“Um, I don’t know. He’s still a little bit scary,” Sophie replied, without looking at her.
“That’s not very nice, young lady.” Chloe put her hands on her hips. “Come on now, give it a burl. Easter Bilby needs to shoot through.”
Chloe stepped even closer to me, and all I wanted to do was yank the bunny head off and introduce myself. I glanced toward my mother, who must have known what I was thinking because she slowly shook her head no.
How does she do that? One of these days I’m going to trace her family tree and see if she comes from witches.
I put my head down in a sad gesture because Sophie wouldn’t hug me goodbye.
“Don’t be sad, Easter Bilby. I’ll be your cobber.” Sophie crawled down from her chair and ran into my fuzzy arms. “Mummy, come on, help me hug Bilby so he won’t be sad.”
Chloe joined Sophie giving me… well, the Easter Bunny, hugs. I kinda felt wrong being interested in Chloe without her knowing, like checking her out. She didn’t even know when I was smiling.
I took a step back, took a giant bow, and waved good-bye to the group, then bent over and hopped out of the room on all fours.
I heard the room erupt into laughter as I turned the corner and exited.
Chapter 4
Chloe
I’d joked, almost flirted, with the Easter Bunny and I had no idea why. At first it was creepy with him looking at me with those huge glass eyes, but the more it creeped me out, the more I couldn’t help myself.
“Chloe, let me explain what this is all about.” Victoria stood to be heard over the group. “The Hawthorne Foundation has a charity ball every Easter. When this group was younger, they wanted to be involved, so I started letting them decorate giant eggs.”
“What a lovely tradition to still be doing.” I looked to Mia. “Thank you so much for including us.”
“Yes, it is a tradition, but over the years it has become more than that. We auction off the best three eggs at the ball.” Victoria looked around the group. “It has turned into a major competition amongst this bunch of over-achievers.”
“A competition? So, there is a winner?” I asked.
“Oh yes. Every year we have a winner that gets bragging rights all year,” August added.
“How does that get decided?” I asked, looking to August. Or, at least, I think it was August.
“Whichever egg brings in the highest bid at the auction is the winner,” the other twin spoke up. “Of course, some people in here haven’t won yet.”
“So, this is pretty serious business, not just a family fun day?” I asked, looking around the group.
“Yeah, they’re serious. I’m so excited. This is my first one,” Mia spoke up first. “Wait, mine does count, right? I mean, I’m a Hawthorne now.”
“I don’t know about that,” Asher argued.
“Why not?” Mia argued back. “What’s the matter? You afraid I’ll make the best one?”
“Don’t have a blue, Aunt Mia. Mummy doesn’t like that,” Sophie interrupted. “We can all be cobbers and make pretty bum nuts.”
“You’re very right Sophie. What color egg do you want to decorate?” Victoria pointed to the middle of the table. “I think I want a gold one.”
“I want a purple one, or maybe a yellow one. No, a purple one.” Sophie sucked on her thumb. “Mummy, what color should I do?”
“Well, purple is your favorite color, so maybe that’s a good one,” I suggested. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll pick yellow, and you can come help me decorate it after you’re done.”
“Bonza. Miss Victoria, I want a purple one,” Sophie announced proudly. “Uncle Parker, what color do you want?”
“You pick one for me,” Parker said, “I can’t decide.”
“Okay, you can have a blue one and, Aunt Mia, you have a pink one.” Sophie smiled proudly. “Miss Victoria, now what do we do?”
“Come over here with me and we can pass out the eggs.” Victoria put her hand out to Sophie.
I watched as my daughter climbed off her chair and took Victoria by the hand. It felt good for her to have a grandmother figure. I just hoped she didn’t get too attached. We had to leave in a couple weeks.
“Don’t worry about these boys. They don’t know how to bedazzle like we do.” The sister, Murphy, spoke from my left. “You and Mia look so much alike! It’s crazy.”
“We get that a lot. People used to think we were twins,” I said. “Twins are pretty neat. Your brothers are so identical I can’t stop looking at them.”
“Once you get to know them you won’t think they’re identical anymore.” Murphy handed me the stack of aprons being passed around. “Their personalities are very different from each other.”
“I look forward to getting to know them then.” I passed the apron stack to Mr. Hawthorne. “Mr. Hawthorne, what color egg are you decorating?”
“I usually pick whatever egg is leftover. I like to watch the chaos of the group picking.” He let out a low chuckle. “Better rest up. This group gets extremely competitive in the Easter egg hunt.”
“There’s an Easter egg hunt? For the adults?” I looked back to Murphy, who was grinning. “Okay, now that I can’t wait to see.”
“Plan on being ruthless, dear,” Mr. Hawthorne said. “They won’t go easy on you just because you’re a guest.”
This family is amazing. This is the kinda stuff that should be in the tabloids about them.
“So, Murphy, who usually wins this egg decorating?” I asked, tying on my apron.
Chapter 5
Trey
“That would be me,” I said, standing at the only empty chair.
I’d changed out of the bunny suit and dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a button-down shirt. I’d taken extra time to make sure I looked my best. Chloe had no idea how attracted I was to her.I looked forward to chatting. I’d quietly stepped into the room and stood a few feet from her. It wasn’t like me to be acting so shyly. I gave myself a mental shake and took a deep breath.
“Hello. You must be Chloe. I’m Parker’s older brother.” I continued, extending my hand. “My name is Trey.”
“Nice to meet you, Trey. Is that short for something?” Chloe asked, looking straight into my eyes.
“Yes, it’s a nickname for Henry Hawthorne III. Mostly the lll.” I smiled, then rubbed my hands together. “Alright, let’s get this party started, people. I have a trophy to win again.”
“We already picked eggs, so you get the orange one.” Murphy patted the seat between her and Chloe. “Let’s see you win with that color, Three.”
“Just so happens I like orange, so you just worry about your own egg, Brat.” I pulled out the chair to sit. “Chloe, don’t let my family scare you. It’s me they’re after.”
“How many times have you won this?” Chloe asked, spinning her egg on the table.