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The rest of the day went by just as busily as the morning had been. I barely saw the twins. Lina kept them busy with activities, and if she wasn’t keeping them busy, then one of the guys was. It was weird not having to be so attentive to them. I got to enjoy myself instead. After lunch, I dragged Bryce to the main festival area, where all the vendors were set up. I did light shopping, finding a cute Christmas present for Kenni.
I tried all the cider I could, my stomach hating me for it. The liquid goodness sloshed around heavily in my stomach, and I may have felt a little nauseous by the time dinner came around. I almost didn’t want to eat.
Bryce got called to duty for dinner. There was an area off to the side for food vendors. Lines were long as people waited. There were so many people. I was pretty sure there were even Canadians. That meant their festival was pretty darn impressive to attract international attendees.
Lawson and Lee were with Koen at a table. They waved at me furiously, food already in front of them. I almost pitied them because from the looks of it, Koen made sure they were eating something balanced. Which was usually difficult in a place like this. Did healthy food trucks even exist? It seemed like it would be a crime against the food truck industry if that were the case.
Smart enough to stay away, I waved and pointed to the line I was getting into. No way was I giving Koen a chance to force me to eat something healthy. Not here. No way.
Lee came running over.
“Sissy, I missed you,” he said, standing with me.
“Did you now?” I asked. “And here I was thinking you forgot all about me.”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Never.”
“Did you have fun today?”
He nodded dramatically. “We did so much. Lina is so nice. She let us help with the pumpkins. And we got to go on a barrel ride. There was a hayride. And Dayton chased us through a hedge maze.”
“Oh? Did you make it to the middle and see the fountain?” I asked. I had been there too. I must have just missed them. Darn, that would have been fun to chase them around in there, getting lost, scaring them. I wondered if I could get them to go in with me now that it was darker out. Hide and seek in the dark. I loved that game.
“I made a wish too.”
“What did you wish?”
“Nope. I can’t tell you. You know that, Sissy.”
I sighed, pretending to be sad. “I know. I was hoping. I love secrets.”
Lee fought with himself. I could see the indecision as he tried to decide if he was going to tell me or not. Finally, he shook his head. “No. I’m not telling.”
“Aww. All right. I get it, I guess.” Scientists needed to hurry and finish making the brain-reading machine. How else were we supposed to give our kids their wishes if we couldn’t figure out what they were wishing for? I was all about making their dreams come true.
The line moved quickly, and the whole time I listened carefully to Lee’s adventures for the day. I also marveled at the fact that he was okay. He wasn’t hurt. Apparently, I was the only victim today, and it had to be from pumpkin carving.
Koen and Lawson were still in the same spot by the time I got my brisket sandwich. My mouth watered at the delicious smoked barbeque enticing my taste buds. The cornbread with real corn in it also called to me, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the treat as we walked over.
“Maddie, you’re going to trip,” Koen said.
“No, I’m not.” I put my plate down and sat. “See.”
“What happened to your hand?” Lawson asked.
“The pumpkin monster got me,” I said.
He stared at me, clearly not believing me.
“Will you believe me if I said that if something is safe for children to use, it doesn’t mean it’s safe for adults?”
Again, no response from either twin. Tough crowd.
“I hurt myself when I was carving a pumpkin earlier,” I admitted.
At least no one outright laughed at me.
“Are you okay? Do you need stitches?” Koen asked, being the perfect man he always was.
“Bryce assured me I’d live. He’s a doctor, so I have to believe him.”
“He’s not the right kind of doctor.” Koen frowned at me hand.
“Better than a lawyer telling me about my health,” I argued.
“True. As long as he says it’s fine.”
“He did. Do I need to call him and tell him you don’t believe in his opinion?”
Koen winced. “No. Of course I believe him.”
His glare at my hand said otherwise. It was nice having him fret over me because of a silly wound.
The moment I finished eating, I grinned at the twins. “Who’s ready for hide-and-seek in the hedge maze?”
That got them excited.
“Good, because I’m it. So run little ones.” I changed my voice to sound like an evil witch. “Run as fast as your tiny little feet will let you. Because I’m coming for you.”
They jumped down and ran off, my evil witch cackle chasing after them. The entrance to the maze was in sight so I watched them disappear inside.
“Isn’t it a bit dangerous to play that with it getting darker out?” Koen asked.
I gasped. “Are you trying to ruin the simple pleasures in life?” I asked.
“No.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Well, if you’re so concerned, you can play too.”
Koen scrutinized me, trying to determine if I was serious or not. I raised an eyebrow in challenge. He stood up, and without another word, disappeared into the hedge.
Oh, this was going to be so much fun. As I waited the required two minutes I normally gave them, I tried to create a mental map of the maze. It was impossible, but I pretended I knew what I was doing and where they could be hiding.
I had a feeling with Koen playing, it wasn’t going to be so easy. And he seemed like he knew the maze a lot better than I did.
“Game on,” I whispered and went on my hunt.
~*~
The game was a fierce battle that ended with me finding Lawson but not Lee or Koen. We had to call it, and I sent Koen the white flag of surrender through text message.
Apparently, the two of them had found each other and stuck together, avoiding me when they heard me thundering toward them. I tried to act offended that they thought I sounded like a rhino, but I couldn’t. I really wasn’t the quietest person and all those leaves on the ground were loud and crunchy.
The cold had seeped well into my bones at that point, and I called it a night for us. The twins were ready to fight me until I threatened them with leaving them outside tied to a tree for the rest of the night.
It was a good thing I called it, because the moment they were clean and crawling into bed, they were out cold, the day quickly catching up to them.
Of course, I wasn’t able to go through the same experience. I closed my eyes, listening to their breathing, enjoying the complete quiet that wrapped around us, and still I couldn’t enter the dream world.
Lawson and Lee were heaters curled into me. I normally found comfort in that, but we were in Ipswich with more space all around us than I knew what to do with. It left me restless, I wanted to do more.
I didn’t want this to end.
In the morning, we’d need to get up, get ready, and drive back into Boston, go back to reality. I didn’t want that. I wasn’t ready. And I hated that I felt like that. So my mind refused to let me go to sleep because then that meant morning time came all the sooner, and this little trip would be over.
It was the opposite of what Christmas night was like.
Lawson mumbled something and turned in his sleep, his feet finding its way between my ribs and the bed. I winced before carefully extracting myself, making sure the two of them curled into each other. Their soft breathing remained unchanged as they settled into their new positions.
I smiled, grabbed my sweater, and slipped out of the room, remaining on light feet. At this point, it was late into the night. Everyone in the house had already turned in for the night about an hour ago. I envied them their peacefulness and dreams. Hopefully, they were happy ones.
Wanting the comfort of fresh air, I threw on my sweater and popped outside onto the patio. A dim light flashed on, night bright enough to be blinding, but bright enough so I didn’t trip over myself.
“Wow,” I whispered, looking up at the clear sky. Stars, all over. There were few wispy clouds lit up by the moonlight. The moon was only half full, so it didn’t light everything too brightly. It was still really nice to look at.
I glanced around the patio until I spotted what almost looked like a duffel bag. A free-standing hammock. Grinning, I grabbed it and dragged it out onto the yard, quickly setting it up. I had seen it yesterday and almost forgot all about it. But now that there was nothing to do, I was really going to enjoy it. I always wanted to be in one.
Setting it up was easy. It pretty much did all the work after I pulled it out of the bag. The legs opened up and clicked into place, and I put it in the middle of the yard, with the perfect view of the sky.
The hammock was sturdier than I expected. I thought it was going to flip over on me as I tried to climb inside. It held steady as I settled in and got on my back.
My eyes widened at the perfect view. I was right, this was the best spot in the yard. The hammock rocked gently, calming my very existence into a state of complete melancholy.
It didn’t take me long to realize I should have stolen a swing blanket and pillow. The coldness was nippier than I expected.
“Here.”
I jumped, nearly screaming and diving off the hammock. The shadows cleared enough for me to make out the familiar features of Koen.
“Darn it,” I snapped out. “What are you doing out here? You scared me.”
“Sorry.” His sorry wasn’t sorry at all.
He held a bundle out to me. “Here. If you insist on lying outside in the cold, at least be warm.”
I dumbly grabbed what he held and realized it was a pillow.
“Oh, nice.” I plopped it behind my head and snuggled into its warmth. Oh yeah, that was really nice.
“Scoot over.”
“What?” I asked.
“Move over.”
“No thanks,” I said.
“Then I guess you don’t get the blanket,” he said with humor.
I narrowed my eyes, wishing I could see his expression. It wasn’t too bright out there, the porch’s dim light not reaching this far. All I could see was a shadowed version of him and even that shadowed version was attractive.
“Fine.” I huffed. I moved over and Koen expertly climbed inside.
Screw the blanket, Koen was so much warmer. I pretended there wasn’t as much room as there really was and moved closer to him, trying to soak his warmth up. I didn’t think he’d mind too much if I stole it all from him.
He didn’t mind as he stretched the blanket over us, creating an extra barrier from the coldness. Then, without saying anything and taking me by surprise, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me halfway onto his chest.
“Oomph,” I said, face meeting his chest.
“You’re crazy, you know that,” he said.
“I’m certifiably sane. I had myself checked out.”
Koen’s chest shook as he held in his laughter. We settled into each other, and I was toasty outside, pressed against Koen, with a blanket over us. The hammock rocked, lulling me into a half-asleep state where the world was completely peaceful, nothing bad able to touch me.
“Why aren’t you sleeping in a bed?” Koen asked, drawing me out of my peace.
“Because I don’t want the day to end,” I admitted. “Tomorrow, we get up, pack up, and head back to our lives. I didn’t expect it to be so nice here, without the hustle and bustle of life.”
“I know what you mean,” Koen said. “Bryce and Dayton have always lived in small towns. I lived in Boston most of my life. It’s a small city, but it’s still busy enough constantly. Whenever I got the chance, I always came out here to help them out. The Killison family is like my second family.”
“Is it always this hard to leave?”
“Sometimes. It’s like living in a bubble out here. The three of us used to get into a lot of trouble in the orchard. I can’t count how many times they had to send search parties out to find us.”
I faked a gasp. “You mean to tell me you were a troublemaker as a child? I don’t believe that.”
“Yeah, well, granted, it was mainly Dayton getting us into trouble. He got me stuck up in an apple tree once. I climbed up first using a ladder, and before they had a chance to follow, the ladder fell. They had trouble setting it up right again. We were a little too small and not quite strong enough to lift it up.” He laughed. “The look on my parents’ faces when they saw me was priceless. Dad didn’t know whether to laugh or get angry with me. He climbed up and got me down.”
“Tell me more stories,” I said.
“How about you?” he asked. “I want to know what you were like when you were little. Before your mom got sick.”
“Aw, you don’t want to hear those boring stories.”
“I do though.”
“They aren’t that exciting.”
“And for some reason, I don’t believe you.”
I giggled. “I lived in New York City until I was an adult. It was always just Mom and me before she passed. She didn’t have any family, at least no one she told me about. I’d prefer to believe she didn’t have any rather than thinking that they just weren’t part of our life. We grew up in this small apartment, the walls too thin, too many people around us who weren’t on the up and up. They weren’t mean or dangerous. They were people struggling like we were. For a while, Mom had two jobs going until she got sick. I think that’s why she got so sick like that. She couldn’t afford to stop working, and I was too small to help. But there were these rare moments of days off, and those were the best days. Better than Disneyland.” I grinned, getting lost in the memories. “Mom always made a day of it. We’d spend the day out, trying to find all the nooks and crannies of the city. Ice cream was a must. And the parks. So many different kinds of parks. Some fun, others not so much. My favorite memory, we went to this one park that was attached to a skatepark. Mom talked a kid into letting her try to skateboard. She was that kind of person, always in love with doing new things.” I laughed. “She sucked. She really sucked. She couldn’t even move it inches without falling off. Once she thought she got it, she went to a baby ramp and wiped right out. I’m pretty sure it made it onto one of those America’s Funniest Home Videos shows.”
That got a chuckle from Koen. I grinned and cuddled into him further, his arm tightening around me.
“She wouldn’t let me try though. So when she got distracted talking with a parent, I swiped a board and went for it before anyone could stop me. Unfortunately, silly me thought gravity was important and went for the biggest ramp, thinking it’d help me fly. I went for it. I can still hear her screaming for me as people ran to stop me. They were all too late.”
“Jesus, what happened?”
I shrugged. “I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?”
I shook my head. “Woke up with my mom carrying me back to my apartment. There was a bump on my head and my arm really hurt. I didn’t break any bones, but I definitely felt the soreness for the next few days. Still don’t remember.”
“Damn, Maddie. And she didn’t bring you to the hospital?”
Shrugging, I said, “We were lower class. Lucky if we can even make rent each month. A hospital wasn’t really an option.”
Koen was shocked into complete silence. His grip around me tightened.
I giggled. “It was still the best day. I remember her carrying me. She had tears streaking down her face, and she kept kissing my face, telling me everything would be okay. I never felt so much love until that day. That was when I knew that she really did love me. Times were tough and we survived, and it put a strain on our relationship. But I knew she loved me. That moment proved it.”
My story prompted another story from him about him and his dad going fishing and how they tipped the canoe over. Or the time they went hiking and got terribly lost. We traded stories back and forth, laughing at the silly us growing up. Koen got into one about a dare he’d lost and Dayton and Bryce making him streak around the neighborhood. Eventually police were involved. As he told it, his soft voice lulled me into a feeling of security and all the exhaustion finally caught up with me.
“I’m just going to close my eyes for a moment,” I whispered.
“Of course,” Koen replied.
I mumbled something else, but my eyes, my brain, my thoughts all refused to work in sync with each other, and I fell asleep.
In Koen’s arms.
In a hammock.
