Page 34 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

SARAH

C oach laid the package out on the desk, “They want you in California at the end of season.”

“Are you serious?” I took the folder and started to flip through the contract.

“Absolutely,” Coach smiled at me, “You’ve been impressing the hell out of everyone Addy, they were bound to take notice eventually, and you earned this shot.”

“End of season?” I said again, rubbing the page about temporary housing between my fingers.

“They want you leading the Premier League next year, this is big,” Coach reminded me like I wasn’t aware of the pressure it placed on my shoulders.

“Do I have time to think about it?” I asked her and she nodded.

“Get back to me by the end of the week so we can start the paperwork officially,” she added as I stood up from my chair.

“Thanks Coach… for everything,” I said, waving the papers in the air with a smile on my face, leaving the office I whipped out my phone. My fingers took me to texting Jensen but I stared at the phone with a heavy heart…

“He’s genuinely perfect, Minty, not a damn thing wrong with him.” Kaia cooed from the living room floor as she nursed her hangover the night after the Hollow. She refused to talk about what happened with Christian but I knew that the fight had been bad if Boone was willing to step in.

Usually he would buffer, make jokes and shuffle them inside for a drink.

Despite what was so clearly obvious to everyone else around him, Boone did an alright job lying to himself but we all knew how he really felt about Kaia.

They had gone home together last night and despite Kaia denying that anything happened, it was never with certainty that it didn’t.

“Maybe he has crooked toes or doesn’t eat bananas,” I shrugged, hanging upside down on the couch with a popsicle between my lips. It had been unbearably hot the last few days in Harbor and my apartment’s air conditioning was broken, leaving both Kaia and I to sweat out the booze from our system.

“He doesn’t, and he does,” she said, rolling onto her stomach with a grunt. “Just admit it, Jensen is perfect and you’re fucked.”

“If you weren’t here, I could be,” I groaned and Kaia lost it laughing.

I hated how right she was though, staring at my phone I realized just how fucked I was.

So wait, the dude died and they CGI’d his face onto the brothers to finish the movie? That’s messed up.

Do you eat bananas?

What?

Bananas, do you eat them?

Yeah…

And your toes are straight?

Are you being kidnapped because if this is some secret code, I’m confused and you’ll never be rescued at this rate.

I closed our messages and opened one from Taylor, asking him to meet me at the Hollow. It was quiet inside during lunch, only Brighton was around while Boone dealt with the lunch rush in the back. He nodded to me, bringing me a drink and silently went back to what he was doing .

“Addy,” Taylor said, coming around the table and taking his normal spot beside me. “What’s with the emergency texts?”

“This,” I pointed to the folder and heard Bright greet Zane behind my back.

“Holy shit,” Zane slipped into his chair, “is that?”

“A Cali contract.”

“Damn, Addy,” he flipped through it, shoving his glasses over his nose and putting on his best lawyer face. “This is fucking intense, they’re offering you so much money.”

“It feels…unreal?” I said.

“It’s definitely real,” Zane said, “Why do you sound scared?”

“Because she has a life here and she’s not Dad…” Taylor snapped.

“Yeah, because Mom is a saint, Taylor.” He rolled his eyes and suddenly the conversation was all about them again.

“At least she didn’t move across the fucking map just to get away from us,” Taylor grumbled. It was a tired argument they had often, Taylor always took Mom’s side, Zane always took Dad’s and I was always forgotten.

“Okay well, I don’t have kids or a husband so if…”

“Dad moved so he could pay for the house Mom refused to sell,” Zane reminded Taylor who only scoffed. I got up from the table, knowing I wouldn’t be missed and wandered over to the bar.

“What do you think of California?” I asked Brighton as he appeared from the kitchen.

“It’s hot and dry,” he shrugged, pouring me a glass of water. “Why?”

“I got the contract,” I confessed.

“Shit,” Bright said with an understanding nod. “When do you leave?”

Not asking if I was going or if I had made a decision yet. No, Bright had jumped straight to when do you leave? I swallowed tightly.

“End of season,” I said.

“I’ll have to get Rugby One so we can watch the games,” he said without skipping a beat, showing me the confidence I had expected to receive from my brothers and didn’t get.

“Thanks, Brighty,” I said with a smile.

“Don’t call me that, Addy,” he said, tapping the bar and disappearing again.

What are you doing tonight?

You if I’m lucky

You might as well be a four leaf clover with those odds.

I giggled, making my way back over to my brothers who were still fighting over our parents and hoped that Jensen was about to give me an out.

I might have asked them here but it was very obvious how wrong I was in doing so.

They weren’t going to be any help, Bright was kind and oblivious. Who I really needed was Kaia.

We have the night off and we’re going to Hilly’s for trivia, I can pick you up?

Please

An hour later Jensen was in the parking lot of my apartment wearing a half buttoned black silk t-shirt and a pair of beige pants. His tattoos were the perfect accessory to his dark messy hair and bright smile.

“Belle,” he purred as I walked out in my lightest sundress and a pair of sneakers, giving him a twirl that made the dress fly up around my thighs and ass. “You better be prepared to fight cause I can’t mess up these hands and if anyone hits on you tonight…”

“You wouldn’t fight for my honor?” I teased and fell into his arms with a soft groan as he wrapped his arms around me.

“I’m a lover,” he mumbled into the crook of my neck, the words tingling over my throat.

I pulled back to look him in the eyes, both hands pushing up into the back of his hair as he captured my lips in his.

It numbed all the worry in my body and calmed all the fear that I was feeling over unmade decisions.

Tonight wasn’t for that though, it was for us. Rugby could wait six hours.

“Come on,” he whispered against my lips, stealing another before opening the door for me and letting me tuck inside. He found the last parking spot in the lot of a very busy Hilly’s with a string of curse words for Dean Tucker’s parking job on the left side of him.

“He thinks just because he’s the size of a bear he can double park,” Jensen grumbled as he held the door open for me.

My favorite thing about him is that no matter where we went, no matter who we were with his hand was always on me.

Currently pressed gently into my lower back, but in the car it was wrapped in mine or tucked into my thigh.

Like he couldn't help himself but be attached.

“Hey Addy!” Van nudged my side as we slid into the booth next to him and Zoey. She handed me a beer with a smile before turning back to pay attention to the host at the front of the restaurant talking loudly into a mic.

Hilly’s was quiet compared to the Hollow, less packed with sweaty bodies and drunk assholes.

The music was quieter as the host explained the rules of trivia night and everyone gave her most of their attention.

It seemed I had been tossed into the deep end of Hornets culture without warning and I couldn’t help but think it might be payback for our night at the Hollow.

“I’m Ella,” a pretty blonde girl with a bright smile and big brown eyes held out her hand to me, “I work with the team.”

“I work with the team,” Van snorted, “she’s Arlo’s fiance.”

“Like the Arlo King?” I said and Jensen stiffened beside me. “What? Everyone knows Arlo King…”

Zoey giggled, I had met her long before tonight. Any sort of family event that Cosy held, her siblings attended if they could. Van and Zoey were a matching set.

“I just didn’t think you’d be a fangirl,” Jensen said, his eyes practically rolling into the back of his head.

“Isn’t everyone? It’s Arlo King.” I said, knowing it would rile him up and right on cue I felt his fingers move across my back and dig into my hip playfully.

“She has a point, I remember the day you met him. Pretty sure you fainted,” Van teased Jensen and he flipped him off. “And then the week after all he talked about in the locker room was how fluffy Arlo’s hair was and how cute he looked hollering at us during practice.”

“Shut the fuck up Mitchell,” Jensen said, a tiny amused laughed spilling from his lips.

“If you’re all finished, you’ve met Cael and Clementine.

” He pointed to the blonde shortstop and his adorable brunette girlfriend whose cheeks were rosy from her second beer.

“Dean, Josh,” he said, pointing to Dean Tucker and his boyfriend, the newest pitcher for the Hornets.

“Todd…” He grumbled and the guy sighed, bringing his beer to his lips.

“Where is he anyways?” Jensen asked Ella, who was intently listening to the rules of trivia. She turned to look at him with a small shrug.

“Him and Silas are holding up in the garage,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“That can’t be good,” Cael said and Ella agreed.

“Their loss, our teams would be uneven if Arlo was here anyways and Todd needed a partner,” Ella said leaning forward to mess up his hair. He looked over at her in annoyance. “We can trade, you can have Cael if you want…”

“No,” Todd answered quickly. It was pretty obvious that Ella was competitive, she was already more focused than all of the rest of them and as the questions started to come she was quick to answer them.

After a few beers, I started to get more comfortable, and I was starting to beat Ella to questions that she clearly knew the answers to. Jensen and I were in the lead for points as intermission came around.