Page 110 of Gathered Sparkle

“Now that’s teamwork,” she teases, earning a sharp glare from Nova that only makes her chuckle.

Nicholas steps up behind Nova, draping the shirt over her shoulders. She pulls it on without hesitation, buttoning it to keep it closed. While she adjusts the shirt, her focus momentarily distracted, I slip her phone from the back pocket of her jeans again and smoothly place it into the chest pocket of Nicholas’s shirt. When she notices, her sharp look meets my grin, and I can’t help the chuckle that escapes me.

I rest a hand lightly on her shoulder, right above the chest pocket. “Do you still have your matchbox?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Let me see it, please.” I extend my free hand.

Nova reaches into her jeans pocket, pulling out the small metal matchbox I haven’t seen in years.It’s still the same.As she moves to hand it over, I let it slip from my grasp, the box tumbling to the carpeted floor.

“Oh no.” I feign exaggerated dismay.

She narrows her eyes suspiciously but leans down to retrieve it. As she does, I dip the hand I had resting on her shoulder into the chest pocket of the shirt, retrieving her phone without a hitch. When she straightens, I’m already holding it out between us with a smug grin.

“Dammit.”

Annabelle lets out a low whistle. “This time, the movement did the work, didn’t it?”

“Exactly.” I nod, handing the phone back to Nova. “Let the mark do the work. Kinetic energy does half the job for you. And timing? Timing is everything.”

“All right,Houdini,what’s next?” Sylus chimes in with a smirk.

“Well, those are probably the main ways to snag those phones.”

“But we want to see more.” Annabelle pouts, jutting out her lip in exaggerated disappointment, but it does absolutely nothing to me.

Then I glance at Nova.

She leans in, whispering, “Come on, show them.”

And that?That does everything to me.

Nicholas is back in his seat, but I’ve already clocked the hotel card badge clipped to his belt. Perfect. “Would you mind lending me the badge for a second?”

“Oh, oh!” Annabelle snickers. “Need him to lend her the pants to go with it?”

“Easy there, Blondie.” Sylus smirks, leaning back with a shake of his head. “This isn’tEuphoria, and no one wants to see that.”

Annabelle and Nova, in perfect unison, shoot back, “Speak for yourself.”

Pebble lets out a soft coo as if agreeing, and Levi laughs so hard he nearly dislodges the bird.

Nicholas, his cheeks tinged with a faint red, unclips the badge and tosses it over without a word. I catch it easily and reach for Nova, brushing the shirt aside to clip it onto one of the belt loops of her jeans.

When I glance up, she’s smiling at me, her eyes warm with amusement. All this proximity should send my nerves into overdrive, but with her, it doesn’t. Instead, it feels right, natural.

“Sometimes, you don’t hide what you’re stealing. You highlight it. We call thispainting it red.” Pebble flutters her wings on Levi’s shoulder, drawing Nova’s gaze for a fraction of a second. By the time her focus snaps back to me, I’m already gripping the badge with deliberate flair, lifting it slightly. “Nice badge, Mr. Harrington,” I tease, shooting Nova a crooked grin.

“Thanks,” she says dryly, narrowing her eyes at me, though there’s a playful glint in them. “Got it from my mama.”

Koen snorts from behind us.

“That’s the spirit!” I snap my fingers, pointing at Koen, the sound masking the subtleclickas the badge detaches. Nova’s head swivels toward Koen instinctively, and when her gaze snaps back to me, I’m holding up the badge between us. “Did you feel it?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “But I knew it was coming. I pulled that move a few days ago.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You did?”

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