Romancing Rudolph - Chapter 6

(If you’re just joining us, the story began on December 15th–click here to start at the beginning.)

Chapter 6

Rudolph was losing his mind.

That was the only way to explain how often his thoughts strayed from doing his job–arguably one of the most important jobs in the world–to Mandy. Hell, twice this morning when she’d walked around the Team studying the harness set-up, getting close enough to touch, he had almost nuzzled her. Right there, if front of his entire team.

What an idiot.

Today, of all days, he should be ruthlessly focused.

Instead, he kept staring at her, willing her to look up so he could share a brief, foolish moment of intimacy. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Why couldn’t she have been the cold, number-crunching drone he’d imagined her to be in the beginning? Why did she have to turn out to be smart, thoughtful and considerate? She hadn’t just tested them, looked at the numbers, and come up with a solution. She’d asked them questions, sought their opinions, allowed them to offer up suggestions. Now that he’d worked with her for five days, he was convinced she was as eager to see them lift that sleigh on Christmas Eve as he was.

Which, of course, just made everything worse.

He glanced at her and had to stifle a groan.

She was chewing her lip as she studied her clipboard, her impossibly long lashes shadowing her cheeks. Hey, if anyone was going to chew that lip, it should be him. Hadn’t he fantasized about doing just that about a million times?

Oh, yeah. He was definitely losing his mind.

“So?” he asked her, his voice not quite as level as he’d like.

She lifted her eyes, met his gaze, and sent a jolt of fiery need through his body. He wanted to lose himself in those warm honey eyes. “We’re waiting on Santa.”

Rudolph stiffened. “This is just a trial. Why is Santa coming?”

She shrugged. “He wanted to.”

A twinge of dread sent ice shards through his blood. Not that he should be worried. This was a test. They were still more than a month away from Christmas, and Santa was nothing if not fair. He’d give them more than one shot at it. Wouldn’t he?

Oh, hell, what was he nervous about? Mandy understood what the challenges were, and she knew the magic that enabled their flying was not quantifiable. If they didn’t get the sleigh off the ground today, he was sure she’d help ensure that when Christmas Eve rolled around, they would.

He smiled at Mandy.

***
It took four tries to know for sure. Four agonizing, straining efforts that barely cracked the sleigh runners out of the ice, let alone put any air beneath them.

Mandy felt the failure almost as much as the Team did.

Having watched the incredible, magical reindeer strut their stuff over the last few days, she had convinced herself that they would do it. That they would lift the sleigh. After all, getting 2.1 billion pounds off the ground was already impossible ... so, why not 2.3 billion pounds?

None of the Team would meet her eyes after the fourth, and last, failed attempt. Their rigid bodies reflected both anger and disappointment.

Standing in front of the hangar next to Santa, physically separated from the Team, she felt like a traitor. Like the Team was a solid, unified group, even in the face of failure, while she was, and always would be, the outcast. The evil analyst.

It was a feeling that multiplied when the big guy in red turned to her with a determined glint in his bespectacled eyes and said, “I’m counting on you, Mandy. Fix it.”

She nodded, so intimidated that she was unable to offer even one word of praise for the Team’s efforts.

As Santa strolled off toward the Toy Shop accompanied by Bernard, who was reading off the latest update to the Naughty/Nice list, Mandy sighed. She was torn. Her stomach roiled with a bitter mix of the Team’s failure and the realization that her deadline to help the Finnish reindeer loomed once more. Yet, she was also grateful that she wouldn’t be packing up her stuff and leaving Christmas Village–that today was not the last day she’d see Rudolph.

Mandy turned back to look at Rudolph.

He had shrugged himself free of the sleigh harness, and he stood tall and loose, seemingly unaffected by his inability to lift the sleigh. But Mandy had shared enough looks with him over the last few days to notice the self-recrimination in his gaze.

His smile was crooked. “I’ve got a hundred-year-old bottle of Icelandic Glacier Water I’ve been saving for an occasion like this. Want to share it with me?”

(To go to Chapter 7, click here)