Page 23 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

JENSEN

Unknown: Do you touch yourself when you dream of me?

Unknown: Do you suck dick on the first date?

I had woken up to an onslaught of harassing texts and an empty bed.

I wasn’t sure what was worse but dropping Adeline off at home after our night out felt like a new form of torture.

I had left her another set of dice in her mailbox on the walk back to the car.

Small baby blue ones with ducks in them that I thought would put a smile on her face.

I dragged my ass to practice the next day and then to class, and then back for the game tonight. All the while she was radio silent on the phone and I was just hoping that she would show up to the game so I could see her face.

“You took her to Kojo’s without us?” Cael whined, faltering in his stretch and bringing me back to reality. “You haven’t taken any of us there in months!”

The stadium was hot today and half of us were already sweating just from warm-ups. Cael sank into the grass next to Van who was stretching his hamstrings across from me.

“You’ve been a little busy,” I said, “and you’re a terrible dancer.”

“Wow,” Cael feigned offence, clutching the space over his heart dramatically.

“You are,” Van agreed, pulling his hat over his eyes to shield from the sun. “I’m kind of impressed you have her doing anything. Cosy says she’s normally pretty one track with rugby and work. ”

“Jenny must be damn good in bed to have a girl changing her schedule for him,” Cael teased.

“We haven’t,” I said, rolling over to stretch out my other hip.

“She’s just like willingly hanging out with you?” Van laughed.

“Why is that funny?” I scowled, actually offended.

“I mean you’re nice and all man, but… you have a track record with women and it doesn’t involve multiple dates or a vow of celibacy,” Van said, rolling up on his knees and stretching out his arms over his head.

“ You’re a whore ,” Cael blurted less eloquently, “he’s politely calling you a man whore.”

“Coming from you,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

“I’m a changed man,” he laughed, staring at me like I was the idiot.

“Yeah well if you can change, so can I,” I said with a shrug.

“Whatever you're doing, I’ve never seen my sister come to so many games, so it can’t be that bad,” Van noted, waving up to the stands. Cosy was joined by Kaia, Zoey and Adeline. She was staring down at me, her hair blowing around in the wind and a big smile on her face.

It was distracting how good she looked in my jersey, she was wearing a black tank top and had tucked one panel of the jersey into a tiny pair of jean shorts that showed off her hips and her tattoo.

Cael started to laugh from beside me, crawling to his feet he walked toward me but I couldn’t be bothered by him. My full attention was on her and the way the sunshine made her cheekbones shimmer.

My head was tugged backwards roughly by the hair and I swatted his hand away feebly, squinting in the sun with a snarl on my lips.

“You’re in love,” Cael whispered with a nasty smile on his face. “That’s why you haven’t slept with her,” he teased, his fingers still gripping tightly to my hair and pulling at my scalp.

“Let me go, idiot,” I said trying to fight him off but he just laughed.

“Admit it,” he ordered and Van groaned from beside us.

“He’s not going to let you go until you tell him what he wants to hear,” he noted .

“No, no,” Cael said, shaking his head. Tuff of blonde hair shooting out from beneath his cap and a wild look in his eyes. “Tell me the truth,” he whispered. “Do you love her?”

“We’ve been on two dates asshole,” I grunted, reaching up and digging my nails into his wrist making him release my hair a little. The problem was every time I saw her I asked myself the same idiotic question. “It’s just fun, now let me go,” I demanded.

“Fine, but I don’t believe you. And I’m consulting Ella on the matter because I know I’m right and if she agrees then you’re screwed,” he said, going to step back but I grabbed his ankle and he tumbled into the grass.

I pushed out of the grass, grabbing my mitt and wandering to home plate to do some catches with Reyes who was talking to Arlo while Josh gave everyone dirty looks from the dugout.

He’d been on the bench for the game to let his elbow flare up die down but it meant today's game would be hard won. And man did we need it.

Before setting up I turned to the fence, “what did I tell you about that jersey?” I yelled over to her and she shrugged.

“You haven’t gotten me a replacement,” she said back, popping a candy into her mouth.

“If you keep wearing it to games I’m going to take it back with force,” I warned her with a smirk.

“Oh,” she cocked her head to the side and all that messy brown hair spilled over her shoulder, “do you promise?”

“That was a threat,” I huffed, running my tongue out over my bottom lip just trying to control myself in public.

“Even better,” she smiled back at me, blowing a kiss before sinking back into her chair and leaving me more worked up than before. “Go do something cool,” she smiled at me.

“Just because you asked so nicely,” I said, giving her a wink. When I turned around Cael was standing in his space behind Reyes with a smug look on his face.

I flipped him off and went back to warming up .

When the Ump called for the game to start it was like a flip had been switched. We all set aside our personal lives and came together as a unit. We knew what the stakes were and we couldn’t come off the field without the win.

If we lost, the season would be over.

And all the stories about us would be true. We couldn’t win without Arlo.

Coach gave some speech about playing our best and Dean followed it up with an equally tired rant about believing in each other. Everyone was exhausted but determined. The thought of a bi-week tickled our heels and fueled us forward through the game.

“Focus on shutting them down,” Arlo instructed Reyes and me. “End the game on the mound. Make sure you keep it clean and don’t throw the same pitch back to back. We want them tripping over the unpredictability.”

“Yes Coach,” both of us gave him a quick nod. Taking the field was easy, leaving it without a field would be devastating.

The stadium thrummed with unintelligible enthusiasm only silencing as Reyes set up to throw the first pitch of the game. I sank low to the ground, steadying myself in the clay and getting my fingers dirty as the batter readied him for the pitch.

Reyes was bad for just throwing, his communication lacked the finesse that Arlo had spoiled me with. Josh could be brash at times, but he always gave me a warning before doing something insane.

The ball was released and before I could adjust it smacked into the back of my glove with a deafening echo. My eyes flickered up to Reyes who looked proud of himself but I scowled. We needed to be on the same page or this would go south, and fast.

The second pitch came off just as hot but the batter was already stumbling over the unexpected curveball that came at me and the Ump called the second strike.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on us, this first batter would set the tone for the rest of the game and if Reyes could manage to shut him down…

I threw it back, taking a slow and calculated breath before sinking back down and rolling out my neck as Reyes pulled back on the mound and released the last ball.

The batter swung and I swore the stadium collectively held their breath as the ball whipped through the air and the sound of it slapping clean into the leather of my mitt rang out through the air.

“That’s it boys,” Arlo’s voice boomed from the dugout next to Coach’s loud clapping and suddenly the confidence was refreshed. The team shone a little brighter and I could feel the hope bleeding through the concrete walls of the stadium.

With the tingle of belief running through our bloodstream, the game came easy, it was like we were playing with newfound energy and the team had found our way back to what we had been before.

Everyone was completely focused and by the time the last inning rolled through the stadium was on fire and we were running fumes but up by six whole runs. We had managed to pull off the win.

“Six fucking runs!” Cael clapped his hands together.

“We haven’t played this good all season, no offense Josh…” Todd groaned.

Josh grumbled something under his breath, anger rolling off him and for a second we all braced for another fight between the two of them but Arlo was quick to come to his defense.

“Todd, shut the fuck up.” Arlo snapped, and it wasn’t his usual playful tone that he used with us either.

It was authoritative and loud. “It wasn’t Josh holding you back,” he said, “you were all so caught up in your own heads trying to recreate a season that you forgot that we always go forward and what was last season, isn’t this season. ”

“Why are you ragging on us, we won,” Cael argued and for a second I thought that Arlo might put him through the wall. But he just shook his head in disbelief. Coach Cody stood back, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, letting Arlo take the lead on the speech.

“You won one hard game, we have three more series to go through if you want to win it all. This was the easiest game you’ll play in weeks.” Arlo said and the dugout fell quiet. “Blaming hardship on each other isn’t how we do shit and you know it.”

“It was just a joke, Arlo,” Todd tried to say but Coach cleared his throat to silence him .

“All fucking season every single one of you has been trying to prove a point to everyone… the news, the experts, the fans, your families. Not once have you gone out there to prove to yourself that you can do this,” Arlo sighed, pulling off his hat and running his fingers through the dark strands of his hair.

“You won today because you remembered who you were, what this team stands for but if you let it slip your minds again, this will be the last happy memory you have of the season.”

All of us stayed quiet, our chests still rising and falling irregularly from the last inning, sweat pouring down our skin, our muscles sore and aching.

“Two steps at a time,” Dean was the first to find his voice, his fingers coming up to his chest and the team fell in quickly and without hesitation. It was going to be an exhausting month but if it felt anything like today, every single battle was going to be worth it.