Page 78 of Run, Run Rudolph
“There’s only one person in town that sells this stuff, and it’s after midnight. That means we have to call in a favour.”
Well, come to think of it, I didn’t have Jannifer’s number, even if I’d wanted to have a chat with the woman Kade had originally left me for. And since I doubted Haden had her number, since she was a pet-free weirdo, I amended my earlier statement. “Probably two favours.”
I knew someone who had Jannifer’s number, and that someone was related to Haden. A someone I’d already kicked off my property once tonight.
Kade. The last person I wanted to talk to just hours after doing some steamy kissing with his older brother.
I was pretty sure that all added up to me getting a free pass when it came to this situation.
The elf was looking between Haden and me as though following a tennis ball at a Wimbledon match. “What? What?” he squeaked impatiently.
Haden’s face lit up with what I could only describe as a slightly evil smile. “You’re upset because we need Jannifer Eric.”
Yeah, maybe I didn’t like Haden so much after all.
Chapter 22
~ Haden ~
“I’d rather break in,” Tamara told me as we waited outside Jannifer’s herbal shop in downtown Eagle Ridge. We were in my idling truck, the heat blasting. She’d offered to drive, but the thrill of riding to town in the snowdrift she called her convertible wasn’t my thing. Plus, she had a bit of a reputation for bumping into things. To be fair, after hearing about all the reindeer on the road story, I wasn’t sure I would have fared any better than she had. In fact, since I tended to consider the speed limit a gentle suggestion, it likely would have been way worse.
When we got back to her farm later, I needed to remember to get all the snow out of the cab of her car in case a chinook melted it into her seats. Being this close to the Rockies, warm air came over the mountain ranges from the Pacific Ocean, and we got “snow eater” weather, as the Blackfoot called it. The temperature could go from minus twenty Celsius to twenty above in less than twenty-four hours. That much melted snow in such a short time would certainly wreak havoc on her heated seats’ electrical system.
I also wanted to snag the mistletoe she kept hanging from her rearview mirror and put it to good use.
“We’re not breaking in,” I replied absently, swiping to delete all the useless notifications on my phone’s lock screen, one after another. Fake emergencies. Invites to Christmas dinner. Stupid questions that could be answered by a tiny bit of common sense or a quick online search. Questions that had no real answer that were used to hook me into a lengthy conversation.
I didn’t get a thrill out of ghosting my clients or sending them canned responses, but there were only so many hours in a day, and if you nibbled on the line of questions, soon you were fighting off an avalanche. It was something I hadn’t learned nearly early enough in my career.
“I guess she’d know it was us if we broke down her door.” Tamara turned up the radio where Celine Dion was singing Happy Xmas (War is Over) and pulled out her own phone, making me feel like I was being rude for checking my own.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just scanning for any emergencies.” There seemed to be more than usual tonight.
“You get a lot of messages,” she noted, interrupting her own humming along to the song. On her side of the truck, the streetlight was decorated with holly and coloured Christmas lights, giving her a rainbow-like glow. It reminded me of the decorations the reindeer had been sporting earlier in the evening.
“Guess so.”
She scrolled through her messages and smiled.
“What?” Did she have someone sending her sweet nothings? Sending her memes that tickled her funny bone? I didn’t like the thought of that.
“My friends—my old roommates…” she said.
“Right. I met them when I helped you move.”
“They never change. They’re the best.”
I shifted, looking at her, putting my phone away. It was past midnight, an ungodly time to be replying to business messages. “How so?”
She shrugged. “Samantha is freaking out about her boyfriend getting more serious than she is. Gabby has a major crush on her live-in friend and brings him up every chance she gets. Josie is AWOL, like a healthy human being taking a tech break. And Char’s in the midst of an adventure.”
Tamara put her phone back in her parka pocket, chewing lightly on her bottom lip, and trying to hide a smile, as if the gals had all been dishing juicy gossip. I couldn’t help but wonder if some of it had been about me.
Tamara was staring at Jannifer’s store, a slight scowl forming. “Do you think this will even work? How are vitamins supposed to fix Rudolph’s sore hip?”
“I have no clue.”
“And seriously,” Tamara said with a disgusted shake of her head, pointing to the large store window. “That display does not say Christmas to me.”
