AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nine
The evening air was fresh and crisp, with just the right amount of chill. The cozy firepit they all huddled around easily fended off the cold, and Bunny sighed contentedly as she wrapped her hands around the warm mug of cocoa Ben handed her before plonking himself in the chair next to hers.
“Bored?” There was a small smile on his lips, as though he already knew the answer to that question and was smug as heck about it. Bunny took a sip of her cocoa, letting the smooth chocolatey goodness warm her from the inside out before she replied.
“Not at all,” she said, sitting back in her chair and staring into the flames. “I was just thinking how amazing this is.”
“What?” Ben gasped playfully, making Bunny glance his way and smile. “Bunny Major—high-falutin’ nurse from the big smoke, ponderin’ on how nice it is out in the sticks?” He dipped his head before raising his own mug in preparation to take a sip. “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit.”
“Make fun all you want,” Bunny said, her cheeks pink and her nose cold. “But it’s true. This was a really great day. You’re so lucky to have Rosie and Declan, and Tammy. And the kids,” she added. Her gaze drifted over to the edge of the woods, where Maggie and Gabe were gathering twigs for the fire.
Ben blinked and glanced at his sister in surprise. “Do I detect a note of jealousy?”
“Maybe just a little,” Bunny smiled.
The fire crackled. She stretched her legs out toward it, enjoying the warmth. As nice as this was, she couldn’t forget the purpose of this visit was to connect with her roots to glean some knowledge from her mom’s memory. Had it been a foolish hope? She’d certainly experienced Mosswood in a different light this time around, but Bunny wasn’t sure how it was supposed to help her work out how to help Death recover his memory.
Her gaze flicked to where he was stood a ways off, his shoulder resting against a tree on the edge of the lawn. It seemed he’d had his fill of eavesdropping on human conversations without being able to take part in them, and she didn’t blame him. After drifting around the fringes of the cookout for a while, he’d taken a step back and simply observed. Bunny couldn’t help but wonder if part of him, deep down, was reverting to his typical ‘lone wolf’ ways.
“But not enough to make you stay another night?” Ben asked, his voice tinged with understanding.
Bunny smiled. “Wish I could,” she sighed, surprising herself when she meant it. “But I’ve got some stuff I need to take care of.”
Her baby brother nodded, his silvered brown hair falling over his forehead. For a split-second he looked like he was ten years old again, wanting to follow her and her teenaged friends when they went out to get into mischief. He hadn’t changed so much since then. Not like she had.
He glanced back up at her hopefully. “Anything I can help with?”
Her conversation with Rosie came floating back to her. Bunny glanced at Ben’s friend across the fire, watching her in conversation with Declan and Myles, Tammy’s husband. As though she knew she was being observed, Rosie looked through the flames to give Bunny a slow nod of acknowledgement.
Bunny took a breath.
“Did Mom ever talk to you about her… hobbies?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Hobbies?” he frowned, thinking. “You mean like baking? And bridge?”
“Not exactly,” Bunny replied, watching her brother’s face carefully for any signs that he understood what she was getting at. “Maybe like volunteer work?”
Ben shook his head. “Can’t say I remember her mentioning it. Why?”
Unless all that time he’d spent doing Civil War reenactments had turned him into a brilliant actor, Bunny’d put money on her brother knowing absolutely nothing about their mother’s role as a celestial.
Damn.
“I’m involved in a not-for-profit she used to do some stuff with,” she explained off-handedly with a shrug. “That’s all. Next time you come down to visit, I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Sounds great,” Ben said, sounding impressed. “I’m hoping to get some time off later in the year. Hire a junior clerk, even. I’d steal Gabe away from Rosie and Tammy’s cafe, but he makes the best coffee in Mosswood these days. I’m pretty sure they’d skin me alive.”
“We would,” piped up Tammy, who was scooting by to collect empty cocoa mugs. Bunny and Ben both smiled at her with thanks.
“What about Maggie?” Bunny asked half-seriously, as Gabe and Maggie wandered up to the rest of the group with armfuls of twigs.
“I’m going to have my own store one day,” Maggie promised, dumping her spoils in a pile next to the fire.
“Don’t go putting me out of business,” Ben advised her with a wink that earned him a grin in return.
Bunny glanced between the two of them thoughtfully. “I’m not sure who’d I’d put my money on,” she admitted in the end.
* * *
