The Texan's Promise

Excerpt:

    “Selena and Jazz wanted to make sure you knew to come to Xavier and Selena’s house Saturday. It’s an Easter prep party.”

    Belle made a small distressed sound. Not good. “What’s that?” Quinn asked.
    Elijah looked confused. “An Easter prep party is where you make stuff for Easter.”
    Quinn snorted. “Yeah, I get that, but what are you prepping? Do you dye eggs? The girls have done that a couple of times.” Had Jonah? He couldn’t remember.

    Belle answered, “We don’t just soak the eggs in color. There are all sorts of ways to decorate an egg. We also build our piñata and create the paper flowers we’ll put at the cross after church. The best part is making doz-ens of cascarones to hide.”
    He was sure Belle didn’t want him crashing her fam-ily get-together. “Tell her thank you, but we can’t make it.”
    Elijah creased his brow. “You have another social en-gagement? Jazz and Selena come across all sweet and nice, but they are undercover dictators. They weren’t asking.”
    “They’re good at telling others what they should be doing. It’s easier to go along with it—and they’re usu-ally right, anyway.” Belle finally turned her gaze to him. “You should let the kids come. They’ll have a great time. It’s a family tradition we do every year.”

    “Family traditions?” Not his family, though.

“My kids want your kids there.” She gave him a ten-tative smile. Not the one he had come to look forward to.

    He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed her smile. Not that it mattered. Soon he’d be in another part of the world. “Gina can bring the kids.” He paused. “They ac-tually make the cascarones? Is it safe?”
    “Yes. The eggshells have been disinfected before they stuff the confetti inside. And they have no prob-lem cracking them over anyone’s head they can reach.”
    Xavier laughed. “Coating everyone’s hair with dots of color might be their favorite part of Easter. The bigger the mess, the better. Selena said she invited you the other day when she saw you at the multiples group thing.”
    “She did, but I didn’t want to intrude. And I wasn’t sure what it was we were being invited to.”

    Belle gave him another forced smile. “Your kids are always welcome.”

    He shouldn’t be disappointed that she didn’t include him. It wasn’t like he was ever going to be in a rela-tionship with her.
    He needed to stay focused on his job. Now he had new details to work out if he was going to make every-one happy before he left. Soon he’d be planning the next project. Then, before the weather cooled, they would be gone. Off to a new country.
    Normally, that was the exciting part of the job for him. Maybe he was getting old. The thought of moving to another country just made him tired.