Page 107 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

Olive sat on the nearby bale of hay and nodded her head solemnly. Cece and Ivy followed suit. Iris smiled.

‘At least they have to be quiet for a few minutes,’ Hazel whispered, and Iris laughed.

‘Okay, this one is called Cookie.’ Kira lowered a caramel-colored bunny wrapped in a baby blanket into Olive’s arms. Olive practically glowed with excitement, but she stayed completely still and silent, just staring at the animal in her arms.

Kira lowered a white and black bunny named Alexander into Cece’s arms and a tiny gray one named Stormy into Ivy’s.

‘Well, that’s the cutest freaking thing I’ve seen all day,’ Iris said, and Kira grinned.

‘I know, right?’

‘So, you have bunnies now?’

Kira shrugged. ‘It started with just a couple.’

‘That’s how it goes with bunnies,’ Noah said with a laugh, and Hazel rolled her eyes.

‘Aren’t they cute, though!’ Kira said with a dreamy smile.

‘How do Bennett and the dogs feel about them?’ Iris asked.

‘Very protective of them. The dogs keep watch all day, and I’ve caught Ben checking on them in the middle of the night several times.’

Iris laughed and Olive shushed her. ‘You’re going to scare him,’ she whispered.

‘Sorry,’ Iris whispered back.

‘If you’re very careful you can stroke his little head like this.’ Kira demonstrated and then Olive followed suit, petting the bunny’s head with such gentle love and care that Iris felt the inexplicable urge to cry.

‘You okay?’ Kira asked, looking at her with concern.

Apparently, it wasn’t just an urge. Iris wiped her eyes. ‘It’s been a weird day.’

Kira was still looking at her with a furrow between her brows when Archer found them.

‘God, that’s cute,’ he said when he saw Olive and the bunny.

‘Dangerously cute,’ Iris agreed.

‘We’re not getting a bunny.’

‘Right. We’re not getting a bunny.’

They caught each other’s eye and started laughing. Kira was staring. Luckily, Hazel and Noah were too busy snapping pictures of the girls to notice.

‘What is—’ Kira started.

‘Can I hold a bunny too?’ A young boy with freckles and a strawberry stained mouth tugged on Kira’s apron, distracting her from whatever it was she was going to ask, and Iris was definitely not going to answer. What would she say anyway, ‘Oh, right, I forgot to tell you Kira, I fell in love with this man and his daughter and we’re here trying to pretend we’re a family and I’m not sure if it’s working or not but I can’t look at Olive without wanting to cry and I can’t look at Archer without wanting to fling myself at him, so … yeah … that’s what is going on.’

Kira flashed her one more raised eyebrow, like she’d heard Iris’s thoughts, before turning to the rabbit hutch to pull out the next one needing a snuggle.

Iris took the opportunity to distract herself from her feelings and take in the scope of the festival. It certainly wasn’t as big as say the fall festival or even summer, but it was a good showing for the first year. There were several booths selling strawberry shortcake. Iris noticed Annie’s bakery had multiple varieties of strawberry-flavored cookies and cupcakes for sale. The Pumpkin Spice Café had a booth, too, serving up strawberry lemonades and strawberry smoothies. There were the baby animals, an arts and craft tent, and a bounce house for the kids. And more craft vendors than Iris could count. Not bad at all for year one. She even spotted Logan giving tractor rides, an activity usually reserved for the fall. Jeanie must have talked him into that.

‘So how do we get her away from the bunnies?’ Archer asked after they’d been standing around sipping lemonade and watching Olive snuggle Cookie for far too long. Cece and Ivy had gotten bored and convinced Noah and Hazel to take them to the bounce house, but Olive hadn’t wanted to give up her bunny yet.

‘I saw something about a puppet show starting around noon. Maybe we can lure her away with that.’

They both looked skeptically at Olive. Her face was filled with deep and abiding adoration for this bunny. They were so screwed.