Will shook his head. “Maybe we’d better confine ourselves to checking out the women in here for the rest of the evening.”
“Finally a plan I can get behind,” Connor said, swiveling his stool around for a better view.
Sadly, though, at this hour on the Saturday night of a holiday weekend, the place was nearly empty. Next to him, Will heaved a sigh, finished his beer and set the bottle on the bar.
“I’m out of here,” he said. “Not that your company’s not scintillating, but at least if I’m home and asleep, a sexy woman might appear in my dreams.”
Connor nodded. “Right behind you.”
Besides, the only woman he really wanted to be with was no doubt home in bed. Sadly, though, not his home and not his bed.
* * *
“Do you actually know where you hid all the eggs?” Kevin asked Connor as the family assembled outside for the traditional Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning after church. He looked like a director at a recreation center with his whistle hanging around his neck and his clipboard in hand.
“What does it matter?” Connor replied. “They’re plastic. They’re not going to stink up the yard the way the real ones did that year you were in charge of hiding them.”
“We’ve all learned a lot since then,” Kevin said grimly. “At least some of us have. You, apparently, not so much.”
Heather listened to the exchange with amusement. She turned to Bree, who was sitting next to her in an Adirondack chair on the porch. “Have those two always been like this?”
“Worse, actually. Connor is a natural-born competitor. He wants to win at everything. It’s probably why he’s so good in a courtroom. Losing is never an option. Normally Kevin is quiet and laid-back, but Connor has always been able to get a rise out of him. Most of the time I think he does it deliberately, just to see how long it takes before Kevin loses it.”
Now the brothers were standing practically toe-to-toe. Kevin had an exasperated expression on his face. “Plastic’s great,” he told Connor. “It won’t stink, you’re right about that. But while most of the eggs have candy inside, which is no big loss, some of them have money.”
Connor suddenly looked vaguely uneasy. “You mean like a quarter, right?”
Kevin nodded. “Some of them. And some have dollar bills. Dad even tucked a five-dollar bill into a couple of them. Now maybe losing track of five bucks doesn’t mean much to a big-shot attorney, but to these kids it’s a big deal.” He tapped his clipboard. “That’s why I had Dad write down what he put in the eggs, so we could check ’em off at the end of the hunt. There are thirty with candy, twelve with quarters, five with a dollar and four with five dollars. I told him it was a bad idea hiding that much cash, but he insisted.”
Connor looked encouraged. “The point is that you’ll know if any are missing.”
“But not where they are, you moron.”
Heather laughed, then tried to cover it when Connor scowled in her direction.
“Okay, okay,” Connor said. “If any of the eggs with money don’t turn up, I’ll replace the cash.”
“And give it to whom?” Kevin asked. “Dad? You certainly can’t randomly pick a kid and give it to him or her. We’ll have a rebellion.”
Bree looked over at Heather and rolled her eyes. “Somebody needs to stop those two and tell them to get on with the hunt. The kids are getting restless.”
“Don’t look at me,” Heather said. “They’re your brothers. I’m an innocent bystander.”
Bree gave Heather a chiding look. “Then I suppose it’s up to me,” she grumbled. “Haul me out of this chair.”
Heather helped her up, then watched as she inserted herself between her brothers. She reached for the whistle hanging around Kevin’s neck and blew it.
“The hunt has officially begun,” she called out, even as Kevin and Connor regarded her with dismay.
“Hey,” Kevin began. “I’m in charge of the Easter egg hunt.”
“Then run it,” she said.
Of course, the advice was a little late, because whooping kids were running in every direction, snatching up eggs and putting them into their baskets. Little Mick was crawling after them, but had absolutely zero chance of competing.
“Connor!” Heather called and gestured toward their son. “How about some help?”
Spotting the problem, he scooped up his son and took him directly to the flower beds along the path beside the house, where they immediately found several of the brightly colored plastic eggs.
“Hey, no fair,” Caitlyn called out indignantly, her hands on her hips. “Uncle Connor knows where all the eggs are.”
“Not all of them,” Kevin muttered.
Abby came out of the house in time to hear the exchange. “Caitlyn, you just worry about finding your own eggs. We always helped you when you were your cousin’s age.”
Caitlyn looked momentarily taken aback by the rebuke, then shrugged and ran off, yelling with glee when she found another egg just moments later.
“Do Megan and Nell need any help in the kitchen?” Heather asked Abby.
“Nope. They just kicked me out,” Abby said. “Gram has a system. She barely tolerates Mom being underfoot.”
“I love your family,” Heather said, then immediately regretted it when both Abby and Bree regarded her with sympathy. She held up a hand. “Forget I said that. I’m sure you both know how lucky you are. That’s all I meant.”
“No, it’s not,” Abby said, casting a disgusted look toward Connor. “If it weren’t so plain to me how much he loves you and the baby, I’d kick his butt for how he’s treating you. Even for an O’Brien, he’s taking stubbornness to new heights.”
“We could gang up on him,” Bree suggested.
“Absolutely not,” Heather said, horrified by the idea. “I may not agree with Connor’s views on marriage, but I can’t deny that he believes every word he utters on the subject. It’s pointless to try to change his mind. I’ve certainly given up.”
“Well, that’s just sad,” Abby said.
Connor, carrying an exhausted little Mick, overheard
