Free No Bunny But You (Holiday Romance Series) by Carol Rose Page A

him
and began running toward Drake.
    Austin was suffering from one of its occasional “cold
fronts”, but it was just his luck that the League members didn’t
think it was necessary to cancel for the weather.
    Just his luck—it wasn’t raining.
    As children surrounded him, he caught fragments of
phrases through their screams of delight.
    “Look it’s a big rabbit!”
    “He has an Easter Basket!!”
    Bracing himself for what looked like an onslaught of
miniature munchkins, Drake reflected again why he’d never
particularly liked kids—or thought they liked him. When he was
suiting up in the furry outfit, Molly had reminded him that bunnies
didn’t talk, so he had to keep his mouth shut. Since words had
always been his talent, he was left feeling somewhat
unprotected—despite the bunny suit, the huge feet and the head with
the monstrous ears—and unsure what the hell to do.
    Clomping forward in the gigantic bunny feet, he felt
the first running child thump into him.
    “The Easter rabbit!” The small boy clutched at him,
clinging to his leg and making forward progress difficult.
    Aware of the other twenty kids running his way, Drake
wished he’d gotten a few more tips on what exactly he was to do.
Molly stood a little to his side, but since he couldn’t talk,
asking her now what to do wasn’t an option.
    Damn friendship or whatever the hell this was now.
When she’d made her plea for help, he couldn’t really say no.
Letting Molly down wasn’t even a choice he considered—even if that
meant wearing huge furry feet and letting himself be mobbed by a
bunch of insane midgets.
    Even if she had ended their kiss by pushing him
away.
    He needed to have his head examined. It hadn’t
occurred to him not to respond when she’d called in
desperation.
    What was the matter with him?
    Sure, she’d have been in a fix unless he helped her
out, but things between them had shifted since those kisses. He
knew more than anyone how important this gig was to her, though.
And what was important to Molly was important to him.
    Idiot that he was.
    Soon Drake was surrounded by a gaggle of children,
all clutching at his arms and trying to hug his waist. He could
even feel several kids, pulling at his big, fluffy bunny tail.
Weird.
    Through his mesh “eyes”, he saw that they ranged from
about ten to twelve to some really small ones he guessed were only
three or four. Since the little ones seemed to want to cluster
around his legs like chicks under their mother—and he didn’t want
to step on them—Drake finally knelt down. His huge head made it
difficult to bend over to see where they were, but he tried.
    Kneeling with one fur-covered knee on the damp spring
grass, he was suddenly hugged by a half a dozen small bodies and he
shifted in an attempt to balance their weight.
    “Did you brwing eggs, mister bunny? Chocowat eggs?” A
small boy with dark hair and eyes had acquired a limpet-grip on his
leg. “Do you have them in your basket?”
    The older kids stood around him in a ring while Drake
tried to keep from tumbling over from the force of little kids
clinging to him.
    “He has ears! Look at his big ears.”
    “And this funny, furry tail.” A mid-sized girl
giggled as she tugged at the rear of his costume.
    “Back off, Kesha,” an older girl told a small one
authoritatively, pulling her off his knee. “Give the bunny some
room to breathe.”
    She took Kesha by the arm and picked her up. He
couldn’t help being relieved, even as he noted she seemed
accustomed to the role, almost like a mini-adult.
    “He has a basket! An Easter basket.” A young boy
clutched at the wicker handle and tugged. “Look, there are eggs in
here. And candy!”
    Soon the adult child-handlers—he couldn’t think what
else to call them—soon ringed him also, the adults calling to the
kids to mind their manners and not grab candy from his basket, much
as the older girl had.
    Bent down as he was, Drake saw the smaller children
up close. They