No Bunny But You (Holiday Romance Series) (18 page)

“I don’t know,” she said uneasily. “Molly’s my good
friend and I don’t want to do anything that would upset her.”

“I don’t want to upset her, either,” Drake replied
promptly. “But we’ve got unfinished business—and she needs to know
that I took her advice. I confessed the whole thing about the
blog.”

“You did?” Cheryl seemed astonished. “To who?”

“Everyone. The Weblog president and my bosses. I
totally came clean. Don’t you think she’d want to know that?” he
urged. “I have to talk to her, Cheryl. I should have called her
sooner, but…I’ve had some things to work through.”

Cheryl looked at him oddly. “More men should work
through their
things.
”

“Yes, we should.” He could see she was teetering and
he hurried to say again, “You don’t have to break your promise.
I’ll guess. Just pause. Okay?”

He wracked his brain, thinking where she might be,
but Molly had no relatives in the area. He couldn’t keep cruising
by her house or the neighbors would call the police.

“Is she here at your house?” Drake knew how much
Molly respected Cheryl. Her taking refuge with her friend was a
possibility. “Her friend, Abby, only has a one-bedroom apartment.
And she’s pretty much promised me that Molly isn’t there.”

“You talked to Abby?”

He nodded. “I went there before I came here.”

Gesturing at the wide porch, he said, “You have a
lovely home. I’m sure there would be room for Molly here. And that
you’d take her in if she came to you.”

Cheryl kept looking at him steadily. “You’re right,
we’ve gotten close. And I’m not pausing here.”

“Okay…. That helps. Now where else could she be?”
Drake cudgeled his brain for possibilities. Taking a step back on
the wide porch as he went through the options. “Wait a minute! The
Austin Women’s League Easter Picnic! That’s today! The Saturday
before Easter!”

Cheryl moistened her lips, still meeting his gaze.
She didn’t say anything.

“Molly’s at the picnic,” he said, thinking fast. “Is
that it, Ms. Summers? Is she at the gardens?”

Excitement growing in Drake’s chest, his gaze was
glued to Cheryl’s face as he waited for her response.

“Ummm.” She hesitated.

“Of course.” He took a turn, coming back to face
Cheryl. “Did she ever get an Easter Bunny for the picnic? You can
tell me that, right?”

Cheryl said slowly. “I didn’t promise not to say
anything about her bunny issues. I don’t think she ever found a
good one, but she got a guy to make do. My cartoon character is
doing grandpa duty most of the time and he can’t do the job.”

“She’s at the picnic, though.” Drake thought hard a
moment. He wasn’t sure how to work this, but the bunny thing would
have been a good option. Too bad she found one. Being a cartoon
character didn’t come naturally to him, but if he had to dress up
like a rabbit to talk to Molly, he’d do it in a flash.

“You didn’t hear any of this from me,” the woman said
deliberately as she turned to open her ornate screen door. “Good
luck, Drake.”

* * * * * * * * *

Driving like a crazy person to the Easter Picnic at
the Women’s League garden, Drake wracked his brain, trying to
figure out how to approach Molly. It would be a zoo there, he knew.
The picnic was a big damn deal, featured in the Austin newspaper
society pages.

He’d waited too long before deciding to risk his
heart with Molly again, idiot that he was. His timing couldn’t be
worse, but this wouldn’t wait. He had to make his pitch work in a
major way.

Drake couldn’t imagine his life without her.

Beside him on the seat, his phone buzzed again.
Impatiently waiting for a traffic light to change, he glanced at
the screen to see it was Mike, his former blog boss, calling again.
The man was so shocked and upset yesterday when Drake confessed
about the blog. Maybe Mike was calling to chastise him.

That made three calls in the last hour, Drake jumping
for his phone each time. None of them had been Molly, but he kept
hoping she’d respond to one of his messages.

Not sure how the hell he was going to approach her at
the picnic, he kept praying for an idea to hit him. He needed to
wow her somehow. To show her how important she was to him. Drake
had always seen himself as a guy who clung to his dignity, but that
had gone out the window, at this point.

The Austin traffic made his progress maddeningly
slow, but he finally turned down the parkway to the gardens. How he
could have forgotten today was the Easter Picnic, he didn’t know,
but all he could think about was finding Molly and explaining to
her exactly why he’d been struggling. Thank God for Cheryl. His
desperate attempt to get information from her had led him to
remember the Easter Picnic—just about the biggest thing Molly had
done.

He was such an idiot not to have thought of it
before.

Drake had no question that he loved Molly and wanted
to spend the rest of his life with her. He only hoped she still
wanted something with him.

She might have been toying with him—having wild sex
primarily for the fun of it—but he didn’t think so. Her saying
after they had sex the last time that she didn’t just want to mess
around but needed the real thing, that gave him hope. He kept
kicking himself now for not having jumped at the remark.

He was such a fool. Hell, he should have gone down on
his knee right then.

Waiting for several cars to pass so he could turn
into the parking lot at Women’s League garden, Drake heard his cell
phone ring again just when he saw an opening in the oncoming line
of traffic. Grabbing up his phone as he negotiated the turn—it
might have been Molly finally calling him back—Drake held it to his
ear, watching as several cars went past, he said, “Yes?”

Pleasepleaseplease, be Molly.

“Drake! Thank heavens. Glad I finally got hold of
you, son.” Mike’s voice came booming heartily over the
connection.

Disappointed, Drake steered his car into the crowded
Women’s League parking lot, frowning. When he and his former boss
talked at the meeting yesterday, the man hadn’t been near so
chipper.

“Boy, have I got good news!”

Drake pulled to a stop, finding an open place in the
last row of the lot.

“Yes?” he said absently as he put the car into
Park.

“They got the numbers back—House Today?—on the sample
video spot you did for them.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, not sure of the
significance.

“You hit it out the park, Drake. Blew them away!
Apparently viewers are tired of smarty pants know-it-all types
telling them how to make home repairs. They liked your regular-joe
angle.”

“Okay.” Drake still couldn’t see where this was
going. He scanned the parking lot, seeing only a few families
straggling toward the entrance to the gardens. The festivities must
have already started—and he still had no idea of how to get to
Molly.

His former boss was burbling something about the
video.

“Mike, I’m kind of busy right now. Can I call you
back?”

“Don’t rush off yet.” Mike sounded weirdly excited.
“I have great news.”

Drake pulled the car keys out of the ignition. He
supposed he could walk boldly into the picnic and sweep Molly into
a big kiss right in front of everyone. Despite his emphasis on
dignity, he didn’t have any problem with that idea, but this was a
job for Molly—a big job—and he didn’t want to jeopardize it for
her. After all, there would be kids all around them.

“News? Other than the good figures on the videos? I
mean, now that I don’t have the home improvement blog anymore, I
don’t see how that helps me any. I mean, it’s nice and all,
but—“

“Drake,” Mike said, his voice going hushed and
excited at the same time. “They want you to do regular spots for
the show. Did you hear me? Regular spots! And the producer even
hinted that the network might want to design a show around you!
Your own show on the network! I couldn’t be more proud if you were
my own son.”

Frowning, Drake dragged his attention back to what
Mike was saying. “Ummm. You did tell them about the blog? That I
confessed to not having done the projects myself? That I actually
had Mo—someone—helping me? Doing the work that I don’t know how to
do myself?”

“They wouldn’t care about that, but yes, they know.
Didn’t even blink when I mentioned it,” Mike assured him, still
speaking in the same charged tones. “And they agreed that we can
link the video spots to the blog. It works for
them
and for
us. You know, you can do subjects for the show and we’ll coordinate
them with blog entries.”

His brain still buzzing with thoughts of getting to
Molly, Drake cradled the phone to his ear. “Mike? You do remember
that I’ve been fired. I don’t write the blog anymore.”

“That’s part of why I’m calling. We’d love to have
you keep writing the blog. Be as un-expert as you want. In fact, we
want you to angle it from a non-expert point of view. We need you
back, boy.” His boss sounded almost humble.

“You’ve got to be kidding. Jerome was very clear in
that meeting yesterday morning.” Drake had felt good about coming
clean, but admitting his deceit hadn’t been fun. He’d expected to
be fired and Jerome hadn’t seemed to hesitate in doing so.

Mike chortled into the phone. “That’s part of the
beauty of this, son. Jerome is totally on board with re-hiring you.
As a matter of fact, he wanted to make this call, but he finally
agreed that I should do it, as your direct boss.”

“Really? Jerome said that?”

“Son, you don’t get it. The
network
wants you.
They’re talking about building a tv show around you. Of course,
Jerome wants you back.”

Drake stared blankly through the windshield. “Good
grief. You’re not pulling my leg here? Making a cruel joke?”

“Not at all. Jerome has decided we need to angle your
blog toward the bumbling home owner. You know, the regular guy,
trying to figure out how to fix things? You’re perfect for this. If
we have the television spots and link this to the blog, we could go
big time. And if you get your own show, the sky is the limit.”

“Holy crap.” Drake’s heart began to beat faster. He
wished he had a ring to propose to Molly. He was employed
again!

“We have a lot to discuss,” Mike said. “Can you come
over now? I’ll see if Jerome is free now to sit down with us.”

“Umm. Not now, Mike.” Drake stared at the entrance to
the Women’s League garden. “I have something I have to do
first.”

* * *

As Drake strode across the packed parking lot, he
walked past a guy unloading an old VW bug near the front gate. Lost
in his head, he imagined Molly’s excitement when he told her about
the blog and the House Today spots. If she was still talking to
him, of course.

God, she had to accept him. She had to still love
him.

Wasn’t that what she meant when she said she wanted
more?

Shoving thoughts of the job back, he considered how
to best approach her. Kids would be everywhere, dressed in their
Sunday best, and a bunch of Women’s League bigwigs, all looking
critically at the way things were going.

He thought about the bunny option, wondering about
the guy she’d gotten. Cheryl seemed to indicate that he wasn’t the
greatest, but that Molly had been desperate. Couldn’t have a
Women’s League Easter Picnic without the Easter Bunny.

Sliding through the elegant gates to the garden,
Drake reflected that contrary to common thought, desperation didn’t
actually make the human brain work any better. He had no idea how
to approach this. Striding boldly in and bending her over in a big
kiss was out. Striding boldly in and kneeling down on one knee to
propose—now that he had a job—was out. He didn’t have an engagement
ring handy and that might not have gone over big with her
employers.

Bold
wasn’t the best option. This was a kid
thing after all.

Too damn bad about the bunny.

Drake looked around then, seeing the gaily decorated
gazebo, with Molly’s tent headquarters discreetly tucked in the
trees.
Hmmm.
He had damn good memories of that little
tent.

Jerking himself out of his erotic thoughts, Drake
looked around, trying to decide his best approach. Children
occupied the gazebo, busily working on Easter baskets to use for
the egg hunt later. White decorated tables sat off to the side,
each with a centerpiece and a pastel ribbon bow tied around the
back. Linen-covered banquet tables sat off to one side by the
decorated tables and he could see wait staff loading these with the
luncheon repast.

Children—some holding decorated Easter baskets—and
well-dressed adults stood in clusters throughout the gardens. Off
to one side was a cordoned area, separated by silky ropes. At a
glance, Drake spied several brightly-colored eggs, half hidden in
various spots. From what Molly had said, some eggs would be easy to
find, so the younger children could gather them, while some would
be more challenging for the older kids.

Just beyond the banquet tables, a string quartet
played.

From where he stood just inside the gate, Drake could
see the entire gardens. He frowned, not seeing anyone in an Easter
Bunny suit.

Just then, the gate clanked shut behind him and he
looked around. The young guy who’d been standing by the old VW
Beetle had come into the gardens. Not looking too happy about it,
he wore Molly’s Easter Bunny suit, complete with huge bunny feet,
but he carried the bunny head under his arm, despite having come
into the garden where kids could see him.

Studying the guy who was to play a role he felt some
connection to, Drake noted that this cartoon character guy couldn’t
be more than sixteen or seventeen.

He watched as the VW kid made a face before he stuck
the bunny head on, clomping past Drake into the gardens.