Page 12 of Cider
I sat up, pulling away from my mates chest.
“I’ll be back in a bit. We need to talk about the other two in the picture.” Placing my phone on the dresser, I opened my window that faced out to the woods. I shifted and with a hop, I was running to a small clearing that Quinten and I used growing up to have sibling meetings away from mom or dad.
I let my fox take over. She knew where we were going. I needed to think.
Quinten had been so mad at me when I’d tricked Eirlys into drinking the potion I’d purchased from The Magical Rooster. Not because it had ended up making Eirlys have explosive glitter orgasms for a few days, or that it turned his dick blue, but because it had made Eirlys cry.
He refused to talk to me until I apologized. Even after that, he’d been avoiding me. Hopefully, today would be a way to give an olive branch to him and Eirlys. I was going to ask them to yoga with Maya.
Quinten was already there. He had a backpack next to him where he sat on a log. His eyes tracked me as I moved to sit in front of him. I sat and wagged my tail once.
“Hey.” Quinten patted my head like he usually did to annoy me. “Here’s a robe for you.” He pulled out the robe from the pack and tossed it on top of me. “Just yell when you’re dressed.” He turned his back to give me a sense of modesty that wasn’t needed.
The robe was soft. My feet were freezing but I grabbed the pack he’d left and used it to stand on.
“Okay. We’re good.”
Quinten turned around. He snorted loudly when he noticed I was standing on the back pack but he didn’t say anything.
“Thanks for coming, sis.” He sat down again. “Sit with me.”
“So.” I awkwardly plucked at the robes belt. “How much longer are you going to hate me? I was just so mad about the ch--” I choked on the word.
Quinten was quiet for several long moments.
“Eirlys is my mate, Cider. She means everything to me. I shouldn’t have told her about the chickens. I didn’t know that she and Jace would use that on you.” His hands rested on his knees. “She said you were working together now.”
Nodding, my shoulders slumped a little. “I may have gone overboard before, but she’s shown that she’s a good person. I was actually going to invite her to yoga. Why don’t you all come?”
Quinten bumped our shoulders together. “I love you, squirt. We’ll be there tomorrow morning.”
“Good. Maya and the kids will be happy to see you.” I rubbed my arm awkwardly. “Are we going to be okay, Quint? I miss you.”
My brother was silent for a few moments before he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, squeezing it. “We’ll be okay. It just might take a little time.”
We shared a smile before I shifted again and ran back home.
Chapter 8
When I got home, Billy was making eggs and Maya was sitting across from him at the island.
“So, you two got over your issues?” Maya brushed her purple hair off her shoulder. She sipped a cup of tea.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to, sis.” Billy moved the eggs from the frying pan to a plate.
She rolled her eyes at him as she turned to me as I sat next to her.
“Have you checked your reviews on the website?” Her brows were furrowed as she glanced at her phone. “Or the other shops?”
“No. Not lately. Why?” I took her phone. “A regular mentioned it the other day that she was going to leave one.”
“I was going through the website to buy some tickets to one of the hockey games, and I noticed the stars on most of the shops went down, but especially yours.” She pointed to my shop’s little page.
Two stars. The hot cider was mediocre at best.
Two stars. It was meh.
One star. The place was dirty.
