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Bren didn’t answer for a while and I worried that I might have pushed too far. Even though I spent so many days with our table next to hers at the marketplace, I still knew very little about Bren. The teasing might have gone too far. I really hoped not.

Do bees sleep?The message was completely out of left field, but it still made me smile.

Give me a second.Getting out of bed, I went downstairs and shoved my feet into my boots before walking out to the hives.

I turned on my video and waited for the light to adjust.

“Bees sleep on average five to eight hours a day, usually at night. They’re just like us and they need to recharge.”

I sent her the video and waited.

I’ve never thought about bees sleeping until right now. It feels like something I should have already known.

That’s okay. I’m full of sooooo much bee information. Just say the word and I’ll bore you to tears.

I couldn’t keep the goofy smile off my face if I tried.

I don’t think you could ever bore me, Honey Bea.

For a second, I stopped breathing.

Honey Bea. No one had ever called me that before, but it was perfect. So perfect.

Well that’s good to hear.

“I like her so much,” I moaned to the sleeping bees. “I like her so much and it’s going to ruin me.” I knew this already. My other crushes and heartbreaks had been horrible, sure, but Bren? Bren was a tornado where those others were just a strong breeze.

Someone like Bren was life-altering.

I expected Bren to walk back the nickname, but she didn’t.

I need to get to bed. Tell the bees I said hello.

“Bren says hello. What do you want me to tell her?”

I pretended to listen.

They say goodnight and they hope you enjoyed their honey. Goodnight Bren.

Tell them I appreciated it. Goodnight Honey.

Chapter Fifteen

Bren

What the actualfuck was wrong with me? No one had held a gun to my head and forced me to keep going back and forth with her. No one had taken me hostage and made me call her Honey Bea. HONEY BEA. Where the hell did that come from?

If I believed in any kind of possession, I might have been looking for ways to banish a spirit from my body, but since I didn’t, I only had myself to blame for whatever I’d said last night. The worst part? I’d been completely sober the entire time.

Honey reached into my chest and grabbed onto pieces of me that I didn’t even know were there and then yanked them into the light and made me look at them. It was horrifying and freeing at the same time. Both the best and the worst.

I’d never gone skydiving, but I was going to assume that it felt similarly. That terror that you were going to die and the exhilaration of falling.

I wanted more.

“Oh my god,you have to read this one. You’re buying a copy,” Delaney said on Tuesday when I stopped by Between the Sheets to restock my inventory.

Delaney was working today, and she had just finished what looked like an extremely heterosexual romance, judging by the enormous hockey player and the woman he was gazing at on the illustrated cover. They could be bi, but something told me they weren’t. Larison was busy with other customers and the shop was bustling, which made me happy.