Sizzling Hot Apple Cider

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  “Are they here to play with us?” Lee asked.

  “Definitely,” I replied before the others had a chance. “And guess what?”

  Lee backed away from me warily and reluctantly asked, “What?”

  I jumped at him and tagged him. “You’re it!” Before anyone could move, I was already running away.

  It took a moment for it all to click and once it did, everyone scattered, including Koen, which surprised me.

  Lee scowled. “Not fair, Sissy!” He chased after me.

  Laughing, I hollered back, “Life is never fair.”

  That spurred him on, and he pumped his legs, trying to get me back. Dayton came into view and I ran around him. Lee decided to change his focus and chased after his teacher instead.

  Chuckling, Dayton ducked underneath the playground bridge. He was going easy on the six-year-old and allowed himself to get caught. Dayton went after Lawson, picking the boy up and swinging him before running away.

  Lawson was grinning huge as he tried to chase his brother and then switched to me.

  “No!” I ran around a slide.

  “You’re too fast,” he called after me.

  “Not my problem.”

  Bryce came into view, and I went to run around him, but he refused. “I’ll help, little man.” Bryce wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me against his body.

  “This is cheating!” I kicked out, squirming to get loose. He lifted me far enough off the ground so that my feet didn’t touch.

  Bryce chuckled, his mouth near my ear. “Better you than me.”

  My skin pebbled as my body warmed with his words.

  “Traitor! I thought you were supposed to protect me.”

  Bryce’s chest shook with his laughter as he moved closer to Lawson. The boy saw me trapped and grinned wide.

  “No!” I fought harder to get free, but it wasn’t meant to be. Lawson was able to tag me. Bryce let me go right away and took off before I had a chance to tag him.

  Game on.

  I took off after him, determined to pay him back for his kindness. At one point, his jacket was inches away from my fingertips, but he was a little too fast for me. Bryce ran around a slide. It was one that was a little longer at the end so children didn’t fly off and hurt themselves.

  Grinning, instead of following him around, I jumped onto the slide, and then pushed hard off it to jump.

  “What the—”

  Bryce didn’t have a chance as I slammed into him, taking him down with me. “Maddie, what the heck?” His hands went to my waist as he steadied me.

  “Victory!” I raised both my hands up in a victory pose, ignoring his grunting.

  “You could have hurt yourself,” Koen said as he grabbed me and pulled me off his buddy.

  “Oh jeez, thanks for your concern for me,” Bryce grumbled.

  “You’re fine,” I said.

  “That was cheating.”

  “You set a precedent,” I argued. “I only used the new rules to my advantage.”

  Dayton, Lawson, and Lee were laughing when they caught up with me.

  “Darn, I didn’t know you could fly,” Dayton said. “Good job.”

  I grinned big, feeling pretty proud of myself for my ingeniousness. I was the Tag Queen—a title I was severely protective of.

  Everyone was still laughing as I took off to the roundabout. Lawson joined and I got us moving fast while he held on in the middle. It was a little hard for me since my leg barely reached the ground to push off. Koen came over and pushed for us.

  I squealed as we went so fast that I felt like I was going to slide off and get slung all the way across the playground.

  Lawson couldn’t stop laughing as he held on. Lucky guy was stable, staying in the middle. I wrapped my arms and legs around one of the poles as we went faster and faster. The grin on my face was impossible to lose as the world went around and around, speeding by faster than my eyes could keep up with.

  I loved it.

  “I need to get off,” Lawson said, sounding a little sick.

  Chuckling, Koen slowed the ride down until Lawson could jump off. He didn’t stick around, running toward Lee and Dayton. Granted, his running was a little off as he tried to stay on his feet. I giggled, watching him stumble. Bryce noticed too, sitting at a bench to watch all of us, and began laughing.

  Koen helped me off the roundabout.

  “Whoa,” I said. “My brain hasn’t realized that I stopped spinning.” Walking became a challenge as my legs wobbled, the world moving all topsy-turvy.

  “Are you okay?” Koen’s concern was overshadowed by the laughter in his voice.

  “Nope,” I said. “I’m going down.”

  And I did. I had walked far enough away to make it to the grass, and it was a little jarring.

  “Maddie!” Koen’s frame was over me. This time the worry was real.

  I blinked, staring at the clear blue sky. The coldness of the ground seeped into my clothes, but I didn’t care. My coat would take the brunt of the damage and that was easy to peel off.

  “Maddie?”

  “Hmm.”

  “Are you okay? Did you hit your head?”

  Instead of answering his question, I held up my hands for him to grab. “Did you know when you fall, it’s the perfect time to reflect on your life.”

  “Erm, okay?”

  He grabbed my hands, meaning to pull me up. Not wanting to get up, I yanked on his arm until he had no choice but to lie beside me. He did too, which delighted me. Koen was not a man I pictured lying on a cold ground with mud soaking into his clothes.

  “Just look at it.” I waved my hand to the sky. “It’s everywhere. Nothing but blue.”

  “It’s nice.”

  I nudged his side with my elbow. “Say that again and mean it.”

  He didn’t respond right away, but when he finally did, I could tell that he really meant what he said. “It really is nice. Like there’s nothing around.”

  “Exactly.”

  We lay there long enough for Bryce to appear above us.

  “Are you okay down there?”

  I grinned, feeling goofy. “More than good. Everything in this world is perfect from this view. You should join us.”

  “Maybe another time. I wanted to ask if you’re hungry. We can go get lunch.”

  “No.”

  “It’s getting late,” Bryce said. “And if you want Lawson and Lee to be hungry for dinner, but not starving, you should probably get them fed.”

  “Psh. Missing one meal won’t be the end of the world for them. It’ll build character.”

  Bryce snorted. “Or make them feel sick. Come on.” He held his hands out for me to grab.

  I sighed and reached for him. He had me on my feet in the next breath, and I stumbled into him. The comfort him against me was enough to have me melting into his hold. His hands tightened and pulled me closer. I didn’t want him to let me go and it felt like he didn’t want to either.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, my cheeks heating at the intimacy. Being so close to him like this was nice and I wanted to be stingy enough to take more from him.

  “Are we all set?” Dayton asked.

  “I’m hungry,” Lawson added.

  That was enough to burst the little bubble that was forming around Bryce and me, and remind me that we were only friends. We could only be friends.

  I only wanted us to be friends. Maybe if I kept telling myself that, it’d become true.

  “Yeah, we’re all set,” Koen said, his voice sounding tight, like he was holding back from something.

  When I looked at him, all I saw was a forced blankness.

  Nodding, I responded, “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I’m hungry too.”

  Since we were already at the Fens, the guys walked us to a restaurant in Fenway that they thought we’d like.

  Tension rippled through Koen and Bryce. Dayton didn’t notice, listening as Lawson went on and on with a conversation I couldn’t keep up
with as he talked about dinosaurs.

  I fell back to Koen and Bryce while we waited for a light to change. “Everything okay?” I asked.

  Bryce met my gaze and nodded.

  “Of course,” Koen replied. It was almost believable. Almost. But there was a little bite to his words that belied his response.

  I glanced between the two of them, worry growing in the pit of my stomach.

  “Who’s the liar now?” I asked Koen.

  The light changed, and I grabbed Lee’s hand as we crossed. Lawson held on to his brother, Dayton grabbing his free hand.

  Confusion swirled around as we went into a restaurant and sat down. Dayton disappeared for a moment before returning with a small board game to play. Apparently, the restaurant had a few options. That got the kids attention for the rest of the meal as they played Guess Who, with the twins working together to triumph over Dayton.

  I fussed with my napkin, tearing it into pieces once I finished eating. Conversation outside of talking about the game the kids were playing was stilted and I didn’t understand why.

  Koen sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair. Calling his hair blond wasn’t fair though. He had different shades going on there. I loved it when the sun shined through his hair.

  “Maddie?” His voice was gentle.

  “Yeah?” I kept tearing at the napkin, ready to leave. There was enough tension in my life, and I didn’t like this new one. Something was going on and I didn’t understand why. That didn’t settle well with me. If the twins weren’t with me, I would have pretended to go to the bathroom and then snuck out the window. Was that too tacky?

  Probably. But I would risk getting my butt stuck in the window if it meant I could get away from this atmosphere. Even Dayton picked up on it and kept giving his friends questioning looks, each time his frown deepening and deepening. He was going to create valleys on his handsome face if he kept it up. Not that I was going to tell him that.

  “Maddie, look at me.”

  My attention snapped to Koen. Something in the look on my face wasn’t to his standards because he scowled. I wanted to shrink away from him, his expression too similar to my dad’s.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing. Why would there be something wrong?” I asked in a low voice.

  “You look like you want to run away.”

  That drew everyone else’s attention and the table grew quiet.

  I blew out a breath, collecting all the courage I had. My shoulders went back, and my spine straightened. “Shouldn’t I be asking that? What happened? Things were going good, but then we come to eat and the two of you become grumpheads.”

  “Grumpheads?” Bryce asked.

  “I can’t exactly say anything meaner than that, now can I?” I pointedly looked at the twins. Their eyes were wide as they watched the volley of conversation.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Koen said.

  I shook my head. “Of course not. You know, it isn’t that fair. Something wrong with me, and the three of you drag it out of me, but I ask and I get nothing.” I threw my hands up and let them thump to the table to show my frustration.

  “I know I like hearing myself talk, but I can listen too. And I’m not blind. Something is bothering the two of you, but neither of you will tell me. Yet if I so much as frown, you’re down my throat, demanding an answer. Did you not want us to come to lunch with you guys? I mean, if you’re sick of us, just tell me.” My heart ached at that thought. “I’m a big girl. I’m perfectly okay with removing us from your presence if you want more space.”

  “Why the heck would you think that?” Bryce asked, his expression darkening. “If we were sick of you, we wouldn’t have gone to the park to see you guys. You’re not making any sense. Maddie…” He mumbled something underneath his breath. “I promise, there’s nothing wrong and we love spending time with you, Lawson, and Lee. We had a lot of fun today.”

  “Then why all this tension!” I waved my hands around, trying to make my point, and only managing to make myself look like a lunatic. Something was going on and they weren’t telling me. That was unacceptable. I swore I knew how to listen when others talked. I was an amazing listener.

  “It’s nothing,” Koen said. “Just some hang ups on our part. We don’t want to ruin a good day with tiny issues that mean nothing.”

  “I agree,” Bryce said. “I’ve been enjoying my day. I haven’t had this much fun in a while. Work gets stressful, so it’s nice to laugh.”

  I eyed the two of them, knowing they weren’t going to tell me, and sad about that. The twins stared at me, waiting to see what else I did before they came up with an appropriate reaction to match mine. They had my back like that. I forced the irrational fears and frustrations away. If they said things were fine, then I needed to trust that they were.

  “Okay.” I went back to tearing apart my napkin.

  No one said anything until Dayton got the kids’ attention back on the game.

  “Maddie, I have news for you,” Koen spoke up.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I’m giving your case to my colleague.” He dug out a card and passed it to me. “You can contact him from now on.”

  “You don’t want to represent me anymore?”

  “I think with how we’ve become friends, it’d be for the best that someone else does. He already has everything he needs, and if anything comes up, he’ll be able to handle it.” He smiled at me. “I’ve been working with him for a couple of years now. He’s better than me.”

  I stared down at the card. “Avery Haynes? His name isn’t all lawyery like yours.”

  Koen chuckled. “I promise, he’s more equipped at this than I am. I trained under him. It took a lot to get him to agree to open a firm with me.”

  “He’s a better badass than you are?”

  Nodding, Koen said, “And because his name isn’t all ‘lawyery’ as you put it, he’s sneaky too. They don’t expect much from him until it’s too late.”

  I grinned. “Nice. A ninja lawyer. Has he gone up against William Taylor before?”

  “More times than I have. And he’s won more often too. Mrs. Hansen’s lawyer doesn’t stand a chance against Avery.”

  “Okay. I’ll give him a call.”

  “He’ll be expecting it.”

  The rest of lunch became relaxed as the twins won their game against Dayton. I was so not going to let him live that down either. Once we were done, I moaned, rubbing my aching belly.

  So much food.

  “See you guys later,” I called out to them.

  They all waved and headed in the opposite direction, to wherever they managed to find parking. I led the kids back to my car, still trying to piece together what crawled up Koen and Bryce’s bums and turned them into grumpheads.

  I really did wish they’d told me. Maybe I could have helped them. I wanted to be as much as their friends as they were mine, and that meant taking on their problems too.

  Chapter Five

  Police stations were where you went because bad things were happening. That held true as I stared at the non-descriptive building in irritation. Anxiety made it very likely that I was going to throw up all over the stairs into the building. I wasn’t even sure I could make it to the stairs. There was a line of bushes that I stared at in contemplation.

  I may only make it that far.

  It was like my life had built up to this very moment. My morning went from good to bad in a nanosecond with one email.

  Another client had decided to terminate our contract effective immediately. They also let the police know that I stole money from them. Rumor was that they were in fact missing money.

  I knew it wasn’t from me, but they found some kind of discrepancy from what I said there should be and how much was really there. I wasn’t too sure with the details.

  But it didn’t matter. They got a phone call. They checked their accounts. They had less money than they were supposed to have that they couldn’t account for. I had
no idea how they expected me to take it.

  I had no direct access to anyone’s accounts. I stared at numbers and reports, but it wasn’t like I could go into the bank and make a withdrawal from their accounts. Or secretly sneak into their Accounts Payable department and write myself a check.

  That wasn’t how businesses worked.

  But my name was smeared, and they believed it was me.

  So they reported me.

  I banged my head against the steering wheel as another wave of nausea overwhelmed me. I was so going to be sick. Closing my eyes, I focused on my breaths. Nice and slow. Easy. Keep it easy.

  I had to be okay. I didn’t do anything wrong.

  I was innocent.

  But innocent people went to jail all the time.

  A tap on my window made me jump. A man in his fifties stood at the window, his eyebrows furrowed. Dark eyes full of questions stared back at me. His hair was completely gray, a fullness in his cheeks, though his nice blue suit made him look slimmer.

  “Are you Miss Madison Daniels?”

  I stared back at him, not sure what to say. Was I being stalked? Who was this stranger? How did he know me?

  “My name is Avery Haynes.”

  “Oh!” I opened the door and slipped out. “Yes, I’m Maddie.”

  We shook hands. He raised an eyebrow, looking at me, and then over at the police station.

  “You called and told me to meet you here. Koen gave me a really good description of you.” His eyes flickered to my hair. I had strands that were a hot pink color that popped out against my dark brown hair. My hair was long, falling down to my waist, so I did a side braid for today and the hot pink weaved through it nicely.

  “It’s a pleasure meeting you,” I managed to say. “Koen had only nice things to say about you.”

  The man chuckled. “While I wish we met in better circumstances, we better head inside to clear this mess up.”

  “Thank you for helping me,” I whispered.

  “Of course. If words help you any, I’m sorry this is happening to you. Koen updated me on your case. Have to say, this is going to get messy.”

  My shoulders slumped.

  “But you don’t have anything to worry about. We’ll get everything cleared up.”