Fixed in Fear by T. E. Woods

toward him. She wore red shorts and a white shirt. Padded socks covered her tiny legs up to her knees. The front of her shirt proclaimed she was number seven and the back added HAYDEN above the same number. Her thick blond curls were pushed off her face by a red headband. She wrapped her arms around his legs, and Mort was glad he’d snapped plastic covers over the cups of beer. “Are you ten-ten?” Hayden used the code signifying “off duty–home.”
    “Your dad told me there was a big matchup today. I wouldn’t miss this for love or money.” He lifted his hands as best he could. “I brought him and your mom something to eat. Any idea where I’d find ’em?”
    “I’m playing wing today. Hadley is, too.” Hayden released him to point one field over. “We’re next on that field there. Mom and Dad are over there already. In those red chairs. See ’em?”
    Mort looked down the sidelines and caught sight of them. Claire was laughing and shouting encouragement to the players on the field. Robbie looked like he’d rather be sitting in an endodontist’s lobby waiting for a root canal.
    “I’m staying on this field,” Hayden informed him. “My friend Talon is playing now and I’m cheering for her. She’s not as good as me, but pretty close. You want to meet her after she’s done?”
    Mort looked down at the little moppet in soccer gear. What he really wanted to do was pick her up, hug her close, and make her swear she’d never grow a day older than she was right that very minute. That she’d stay six years old on a brilliant September afternoon, cheering for her best friend and showing off her mastery of police scanner codes for the rest of her life.
    He smiled at her and when she returned the favor he saw Edie’s grin. Wide across the cheeks with just a hint of teeth.
    “I better get this stuff to your folks.” He hoped she wouldn’t hear the melancholy catch in his voice. “I’m ten-nineteen in about an hour and I want to see as much of your game before I do.”
    Hayden jumped. “Ten-nineteen. Back to station. I know that one. I’ll wave to you from the field.” She pivoted on one foot and took off running, yelling her best friend’s name all the way.
    Mort called Robbie’s name when he got within shouting distance. His son jumped up and trotted over, relieving him of the tray as they walked over to where Claire sat.
    “Is this what I think it is?” Robbie asked.
    “Just keep the lid on, kiddo. This is school property, after all.”
    Robbie lifted the tray of cups in his wife’s direction. Claire clapped and waved them over. When the three of them were together, Robbie distributed the beers while Mort handed out the sandwiches.
    Claire took a long sip and closed her eyes. “Oh,
beau-père,
promise me when my ’usband leaves me for the Las Vegas showgirl I can still keep you.”
    Mort bent over and kissed the top of his daughter-in-law’s head. “If my boy’s ever stupid enough to leave you, I promise I’ll be the first witness at his commitment hearing. We’ll lock him away for good, how’s that?” He scanned the field. “Where’s Hadley? I’ve already run into Hayden. Where’s that other good-looking Grant twin?”
    Robbie swallowed a giant bite of his grinder and waved his hand in a circle. “Look around you, Dad. It’s kid central here. Hadley’s off frolicking in the wild with her own kind. It’s their coaches’ jobs to ride herd on them. We’re the parents. Our job is to sit here for five hours and shriek with glee as they kick the ball like some two-year-old yellow lab pimping for a treat.”
    Claire ruffled her fingers through her husband’s hair. “Do not listen to the grizzly bear. He is excited to be here to watch his girls. I think he is jealous he cannot be out there running up and down the field himself.”
    Mort loved the easy banter the two of them shared. And Claire’s French accent made it all the more endearing. He scanned the fields, looking for his