Too bad Chocolate makes Shanny hyper, and most flower bouquets make him sneeze. Besides, the sight of them wilting and starting to die has always seemed like the wrong kind of message on Valentine's Day and the wrong kind of metaphor for love.
He's messy and a bit of a hot mess all the way around, but he's got an amazing group of friends who have been more family to him than the one he was born into ever was, though he longs for someone special who won't mind letting him be the kid he never got to be. He thought that could be Tiny, but lately, his big friend has been frustrated with him.
Can the addition of Riggs, a large, fiercely protective man with a soft spot for misfits, be just the bridge Tiny and Shanny have been missing? Can the fierce pup and the boy he adores find the perfect person to care for them both, or will Rigg's heart prove to be only be big enough for one of them?
Hot coffee at nine at night wasn’t the wisest choice in
beverages, but Riggs needed it if he was going to have any hope of getting
through this planning session for the winter carnival without accidentally
dozing off and waking to find that his buddies had volunteered him to be a
human canvas or some shit.
He was barely in his seat when a shadow fell over him and he
glanced up to see Walker standing behind him with a legal pad and an ornately
decorated manilla envelope. Damn. And here he’d thought the things only came in
plain beige and boring off yellow.
Only the closer he looked, the clearer it became that the
tiny cartoon creatures had been drawn on with a variety of fine tipped markers
and pens, some of which looked to have glitter flecks in them.
“Hey, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve got something for you,”
Walker said, extracting that very same folder from beneath the pad and holding
it out for him.
“What’s this?”
“Open it and see.”
Riggs raised an eyebrow but the only thing that prompted Riggs
to do was park his butt in the seat next to him and riffle through his coat
pocket for a pen. Twirled through the characters on the front was his name
scrawled in winding vines with tiny, beautifully proportioned leaves. Turning
the envelope over revealed a thin line of glitter running along the edge of the
seal, like someone had it all over their fingers where they were closing the
thing.
“This is from Shanny, isn’t it? Please tell me it’s not a
glitter bomb?”
“Do not give those little chaos gremlins any ideas,” Walker
said. “They’re creative enough without them.”
“So…it’s not a glitter bomb?” Riggs hedged, glancing down at
all the black he was wearing with the knowledge that it would make the perfect
canvas for just such a little stunt.
“Just open the damned thing. Do you really think I’d hand
you a glitter bomb in a space where Ren has expressly forbidden any little to
tread if they’ve so much as stepped one to into the craft room. You know what
he calls glitter.”
“Yeah, the herpes of the art world. A little extreme, if you
ask me. I happen to love things that sparkle…as long as that thing isn’t me.”
“Then open your damned envelope. I promise it isn’t going to
turn you into a disco-call, though it would be kind of neat to see what the
littles would do with a canvas big enough for several of them to create
together at the same time.”
The sound of hands clapping together loudly caught
everyone’s attention, but the words that accompanied them made Riggs’ blood run
cold. “You know what, that isn’t a half
bad idea.”
Turning, he caught sight of Ren in the doorway, Leith’s face
beneath the arm he’d put up to block him from slipping into the room. He was
clearly trying to peer around him to see what Ren was talking about, until his
Daddy fixed him with a look and Leith went scurrying off to join the rest of
the littles in the playroom.
“Is we hung sheets from the walls in the art room, they’d
have plenty of space,” Casey chimed in from across the room.”
“We could set up tubs at each sheet with different kinds of
materials,” Martin added from a few seats to Riggs’ left. “Different
application methods too.”
“What, like water guns filled with paint?” Walker mused.
“Holy shit, that’s genius!” Ren said as he finally entered
the room completely and moved to take a seat at the large, round table that
dominated their planning space.
“I bet they’d have fun with it, too,” Waler said. “Each one
can have a different color, we can used water based everything for easier clean
up, and for the really little, we can let them fingerpaint with vanilla pudding
died a variety of different shades.”
Several voiced pipped up to say how well they thought that
would go over, while someone else suggested they include a station where the
little ones could dip sponges in paint and use them to make patterned designs.
“Okay, clearly the art room is a go for the carnival, but
that means we’ll need some volunteers to staff it and made sure the materials
stay where they were intended to.” Ren said, that laser focus stare of his
fixed directly on Riggs and Walker.
“Hey now, unless you’re willing to let me off dunking booth
duty…” Walker began.
“Oh hell no!” Greg said, coming half up out of his seat. “My
boy has been talking nonstop about how many times he plans to hit that
bullseye.”
“Mine to!” Cade added.
“Yeah, you’re in the booth, that’s a done deal. You know how
the littles get with that whisper circle of theirs. There’s been so much
excitement over it that I’ve decided to modify the rules a little bit. Not only
will there be balls to throw at the target, but there will be tubs of water
balloons too, so those who don’t aim as well will have a bigger target.”
“Well, since we are proposing modifications, might I suggest
that we move the cupcake table over beside the clown booth, and add a bunch of
sprinkles and piping stations so they can decorate their own before they decide
whether to eat them, or smooth them on your face,” Walker offered. “We can
always lay some big plastic tablecloths down for easier cleanup of the
inevitable mess.”
The moment Ren started sputtering, Riggs knew he’d
eventually give in, it would just be interesting to see how long he tried to
dig his heels in before he gave in to the inevitable.
“Those sprinkles get everywhere! They’re as bad as glitter.
Hell, some of them are glitter!” Ren protested.
“And sugar, don’t forget the sheer amount of zoomie inducing
byproducts they put in those decorations,” Casey added.
“Which means the crash will be spectacular!” Greg called
out. “If we set up the movie space with pillows and blankets they can nap while
we get a jump on cleaning up the mess before round two kicks off.”
Be My Little Valentine: Shanny's Surprise is available for preorder now!
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