Page 42 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

JENSEN

“ H ere,” I held the door open for Adeline and let her slip into the dark stadium. The only lights in the concrete tunnel are the ones above the exit signs at the end of the hallway.

“You didn’t bring me down here to fulfill some weird stalker fetish, did you?

” She asked, her smile bright as she turned to walk backwards and talk to me at the same time.

I locked the door and shoved the master keys into my pocket.

I had to bribe Susanna for them with a week's worth of lunch, but it would be worth it.

“And what if I did?” I shrugged, mirroring her smile as I closed the gap between us and snaked my arm around her.

She was wearing a tiny little shirt that was cut around the hem and showed off just a little bit of her stomach above the tight maroon gym shorts she had tugged on in a rush as I shooed her out the door.

She had been sulking.

Which wasn’t something I was used to her doing. But the scouts had gotten in her head and it was affecting her game. She was missing passes, stepping clumsily, it was like her ability to play rugby like it was breathing had become clouded, and it was turning her sour.

“I could outrun you,” she said so nonchalantly it made me laugh.

“You think you’re faster than me?” I stepped forward and she stepped back.

“You’re fast, but the majority of your skill set relies on you hitting the ball far enough to cover the bases without getting caught,” Adeline all but purred, the smirk never leaving her lips. “I have to carry the ball. I know I’m faster than you. ”

“She’s cocky, I like that in a woman,” I said to no one but the concrete. “We’ll see if you’re faster though.”

“I can beat you in a foot race, Jensen,” she scoffed and I nodded.

“I believe that, how about we play some one on one?” I offered. The point of the night was to give Adeline a space to not worry about anything. Take her out of her environment and allow her to just have fun in a place that wasn’t constantly reminding her about all the pressure she was under.

She didn’t seem to care as long as I was involved.

“How do you play one on one baseball?” She asked, leaning back in my arms as my lips brushed against her neck.

“Without clothes,” I grumbled and Adeline laughed, pushing me back.

“If you wanted to play with your bat and balls we could have stayed home,” she teased, fluttering her lashes at me.

“Ha ha,” I said, letting her go. “Come on.”

I dipped down, hauling her over my shoulder with a tiny laugh dripping from her pretty lips before I carried her back through the arena to the field. I flicked on the stadium lights, and with a loud thrum they illuminated the perfectly cut turf and raked sand.

“I feel like a criminal touching it, it’s so perfect…” she pushed her hands flat against my back, angling her head up to look at her surroundings. Setting her down she moved backward looking up at the stands. “It has to be intimidating… having that many people watching you?”

I shrugged, turning around to take in what she did. “I don’t ever turn around…”

“You did,” Adeline said, looking over her shoulder at me. “For me.”

“Dire circumstances,” I said, giving her a tiny wink.

“Mmm,” she hummed, her eyes tracing a wide circle of the stadium. “Okay, explain the rules.”

“All work and no play, Adeline Sarah.” I clicked my teeth together and jogged over to the dugout. I paid Mikey, our newest equipment kid to leave out a crate and my bats after practice and nodded in gratitude to find them right where I needed. “Atta boy. ”

“I pitch, you hit, I chase the ball, you run the bases. Then we switch,” I explained.

Adeline surveyed the field, no doubt running the numbers between the bases. I watched her brain tick gloriously fast as the smile crept to her lips.

“What is it, eighty-five feet between each base?” She asked, hands on her perfect hips as she turned to me with the question.

“Ninety, if you wanna be technical,” I chuckled, shaking my head.

“Bring it on.” She stepped forward so our chests met and smiled up at me, reaching down without breaking eye contact to wrap her hand around the bat. “It’s bigger than I expected,” she said, eyes casting downward in a snap as she lifted it, “and heavier.”

I crossed my arms and cocked my head to the side, “you don’t have to compliment my dick Adeline, it’s already yours.”

“I meant the bat, jackass.” She rolled her eyes waiting for me to help her set up in the batter's box.

I pushed my hand into the glove and waited as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, balancing the bat between her legs before she lifted it again and rolled out her shoulders.

She stepped up to the base and angled toward me, with a sweet, soft smile. “Like that?”

“Yeah Belle, like that,” I said, shaking my head and chucking the ball from my hand to the mitt. “You ready?” I asked her as she found her footing in the sand and she looked up, determined to prove me wrong.

I tried to keep a straight face but she looked so cute I had to inhale before pulling back and pitching her a soft ball that curved through the air in a lazy arch toward the box. She didn’t even swing, her head cocking to the side.

“That’s not how you throw during a game!” She snapped and I broke, laughing at her adorable annoyance.

“Fine,” I said, “lift your bat and stop complaining,” I snapped my fingers at her and she readjusted herself. The next pitch was straight, fast and whipped past her head only to slam into the backstop with a metal clang.

“Again,” she said. Not letting the speed of the ball rattle her.

I threw another and it was perfect but Adeline swung and missed it.

“Breath before, not during,” I said to her and she scowled .

“Don’t man-splain how to swing a bat to me Jensen!” She argued. I waited for her to stop thinking so hard, and the second her back foot settled I threw another pitch.

“How do you do that?” She grunted in frustration as the next ball kicked off the backstop into the air. “It’s like you know I’m ready to swing before I do and it’s messing with my head.”

“It’s just basic body language,” I said to her. “You fidget with your back foot as you count your own breathing, three and then your foot stops moving.”

“Okay, okay…” One of the traits I admired about Adeline is that she always took something from a conversation, it was never just about the talking.

She wanted to learn, to grow, to be better than she was seconds before.

It was why she belonged in California. It was growth, it was her opportunity to be better, be stronger, faster.

“What’s your tell?” She asked me, leaving the bat at her side.

“I don’t have one,” I said with a smile.

“That’s bullshit, everyone has a tick… it’s human nature.” She shook her head in disbelief.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Adeline.” I shrugged. “I just don’t.”

“When you’re about to kiss me the left side of your mouth lifts first,” she turned her whole body to me that time.

“When you’re going to say something you think I won’t like, you cross your arms…

and when we’re in the gym and you’re starting to get tired but refuse to slow down because I’m not, you grind your teeth together. ”

“Is that all?” I laughed, enjoying the observations.

“You have to have one on the field, you wear your emotions on your face. I just don’t believe you’re somehow more evolved during games,” Adeline said.

“You want to know the secret?” I asked her, and she nodded, making me laugh even more.

“I’ve been watching everyone else for five years, the first season I learned the ticks of half the baseball players in the league and every time I step up to bat I use one of theirs .

Never my own, never the same twice in a row. ”

Adeline stared at me, her eyes wide as she processed the information. She opened her mouth, not once but twice to speak and then closed it again to think about it some more .

“Say it,” I encouraged as she sank her teeth into her lip.

“I’m just concerned that maybe you are a serial killer,” she teased with a soft smile.

“I told you, I wouldn’t have tattooed you if I was planning on cutting you up into tiny little pieces, Belle.” I joked.

“You have to admit the whole ‘I’ve been watching’ thing is weird.” There was no malice to her voice and her eyes were bright with playful curiosity.

“Coach thinks it’s weird too, but it works. Makes me unreadable and it's the reason they bring me out when we’re down.” I said. “It also comes in handy when I need to impress the prettiest girl in Harbor.”

“Wow so now I’m just part of your sick serial killer statistics?” Adeline threw her head back and groaned sarcastically.

“If it makes you feel better, you’re the only girl I’ve risked a game for.

” I watched the recognition flicker across her face and I knew that I’d said something that triggered the sadness up in her chest again.

Shit. “Ready up.” I grabbed another ball from the crate at my feet and got ready to throw.

It whipped through the air and was by no means the perfect pitch but it flew true and straight. Adeline swung and she swung hard, the bat hit the ball with a loud crack that made me flinch delaying my reaction as she took off running down the baseline to first.

“Hey!” I called after her, trying to eye where the ball landed deep in the outfield.

“That was cheating!” I started booking it to the small white dot as Adeline rounded second.

It didn’t matter how fast I was, she was faster.

Her legs carried her quickly and before I even started running back to meet her at home plate she was pushing the line at third.

I started jogging as I got in and passed second base, keeling over on the pitcher's mound trying to fill my lungs with air as Adeline smiled at me from home base.

“Still think you could catch me?” She asked, and didn’t even sound out of breath.

“You win, you win,” I admitted defeat with a burning chest.

“Can we do that again?” She beamed at me, bathed in the bright stadium lights and for a second everything was alright. There were no pressures to make decisions, no one watching waiting for us to make the wrong move. It was just me, and Adeline.

“You’re an animal,” I choked out, straightening up. “Ready?” I asked her, palming the ball and she scooped the bat from the ground quickly with a funny little nod of excitement.