backing up a trailer.
As for adventure, though? I didn’t want or need it in the way Char did. And after her run-in with the magical world last summer, I was fine right where I was, thank you very much. It turned out fairy godmothers were real, and Char, as a result, had landed herself in some hot water. Try owing a fairy godmother over one-hundred grand thanks to a backlog of granted wishes, and then face the ogre accountant while sorting out repayment. I shivered just thinking about it. Thank goodness I was past helping Char through all of that business, and my life was blessedly back to normal. No magic. No magical creatures. Just me living alone in the country.
So alone.
The only male in my bed was my rescued tomcat stealing the blanket in the night.
Sighing, I wondered for the eight millionth time if coming back home had been a mistake. I’d never find a husband out here. That meant never starting a family. And with my current salary, never being able to afford a hobby farm on my own.
A gust of wind obscured the dark road with another flush of falling snow, and I squinted, leaning forward in the driver’s seat again. It was only a bit after seven o’clock, but for those of us in the northern hemisphere, especially Canada, we were fully into the depth of shorter days.
I rubbed my left eye and peered out at the endless snow tumbling from the sky, making it impossible to see. Sensing movement to my hood’s right, I snatched the bunch of mistletoe I’d rather optimistically hung from my rearview mirror and tossed it onto the passenger seat. Why I’d thought I’d be driving a single man around in my car this holiday season—or that we’d find ourselves ‘under the mistletoe’ so-to-speak—I have no idea. I blamed my mother and her constant campaign to get me married off. (Or worse, back together with Kade.)
