No Bunny But You (Holiday Romance Series) (19 page)

The bunny kid ambled on down the path, seeming to be
heading toward the tables where lunch would be served. Drake had no
idea what the plan was or where the Easter Bunny was to set up, but
most of the kids stood around in the main garden area off to the
left.

Down by the utility tent where he knew she kept her
picnic headquarters—and for which he had those very fond
memories—Drake spotted Molly talking to several kids and
adults.

He just stood there inside the gate, staring at
her.

She wore some kind of summery dress, her arms bare
and the light catching her short white-blond hair. Drake drank in
the sight of her. The last time he’d seen her—two days ago—had been
when she barged into his house, tearful and insisting that he
needed to come clean about the blog.

Drake loved her for that. For being most concerned
with him being able to live with himself. He felt a rush of
emotion, a longing to lock her in his arms and never let her go.
She had to love him back. He just couldn’t see a life without Molly
in it.

Suddenly, it occurred to him that if he could see
her, she could see him, standing here on the path, mooning at her.
He hadn’t yet come up with an idea on how to approach her, but
Drake could envision her marching up the path and pointing out that
she had a job to do here and he could hit the road.

He couldn’t stand her turning him away like that.

Stepping back behind a bush, he redoubled his efforts
to think of a way to enter into this situation without jeopardizing
her doing her job. Too bad she had the kid to be the Easter Bunny.
They’d worked pretty well together the one time he’d worn the big
bunny feet.

He should have offered to be her Bunny. Drake stood
there, looking through the branches of the bush, staring down at
her with longing. She was so damned beautiful. He saw her smiling
at the grown-ups, kneeling down to talk to the smaller kids, as she
pointed toward the gazebo.

Damn, damn, damn. Why hadn’t he jumped into this
sooner? Dealt with his own hesitance to be rejected again. Mentally
castigating himself for staying shackled to a teenager’s fears, he
knew he had to find a way to reach out now. She was knee deep in
the picnic, her face smooth and untroubled, wreathed in smiles and
happiness.

It was hard to think that she was unhappy inside, but
Drake recalled her words to him before she walked half-undressed
out of his house that day—her tears as she told him she hadn’t
helped him by helping with the blog. Despite her not returning his
calls, he had to mean something to her still.

Frowning, he noticed that the kid in the bunny suit
was still standing on the far side of the garden by the luncheon
tables, now talking to several cute young waitresses—at least, he
couldn’t see whether the guy was talking because he had the bunny
head on, but Drake couldn’t imagine why a teen boy wouldn’t be
hanging around cute girls if he wasn’t talking to them.

A sudden cunning idea came into Drake’s head.

No one knew who was in that rabbit suit. Those girls
could have been talking to a fifty year-old guy for all they knew.
Molly didn’t know, either, because with the suit on, the person
inside was invisible. That was how the plan went, anyway.

If he could just get inside the bunny suit, he could
be a better Easter rabbit than the kid was being…and maybe he’d
have a chance to talk to Molly without alerting her employers. Now,
how could he get the kid’s attention?

Drake shifted behind the bush, exploring his
options.

If he skirted around the edges of the open space, he
might be able to….

After a few minutes, the Easter bunny teen ambled
away from the cute waitresses to circulate through the kids lining
up for the Egg Hunt portion of the Picnic. Not that he appeared to
be interacting with any of them….

Seeing the bunny move to the portion of the garden
that wasn’t given over to the Egg Hunt, Drake began shifting his
own position. He stayed back, keeping an eye on her and staying out
of Molly’s view.

The guy in the bunny suit seemed to amble aimlessly,
stopping when a child grabbed at his leg to briefly pat the kid and
move on. He didn’t seem to know what to do with himself, not
stopping to bend down and let the children hug. Drake mentally
willed the bunny to shift closer to where he was hunkered down in
the shrubbery. Just a little closer and he could get the guy’s
attention.

Given the condition of the kid’s car, Drake thought
he might be open to exchanging his bunny suit gig for a little
cash.

The egg hunt hadn’t started yet, but most of the kids
had moved in that position, lining up closed to where the ribbon
gate would be opened.

Drake watched the bunny come closer, feeling himself
coiled and ready to spring forward when Molly wasn’t looking. He
had to get the kid out of view and find a place to put on the suit
himself.

Off to the left, Molly’s small utility tent
headquarters sat, near the edge of the garden clearing. Drake held
back, his gaze on the bunny as it skirted the group of kids holding
decorated baskets.

Most had finished in the gazebo, deserting it to join
the pack lining up for the egg hunt.

Just a little further, he mentally urged the bunny.
Come a little closer.
If the guy continued moving in the
same way, he’d be within several feet of where Drake hid. At that
moment, a Women’s League official began making some announcements
about how the egg hunt would work.

Just then, with everyone’s attention focused in the
other direction—and with the bunny within feet of him—Drake
pounced. He lunged forward out of his hiding place, grabbing the
bunny guy from the back and pulling him backwards into the shrubs,
ears flopping forward as he pulled.

With an “oof” and a faint shriek, the teen in the
suit stumbled back as Drake yanked him down.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered urgently into the spot
where he thought the kid’s ear was. “I’m not going to hurt
you.”

“What!” The voice from inside the bunny head was
naturally a little muffled.

His voice still lowered, Drake said, “I’ll give you a
hundred bucks for the bunny suit.”

“What?” The muffled voice sounded intrigued now.

“One hundred bucks and I’ll be the bunny,” Drake said
with determination.

* * *

Molly looked up from gathering the scattered Easter
basket decorations from the tables in the gazebo, seeing her Easter
Bunny—at last—in the middle of the group of kids. He was bent down
to give a bunny kiss to one small child while another older kid
tugged at his white, fluffy bunny tail. Reaching back to pat the
tail-tugger, the bunny drew both toward the egg hunt area. Since
the ribbon had been lowered, opening the hunt a few minutes before,
there were children throughout the Easter egg hunt area, most
clutching baskets with bedraggled ribbons, askew on motley baskets.
Looking at the baskets the kids had decorated for themselves, the
wrecked decoration area made total sense.

Stuff was everywhere. Green fluffs of plastic “grass”
littered the tables and bolts of ribbon lie unraveled across the
surfaces. Here and there, construction paper had been cut into
fragments as some children had made flowers to attach to their
baskets.

Molly had never felt so tired. The last few weeks had
been rough and that wasn’t in any way due to this picnic bash….

She missed Drake. Before they dove into their sexual
relationship, they’d been the best of friends, kidding and laughing
together. Yes, the blog had been an issue. Molly hadn’t wanted to
play the heavy about not supplying him with home improvement
content, but she’d wanted him to stop pretending. She’d thought
he’d feel better about himself and the blog if he stopped claiming
knowledge he didn’t actually have. But she’d never actually have
ratted him out to his bosses, no matter what she’d threatened. She
just thought he’d learn about basic home improvement.

Then everything had gone to hell. She and Drake
started having raunchy, very satisfying sex that threatened to
reveal her secret love for him…and then he’d won The Bloggie. That
had thrown her into a tailspin for sure.

She had no idea if he heard her when she’d gone to
his house that night, saying he had to give it back.

Sinking into one of the white plastic chairs that
were scattered around the tables, she pushed her hair back from her
eyes and wondered how soon she could go home. A quick glance at her
wrist watch revealed that it was only eleven o’clock. Not even
noon. She felt like she’d been here a dozen hours, despite only
having come at ten that morning.

Happy voices mingled with laughter and the hum of
adults chatting. It seemed like everything was going well. Even the
buffet foods seemed like a hit, the grown-ups not accompanying
children in the egg hunt were lined up at the tables, gulping it
down with enthusiasm.

Molly smiled as she watched her Easter Bunny walking
toward the egg hunt area, a small child attached to either paw.
When she’d interview the teenager currently wearing the suit, she
hadn’t been hopeful. Earlier, he seemed to fulfill her doubts. He
hadn’t mingled with the children when he first got there, hanging
over by the buffet.

Then right before the egg hunt area opened, he’d
waded into the middle of the group of kids and started being the
perfect Easter Bunny. He’d posed for photos, standing next to
smiling children as several adults clicked away and she couldn’t
count the number of kids she’d seen him hug. It was strange, after
his initially seeming withdrawn.

Cartoon characters were never supposed to
speak—voices couldn’t be matched and this way kids got to imagine
the voice they expected. Molly wondered if she should go be his
aide since he was now surrounded by excited kids, but she decided
no. He was doing great without her.

Leaving the gazebo, she checked that everything was
running smoothly in the buffet line and then she walked over to the
egg hunt, drawn by the children’s laughter. This bunny was a great
hit. She definitely needed to hire him to work all her parties.

That made her think about the weeks and months
ahead—with no Drake in her life—and suddenly she felt like bursting
into tears.

How was she going to make it until three that
afternoon when everyone would leave and she could cry in peace?

* * *

From inside the bunny costume, Drake could only see
what was right in front of him, the bunny head having see-through
netting for the dark part of the eyes. He was familiar with the
limitations, having worn it before, but he guessed that the kid
who’d worn first this morning had recently eaten a cheeseburger
with onions.

Wearing the big bunny head and the extra-large feet,
he clomped along beside his accompanying children. For the past two
hours, he’d been the best big stuffed toy he could be…all the while
turning over possibilities in his head. Exactly how as he going to
make a move on Molly?

The picnic was massively important to her, he knew.
He couldn’t mess that up for her.

He’d just have to wait.

Patiently walking around, hugging little kids and
having his tail pulled for the hundredth time, Drake found himself
eventually kind of enjoying himself. His work involved crafting the
right words, but the bunny was speechless. Wordless. Drake began to
find it a little…freeing.

At first he walked through the Easter Egg area, with
various kids clinging to his paws. They took turns, not always
equably. He found himself stepping in to hug and pat a disappointed
paw-clinger after someone else had shoved him aside. Even the older
kids kept coming by to throw their arm over the man-sized rabbit
for a photo of them nibbling on his carrot.

Drake was always careful to keep it at chest level to
avoid any inappropriate teen gestures.

Here and there, making sure everything was going
well, Molly seemed to be in the background. She picked up little
children that had gotten knocked over by other kids, she continued
checking back and forth with the caterers—who were now packing
up—and she organized whatever needed organizing.

He wondered if anyone else noticed her smile getting
more and more strained. Thankfully, the event seemed to be winding
down.

Waving goodbye to one of the final groups of
children, Drake felt himself growing jumpy inside the bunny
costume. This was the time. No little kids to distress, there
weren’t even many adults—just six or seven still picking things
up—in the garden.

Despite wracking his brain, Drake hadn’t been able to
come up with an amazing, stunning declaration of his love—that
wouldn’t jeopardize the picnic gig for her.

Pretty much, he just had one plan.

He was going to pick Molly up and carry her off. That
way she’d have to listen to him.

Waving his paw at another departing group, he circled
around to where Molly stood talking to one of the Women’s League
officials.

“I think everything went off very well, Molly,” the
older woman said, her pastel suit and pumps still lovely in the
shifting afternoon son. “You did a marvelous job.”

Molly’s smile was tired as she brushed a hand through
her short hair. “I’m glad everything worked out.”

Drake walked up next to them—there was an
exhilarating anonymity in wearing the suit, he decided. Shuffling
closer, he snuggled up next to Molly.

Still talking to the woman, she cast him a doubtful
smile when he put his bunny arm around her.

“Yes, I particularly liked the basket building
station in the gazebo.” The older woman had turned to gesture
toward the structure.

At that moment, Drake struck. He bent over and picked
Molly up.

“Oh!” The older woman started laughing as she saw
Molly over his bunny shoulder. “My, what a strong bunny you
have.”