Page 20 of Hacking the Holidays
“Besides,” Sam continued with devastating precision, “didn’t you just promise you’d do whatever I needed and that I wouldn’t have to ask twice?”
“That was for library work!” I protested. “You know—shelving books, organizing reading programs, maybe digitizing something from the eighties that you’d recently discovered in the basement.”
“Thisislibrary work,” Sam pointed out with a grin. “It just involves significantly more jingle bells.”
Eleanor clapped her hands together. “It’s perfect! The children will love you!”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered.
Sam’s expression turned serious, and when he looked at me this time, there was something almost vulnerable in his eyes. “Rose, I’m genuinely desperate here. These kids have been talking about this event for weeks, and I can’t exactly be both Santa and his helper.”
“I don’t even have an elf costume,” I said, grasping for any reasonable excuse. “And I’m pretty sure they don’t sell them at the corner drugstore.”
“Already solved,” Sam said, looking way too pleased with himself. “The community theater performedA Christmas Carollast year, and they still have all the professional elf costumes.”
“Of course they do,” I muttered.
“They are clean and ready to wear. That’s where Harold got his, and they said we could use as many as we wanted.” Sam’s voice softened. “Please be my elf tomorrow night. Just once—it’s only three hours of your time, max. I swear I won’t make it a regular thing. I need you, Rose.”
The way he said, “I need you,” sent an entirely inappropriate shiver down my spine. I seriously needed to get a grip on reality.
The tiny sliver of my brain still functioning in FBI mode whispered that this was exactly what Agent Thorne had ordered—get closer to Sam’s operation, earn his trust, andbecome indispensable as I gathered evidence. But getting closer to the case meant getting closer tohim… and loads of other people I would be expected to make eye contact with at a minimum. It was for the job, so I could at least jingle a bell and give out candy canes.
But being that close to the object of my rapidly growing sapiosexual crush? That was dangerous territory…
I closed my eyes and sighed in defeat, knowing I had no choice but to wear green tights for the first time in my life, endure sizable crowds, and fake holiday enthusiasm for sticky-fingered small humans.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll be your elf. Just this one time.”
Eleanor let out an actual squeal of joy, like I’d just agreed to donate a kidney. “That is wonderful!”
“Yes, it is. Thank you,” Sam said, and there was something that made the words feel like more than just gratitude for volunteer work. “You’re saving Christmas—literally.”
Or destroying it.
Only time would tell.
Eleanor glowed with satisfaction. “The two of you are going to make such a great team. I just know it.”
As she headed for the exit, I turned and caught the way Sam was still looking at me—like I’d just agreed to much more than being his elf.
If only I could hack into his head.
“Thanks so much,” he said. “I owe you big time for the favor. You absolutely won’t regret this.”
That’s where you’re wrong, Sam.
I already do.
Chapter Six
ZARA
It looked like Christmas had thrown up on me.
Staring at my ghastly elf reflection in the bathroom mirror at the Bavarian Lodge, I calculated that moving to a different continent might not be far enough to escape this level of mortification. Another option would be to fake my death, though at this point even my imaginary ghost would be too embarrassed to haunt anyone.
Was this really what an elf was supposed to look like?
