Page 34 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

“Yeah,” I muttered, feeling as though I had to be strong since he’d called dibs on falling apart. That had been my plan. Because everything did feel rather doomed at the moment.

I sucked in a breath and bent over to pat his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, Hugo.”

I nodded, reaffirming to myself that I was with Mr. Fix-Everything—Haden—and that the herd had gone to get the one woman who could magic us out of this mess.

It was all going to work out. I wouldn’t even have to make a costly wish to my fairy godmother.

There was no need for me to sit down and howl in the snow alongside Hugo.

Look at that. Bright side.

“Let’s get Blitzen hooked up to this thing and see if he can pull it to the barn,” Haden suggested. He let out an ear-piercing whistle, which I guessed was intended as a call for the drunk reindeer, Blitzen.

“Have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate your take-charge personality?” I asked Haden.

“I don’t think you have.” His voice dropped low, confiding like he was sharing something private. I realized he was flirting, and I caught a hint of his smile in the shadowy light from his lantern.

“Definite oversight on my part,” I whispered, crunching a bit closer to him in the cold snow.

He chuckled, holding my arm through the thick layers of my coat.

“Think he’ll come?” I asked, referring to Blitzen. The wind wasn’t blowing at the moment, but he was in the barn. How good was a reindeer’s hearing? Make that a drunk reindeer.

“If not, I’ll go get him. Let’s sort the reins.”

We began untangling the muddle of leather reins and harnesses from when I’d unhitched the herd after the crash. I hadn’t focused on keeping them organized, desperate to free the reindeer, and now the leather straps were frozen into messy clumps.

The elf, startled by Haden’s whistle, had stopped crying and was hiccupping from his spot in the snow, watching us work.

Progress.

I moved around the fully grown poplar tree, tucking a handful of reins into the sleigh’s cab.

“Man, this thing is really wedged against the tree.” With Haden’s floodlight, I could see more than I had earlier with my own light.

The sleigh must have come to a very abrupt halt when it hit this tree.

Poor Santa. No wonder his brain was so scrambled.

“Hello,” Blitzen said merrily, appearing rather stately out of the darkness. I always forgot how much beefier and shorter reindeer were than I expected until I was standing close to them. “Was that whistle meant for me?”

“Well done,” I whispered to Haden, very impressed.

“Can you help us take the sleigh into the barn?” Haden asked, a flurry of flakes landing in his dark hair. His nose was bright red from the cold, and I tucked my chin deeper into my scarf.

“You know who could?” Blitzen said. “Dasher.” He looked over his shoulder as though ready to goad on his competitive herd mate into doing his work for him. Then, as if realizing he’d been left behind by his pals, he sighed and moved closer. “Where do you want me?”

Haden and I worked on hooking the sleigh up to Blitzen, who wouldn’t stop moving.

At least he could stand up straight now, giving me confidence that we wouldn’t run into more trouble as he pulled the sleigh over the snow for us.

The only issue was that the storm was picking up again, and our visibility was rapidly being eaten away.

I hoped he had a good sense of direction.

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.

“Right. Thanks,” I said, breathless with shame. I knew better than to run blindly into the dark in weather such as this. Within a few hurried steps I’d already veered into the cocoon of falling snow that surrounded us, completely missing the trail.

Haden shone the light to the left as he gathered me in like a lost duckling, and I spotted the elf huddled in the snow. I bent down, reaching for his hand. “Come on. Sounds as though we have another problem to fix.”

Blitzen was stuck on the roof.

As we craned our necks to stare up at the faint outline of the reindeer, I could feel a headache coming on.

I was trying to deal with the growing heap of problems in a methodical and cool-headed manner like Haden, but this newest mess took the whole freaking cake.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to go into my house and slam the door, take off all my winter gear, curl up under a thick warm blanket with a bottle of wine and pretend tonight had never happened.

That was what I wanted. And I wanted it right now.

Well, except I wanted Haden to come with me.

“I can’t deal with this,” I muttered to Haden, trying to blink back the wetness of futility forming in my eyes. It had to be near midnight and I was spent.