Page 5 of Honeysuckle
I swallowed the shock that threatened to out me for staring.
“And you look like you're going to puke,” Josh snapped as he crossed his arms over his chest.
I cleared my throat and sighed as a few guys passed by outside, laughing until their eyes darted inside our cabin.
“You’re going to need a friend out there, Logan.”
“I don’tneedanything.” He stared at me with cold, dark eyes. “I’ll follow the rules, play the game, and be a team player. But I’m not falling for this ‘we’re a family’bullshit you all have going on.”
He was gone before I could say anything else, leaving me in the cabin alone to stew on his attitude. I tilted my head back and leaned against the bunk with a huff of air. I could do this, I could be the nice guy and the captain of the team.
My way.
I just needed to figure out how to do that without starting a war between Josh and the rest of the team.
“Fuck.”
“Smells good in here.” I pushed through the kitchen's back door to find Arlo, Ella, Cael, and Van wandering around cooking dinner.
“Where have you been?” Cael asked, tossing a roll at me as he filled baskets.
“I went for a run and checked to make sure everything was ready to go for tomorrow's activities.” I shrugged. In reality, I had jogged down past the range and diamond to the brush far away from camp and screamed until my throat was raw.
The frustration, confusion, anxiety—it all suffocated me. I had to let it out. Screaming made me feel better. Though it felt stupid, it was the most convenient way to release it all in one go. My chest felt instantly lighter as I jogged back up to the main part of camp.
“We made your favorite.” Ella smiled sweetly at me. Her hair was getting longer and she had it braided down over her shoulder as she stirred whatever was in the pot. I was grateful that she had decided to come out with us.
Most years, only Silas came. We didn’t really have a reason to have more than one medical personnel on site, but she’d offered to help run exercises and yoga in the mornings to keep the guys moving in the cold.
“I still don’t understand why Coach didn’t warn us,” Van said, his eyes focused out one of the smaller kitchen windows to where Josh was throwing a ball against one of the cabin walls and catching it on the bounce.
“Because he wanted us trapped out here with him for two weeks,” I said, tearing off a piece of bun and throwing it into my mouth. “Nowhere to go, no cell service.”
“That sounds like the beginning of a horror movie.” Ella laughed.
“It is,” I said.
“I get you guys are rivals but isn’t that mostly for show?” She asked, lifting a spoonful of chili from the pot and walking over to me.
“Says the woman who punched him last season,” Arlo huffed.
“Taste.” She ignored Arlo and cradled her hand beneath the spoon, blowing on it before lifting it to me.
The spicy sauce hit my lips and I nodded. “Really good.”
“He deserved to be punched for his comment,” she said.
“Talk shit, get hit,” Van and Cael echoed in unison.
“They're still making remixes of that right hook.” Arlo scowled.
“He’s not all bad,” Cael was the first to say after a beat of silence with us all staring out the window at Logan.
“And he’s a damn good pitcher,” Arlo noted. “He out-threw me more than once. He’s just never had an infield to back him up.”
Arlo crossed his arms over his chest and stood beside Cael and Van, who leaned on the long metal kitchen island to watch Logan. He was still throwing the ball but had stepped back and was getting faster.
“If you can get the team to work with him, you’ll be the first captain to win a back-to-back in his first season,” Arlo said.
