Page 61 of Honey Undone
“Fine,” she groaned, falling back against the bench and rolling off it lazily to return to her abandoned weights.
I racked my weights and moved across the gym, desperate for a moment to think. I eyed the pullup bar and despite my hatred for it, the machine was secluded near the back of the gym away from all the noise.
Next week our season officially started and so did the sprint to the finish line. Scouts were going to flood Harbor and they were all coming to watch us. The hope was that more than one of us got noticed and one day, even though we’d be separated by miles, we would meet each other on the field again.
I looked around at the girls, Rhea laughing as she spotted Sunday and Kaia yelling out insults at them for some sort of fucked up motivation. My heart hurt. Moving to California hurt but it was inevitable. I would end up there, I had too. I had worked too hard my entire life not too. If I let it, that sadness would eat me alive. I pulled myself up the bar, focusing on what I could control.
I hadn’t even noticed him come up from my left as his hands wrapped around the bar and he lifted through the next pull up, matching my speed.
“Why are you sad?” He asked and it caught me off guard.
“I’m not,” I grunted through the next one but paused as his face crossed the bar and captured my lips in a quick kiss.
“Right,” he said with a smile, I did one more pull-up alongside of him before wrapping my legs around him and hanging there while he kissed me again.
“You know I’m trying to work out?” I said, breathless as he pulled away.
“Three more,” he said, lifting with me and kissing me over the bar.
“You’re annoying,” I groaned, but obliged him on the next one.
“There’s nothing wrong with assisted pull-ups, Adeline,” he teased, lifting both our weight through the motion again. “Doesn’t make you weak,” he said. I knew he wasn’t talking about my strength, he was trying to pry out the answer to his first question. It wasn’t going to work, my impending sadness and inevitable distance wasn’t for him or this relationship. Instead of answering I stole a kiss while he did the work and it helped to push away all the other thoughts.
“One more?” he whispered, taking my bottom lip between his.
“One more.” I agreed, shaking my head at his show of strength as he lowered himself back to the ground. His hands wrapped around my ribcage as I let go of the bar and he set me back on the ground.
I could tell that he wanted to push the topic of me being sad, but thunder clapped loudly outside and broke his attention away from me. It was pouring. The next explosion of lightning caused the lights in the gym to flicker. Jensen chuckled, one hand still on my hip, he looked down at the watch on his wrist.
“What?” I asked. With the power flickering the girls had paused their sets and were standing around watching the rain beat against the glass.
“We need to get to the Nest,” Jensen said, giving my hip a squeeze. Kaia perked up like someone had offered her a million dollars.
“Is it happening?” She asked and luckily Sunday was as confused as I was. A bright smile formed on Rhea’s face.
“Can someone fill me in, please?” I asked, wandering closer to them.
“Kaia made friends over the Christmas break,” Rhea said, leaning on Sunday’s shoulder. Their size difference was ridiculous when they were side by side.
“What exactly does that mean?” I said, wiping the sweat away from my neck and coming to stand next to them.
“It means the boys at the Nest like to get messy, and it’s finally wet enough to see just how much,” Kaia practically vibrated the words from her body.
I had never seen her so excited.
“Slip and slide,” Jensen said.
“Can we go?” Kaia turned to Jensen. “Please?”
With zero clue of what was going on it was weird to see a silent conversation between my best friend and my— I stopped myself before the thought was even able to form. It was just another reason to be sad about California when I should have been happy. I could have sex with Jensen without it being more, that was the point. It was supposed to be light, relaxing and fun. I was capable of that.
“We haven't finished our workout and if we miss practice later, Coach will have our heads,” I said, reminding them that we had responsibilities.
“Coach won’t make us practice with lightning and you know it,” Rhea grinned.
“Conspirator,” I said to Rhea.
“Minty please,” Kaia begged,Kaia never begged.
