Page 114 of Honey Undone
“Because I wanted to get the most of my time with my family, with my friends. I'm young, my life is just starting and yes I’m entitled to my parents fortune, but it doesn’t make meentitled. I value hard work and loyalty. My team has one game left to play and to most of the guys on that field. This championship means everything, so I’m going to put my best in and I’m not going to leave them until they say it’s okay to go. Because I don’t take my privilege for granted, I use it to my advantage.”
Zane clapped his hands leaning back in his chair as Taylor eyed me for a long time. “He’s good,” Zane laughed, “I like him.”
“Didn’t need your approval,” Adeline groaned, taking her drink straight from Wren’s hand as he circled around.
“Wouldn't have asked us to dinner if you didn’t want it,” Zane mimicked in a similar voice and it was clear who was closer in age. Taylor’s jaw was still clenched tightly as I drank but it wasn’t a harsh glare anymore, it had softened into a mild annoyance. I’d take that.
The rest of dinner was spent fielding questions from the both of them. What my life looked like before Adeline, what my family was like, who my friends were, what classes I was taking. They barely spoke to her, every once and whileZane would make an off handed comment and the two of them would start bickering back and forth until Taylor put an end to the fight by clearing his throat. By the time I had grasped the full scope of their family dynamic both brothers were excusing themselves from dinner to get back home.
“You survived!” Boone slammed two shots down on the table. Adeline jumped from the sound, a giggle dripping from her that made me wanna melt into her completely.
“What is that?” I stared at the amber liquid.
“Peach schnapps and Fireball.” Boone looked at the overfilled shot glass proudly.
“That sounds incredible,” I said at the same time that Adeline warned not to drink it. I tapped mine against his and lifted it to my lips with instant regret. Whatever was in the shot glass wasnoteither of those things, but pure homebrewed cinnamon moonshine.
I gagged but swallowed it down as Boone slammed his empty shot glass on the table laughing. “They never learn,” he scoffed, scooping my empty glass in his fingers and patting me on the back as he went back to the bar. “Good job tonight, kid!” He hollered as he went.
“Take me home?” Adeline asked after I got the brutal coughing out of my system.
“You drive, whatever was in that just put me well over the legal limit of being alive,” I coughed again, the threat of a vomit very real. Adeline giggled, pulling the keys from my back pocket.
“Thanks for putting up with them tonight,” Adeline said, stripping from her shirt in front of the bed. Her reflection in the mirror behind her was glorious. Her perfect ass hugged tightly in a pair of dark lace underwear and bathed in what moonlight was pouring through her massive apartment windows.
“Don’t move,” I said to her, laying across the bed in my shorts as she undressed.
“What are you doing?” she asked, crossing her arm over her bare chest and tilting her head to the side. In that moment she looked unreasonably soft, but not fragile, never that. Adeline was carved from marble.
“Committing you to memory.”
Her playful expression softened and she let her arms drop to her side with a tiny exhale. I stared at her in awe, she was so beautiful it radiated across my chest in bursts of warmth.
“Give me my phone,” she wiggled her fingers toward the bed where she had thrown it when we came into the apartment. I reached across, grabbing for it with a confused look on my face as she unlocked it.
When she turned away from me I swallowed tightly to muffle the whine that threatened to leave my throat. I wanted to trace my hand down the soft curve of her spine and connect all the freckles along her back until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.
I moved on the bed to rest on my elbows and watch as she positioned herself in front of the mirror taking photos with her phone. I tangled my hands into the sheets trying to be patient as she took them but all I wanted to do was touch her.
There was a peaceful haze that settled over me and even though tomorrow would be the hardest game we’d ever play, I wasn’t worried. If every single thing went wrong and we came out the other end short of the championship, I’d be okay. I had found another place to store my soul, staring up at her in the moonlight. I knew she was it.
Adeline was where I felt at home.
“There,” she said, setting the phone back on the bed. My phone vibrated next to my hand and I looked over at it to see a message from her.
You earned some new ones.
I smiled down at the phone, flipping through the few she sent, knowing they were just for me. Chucking it aside, I leaned forward, wrapping my hand aroundher thigh and pulling her onto the bed. She collapsed in a soft puddle of skin against my chest with a sad smile on her face.
“Which one is your favorite?” She asked, just like she had before.
“Mine,” I replied without hesitation, only that time I wasn’t talking about the photos. I brushed the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip and gently kissed her, soaking up all the sadness in her bones.
“I officially signed the deal this morning,” she whispered when I pulled away.
I stared at her, swallowing down the fear trying to tell me that it was the wrong decision. That maybe I was moving too fast, holding on too tight but my heart raced every time I saw her, and whether I liked it or not Adeline had brought the strings to our relationships and had been tying the knots since the day I met her.
Ones I had no intention of untangling.
