Page 28 of Run, Run Rudolph
“And here I thought I was going to have a very boring Christmas without you at the Powell family dinners.” The corner of his mouth tweaked upward.
I cleared my throat with force, ignoring the heat in my cheeks. This would definitely be awkward from here on out.
I pointed to the injured reindeer at our feet. “So, um, right. Sorry about that. But he’s hurt. A little bit in shock maybe?” It was likely best to leave out the fact that he was intoxicated. “Is his leg broken?”
Haden kept darting looks at me, his lips dancing as he fought a smile. He gave a small cough, frowned way too deeply to be genuine, and rested a knuckle across his top lip, allowing his hand to cover his amusement.
This was so embarrassing. He was struggling not to laugh at me for kissing him.
But he’d kissed me back. And he hadn’t gone screaming from the barn at any point during the Rudolph reveal, or my mauling.
I wasn’t sure where that left us though.
But I think I might be feeling a significant level of gratitude.
“What do we do?” I insisted, more than ready to have his attention off of me.
He was still looking at me with those shuttered eyes that revealed nothing, but saw it all.
“If we could just…” I waved a hand around, gesturing to the area of the stall where we’d kissed “…pretend that never happened?”
Haden remained silent, his brows furrowing. Hands on his hips, he took in Rudolph’s nose. He blinked long and hard a few times, as though willing his vision to stop messing with him.
“Haden?” I whispered, afraid he was drifting toward freaking out again.
“Right,” he said gruffly. “This is a big problem. Christmas and all.” He inhaled a little breath while turning to face me, one finger casually aimed at the caribou’s nose, his face paling again. “Can you…? Is that…?”
I nodded, biting my bottom lip.
Hands returning to his hips, Haden stepped back, then forward, as though undecided. Finally, he crouched in front of the deer, staring at Rudolph’s nose. “Well.”
He was quiet for a long, long time.
“Haden? What do we do?”
He nodded once, slowly. Then he moved down to Rudolph’s rear leg. He gently ran his hands up the length of it before giving it a careful, gentle twist. Rudolph didn’t react. He placed a palm on the bottom of Rudolph’s hoof and pushed upward, causing his knee to bend. Rudolph’s eyes rolled back toward the vet, and he straightened his leg to shove Haden’s hand away. That earned a tiny hint of a smile from Haden.
“I’m guessing no breakage.” He gently patted Rudolph’s flank. “He didn’t react when I put a little torsion on the bad leg. He would have if it was broken, I should think. It’s likely a deep bruise. I’d like to roll him over, and give his other side a good check, too, though.”
Rudolph carefully rolled upright with a groan, tucking his front hooves under his wide chest, then his hind legs crookedly under his body so he could shift onto his opposite side with a huff and a snort of effort.
Haden glanced at me, swallowing hard, the colour in his cheeks draining. I shook my head at Rudolph. Real subtle, dude. Show the freaked-out human you understand English.
Then again, it did make things easier. And Santa’s reindeer should know English, right? Well, unless they truly did live in Lapland—northern Finland—like some legends suggested. In that case, they’d speak Finnish. But then Santa would be a goat, because Joulupukki was the traditional Finnish Christmas figure.
I shook off my thoughts, noticing that Haden seemed to be focused on his own thoughts as he knelt on the other side of me, his brow furrowed in the most adorable way. His expression was so serious it made my heart hiccup.
As I crept closer, curious as to what he was discovering, I noticed his attention slip, and he gave me a sideways look. Right. Back off. Don’t be a bother like I was as a teenager. Let him do the veterinarian stuff alone.
And definitely don’t attack him again like he’s an object, and not a human being with thoughts, feelings and desires.
I was such an embarrassment. I mean, what had I been thinking? He didn’t do relationships—not that I wanted one with him. The town would flip their lid if we started something. I could only imagine what they’d think if I jumped from one brother to the next. His parents would probably act even more awkward around me, and Kade would go crazy, listing all the reasons Haden was the wrong kind of man for me. It didn’t help that Kade was always in competition with his older brother—and always losing.
Why had I kissed Haden?
And why did he find it so stupidly amusing?
Because he wasn’t interested, and my actions had always been cute…until they’d become annoying. Little Tamara, crushing on him. Again.
