Page 13 of Run, Run Rudolph
Maybe Rudolph could allow Haden to see him, but not his magical blinking nose.
Haden. He was the kind fixer, and I was the girl in need of fixing.
My long-ago crush on him had formed on the first day of grade one. I’d fallen and torn my knee open on the steps leading up to the elementary classrooms. He’d been going past me to the junior high, and had helped me up, dried my tears, and handed me off to a sweet teacher to get bandaged up. He’d been in grade seven and he could have acted cool, and walked on by like dozens of others. But he hadn’t.
Moments like that dotted our existence.
Well, until Kade had put a record-screeching stop to it all by informing me that his older brother was merely tolerating me.
Ugh.
And if he came here tonight and failed to see the magical flying reindeer in my barn… Yeah, no. There was no way I was calling Haden. We needed to wait for Santa or some other solution.
I checked for more deer outside, then closed the barn door. From behind me, I heard someone with a Spanish accent crooning softly. Cupid, I figured, although his accent was much more pronounced than it had been earlier. Turning, I spotted him at the first stall, which was occupied by my landlord’s mare, Dolly.
“Who do we have here?” Cupid asked her, his voice warm and smooth like melted butter. He received a delighted horsey snort in reply.
I hurried back to where the rest of the herd was surrounding Rudolph.
“Can someone call off Cupid?” I asked, as a few chickadees swooped down from their spots in the rafters, almost landing on my shoulders before veering away. They thought it was feeding time, even though I fed them, and the other birds that used the barn for protection, in the morning. “The last thing I need is to try and explain some creature that’s half-horse and half-reindeer to Dolly’s owner, Carl.”
Prancer gave a derisive snort. “That can’t happen. He’s magical. She’s not.”
“Ever heard of demigods?” I muttered.
“I like her,” Donner stated.
“Thank you,” I told the beer-scented reindeer with the holly and mistletoe in his antlers. “You’re very handsome.”
Donner tipped his head up as though basking in the compliment.
Rudolph had slumped into the clean straw lining the empty stall, and I fit the car blanket around him a bit better. Then I snagged a horse blanket and wrapped it around my lower half and shivered, trying to warm up. It was warmer in the barn than outside, but still well below freezing.
“Ignore Cupid,” Comet advised me. “He’ll have forgotten all about her by tomorrow.”
That wasn’t particularly reassuring. Dolly was snuffling in a, dare I say, flirty way. Even flirtier than when she wanted another carrot. With reluctance, I let the duo be, and returned my attention to Rudolph. I crouched beside him, my worry returning.
“Do any of you have magic that can help?” I asked.
“We’re reindeer,” one of them replied. I couldn’t see who, but I think it was Prancer.
“Is that a no?”
“Yes.”
“No,” another one argued. “You mean no.”
“Yes, it’s a no,” Prancer insisted. “Are you still drunk?”
There was the clack of antlers hitting each other.
“Guys!” The antler clacking stopped. “Do you have magic that can help us right now?”
“No!” the two bickering deer chorused.
“Okay. Thank you.” Yeesh. These guys were as testy as kindergarteners who’d missed snack and nap time. “How about Santa? Is there a way we can call him?”
I was certain Estelle would get the job done of contacting him, but it wasn’t a bad idea to use everything at my disposal, seeing as Christmas Eve was looming up on us.
