Page 73 of Run, Run Rudolph
As soon as Haden and I cleared ourselves from the sleigh, Blitzen began pulling.
“Hold up,” Haden called. “You’re hung up on the tree.” The wood sleigh was creaking and protesting, screaming as it was pulled against the thick trunk.
“I can do it. I am as strong as anyone!” Blitzen boasted.
“I know,” I said soothingly. “You totally are.”
“Just give us a second, okay?” Haden said. He directed me to stand beside him by the poplar up near the front of the sleigh.
“Push here,” he told me, breaking a branch off the tree so I had room at his side. I lined myself up in the freshly made space so we were shoulder to shoulder. I ignored the way my body hummed, reminding it to chill out. The man really didn’t need me focusing on our recently released lust for each other. He needed me to get this sleigh unstuck while admiring how strong and capable he was. Well, admiration was a bonus.
Together, we put our entire weight into pushing the sleigh’s front corner away from the tree, tipping it upward so Blitzen could slide it past the trunk.
Blitzen, all fired up, and still pulling with all of his might, surged forward as the sleigh tipped up and away, the resistance against the tree disappearing.
Haden and I, unprepared for the sleigh’s sudden movement, lost our balance and tumbled against its side as it crashed back against the trunk. Haden wrapped his arms around me, trying to keep us from going under the moving runners blazing through the snow at our feet.
“Stop!” Haden shouted, but Blitzen was on fire. He continued to thrust forward, the sleigh scraping against the tree, no doubt adding a long, deep gouge into the gorgeous red and gold side as he pulled it free.
Haden and I tumbled against the side of the sleigh like clothes in a dryer as it zipped by, barely staying on our feet. Then the sleigh was in the sky, with Blitzen calling out something I couldn’t hear, Santa’s sleigh bashing like a pinball against trees and branches.
No longer having anything supporting us upright, Haden and I tumbled into the snow, with me landing with a glorious thump on top of him.
Haden sat up much too quickly for my liking, practically tossing me into the surrounding fluffy snow as if I was an annoying weight—and not his future girlfriend, if he played his cards right.
I’d been prepared to enjoy being on top of him with the snow tumbling around us, the feeling of his chest rising and falling, and dreaming of what it would be like if my cold lips rested against his in a kiss again.
But no. He was squinting into the dark sky, hands cupped around his mouth, calling Blitzen. I stood, pulling the cold snow out from between the cuffs of my jacket and big mitts. The mittens were thick, full of insulation, my fingers cuddling like buddies and yet still half-frozen thanks to the late December cold.
“Where is that reindeer going?” Haden grumbled. He ran forward a few steps as though he believed he could catch the reindeer and pull him back to earth.
I winced as the night filled with the distant sounds of breaking branches. I supposed that a runaway reindeer who was crashing Santa’s sleigh was a tad more important than cuddling with me in the snow.
But only because we were so close to Christmas.
“We forgot to tell him not to fly, didn’t we?” Haden said, as I brought myself up beside him, both of us staring into the darkness.
The sleigh’s harness system wasn’t properly balanced to have only one reindeer pull it through the air. No doubt the sleigh was tipping precariously to the side, impossible to steer and dragging Blitzen downward and to the side. There was also the issue that he hadn’t eaten any flying oats before taking off, so he was likely running on magic fumes from his earlier flights.
Haden shone his spotlight into the sky, but the beam went nowhere. The falling snow ate up the light before it could go further than several feet.
The sound of breaking branches continued as Blitzen, and the sleigh failed to clear the obstacles. What had we done? Blitzen was going to get hurt, the sleigh completely trashed, and my yard was going to look like a tornado had gone through it.
The plan had been for Blitzen to pull the sleigh into the barn. On the ground. Through the snow. Not the air.
“Maybe he thinks he needs to take it to the North Pole?” I suggested as Haden asked, “Did he forget where the barn is?”
There was a harsh sound of wood crashing into wood.
“I think he found it,” I said, horrified by the screeching. I began jogging through the deep snow as best as I could in the direction of the noise.
Through the silence, I heard a chirpy little reindeer voice say, “You have arrived at your destination!” It was followed by a guffaw.
He was still totally loaded, wasn’t he?
Haden yanked my arm back mid-run. I stumbled, flailing in an attempt to regain my balance. I fell against Haden’s chest, and was promptly engulfed in his strong arms. When he placed me back on my feet, he seemed to hesitate before releasing me.
“Don’t go running off into the blizzard,” he growled. “Follow the trail.” He pointed his light toward our feet. Even though it was snowing madly, you could still make out the impression of a tamped down valley of snow due to our earlier trek from the barn.
