Secretly Yours (The Wild McBrides 2) - Page 51

The younger children demanded an Easter-egg hunt after lunch. Savannah’s twins, Michael and Miranda, and Wade’s son, Clay, volunteered to hide the brightly colored eggs outside while the adults cleared away the remains of the enormous lunch they had all enjoyed.

Trent was be

ginning to wonder when he could make an escape to the peaceful solitude of his own home. He loved every member of his family, but he’d had about all he could take today. It was bad enough that they so often, if unintentionally, reminded him of how drastically his life had changed in the past couple of years. But the most difficult part of the reunion for him was being so physically close to Annie—and yet so completely separated from her.

Every time he looked at her, he wanted to touch her. Every time he heard her speak, he remembered the sound of her husky cries in the night. And every time he tried to talk to her, he remembered the chasm that had opened between them—in his perception, at least—when he’d found out exactly who she was. A woman who had no need for anyone, especially a flawed former pilot.

Everyone moved outside to watch the Easter-egg hunt. Trevor and Jamie’s children, Sam and Abbie, competed cheerfully with Wade and Emily’s almost-two-year-old daughter, Claire, and Tara and Blake’s toddler, Alison, for the most eggs in their baskets.

Trent was standing off to one side watching the festivities from a safe distance when Annie spoke from behind him. “You’ve done a very good job of pretending I’m not here today,” she said quietly. “If some of the others hadn’t spoken to me, I’d wonder if I’d gone suddenly invisible.”

Bracing himself, Trent turned to face her. She was wearing a little smile, but her eyes were very serious.

He knew Annie was as upset as he was that there was so much distance between them now. Despite the words he’d thrown at her in anger, he didn’t really believe she had become involved with him to spite her father. That wasn’t Annie’s style. She had fought the attraction as hard as he had—but it had been stronger than both of them.

He just couldn’t seem to get past this money thing. Even if he could forgive her for keeping secrets from him—which he could—he couldn’t adjust to the sudden difference in their status. It had been easier, somehow, when they’d been more equal in his mind. Both starting life over with nothing, both having something to offer the other. She’d made him feel useful again. Even needed.

But she didn’t need him. Why would she? And he’d never had a yen to play the male version of Cinderella. “You aren’t invisible, Annie,” he said. “I’ve watched you charming my family all day.”

“Your mother didn’t give me a choice about coming, really. She practically kidnapped me.”

He nodded, having suspected something like that.

The light tone she’d been using suddenly darkened. “I hope I haven’t ruined your Easter with your family.”

“You haven’t.” His gaze on her full, unhappy mouth, he pushed his hands into his pockets to keep them away from her. She’d been smiling for the others, he remembered. He hated it that he had taken her smile away.

The look in her eyes was suddenly beseeching. “Trent, I—”

“Uncle Trent! Look at my eggs!”

The high-pitched warning came just a little too late. Running up on Trent’s side, beyond his range of vision, Abbie barreled straight into him, knocking him off balance. The ground where he’d been standing was unlevel, and Abbie had come from uphill. He stumbled, making a massive effort not to fall and take the little girl down with him. Hands were suddenly there to steady him—Annie first, and then Trevor, who had sprinted toward them when he’d seen what was going to happen.

It was over in seconds. No one was hurt, and not everyone there even saw the incident. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken it so seriously. It could have happened to anyone, he supposed—anyone with limited vision, at least. Trent tried to smile to reassure Abbie that she hadn’t done anything wrong and to convince Trevor and Abbie that he was fine. No big deal. Nothing to get all bent out of shape about.

He only wished he could believe those things, himself.

“Nice haul there, Abbie,” he drawled, patting her head and nodding toward her basket of eggs. “Better go run find some more before Sam finds them all.”

Totally oblivious to the disaster she had almost unwittingly caused, Abbie grinned and ran away to join her brother and cousins.

“You’re okay, Trent?” Trevor asked lightly, but watching him closely. “Didn’t twist your back or anything, did you?”

“Come off it, Trevor. You really think I can be taken out by a three-year-old?”

Trevor grinned crookedly. “I think this particular three-year-old could take out every adult here.”

To Trent’s relief, attention returned to the end of the egg hunt. A few minutes after that, he found his mother and told her he was leaving. “I have some things to do at home,” he said. “I promised to have a couple more of those kid-size rockers finished this week.”

“You have to go now?” Bobbie asked with a frown. “I was going to round everyone up for a game of charades.”

Which only made Trent more determined to leave. There had been a time when he’d been an enthusiastic and acclaimed participant in family games. Now the thought of charades made him cringe. “I really have to go, Mom.”

Because he knew everyone would try to talk him into staying, he thought he would just slip away quietly, without saying goodbye. It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t see them all again soon, he told himself. They made a point of getting together often.

He almost made it. He’d reached his truck when Annie spoke from behind him. “Running away, Trent?”

He turned slowly, his eyebrows drawn into a frown. “I have things to do.”

Tags: Gina Wilkins The Wild McBrides Romance
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