“Well, it’s round three, so how many times do you think?” Diana prompted her to think about it.
“Three times?” She answered immediately. “Mummy, I get to ring it three times. Is that right, Miss Diana?”
“You got it correct, now go on and give it three big rings.” Diana handed her the bell.
Sophie beamed with delight ringing the bell and I looked to Chloe, then Mia. They were smiling, but Chloe’s smile wasn’t all the way to her eyes like they’d been earlier in the day. Something was definitely not right.
Chapter 8
Chloe
Icould feel Trey’s eyes on me before I looked in his direction. The pull to him surprised me. We hadn’t really had a full conversation, but I felt like we had.
“Miss Sophie, would you like to ring the bell?” I heard Diana ask.
“Yes, I would.” Sophie answered, then she was off my lap and I was left trying not to stare at Trey.
The trays for round three were brought in and we all gasped when the cloth was lifted off for us to see.
“Chocolate?” Asher reached for one. “These will melt. How are we supposed to glue them?”
Victoria watched as Asher tried to bite the chocolate bunny.
“Stale chocolate. Even worse.” Asher tossed it to the table. “I’m not liking this round already.”
“It’s not chocolate to eat, Matching Boy,” Murphy mocked. “Look at it, it’s been coated with something so it just looks like you can still eat it.”
I reached for a chocolate carrot and it was, in fact, not edible. There were chocolate mini-eggs, bunnies in varied poses, crosses, and carrots. Even the jellybeans were coated.
Crickey, how far in advance does she plan this?
“I love it, Mom. This is something we’ve never had before and I, for one, already have a plan.” Trey reached for supplies.
Diana and Hank came back into the room with another tray of chocolates, but this time they were edible. They passed the real chocolates around the room.
“The chocolates are for inspiration.” Victoria bit into a bunny. “Now remember, only twenty minutes.
“Now don’t go spoiling your appetite, Trey, lunch is in an hour,” Diana scolded as Trey popped the fourth piece in his mouth. “I know you and your sweets.”
I could feel Sophie laughing at Trey being scolded by Diana. Then she really laughed when he grabbed another handful from Diana and started hiding them in his pockets.
“Don’t worry, I saved some for you for later,” Trey said to Sophie. “After lunch, okay?”
Sophie just laughed some more and bobbed her head up and down. This earned him another smile from me, even though I was trying not to look at him and those dimples.
“Chloe, don’t forget now that we have an inner house competition going on,” Trey taunted. “I don’t see you working very hard over there.”
“Worry about yourself.” The twins answered for me. “He can be such a bossy pain.”
“Asher, are we really going to talk about each other’s issues?” Trey leaned back against his table.” “If so, I have a few free minutes… or hours.”
“Knock it off boys. Your mother worked hard on this day,” Henry Hawthorne growled from his quiet end of the table. “Henry, you’re the oldest. Stop picking on the young ones.”
“Dad, you’ve been saying that to me since Parker was born and haven’t stopped,” Trey said, chuckling quietly.
I looked to Murphy, who nodded cheerfully at Trey, while August covered his laugh with a cough.
Sophie went right to work gluing chocolate bunnies to one end of our egg. Of course, each bunny had to have a carrot too. The room had become very quiet. A quick glance around it appeared everyone was deep into decorating. I went back to gluing and lost myself in it until Diana and Hank returned with another ring of the bell.