I paused. Were those hoofbeats on the hallway’s polished concrete floor?
You’re losing it.
“Assuming we—”
“Holy shit!” Christ Winchester cursed, jumping out of his seat and running to the glass door of the conference room. “What the fuck? Is that—is that a moose?”
“It’s probably just Matt’s St. Bernard,” Eli said as Kringle’s barks echoed down the corridor.
“I’ll have the secretary remove him,” I assured the investors and opened the door.
Fucking dog. I knew I shouldn’t have—
Then it was my turn to curse as a fucking reindeer eagerly shoved his massive body into the small conference room.
Greg grabbed Belle around the waist, hauling her out of her seat as the reindeer, trampling the chairs and tripping over electric cords, headed for the snack table.
“Who let that animal in here?”
“Man, I need to come to small towns more often,” the Richmond brother drawled. “This is way more exciting than the crazy guy who tried to sell me a turtle at the McDonald’s on Third Avenue.”
Porcelain crashed as the reindeer gobbled down the food then stuck his whole muzzle in the pitcher of cocktails.
“No, Prancer, no!” Merrie sprinted into the room huffing and puffing. “Matt, can you—” She stopped short of the chaos.
“Oh my gosh, Matt. I am so sorry,” she started to babble. “He was just hungry. He ate the raffle gift card and my donut. He’s perfectly harmless,” she assured all the hedge fund managers, who were now absolutely not going to invest in my company.
“Is that your reindeer?” Chris asked as Merrie lunged to grab hold of the festive sweater the reindeer was wearing. He didn’t seem to want to go and sidestepped away from her, tripping over an overturned chair.
“No, he’s just a feral reindeer that lives around town,” Eli said as Merrie chased Prancer around the room.
“Actually,” Merrie said as the reindeer dodged her grasp again, “he’s mine. I won him in the raffle.”
Several of my employees were crowded out in the hallway, phones out.
“This is fucking chaos.”
“I’m sorry, Harrogate is raffling off livestock now?” Chris asked with a laugh as the reindeer hoovered up the last of the snacks then sniffed.
My sister had a ham and cheese pinwheel sandwich on her plate. The reindeer stumbled across the room toward her. By now the hard liquor he had chugged had taken effect, and he couldn’t quite walk in a straight line.
Greg put himself between Belle and the reindeer.
“I don’t need your help,” she said to Greg, trying to shove him out of the way. The reindeer’s back legs sank to the floor, and he sort of dragged himself over to my sister, opening and closing his mouth.
“Just give him the sandwich,” Hunter said.
“Reindeer don’t eat meat.”
“This one does,” Eli said.
“Merrie,” I hissed, “you need to get that reindeer out of here. Why did you bring him into my office? I’m trying to have an important meeting.”
“I know,” she wailed. “I’m so sorry!”
Greg grabbed the sandwich from Belle, who yelled at him, and threw it to the reindeer. Prancer munched on it. Merrie grabbed the back of his sweater.
“Come on,” she begged. The reindeer tipped over on his side and belched.
