Page 19 of Run, Run Rudolph
“Aw, guys,” he complained. “Look what you did. Now I’m not as festive.”
“Dude, you’re pigging out. Save some for us,” Dasher whined.
“You gulp everything like it’s a race. I needed the head start.”
“You finished it!”
“That’s alcoholic punch.” I marched over, pushing their heads out of the way. “You’ve found enough trouble tonight, thanks to booze.”
They were incredibly strong, but also surprisingly obedient. I was grateful that my disastrous mixing with the magical world had at least brought me sweet, bratty reindeer and not drooling ogres. Although, in terms of meeting scary beasts, I was sure there was still time to meet some more.
With the lid closed on the mostly empty cooler, I rubbed my throbbing temples, and walked out of the barn, trying to get my head wrapped around my life. I hoped Haden showed up and managed to pull off a medical miracle.
Gently, I coaxed the frozen cloth roof of my convertible back into place. Then I plugged in the car’s block heater so the engine wouldn’t freeze up on me—assuming that hitting Rudolph hadn’t triggered the engine’s accident ignition kill switch thingy, and Benjamin would still start for me later. Although, maybe my car didn’t have one of those switches, or it was broken, because I’d bumped into quite a few things, and Benjamin had never refused to start again afterward.
Cheered by the thought that my car was basically invincible, I took the snow brush and cleared off the seats as well as the incredible amount of fur Rudolph had shed in the back.
Maybe I could ask Santa for a new car if I managed to resolve this growing reindeer problem. That was a bit more practical than my usual Christmas request, which was a boyfriend.
That was an embarrassing request. I should stop asking for that. Or at least cease mailing away my letters to Santa like I was still five-years-old.
I debated calling Char again, but knew there wasn’t much she could do from Mexico, especially since she’d already reached out to her one contact in the magical world.
Josie, however, knew a lot about the magical world, thanks to her love of romantasy novels. But her text message hadn’t offered up anything helpful other than pointing out the obvious around how bad this all was.
Which left me again with Haden as my answer to all things reindeer-related. Was it too soon to call his personal line? I shoved up the sleeve of my parka and checked my new smart-watch. It had only been about five or ten minutes since I’d called him. I should give his voicemail monitoring service a bit longer to reach him. Although, maybe the voicemails went directly into his inbox, and he had gotten over his compunction to fix me and my problems, and was ghosting my craziness. If I called a third time, it would only secure any belief that I was bonkers.
And honestly, I wasn’t sure where I stood with the man, now that his brother and I were finally kaput. He kept so much locked up behind his guarded dark blue eyes. I feared if I mis-stepped, it would become super awkward, like it was with his parents whenever we bumped into each other around town. Mrs. Powell didn’t know if she should hug me or simply say hi and keep going. We’d often ended up in an awkward sort of hug, mumbling niceties over each other.
It didn’t help that Kade and I had broken up very publicly, which I think had embarrassed both families.
Remind me to never break into tears while throwing bags of chips at someone.
But seriously. Kade had aired a whole laundry list of ways that I’d changed, and how I wasn’t the same, and now I was less fun and a total hermit. Where was my sense of adventure? Life was for the living! It had been a lecture and break-up speech, all in one. And this was after I’d moved my entire life back home to be with him.
So much for allowing a sense of nostalgia for the comfort of our old relationship, time spent within the folds of his family, and my familiar hometown to guide my life decisions.
Standing there in the grocery store with my heart breaking, and people I’d known all my life quickly turning their carts to avoid our aisle and my tears, I’d felt so powerless, so unwanted and undesired. So…unworthy and outright plain.
I inhaled sharply at the wash of memories from the past. I shook out my cold hands, wishing I could shed this emotion like the reindeer fur that was stuck to my mitts.
The snarky elf was muttering and clunking in the trunk, and I leaned closer, feeling guilty for leaving him in there.
“Are you warm enough?”
I turned an ear, listening. I was pretty sure he said something about frozen reindeer turds.
“Are you okay? The boys don’t want to let you out. They say you’ll tattle on them.”
More insults.
Right. Nice guy. I could see why he was so well liked.
I checked my watch again. When did the herd need to be back at the North Pole? It was already nearing eight, and Blitzen was going to need some time to sober up.
And what about the weather forecast? Tonight’s storm would end sometime early in the morning, but there was only a short reprieve before a second storm rolled in on the heels of this one around noon tomorrow. It was too early to know if the forecasters’ predictions were on target. But chances were, there would be no clear skies on Christmas Eve, and Santa would need Rudolph at the helm to help guide his sleigh filled with toys.
His sleigh.
