Page 12 of Naughty Elf: Shimmersnap

“Well, these are just more practical things that kids need, especially if the mom and dad are struggling. Oh, and the mom and dad need a new bed set. I’m thinking purple.” Crystal had been eyeing a new one for years but had never been able to justify the purchase, not when the kids needed so many things.

“You think they’re going to want purple? Don’t tell me you’re going to try and find one with sparkles.”

I laughed. “If only! But they probably don’t want sparkles. And I already looked—they don’t really make bed sets with sparkles for adults, which is just depressing. Don’t you think?”

“I suppose if you needed one, you could take two twin sets and sew them together.”

I grasped his bicep in surprise. “Walter, that’s brilliant!”

“I was joking,” he said, but he couldn’t hide the smile that crept across his face.

The rest of our shopping trip went pretty smoothly, and we managed to get out of there under budget, which meant we had additional money to donate to the local food bank.

“How are we going to wrap all of this? Do you think maybe we can just drop it off at one of those wrapping stations in the mall?” Walter asked.

I sucked in a breath. “What? Absolutely not, Walter. We will wrap it ourselves!”

I had not thought this through. The only place we could wrap everything was at Walter’s home, and if we went there, he might notice that his elf figurine was missing. Now, I was sure the first conclusion he would jump to wouldn’t be thatIwas his elf figurine, but it was still a concern.

I did my best to keep his attention elsewhere.

We spread everything out on the living room floor and used his dining table as our main workstation.

“Do you know how to tie a bow, Shimmersnap?” Walter asked. “I don’t even know how to wrap a present.”

“Of course I do!” I said. “Here, I’ll show you.”

I rolled out the paper and grabbed a box, sticking in the Lego set we had bought for the eight-year-old. “You just fold these corners over here, a little bit of tape, and voila!”

“That didn’t look too difficult,” he said.

I wanted to tell him all about my adventures in the wrapping department, but I couldn’t reveal that yet. Soon I’d be able to tellhim all about how I invented a new tape that had glitter on it, and it was reusable, so you could enjoy the glitter forever!

I went to work on the rest of the boxes, not paying much attention to how Walter was doing. When I looked up, I saw that I had wrapped seven presents, and he was still working on his first one. The paper was taped to his thumb, and when he tried to stick it to the side of the box, he caught the edge of the paper and let out a yelp.

“Oh no! Are you all right?” I rushed to his side, grabbing for his hand. “Are you hurt?”

“Just a paper cut,” he said and went to put his thumb in his mouth.

“No, no, don’t do that. I’ll get a band-aid.”

“You don’t need to do that,” he said. “It’s not even bleeding.”

I didn’t have one—who did? It wasn’t like we carried them around—but I could quickly blink and have one available in my hand. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a band-aid, opening the wrapper, and smoothly placing it over his cut.

“Purple sparkles,” he said, his lips twitching. “Why am I not surprised?”

I kissed his thumb. “All better now, right?”

“All better,” he said.

But Walter wasn’t looking at his thumb. His heated gaze was focused solely on me.

Chapter 8

Walter

From the moment I met Shimmersnap, it was as if there were a ticking time bomb in my heart, just waiting for a moment like this one.

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