Page 76 of Honey Bee Hearts

I nod. “Jinx got it for me when we graduated high school. It was our way of celebrating our freedom.” I smile. “My mom kicked me out two days later, so Jinx and I got an apartment together. I sewed our first curtains and our first armor on that thing.”

Gunnar smiles. “I’m glad we didn’t replace it then.”

When we get to Ugly Mugz, Georgia refuses to let me pay for my own coffee and she makes it extra special for me, chocolate sprinkles and all. Already, my day has been amazing. I can’t imagine it getting any better.

But it does.

When we get back to the ranch, it’s to find everyone has already gone home, but there’s a small stack of presents on the table that makes me cry. In fact, I cry through every present, opening them to find such thoughtful gifts as a little crochet bee from Barb, a large loaf of banana bread from Marge, and a new set of sewing needles from Jessie. Mel and George made me a large white chocolate raspberry cake and Mel got me my very own bolo tie with a little bee on it.

“So,” Rhett starts where he stands leaning against the staircase. “Do you like games?”

I blink up at him. “What kind of games?”

“I was thinking strip poker,” he teases, but there’s something different in the way he says it. It’s lacking the usual teasing tone I’ve come to expect from him. “But I’ll settle for UNO.”

I grin. “UNO sounds amazing actually.”

And that’s how we all end up sitting around a coffee table, a stack of UNO cards in the middle between us. Rhett, Trent, Colt, and Gunnar all sit in front of me at different sides of the table, each of us with a stack of cards in our hands. Plates with cake are stacked up on the side table where we’d each demolished too many pieces. Beer bottles line up around them, full bottles in front of us. The only one not drinking beer is Colt who drinks whiskey instead.

I look over my cards at them, my brows furrowed. Rhett is to my left, which means whatever card I put down affects him most. I glance over at him.

“Don’t you do it,” he growls, his expression accusatory. “Don’t you dare!”

My lips split into a grin. “I should apologize but. . .” I slap down a ‘draw four’ and Rhett groans.

“This is payback, isn’t it?” he grunts as he draws four new cards.

“Maybe you deserve some payback,” Colt laughs before laying down a card.

Trent says nothing while he lays down another card. He’s the one to watch. The silent ones always are. Gunnar laughs as he lays down a card and sends it back to me.

I grin at Rhett again.

“Oh, come on!” he growls as I lay down another ‘Draw Two plus Skip Turn’. “I think you’re just fucking with me now.”

“Maybe I am,” I tease.

I’ve had a few beers and I’m buzzing just enough to forgive them everything that’s happened. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s silly to be mad at them when it’s not my business. Theycould be serial killers and as long as they’re not chopping me up, I suppose I’m fine. That sounds bad. Fuck, maybe I should slow down on the alcohol.

Colt slaps down another ‘draw four’ and Trent narrows his eyes on him as he grumpily grabs more cards. He’d had only two cards in his hand before he had to draw more.

“I see what you’re doing, big guy,” Colt tells him with a grin.

Gunnar laughs and lays down a card, sending it back to me.

“I swear to god if you make me draw more cards. . .” Rhett grumbles. He sniffs when I lay down a wild card and switch the color to blue. “Of course you’d pick blue,” he grumbles before reaching to draw a card. “Thank god.” He lays down the card he drew, a blue seven.

We continue to go around in a circle, playing UNO and drinking beer and having the best time I’ve had in a long time. Jinx would have liked this. She would have liked them, but this would have been her jam right here.

“UNO!” I cry when I get down to one card.

“Cheater!” Rhett accuses. “How the hell are you down to only one card?”

“Skills,” I laugh.

“More like cheating skills,” he grumbles. Of course he’s a sore loser. His hand is full of cards. He probably has at least twenty of them.

When it comes around to me, I lay down my final card, the wild card, and they all throw up their hands.

---