Page 58 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

~ Tamara ~

I t was Christmas Eve—or maybe it was already Christmas Day—and Haden and I were curled up on the couch at my place.

We’d been sitting, talking, and kissing long into the night.

At some point we’d fallen asleep by the Christmas tree and fireplace, wrapped in each other’s arms. I woke up, hearing something beyond the dying crackle of the fire.

I leaned forward, peering toward the window to see what it was.

I squeaked and fell back as a red nose lit up the dark night.

I was on my feet in a second, sending Boots scrambling in a flurry of claws, trying to gain purchase on the hardwood floor.

The blanket that had been over me and Haden dropped to the floor, nearly covering my gopher Felipe, who’d fallen in love with Haden, and had been sleeping near our feet.

“What is it?” Haden asked, his voice groggy, his tone indicating he was already on high alert. Felipe did a high-pitched warning call before scampering for safety behind my TV stand.

Haden was already standing, one arm swooping around my waist, as if he planned to swing me out of danger’s way should anything come at me.

How I adored this man.

“Rudolph,” he whispered in awe.

I sprung from Haden’s embrace and jogged in the direction of the front door, eager to see my reindeer friend.

Behind me, I heard the window open despite the storm buffeting against the house.

The second storm had arrived while Haden and I had crashed out on my couch after a very thorough make-out session in his clinic.

We’d only been apart for family dinners, making our quick excuses to vamoose.

Next year, we planned to split our time between our families, but this year, we hadn’t quite been ready yet to reveal our new relationship. We had a how-we-got-together story to set straight first.

“Hey, pal,” Haden crooned, and I slid back to Haden’s side in my stocking feet.

Rudolph was at the window, sticking his blinking nose inside. Behind him, his pals all said their hellos, their bells jingling.

“Rudolph!”

The herd was hooked up to a sleigh, but in the dark I couldn’t tell which one it was. I was guessing it was Number Two, the newer, bigger one, seeing as the backup sleigh had been burned in my yard. Although, had it? I wasn’t sure what was permanent about yesterday.

“How are you? How is everyone? Are you okay?” I tried to peer around Rudolph, but I was more concerned about him than his friends.

Wait. Hadn’t I been banned from seeing and interacting with the magical world? Theoretically, the wall between worlds should be super strong again. Had Mrs. Claus not performed all of her Christmas duties? Or were the boys breaking rules again?

“I’m fine,” Rudolph said.

“How’s Santa? Is the sleigh fixed? Is Mrs. C. mad at everyone? And me, too? Everyone was gone by the time Estelle got me out of court.”

“Hugo lost the bet,” Donner said. “He thought you’d be a total goner. Not many people make it off the naughty list.”

“Well, I did get banished, and they erased Haden’s memories. Sort of.”

The reindeers’ eyes all turned to him.

“I remember most of it now,” he said, rubbing his forehead while tightening an arm around my waist. “Although it feels a bit dreamlike.”

“We don’t have much time,” Rudolph said. “But we wanted to say thank you for your help last night. Both of you.”

“You’re welcome. And I’m sorry about hitting you with the car.”

“It never happened.”

“Oh, right.” I rubbed my forehead, trying to wrap my head around what had truly happened versus what was simply a memory. “But you remember last night?”

“We all do. Mrs. Claus let us retain our memories, even though Estelle backtracked time for you.”

“Really? Why did she do that?”

“She wanted us to remember our lesson about sneaking out,” Prancer said.

“It wasn’t sneaking out!” Blitzen complained. “There’s no rule!”

“And for us to remember that she saved us all,” Prancer said primly.

“She does a lot for you and the holiday, you know,” I said. “You should try thanking her sometimes.” The poor woman was surrounding by a sea of testosterone up at the North Pole. No wonder she’d been tempted by her dark side.

“She forgave Santa,” Vixen said in her sweet voice. “I don’t know what you did, but she’s like her old self again. And they’re both very happy. They solved all of the Christmas problems together, and plan to take a small trip to the black magic world next spring.”

“I’m glad they seem to be doing okay again.”

Beside me, Haden gave me an affectionate squeeze.

“So Christmas is truly all right?” Haden confirmed.

“It is.”

“Mrs. Claus was angry that you wished yourself away before receiving judgement,” Vixen said.

“She would have incinerated me!”

“Maybe, but once she calmed down, she set to work on fixing Christmas.”

“Is she still feuding with Estelle?”

“I don’t think they’ll ever be friends.”

“Fair enough. I’m glad everyone’s okay, and that you stopped to say hi. I hope you won’t get in trouble for this—because of my banishment.”

“Mrs. Claus opened a small portal for us,” Rudolph said.

“She did?”

“She says thanks.”

“Thanks?” That was an ending to our little dispute that I hadn’t predicted.

“And she said to stay out of our world because you’re still banished,” Prancer added. “You forgot to tell her that bit.”

“Whatever,” Rudolph muttered.

Santa let out a ho, ho, ho! Then he called out the reindeers’ names as well as a command. Their image began to shimmer and shake.

“Look under your tree,” Rudolph said quickly.

I swivelled, but saw nothing under my heavily decorated tree.

“The other one,” Rudolph called as they all disappeared.

Haden and I looked at each other. He was a bit pale.

He let out a gust of breath. “All of it was real. All of it.” He sat on the couch. “Wow.” He pushed a hand through his hair, making it stand on end.

I sat beside him, still trying to puzzle out Mrs. Claus’s seeming change of heart toward me. To say I was relieved was an understatement.

“Are you okay?” I asked Haden.

He was smiling, his grin growing wider and wider. He pulled me into his arms with a laugh. “I’m doing amazing!”

I laughed with him, happy to be able to share the spirit of the season, and our magical secret adventure with him again.

He kissed me long and slow, my body softening against his. I could do this all day.

Haden broke the kiss, his eyes narrowed in confusion. “What other tree?” There was still the odd thing that didn’t quite click into place for him from the other night, but, as for this clue, I wasn’t sure what it meant, either.

“The Christmas tree in the barn?” I mused. “Except it disappeared with Santa.”

Haden inhaled sharply, eyes bright. I could see a memory lodge itself more fully, fitting into the story I’d told him to flesh out the fleeting, fuzzy memories he’d retained.

He pulled me to my feet. “I think I know which tree.”

And even though the clock said it was two in the morning, and we were in the midst of a second winter storm, I followed.

“What on earth?” I was standing under the big poplar Santa’s sleigh had hit, in the glow of Haden’s giant flashlight, surveying my ‘Santa gift’ with amazement. “How did they know? How did they get these here so quickly?”

Haden reached out and gave the closest racing barrel a nudge, seeming to not quite trust his eyes. I knew the feeling.

The barrels I needed to race my horse around were real. And they had been left by Santa.

“I have so many questions,” I whispered.

“Tell me about it.”

“I also hope the reindeer aren’t still drunk. Because what if they stole these from a neighbour as some ongoing stag party game?”

Haden laughed. He’d been doing that a lot over the past couple of nights, shedding that serious older brother skin he’d so often worn.

“I don’t think they were drunk,” he said. “Besides, would Santa allow such blatant thievery?”

“Probably not.”

Snow was falling, collecting along Haden’s dark toque. I leaned over, going up on tiptoe to give his cold lips a warm kiss. I could get used to this, to him. He pulled me close with a happy groan, deepening the kiss.

“We’re wearing far too many winter layers,” he complained. “I can barely enjoy your soft curves.” He began pulling me back toward the house, but a soft crackle caused us to look up.

“Haden? Look!” The snow that had been falling only moments ago had cleared.

We had a straight view to the dark, star-studded sky where the aurora borealis was ablaze, streaks of green and pink dancing across the heavens.

As the auroras moved, they dipped so low, it felt like I could reach up and touch them.

“Beautiful,” Haden murmured. His arms slid around my waist, and I leaned back against him. Silently, we watched nature’s show, our breathing synced as the lights danced and shimmered, grew brighter and closer, then retreated, fading, before appearing again.

“Where did the storm go?” I asked.

Haden pointed to the night sky. Off to the right, in the direction of town, was the silhouette of a sleigh being pulled by nine jaunty reindeer.

I swore I heard a faint ho, ho, ho!

As soon as Santa dipped over the horizon, on to the next house or town, the northern lights faded, and like a stage curtain being drawn, the snow started up again.

“Tamara?” Haden asked, letting me slip from his arms.

I turned to him. “Yeah?”

“How come I can remember stuff if Mrs. Claus tried to erase my memories?”

I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him with pure joy in my heart. “Because some things are so real, they can’t ever be erased.”