Page 41 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

JENSEN

Are you sure they’re okay with me coming?

Don’t be a coward.

I shoved my messy hair under a hat and climbed from the car, grabbing the two bags from the back seat to haul inside Sunday’s townhouse.

She lived in the new development on the north side of Harbor, where every house looked the same and the street wound together in confusing circles.

I had left the nest almost an hour early to stop for snacks, and treats hoping that if I managed to find her house on time that I could buy their favor with food.

I knocked on the front door, holding the bags in one hand, and the gift bag in the other. If I was going to crash their one night of the week that boys were strictly forbidden at, I was going to do it properly.

Sunday opened the door, her blonde hair framing her cute little face and she narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously until I held up a bag full of candy and junk food.

“I come with gifts?” I said, just hoping that she’d let me in.

“What’s in that one?” She pointed to the gift bag in my other hand and looked back up at me.

“Why don’t you find out.” I handed it to her and watched her scurry back into her house leaving me to wander inside without her invitation.

I laughed, looking around at the entrance, the wall covered in framed photos of her, the girls and her family.

All of their shoes were piled around the front door so I kicked off my own and followed the sound of their voices through the house.

Everything was exactly how I expected her house to be.

It was covered in photos and art, bright-colored blankets and furniture that I’d never thought to put together but somehow it worked and made everything feel cozy.

There was a small, well lit living room off the front entrance and a set of stairs on the other side of the hallway that led me back into a big kitchen and dining room area.

The dining table was covered in game pieces, notebooks and other knick-knacks, but the girls were hovering over the bag at the counter taking turns pulling out little packages each with their own bow and tag.

“Bribery is wild,” Rhea said, perched on the counter with a wicked smile on her face and her little gift in her palm. “I like you Jensen,” she said as she started to tear into the tissue paper.

Adeline gave me a little scrunch of approval before she gave Cosy the package marked for her.

Cosy was not as sure about any of it as the rest of the girls, her signature scowl never faltering ever as she rolled the present out into her palm.

A set of baby blue dice, inlaid with flowers and sparkles.

They were the exact opposite of Rhea’s dark grey dice with bright teal accents and tiny moons.

“Thanks Fuckboy,” Kaia giggled, ripping into hers, muddy dice with pink flowers that resembled cherry blossoms. Sunday was next, her package filled with yellow dice that contained bright blue jellyfish and plenty of glitter.

“We aren’t going to go easy on you just because you brought us presents,” Cosy said, but there was a new lightness to her voice that wasn’t there before.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said with a smile on my face. Adeline rolled her dark green set in her palm, a soft smile on her face that she extended to me as the other girls found their places at the tables with drinks in their hands.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she whispered, curling her hand around the set and looking over at me.

“It’s just dice,” I said quietly, completely lost in her delicate expression, “totally worth the stress of picking the perfect set for each of them to see that pretty smile.”

“Suck up,” she giggled and gravitated toward me.

“Come on.” She led me over to the table and I found a place in the empty chair between her and Sunday.

While the other girls chatted, Adeline tossed open her well loved leather notebook to a page near the back.

“This is you,” she said proudly. I looked down at the little sketch she drew, surprised at how good it was and back at her.

“I know you asked for help but I couldn’t sleep the other day and I got a little carried away… ” she said.

“What’s his name?” I asked her.

“I was going to let you pick,” she smiled at me but I shook my head.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I said.

“Okay good, cause I already picked one out,” she beamed with pride, “Venali Elsk.”

I could tell by the look on her face that there was a double meaning to that name, much like the tattoo that painted her thigh, that my fingers were constantly itchy to touch.

She had ingrained something in the Dungeons and Dragons character that went beyond just casual.

I’d Google it later and probably end up in knots when I remember that she’s leaving.

“It’s amazing,” I cleared my throat, watching the gold in her hazel eyes light up. “Is he an elf?” I asked, brushing my finger over the sketched pointed ears.

“Well kinda, half-elf…” she explained. “Rogue, he’s sneaky and disarming. But in a Robin Hood kind of way,” she trailed off with a little laugh. “I even wrote down that he’s got magpie tendencies and likes to bring gifts to his friends…”

I laughed, turning the page to see what else she wrote down, “you know too much about me Adeline Sarah, it’s getting scary.” I whispered under my breath as I continued to read and her hand snaked up the back of my shirt.

“It’s an optimal min/max build so you can just have fun and not get lost today,” she explained, her wavy hair falling over her shoulders as she tipped her head to catch my eye. “Is it okay?”

“Adeline, it’s fucking incredible,” I praised, “I didn’t even know it could be this involved, it’s cool.

” I watched as her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink and if I wasn’t sitting in a room full of her best friends I would have made sure that blush crept to every corner of her body with my lips.

“Here,” Cosy interrupted, “it’s a notebook, I wrote a few things in it on how you’re going to stumble across the group. ”

I flipped it open and read what she wrote, “Really?” I laughed at her and all she did was nod. “Alright, I can do this. I took theatre in high school.”

“Did you really?” Kaia questioned from the other side of the table, bringing what looked like a daiquiri to her lips.

“I was Puck in the senior play,” I boasted.

“Like Shakespeare's, a Midsummer Night's Dream?” Rhea asked curiously.

“Yeah, and I was Soda-Pop Curtis in a production two years ago at Harbor U.” I confessed, mostly because the look on their faces was hilarious.

“The jock is a theatre nerd,” Cosy scoffed.

“I just like doing stuff.” I corrected her, “If it’s cool, I’m in.”

“Alright dork,” Kaia nodded, and I could see that the thought of going easy on me had gone out the window with my confession, “game on.”

It took me a minute to grasp what was happening, between all the new names, powers and the confusion of starting in the middle of a story they had been running for only god knows how long. But after about four too many daiquiris and more than enough explanation, I was getting it.

Rhea was a half-orc named Evantha, who had doubled down on her class to make sure she could protect her squishy spell casting friends not only with her strength but with her intelligence as well.

It was hilarious to watch her interact with Adeline, who was playing as a fairy she had named Sky Mapledash; a name that made me chuckle any time Cosy introduced her.

Adeline's notes were intense, it was like every time the group stumbled across a puzzle she was the first to have it figured out. Watching her put together the clues without hesitation was a testament to how smart my girl was and I beamed with pride.

“I’m pretty sure my first crush was Tinkerbell, you know,” I brushed my lips against her ear, teasing her while she tried to roll. “That little skirt and bad attitude.”

“Pay attention, fuckboy,” Kaia’s voice cut through my flirting. She moved her intricately painted figure across the board to a rooftop. She had explained to me exactly what she was but in reality whatever a Tabaxi was looked like a panther and it absolutely suited Kaia.

“You can’t move that far!” Adeline pointed out, breaking off from my grip .

“Fastest in the west, precious Mapledash, I can move wherever the hell I want…”

“You aren’t the fastest,” Adeline’s eyes narrowed.

“I am in this room” Kaia flashed a smile.

Sunday piped up, “Cosy got quiet she’s going to jump us.

” She was at the end of the table chewing on the end of her pen as she waited for Adeline and Kaia to stop bickering.

I think she said she was a Changeling with a ukulele?

A bard maybe. I was losing track of my notes, my eyes running over what I had written down for Sunday. Mirage! That was her name.

“Be quiet,” Rhea warned her. “You always give her ideas.”

“If you’re all finished?” Cosy looked over the panel at the map, her eyes bright with mischief and for a second I could see Van there. Her usual grumpy demeanor shed for enjoyment and at home in her element.

Cosy rolled a D20 across the mat and everyone held their breath as it tipped to twenty.

“Fuck,” they all swore in unison.

“No, that's good, right?” I pointed to it. “She rolled twenty!”

“It’s good for her, bad for us,” Rhea explained.

And damn was she right, Cosy went on to almost kill every single one of us with a trap she had laid, triggered by our arguing the only way we would have survived it was if she had rolled lower than a twelve. Maybe I wasn’t getting it after all.

Rhea had saved all our asses with a lucky roll and some hearty damage but she was in rough shape by the end of the game and Sunday was practically asleep in her lap.

“You’re not bad at this,” Cosy said as I helped her put away all the map pieces and Rhea carried Sunday to her bed.

“Jensen,” she said quietly as Adeline and Kaia giggled while washing dishes in the sink.

“Adeline isn’t the kind of girl you let go of,” she said and I swallowed tightly, ignoring the way the liquor raised my temperature.

“For the sake of you both, figure out if you're serious because she’s never played better in her life. She’s relaxed, she’s happy…

she’s giggling,” Co sy scoffed. “Just be gentle. She grew up being overlooked.”

“She’s on the news every Friday night,” I said, trying not to sound like an asshole. “She’s the darling of Harbor, the center of attention when she’s winning games.”

“She can’t always win.” Cosy’s glare was quiet but deadly. “You have to be there to see her win or lose.”

“I promise.” The word came out of my mouth and I wasn’t even sure what I was promising. Whether it be to take care of Adeline the way she deserved or some backwards threat tangled with approval from Cosy Mitchell, both options terrified me.