Page 19 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

~ Tamara ~

E stelle gave me such a headache. This mess with Rudolph was all accidental, and surely everyone in the magical world could see that. I was not going to make a wish, and go into debt over one little oopsie involving a drunken reindeer who wasn’t minding where he was bounding.

Then again, the magical world did seem to be a bit ruthless. They’d only given Char three months to pay off her hundred-thousand-dollar debt—a debt that she hadn’t even known she was incurring, thanks to an error on their end.

But her experience was just another reason for me to not give in to Estelle. There were too many unknowns.

And I had plans for my money. Namely, rent.

I was in over my head with the little farm I’d rented, and my generous offer to feed Dolly.

Educational assistants made less than dental office receptionists, and the hours were a lot shorter, too.

I also hadn’t done the math right when estimating how much it would cost to heat my new house.

Natural gas wasn’t too badly priced, but all the fees tacked onto the bill made the amount due skyrocket to several times the actual cost of the used gas.

As a result, I’d been chopping wood like a madwoman to use in the fireplace.

I let myself back into the clinic and found Haden already x-raying Rudolph.

The reindeer seemed much perkier now. Had he been in shock?

Or was the tequila wearing off? Maybe that whole time-bending thing they did on Christmas Eve in order to make all of their deliveries also impacted how long they could stay drunk or hurt.

For the sake of Christmas, I hoped that was the case.

Especially since Estelle’s warning had spooked me.

I didn’t want to get in trouble, but I also didn’t want to go into fairy godmother debt.

I just wanted Rudolph fixed and home in time for Christmas.

Haden was moving about efficiently, my earlier absence no hinderance to him getting things done. He had shed his coat, and his shoulders filled out his flannel shirt in the most sexy lumberjack sort of way. I found myself hoping I had to kiss him as a distraction again.

Which was silly. We were never going to be a thing.

“I’ll bring up the x-ray. Give me a sec.” Haden excused himself, heading toward a computer. While one hand navigated a mouse, his other hand had his phone clasped against his ear. I hadn’t even heard it ring. Was it one of his many members of the Haden Appreciation Group?

“Yeah, no. Maybe,” he hedged quietly. “Can you call her and see if it’s a real emergency? I’ll send you the number.”

For sure a HAG, likely angling for a house call. Well, he was mine tonight, missy. I had a magical Christmas emergency.

Haden ended the call, waving me over to the computer, his focus on his phone’s screen where he was tapping and scrolling.

Seconds later, his phone was back in his pocket, and we were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, studying x-rays, his attention solidly fixed on me and my animal emergency.

Did it make me a petty and small person for loving that my emergency trumped anyone else’s?

“Is he okay?” I asked, squinting at the image in front of us.

I was impatient for the results. Because what if I’d given poor Rudolph more than a bruise and a scrape? Then I’d really be ruining Christmas, and would need to go back on my word and make a wish to my fairy godmother.

“Looks like Rudolph doesn’t have a broken leg.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” I said on a gusty exhale.

Haden turned to me with a smirky grin. “Maybe you didn’t ruin Christmas after all, Trademark.”

I crossed my arms across my ‘Oh what fun it is to ride’ Christmas sweatshirt, giving him a glare I didn’t completely feel since my heart was soaring with the good news. “Ha. Ha.”

What a relief. There was no need to make a wish. Rudolph would be okay. He just had to walk it off, or sleep it off, and then he and his pals could get back to the North Pole, and we could all live happily ever after. No fairy godmother debt for me. Yes!

I watched as Haden fussed over Rudolph, seeming so childlike in his happiness, and so unlike the serious older brother I knew him to be. Dare I say it, but he was even more sweet and handsome with that smile than the young man I’d crushed on as a child?

As I took him in with fresh eyes, I realized he was still that truly kind soul I’d seen when he’d dried my tears and tied my shoes on my first day of grade one.

He was a good man, and a natural at helping people and animals.

He had a way about him, and had always been here for me, despite our differences.

I’d known he’d come help me tonight. He was dependable, whether it was wiping my six-year-old tears, trying to make a scratched truck look less damaged, or even just driving into the city to haul me and my stuff back to Eagle Ridge.

Why was he always here for me? Was it a sense of brotherly duty that extended to me, the woman everyone assumed would one day join the Powell family?

“So, you can see his nose, eh?” I stated, standing beside him. Rudolph let out a snort of impatience from the gurney when he discovered he’d consumed all of the oats Haden had given him.

Haden shot me a private glance that made me feel wrapped in his arms. It was quick, warm, and accepting, and very familiar.

“It’s pretty cool,” he murmured.

“Yeah.” We watched Rudolph for a beat, his nose glowing bright, then fading like a slow heartbeat. “And you were able to see the…the others?” I asked hesitantly, wincing in case he hadn’t, and things got weird.

“The ones in the alley?” He raised his eyebrows, and I nodded.

“They trust you.” There was a hint of wonderment in my voice, but it wasn’t earned. Of course they trusted Haden. I’d have been surprised if they hadn’t.

We shared a smile before quickly looking away, our focus back on something safer than each other. A swell of gratitude washed over me and, unable to resist, I clutched his arm, giving it a quick hug, just barely refraining from throwing myself completely around him.

A flash of uncertainty crossed Haden’s face. “Were they in the barn, too?”

I nodded. I could see pieces clicking together, and I hoped he didn’t ask about my trunk noises again.

“And they can talk?”

“Um.” I glanced at Rudolph, wondering what had happened while I was in the alley that had made Rudolph decide to reveal his English language skills. “Yes.”

“And the…elf? Was that an elf?”

I cleared my throat, unable to meet his eye. “Uh, what elf?”

“The one in your trunk ?”

I sighed long and loud, ready for the older brother lecture that was surely coming. “Yes.”

“In your trunk?” he repeated firmly.

“Long story.”

“Must be.” He gave me a look, one eyebrow raised, clearly holding back a chuckle. “That’s the most unTamara-like thing I think I’ve ever witnessed.”

“Hey!”

“Nope. You threw bags of chips at my brother. That was very?—”

Unable to help myself, I smacked Haden’s arm. “He had it coming. Both of these guys did.”

“Remind me not to tick you off.” His eyes caught mine, and I saw a flicker of old hurt. I instinctively knew it was over the way we’d gone from being pals to obligated acquaintances with the flip of a coin when I was seventeen. Tentative friendship over.

I looked down, ashamed at the way I’d behaved around him, taking his knowledge for granted, and for how he’d felt as though he couldn’t address it with me. “I’m sorry.”

His voice was soft, deep. “For what?”

“For being a pest.”

“You’re not a pest, T.M..”

T.M.? That was a new one. Short for Trademark, no doubt.

“I was annoying. Admit it.”

“When?” He pulled an apple from his shirt pocket along with a small, folding utility knife from his jeans. He began slicing the fruit, feeding Rudolph. The reindeer’s eyes were big and round, his fuzzy nose wiggling as he sniffed each offered slice before wolfing it down.

“I was always asking you all those questions about horses and stuff. I was so…” I reined in my flash of embarrassed anger.

“You were very kind and patient with me.” One of those sweet men that had all the patience in the world for a slightly infatuated, awed young woman.

Sweet and gentle, and always respectful.

Never making me feel as though I was the pest that I now understood that I’d been.

“Is that why you stopped asking for help? You thought you were a pest?”

“I was. Kade told me.”

“He was wrong.”

“He said I was annoying you and that you were too polite to tell me.”

“I didn’t mind. Not at all.”

His warm knuckles grazed mine, and it felt intentional.

“Your hands are cold.” He gathered my hands, lifting them so he could cup them in his. “We should have switched vehicles. You’re frozen.”

“Rudolph probably wouldn’t have liked it.” My jaw chattered, as though suddenly aware of how cold I was. “And are you sure I wasn’t a bother? I asked a lot of questions.” I stared at Haden, looking for a sign that he was cushioning me from the painful truth. “Kade said…”

“I know my own mind.” His eyes met mine over our bundled hands. He blew hot air into the cup of our hands, warming me.

I wanted to focus on what he was doing, what his gesture meant, but all I could think about was why Kade would have told me that if it hadn’t been true?

One of these brothers was lying. And I didn’t think it was Haden, which meant I now had to reconcile my feelings about him.

It was a good thing he was the kind of guy who led women on or I’d be feeling some warm and fuzzies over him right now.

Especially with my hands wrapped in his, as if I was delicate and his to care for.

There was scuffling outside the back door and reindeer voices carried to us. It sounded as though Dasher was eager to get going, but Comet, who I’d begun to think of as the herd dad, was telling him to cool his jets.

“They don’t seem to do subtle very well,” Haden said wryly, his lips curving up in a smile.

“Well, they are all drunk.”

He snorted a laugh, delighted. “Really? I’m glad that booze scent isn’t coming off of you.” He mocked someone drinking from a bottle and then driving crazily.

“Haden! I’d never!”

He laughed, leaning away as I gave his arm another affectionate squeeze, grateful I could share this crazy evening with him.

“I’m glad you’re not freaking out,” I said. “And I really appreciate you x-raying Rudolph.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said easily, “this will all go on your bill.”

I must have blanched, because he added, “I’m was kidding. You’re family. No charge for this one.” He gently tapped my arm in what I could only interpret as a buddy-buddy or sibling sort of way. Was it so wrong that I didn’t want to be seen as family? That I longed for something different?

And how wrong was that? A man like Haden would never put his brother in an awkward position by dating his ex.

I cleared my throat, trying to act jovial and not gutted by the fact that he seemed to see me as a sister. “Can I extend the family discount to all of my vet bills?”

He smiled, not answering, then reached out to give Rudolph a scratch behind the ears, the apple gone, his pocket knife blade wiped clean on his jeans and tucked back away. “You’re in luck, buddy. No broken bones. How are you feeling?”

“Sore,” grumbled Rudolph.

Haden jolted, clearly still taken off guard by the fact that his patient not only understood him, but also talked.

“This is going to take some getting used to,” Haden said softly. He addressed Rudolph. “I could give you something for the pain. Any known allergies?”

“No.”

Haden’s cheeks had gone pink, but he nodded.

“Will he be able to fly?” I asked. “With his leg?”

“Not sure.” The vet turned back to Rudolph. “You’ve got some pretty bad bruising. Icing it might help.” He eyed Rudolph’s hips and legs. “I don’t think I have that much on hand, though.”

“Well, there’s a lot of snow outside,” I said dryly.

“Sorry,” Haden said, shaking his head. “I’m used to dealing with princess pets.”

I cleared my throat and looked the other way, feeling like he could be talking to me. Yeah, I was definitely blocking him from seeing Boot’s Christmas post. I had a photo of him in a Santa hat, sitting in a cardboard box I’d shaped as a sleigh.

What could I say? I had a lot of free time on my hands in the evenings.

“We can use snow to bring down the swelling on your back flank,” Haden continued. “And I’m also going to bandage the spot where you went through Benjamin’s bumper.”

Haden shot me a stern look of reprimand as he called my car by name. Yeah, yeah. My driving was notorious. But my heart warmed from the way he referred to my car by his given name. Most people teased me for naming the Sebring.

This man always seemed to understand me on every level. Add in the fact that I hadn’t truly annoyed him with my endless animal questions and my once-wounded heart soared. Haden was the best, and if he wasn’t careful, he was going to have to add one more member to his fan club tonight.