Page 10 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

~ Haden ~

M y phone buzzed and, out of habit, my eyes shifted from the dark snowy road to the screen on my truck’s dashboard.

There was a new voicemail on the clinic’s after-hours emergency line.

I rubbed my twitching left eye, wondering when my day would end.

It had started long before winter’s dawn, and I was ready to go home, eat supper, and kick up my feet.

Then, maybe wrap up the Christmas gifts for my parents and brother.

After tapping a few buttons, the voicemail played over the truck’s speakers. I frowned. Tamara Madden.

My brother’s ex-girlfriend. The most curious, animal-loving woman I knew. Her curiosity had fuelled my own, leading me to veterinarian medicine.

She sounded stressed. Why hadn’t Tamara called me directly?

Right. Despite once being friends, she no longer wanted to be around me.

My brother Kade had made it clear she believed I led women on, and that I wasn’t nearly as charming as the rest of the world seemed to think I was.

She was likely hoping someone else was covering my after-hours emergencies tonight so she could avoid me.

I frowned as the message ended, a spear of alarm awakening my nervous system.

Why did she have a deer in her barn? Didn’t she understand she wasn’t Snow White, and could get seriously hurt trapping an injured wild animal indoors?

Yes, she was good with animals, but that would be dangerous for anyone.

The next voicemail played—having come in while I’d listened to the first one. It was another from Tamara, and my senses shifted into high alert as she begged me to call her before anyone else. Me.

She needed me tonight.

What on earth was going on over at Carl’s old farmstead?

I slowed the truck, turning it around on the dark, snowy road. Then I pushed the accelerator down as far as I dared.