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

JENSEN

I was still riding the high of the home run from the night before and even more so the look on Adeline’s face in the crowd when she realized I knew she was there.

I had been checking with Susanna, bribing her with pastries, to see if anyone used their Harbor Sports card to purchase tickets.

It was a program that the Shores created to help the athletes support each other.

We got discounted tickets to all the games, NCAA and professional, as long as they were home games.

Kaia Keegan had purchased two tickets that morning.

When I stepped out onto the field my eyes went directly to her but she was too busy shoving candy in her mouth and laughing with Kaia to even notice. It wasn’t until the home run hit that I made sure she knew that I saw her.

“Mom?” I closed the door behind me, calling out as I kicked off my shoes.

“We’re in here!” I heard Dad call from the kitchen. I rounded through the living room peeking at the puzzle they were in the middle of before sliding into the kitchen in my socks. “Hey kid,” Dad chucked a can of soda at me and I caught it mid air as Mom appeared from the pantry.

“Don’t throw soda in my house,” she grumbled and set a container of pasta on the counter.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out.

Unknown: What are you wearing?

“Kai?” I looked up at the sound of her voice .

“Sorry, I think one of the guys gave my phone number out, I keep getting weird perverted texts…” I set my phone down, disappointed that it wasn’t Adeline.

“Is vodka sauce ok? We ran out of the other stuff you like,” she asked, holding up a jar of homemade sauce.

“I don’t care Mom, anything you make is delicious.” I looked over at Dad who was working on something on his laptop. “How many pieces is the new puzzle?” I asked.

“Ten thousand,” Mom answered, putting a pot on the stove. “It’s a picture of Niagara Falls your grandmother sent so every piece is just blue,” she grumbled.

Grandma lived in Ontario, which is where my Mom was from but they moved to the states when she was little and Grandma moved back after Grandpa died a few years ago.

“I swear she sends those just to piss you off,” I laughed and popped the tab on the can.

“Language,” Mom said and I rolled my eyes at her. “What was this about your number, do we need to get it switched?”

“No,” I said too fast and she looked over from the pot with her usually bright brown eyes narrowed on me with the token Mom glare.

“Out with it,” she demanded and put her hands on her hips.

Her head cocked to the side and she looked at me.

It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Mom to read me like a book, but I felt like it might be a little soon for me to be discussing a crush with her.

Is that weird? I paused, chewing the inside of my mouth when the smile crept up on her face.

I know I’m in trouble. “What’s her name? ”

“Huh?” I tried to play it off with a shrug.

“I know that look,” Mom crept forward.

“What look?”

“Every single crush you’ve ever confessed about has resulted in you turning a funny shade of pink and chewing a hole in your lip. What’s her name?” She asked me again with a soft smile on her face. She was too good.

“Adeline,” I said, leaning against the counter.

“That’s pretty,” Dad responded without looking up and pushed his glasses up on his nose .

“You should invite her for dinner,” Mom said, going back to her sauce and that would be simple enough… If I could even get Adeline to agree to a first date.

“Uh,” I huffed as my phone rang again. I silenced the unknown number and set it back down. “Well…”

“Well?” She lowered her voice.

“I haven’t exactly taken her out on a date yet?” I confessed and the laughter that exploded from Dad turned my cheeks pink. “I’m trying okay, Dad you don’t have to mock me. I’m not exactly smooth, and she’s…” I blew out some air and smiled, “she’s everything.”

“Malachi,” Mom used my full name and I knew I was in trouble. She set the spoon down and turned the stove lower without taking her eyes off me.

“I’m working on it,” I said with a small groan as I slid into the chair next to Dad’s. Mom was about to rip into me when Dad intervened. “I gave her my number, told her to call me… I’ve been trying to get her to go on a date but it’s like she enjoys saying no.”

“You’re sure she’s interested?” Mom asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Very,” I hummed. “She’s flirting and it’s fun but that’s as far as I get with her. It’s infuriating,” I laughed softly.

“You make it sound like she’s homework, that’s no way to get a woman,” Dad scoffed, pushing his glasses down on his nose.

“I’m sorry ‘ man who knocked up his girlfriend at sixteen ’. It’s frowned upon now to trap a woman in a marriage,” I joked with him and he glared at me.

“I was in love with your father long before he gave me you,” Mom added to the conversation, “accident or not.”

“It wasn’t an accident, I knew what I was doing.” Dad feigned his intentions with a smile.

“Sure Dad,” I laughed at him. “She’s too smart for me,” I confessed. “Everything I say she has a better response, quicker, more intelligent. It drives me nuts.”

“That’s a crush kid,” Dad snorted.

“She’s stubborn, and funny too. Every time I think I have her figured out she flips the script on me.” I fidget with the soda can.

Mom turned with a smile on her face and leaned across the counter.

“What?” I asked her when she just stared at me .

“The home run,” Mom noted, “that was for her?” Of course Mom was watching, even when she couldn’t be there, it was always up on her laptop or coming out of the radio.

“ That was because I could.” I looked up with a smug grin on my face.

“And the bunt last week?” Dad grumbled under his breath.

“Alright that one was for her,” I admitted.

“Is she pretty?” Mom asked me finally.

“I can’t stop thinking about her,” I said a little quieter as the confidence rushed out of me at the thought of her sharp smile and beautiful hazel eyes.

“You know your father had no game either,” Mom teased and Dad scowled.

“Yes I did,” he argued. He ran his hands through his hair and puffed his chest. “You were smitten.”

“No you didn’t,” she shook her head. “And I tried to maim you with a hammer more than once.” She winked at him.

“But he showed up when I needed him. For all my intelligence I’ve never been able to figure out a power tool and if he hadn’t been insistent on helping me with the estate, it would have never become the Roost.”

“I Stockholm-ed her,” Dad joked.

“I don’t know if that’s the term you’re looking for, Honey.” Mom shook her head.

“Drove you crazy until you loved me back?” Dad said it like it was the obvious definition of the word.

“Okay maybe?” She agreed.

“You were conceived in the bones of the very first Roost.” Dad said, with a wink.

“Right on the floor where the lounge is now, very awkwardly… so much saw dust…” She scowled and I shook my head.

“You’re both being disgusting and you change the story of how I came into the world every time you tell it.

Last time it was in the back of Dad’s Toyota.

So, focus,” I said to them both as they spiraled into their little love bubble of nonsense.

“Pot is bubbling over.” I pointed to the stove and Mom turned to pay closer attention to it .

“Intelligent women like to feel seen,” Dad whispered, leaning closer to me so Mom couldn’t hear him. “They seem complicated but they’re not. Just take your time and show her that you see her.”

I looked over at Dad and he winked, I barely understood what he meant but I saw Adeline, or at least I thought I did.

Maybe I just needed to work harder. I thought about it the entire time we ate dinner, floating through the conversation until we moved to the living room.

I crawled under a terribly knitted blanket my father made while he and Mom argued about what movie to watch.

Eventually he let her win and she put on Jurassic Park.

The two of them went back to their puzzle and I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

The last messages from Adeline were about her favorite food.

Every answer she gave was like playing Russian roulette.

I never knew if she was giving me an answer just to see my reaction or if she was being serious.

Rodeo food

Do we even have Rodeos in Rhode Island?

She had left me to guess what the hell she meant and I could only assume that it was fried food on sticks and cotton candy. It only made me like her more, infuriatingly so.

So the first date is the boardwalk?

I typed and deleted it. That was stupid, she didn’t want to be told where to go.

She enjoyed surprises, that was apparent enough.

I could try to cook for her but that would end in disaster.

Between my mom and Mrs. Cody, I’d never quite gotten the hang of it.

I burned toast at the Nest so often that the guys had started to assume that’s how I liked to eat it.

Shit. Okay. Don’t let her see me sweat.

Favorite Movie?

I asked, looking up at the TV that hung above the massive fireplace. I didn’t expect her to answer right away but my phone vibrated like she had been waiting on my message.

Speed

Sandra Bullock?

Keanu Reeves in a tactical vest should be studied.

I laughed at my phone and my mom looked over at me suspiciously, her glasses on the edge of her nose.

Lake House Keanu and Sandra are superior.

Did you just rom-com me?

It’s just the simple truth.

More often than not my Mom’s insane collection of movies came in handy.

I grew up in front of the T.V. It was our favorite pastime.

Girls never saw it coming, the idea that a cocky baseball player has extensive knowledge of romance movies.

It’s a golden goose. Mom would kill me if she knew I was weaponizing our quality time but it was for a good cause.

Cotton candy and Keanu Reeves it is.

You’d spend our first date with another man, wow.

You can come if you want? Tomorrow at 7

Looks like it’ll just be you and Keanu. I bet he uses tongue.

Rain check?

Maybe.

I was going to go insane. I would ask her out a hundred times, it wasn’t about that.

I could handle the avoidance, the flirting, the teasing.

What infuriated me was missing a girl I had never even touched.

My brain had started to fantasize all the trouble we could get into and it was twisting down into my consciousness.

I couldn’t shake Adeline. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and slid down into the chair falling asleep before the movie was even over.

Mom shook me awake at some point with a smile on her face.

“You’re getting a little big to be carried to bed,” she teased.

“You could have least tried,” I groaned sarcastically and pushed from the chair. She laughed, patting me on the cheek before starting back to her room. “Hey Mom,” I called out quietly to her. “I think I really like this girl.”

She turned back to look at me and I knew what she was thinking, silly little boy . It was written all over her face, she had never been one for pulling her punches. Especially when it came to me being an idiot.

“You think?” She challenged and wandered back toward me. “Your father tells the story of the first time we met a little differently than I do every single time we tell it but do you want to know the truth?”

“Yeah,” I said without hesitation.

“The most attractive thing about your father is he knew ,” she said. “Be certain about her, don’t waffle on your decision. She’ll see it.”