Page 39 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

He shot me a scrunched-face look of confusion, and I didn’t dare glance at Haden.

I was close enough I could smell his wonderful earthy cologne, that hint of pine and manhood that was so him, and feared one look and he would distract me from my mission.

I could practically see him shaking his head at me for meddling where I shouldn’t.

Some wingman he was.

But we had a timeline to adhere to. Jannifer liked Kade, Kade was single. Two birds. One stone. We had to get to it and get out of here.

“Are you free tomorrow?” I asked Jannifer.

“Why? Do you want to throw a bag of chips at me?” She tipped her head to the side. “Because, if so, I’m busy.”

I gulped air, trying to find words that wouldn’t express my sudden rage. Beside me, Kade let out a burst of laughter. He didn’t even try to squelch it, out of politeness.

“I think you two should meet up for coffee,” I said between gritted teeth. I turned to Kade. “Does that work for you?” He was struggling to breathe through his laughter. “Great. Pick her up at, say, three?”

Nowhere in town would be open for them to go have coffee on Christmas Eve. Everything would be closed for days. But that really wasn’t my problem.

Jannifer was staring at me.

“What? It’s the least he can do after dragging you out of bed.” I tried to take the basket from Jannifer, but she tugged it tight to her body. However, she was now eyeing me in a way that suggested that maybe she wouldn’t be slicing my tires anytime soon.

What a win.

“I’ll throw in a bottle of Vitamin C, because this time of year, with all of these family gatherings, there are so many germs. Keeps your immunity up.

” She went to the shelf, and knocked a couple more plastic bottles into the basket, then re-consulted the list before moving to the cash register.

She fired it up and put all of the bottles on the counter in a tidy row.

“Um. Thanks.” I smoothed the tape over one of the posters tacked to the front of her checkout counter.

“You’re different, you know.” She was peering at me like I might be a doppelg?nger, and not the real Tamara Madden she’d grown up with.

I inhaled deeply, summoning patience. If one more person told me I’d changed…

“In a good way. You’re more you.”

“I agree,” Haden said, his fresh outdoorsy scent enveloping me as he joined us at the counter.

He had a soft smile, one that made me feel squishy inside, and I wasn’t sure where to look, how to act.

He liked the way I’d changed? It felt like my face was turning red, and my arms were suddenly too long for my body.

It was going to take me a few days to get used to the way we were revealing our true feelings to each other.

I had years of habits to undo, such as making sure I didn’t look at him too long, or didn’t allow myself to notice just how amazing his shoulders were or how kissable his lips were.

Or acknowledging how sweet and kind and patient he was, and how lucky his animal patients were.

Or indulging in those fantasies where we somehow ended up in the woods together, and I was injured and he had to use his veterinarian medical skills to take care of me…

Oh, wow. Who was I kidding? I’d been crushing on this man for eons, and had used a very heavy dose of denial to make myself believe otherwise.

“You hanging out with your Oma tomorrow?” Kade asked me, leaning against the counter and knocking over a stand of pamphlets.

Ugh. Seriously, I’d just set him up with Jannifer. How many bags of chips did a woman have to throw at this guy before he understood she was done? Chat up Jannifer! Not me.

Haden angled himself between Kade and me, waving his credit card in Jannifer’s direction. “Sorry, still have lots to do tonight.”

“Yes, lots,” I agreed. “Is that everything?” I asked Jannifer, hoping to speed up our exit before the truth came out about what we were up to. I could just imagine. These two would have us shipped off for a full psychiatric workup.

But what were we going to do when there was no Christmas surprise for Kade? Maybe we could tell him it all went wrong, and we’d had to throw it out?

“Everything on the list?” I confirmed when Jannifer continued to ignore me, running her handheld scanner over the barcodes on each bottle.

“All of it?” I repeated.

She shot me a dark look, not appearing nearly as pretty as she had earlier.

“Great, okay,” I chirped. “Thanks.”

Dang, but she was well-stocked for reindeer emergencies. I had to admire that.

“Need a bag?” she asked coolly. “They’re fifteen cents each.”

I opened my mouth to argue. I could see our grand tally stretching into the hundreds of dollars, and she couldn’t even throw in a cheap paper bag that had probably cost her a fraction of a cent?

Where had my friendly, I’m throwing-in-Vitamin-C Jannifer gone? Because if she forgot, and charged me for those extra vitamins as well as a bag, this woman and I were going to have words.

Haden, his wallet already open, smoothly crowded me out of the way, no doubt noting the way Jannifer and I were digging in, as we had so many times over the years when I’d been dating Kade.

We’d never come to blows, but we’d come close.

And drinks had maybe ‘accidentally’ been spilled on each other a time or two.

Or three. Okay, four. But it was mostly her doing the spilling, and me having to go out and buy new shirts.

“However many bags you think we need, Jannifer,” he said evenly.

“I should pay.” I patted my parka pockets, horrified to realize I hadn’t even thought to grab my wallet before jumping into Haden’s truck.

“I got it.”

“But it’s?—”

Jannifer snatched Haden’s credit card and shoved it into her machine instead of letting him do it himself. “So your emergency is a surprise, or is your surprise an emergency?” She caught my uncomfortable expression and smirked. “Run someone over with your car?”

Kade coughed, holding up a hand to barely cover his smile.

“Yeah,” I said lightly, giving Kade a glare, daring him to pick on me and my driving. “Something like that. And I’m still in the mood to hit something else.”

Half an hour later, with Haden still chuckling over my parting remark to his brother, we had the bottles of vitamins, herbs, botanicals, and supplements (or whatever they all were) safely in Snarky’s tiny hands.

While the elf worked, Haden and I sat at my kitchen table near the window overlooking the darkened backyard, eating my Christmas baking and sipping freshly brewed coffee.

I’d tried to locate the abandoned thermos and cups from earlier, when I’d dropped them in the snow during the sleigh crash, but couldn’t find them.

It was a bit past one in the morning, and there still weren’t any signs of Mrs. Claus and the reindeer, which I found concerning.

Santa, however, was at least becoming a bit more coherent, and conversations with him were leading to fewer repeating loops. A part of me was holding out hope that everything would somehow resolve itself before dawn, and without needing Mrs. Claus and the rest of the reindeer crew to intervene.

I winced as Hugo, standing on a chair to make himself tall enough for my kitchen counter, tore apart more capsules, sending powder flying everywhere.

To say he was a neat and tidy chemist would be a lie.

I was going to have quite the mess to clean up later.

But if it got Rudolph back on his feet, it would be well worth it.

“Oh, I wasn’t thinking,” I said to Haden, shutting my eyes at my error. “You switch to tea in the afternoons. I should make you a cup of tea instead.”

I went to stand, but he said, “Actually, I think this is a job for coffee.” He took a sip of his brew as though proving my lack of thoughtfulness was just fine. “I’ve always wondered if you like tea. You make this funny face whenever you drink it.”

“I don’t really care for it.”

“But you drink it?”

“To be polite.”

“Hm.”

Yeah, another instance where I was that polite pushover again, eager to please and trying to preserve other people’s feelings at the expense of my own desires. Drinking something I thought was gross. Why did I do that? And why was it such a hard habit to break?

Then again, I’d made what I wanted tonight—coffee—and not what Haden preferred. So maybe I was breaking habits? Or maybe, I was simply too tired to properly access my memory banks.

“Tell me the truth,” Haden asked with a slightly wicked grin. “What do you really and truly think of tea?”

I huffed a laugh over the rim of my cup.

“Come on. Don’t be chicken. Lay it all out there.”

Feeling strangely nervous, I blurted out, “It’s like licking someone’s garden.”

He laughed, light, warm, and free.

“This is where you tell me I just haven’t tried the right kind of tea,” I said helpfully.

“Never.” He reached out, tapping my hand, then resting his over mine. Warm and wonderful. “Just be you, TM.”

“Okay,” I said softly, feeling more than a little tickled at the way he always wanted the unvarnished truth from me. It was liberating, and scary as heck.

Hugo exclaimed, “Thundering reindeer hoof beats! Where’s that— there it is.”

Haden and I shared amused looks over the rims of our coffee cups.

“I was thinking…” Haden said carefully and slowly, like he was broaching a topic that was sensitive, yet possibly exciting.

My heart lifted. Was he going to talk about us, tell me what he wanted from a relationship? Would it be the same thing I wanted?

“I have an idea if we can’t get Rudolph back on his feet,” Haden said in a low tone, so Hugo wouldn’t be able to overhear.

“Oh. Right.” I nodded seriously, feeling sheepish that Haden was creating contingency plans while I was daydreaming about him as my boyfriend, worrying over the elf’s mess, and fantasizing about slipping off my bra and curling up under a thick blanket.

Such bliss. I could almost feel the relief just thinking about it.

Maybe I was more tired than I’d thought.