Emmy grinned. “A barn, but yes. All the annual holiday stuff lives there, and the guy who stores it is a positive drill sergeant with a heart of marshmallow candy. The barn is regimented and organized within an inch of its life and if you even gonearthe wrong season’s stuff he growls at you, but he secretly loves helping and watching the kids freak out every year when the different decorations go up.”
“Aw.” Karl cleared his throat. “That was a deep, manly kind of ‘aw.’”
“Of course it was.” Emmy patted his shoulder reassuringly. “Okay, you have to go now because I’m actually supposed to be watching all the kids find the goodies. Easter Bunny duties, you know.”
“I had no idea.” Karl kissed her one last time, then squirmed out of the basket and closed the door behind him. Donna was still standing guard, although she relaxed a bit when he exited. They both looked up to see Emmy with her front paws over the edge of the basket, her eyes button-bright and her nose twitching with interest as children ran back and forth, shouting with each new prize they found.
Finally, an exhausted toddler with a basket filled with goodies and smiling adults behind him staggered toward Emmy. Donna bent, whispered, “The Easter Bunny is waiting to see what you found!” to the child, whose smile lit up so brightly that Karl understood immediately, completely, why Emmy did this. The kid crawled into the basket, and one of their adults joined them to take pictures.
They were the first in a long line that included some of the well-dressed adults, who were clearly just as charmed to have their picture taken with the tremendously large Easter Bunny as the children were. Karl met what felt like half of Virtue as he stood around chatting and grinning, praising kids for their haul, and watching Emmy be as cute a bunny as she was a woman.
The crowd started trickling away around noon as people started to go home for their dinners (or, Karl suspected, naps), and as the numbers of photo-seekers slowed, Donna nudged him. “So?”
He raised his eyebrows at Emmy’s best friend. “So, what?”
“What comes next for you two? The hot vagabond meets the pretty small-town girl? Where does that story go?”
“I’m not really a vagabond,” Karl said absently, but he waved a hand, indicating he knew what Donna meant. His gaze went back to Emmy, and he smiled. “I suppose we’ll have to talk about it and find out.”
* * *
Emmy was exhaustedafter being Easter Bunny On Duty for several hours, and Karl couldn’t blame her at all.Hewas exhausted, and all he’d done was stand around, chat, and grin a lot. “I get why you do it,” he said when they were back in the B&B, “but I’m not sure I could nerve myself up for it every year. There are so many kids, and I saw at least three of them pull your ears.”
“Oh, a lot more than that did,” Emmy said ruefully. She’d collapsed on the bed, tired but happy, and he stretched out beside her. “Most of them are very gentle, or try to be, and some of them are just little and clumsy. But it does get tiring not letting my rabbit kick them in the head if they’re actually pills. And then it’s just a lot, because rabbits are social, but they usually have a nest or a family or something, not zillions of stranger bunnies coming up to pet them.”
“I have objections to strangers petting you,” Karl said with amusement. Emmy laughed out loud and elbowed him, so he said a perfunctory, “Ow,” that made her laugh again.
“You know what I mean. And I know what you mean,” she admitted. “And we’re going to have to go down to Easter dinner with my family. You know that too, right?”
Karl made a show of looking for his phone and checking the time. “Oh, look, I need to be going… No, that’s fine. I think I like them, in an ‘overwhelmed by the sheer numbers’ kind of way.” He hesitated, then decided there was no time like the present. “Not that I’m actually running out the door, but…”
“But you have your hike to finish,” Emmy said softly. “I know. It’s ridiculous, but I’ve been avoiding thinking about that all weekend.”
“It’s not ridiculous. Two days ago I was literally just a stranger passing through town. A lot has changed since then.” Karl held his breath a moment, nerving himself up for the question. “That said… Well. I know this is a big ask, especially since the farthest you’ve ever been outside of Virtue’s city limits is a ten minute walk, but…would you consider coming with me?” He thought he sounded wistful, and hoped that was okay. “If you don’t want to, that’s completely understandable, but…I’d really like you to finish this journey with me.”
“Really?” Emmy’s voice rose in astonishment and she sat up, eyes huge. “You’ve gone three thousand miles alone and you want to do the last three hundred with somebody?”
“Not with somebody. With you. I’m probably crazy, though, it’s kind of an awful thing to ask someone to do, especially on basically no notice, never mind the fact that we’ve now known each other—” Karl paused, looking at his phone again. “I believe it’s officially two full days in about seven minutes.”
Emmy’s smile went gooey. “The best two days of my life. And no, it’s not awful at all! I’m honored, and I think—I think I’d love it? I’m not sure? Maybe I’d panic half a mile outside of Virtue? But mostly I don’t want to slow you down, Karl. I mean, I’m fat, but I’m in pretty good condition, like, those two things are not opposites. But I don’t hike anything like twenty miles a day, either, and that’s kind of what you have to do to get to Bar Harbor by your deadline, isn’t it?”
“See? It’s a big ask. But…” Karl took another deep breath and reached for Emmy’s hand. “But I think—no, Iknow—that I was looking for something when I set out on this journey, Emmy. I thought maybe I would find it if I somehow made it to Bar Harbor by the anniversary of Mom’s death. I got lucky. I found it a few hundred miles, and a few weeks, early. I was looking for family, Em. I was looking for a sense of purpose, a way forward, and IknowI’ve found that here with you. I would still really like to get there by the anniversary, but it’s not quite as important as it was before. Maybe it would take longer if we went together. But if getting there a little late meant being able to take the last part ofthisjourney as the beginning of a whole new one with you, then…that sounds perfect, to me.”
Tears were filling her beautiful eyes, but he thought—hoped—they were tears of happiness. “What if I panic half a mile outside of Virtue?”
A rough laugh escaped him. “Well, then, we take as long as we need to get there, one half mile at a time.”
The tears spilled over, and he leaned in to kiss them away as Emmy whispered, “That actually sounds like the most wonderful idea in the world. Yes. I would love to hike to Bar Harbor with you, half a mile at a time if necessary.”
Karl, beaming, kissed her, then kissed her again, and again, then groaned and murmured, “We have to go down to dinner. Come on, before I decide dinner isn’t really that important. Let’s go tell your family we’re going on a hike.”
CHAPTER15
The first half mile hadn’t been so bad, and neither had the one after that. Crossing the state line into Vermont had taken some standing at the border and breathing, but once Emmy had stepped across it, the rest of them came much more naturally. For the first few days, Karl had worried about her getting blisters, until she’d shown him how transforming into a rabbit and back dealt with minor injuries without even having to put bandaids on.
He had spent thenextfew days genuinely trying to turn into a rabbit himself, and looking terribly disappointed at his failures.
Emmy was more determined than Karl to get to Bar Harbor by his deadline, and he agreed to taking the shortest route, although he felt it was to spare her feet, even after she showed him the minor healing powers of shifting. They slept under the stars most nights, and Emmy kept turning into a rabbit to snuggle up against Karl’s side, sometimes in his sleeping bag. He swore he’d never been so cozy or slept so well on the whole journey as he did the three weeks it took them to reach their destination.
