Page 18 of Honeysuckle
“How was the canoe trip?” He asked, in a sing-song voice that made me wanna tie him to a tree.
“Fine.” I shrugged and counted the poles at my feet.
“Really?” He smiled at me. “Just fine?”
“Just. Fine.” I repeated, and looked over to where Josh was bringing a crate of cans up the shore.
“Oh, god.” Cael laughed and fell back on his ass. “You got the gooey look.”
“I do not.” I shook my head. “Don’t start that shit with me. I don’t, it’s not…” I sighed.
“It is. Josh gave you the goo,” Cael said,waytoo loudly.
“What the hell does that even mean, Cael? Thegoo?!”I couldn’t keep the laughter from bubbling up. “You’re a menace.”
“I’m allowed to be, I have a permit,” he said, pretending to dig out a piece of paper but flipped me off instead.
“Eat shit.” I laughed more and shoved him away playfully.
“Seriously though…”
“Nothing happened. There was nogoo,” I said.
“I wasn’t serious about the canoe blowjobs,” Cael said, leaning closer and lowering his voice. “Unless it actually happened, then I kind of want details. Clementine will kill me if I don’t get the gossip.”
I pushed him in the shoulder and knocked him off balance. “You’re an asshole.” I pointed at him with a scowl on my face.
“A menace, an asshole. Insult me more, it gets my cock hard,” Cael purred.
“Cut it out!” I growled. “We just talked…”
“You talked?” Cael’s eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, Cael, like normal humans… we talked,” I said, as I started to slot the poles into the tent fabric.
“Did you talk about me?” Cael sat up again and brushed his fingers behind his ears as he fluttered his lashes.
“No,” I shook my head, “we talked about why he won’t do the team dips in the morning.”
“Did you get an answer?” He asked.
“No,” I responded with a huff.
“Three hours and that’s all you talked about?” He questioned.
“Yeah, that was it. Will you go help them start a fire or something?” I brushed him off and he narrowed his eyes at me. “It was nothing. Stop staring at me like you have to plan a wedding.”
“In this economy?” He rolled his eyes. “You and Logan can get married at the court house. You kids think I’m made of money.” He pushed to his feet and smiled at me.
“Go away, Cael.”
I watched his lanky body stumble over the uneven ground toward Josh and groaned. I should have known that he wasn’t going to leave this alone. Cael was a cat—sneaky, clumsy, and always causing chaos. It took him seconds to become hyperfixated on causing trouble. He thrived on the attention it brought–and selfishly, I enjoyed it when it didn’t involve me.
Josh looked over, brow furrowed as Cael rambled beside him. His eyes flickered back to him and a small, playful smile formed on his face. It was strange to watch them interact with all the assumptions that floated around who exactly wethoughtJosh was.
A piece of hardened shell cracked inside of my chest. I could feel it fall away as I watched him with Cael; his slow, careful patience, the intention behind his eyes as he listened to my best friend run his ear off about nonsense. It was a quiet devotion to a friendship I couldn’t even begin to understand, but one that I was grateful Cael had.
I returned to the tent, fumbling with both poles and emotions as the sun started to drop. Cael helped Van and a few of the boys make lunch, and the rest of the team cleaned up before scattering around camp.
