Page 74 of Honey Undone
“I work with the team,” Van snorted, “she’s Arlo’s fiance.”
“Like the Arlo King?” I said and Jensen stiffened beside me. “What? Everyone knows Arlo King…”
Zoey giggled, I had met her long before tonight. Any sort of family event that Cosy held, her siblings attended if they could. Van and Zoey were a matching set.
“I just didn’t think you’d be a fangirl,” Jensen said, his eyes practically rolling into the back of his head.
“Isn’t everyone? It’s Arlo King.” I said, knowing it would rile him up and right on cue I felt his fingers move across my back and dig into my hip playfully.
“She has a point, I remember the day you met him. Pretty sure you fainted,” Van teased Jensen and he flipped him off. “And then the week after all he talked about in the locker room was how fluffy Arlo’s hair was and how cute he looked hollering at us during practice.”
“Shut the fuck up Mitchell,” Jensen said, a tiny amused laughed spilling from his lips. “If you’re all finished, you’ve met Cael and Clementine.” He pointedto the blonde shortstop and his adorable brunette girlfriend whose cheeks were rosy from her second beer. “Dean, Josh,” he said, pointing to Dean Tucker and his boyfriend, the newest pitcher for the Hornets. “Todd…” He grumbled and the guy sighed, bringing his beer to his lips.
“Where is he anyways?” Jensen asked Ella, who was intently listening to the rules of trivia. She turned to look at him with a small shrug.
“Him and Silas are holding up in the garage,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“That can’t be good,” Cael said and Ella agreed.
“Their loss, our teams would be uneven if Arlo was here anyways and Todd needed a partner,” Ella said leaning forward to mess up his hair. He looked over at her in annoyance. “We can trade, you can have Cael if you want…”
“No,” Todd answered quickly. It was pretty obvious that Ella was competitive, she was already more focused than all of the rest of them and as the questions started to come she was quick to answer them.
After a few beers, I started to get more comfortable, and I was starting to beat Ella to questions that she clearly knew the answers to. Jensen and I were in the lead for points as intermission came around.
“You know a lot about sports?” Ella asked with a smile but it was obvious how annoyed she was about losing.
“I grew up in a household where any sport was a good sport. It was the only channel ever played. “ I explained as Jensen’s fingers tickled across my thigh, I spread my legs letting him sink deeper and closed them over again, trapping his touch against mine without thought.
“You’re quick,” Ella said, “I hate losing but I like her. Todd get your shit together, if we lose this because you’re eighty percent liquor I’m going to make your life hell in physio tomorrow.”
Todd shuddered and set down his half consumed glass of rum and coke. “It’s not my fault she’s a living breathing sports fact machine,” he grumbled.
“I’m embarrassed to admit that baseball is my weak spot,” I said, “I know the least about it.”
“It’s a tough sport to follow,” Todd said, his eyes barely lifting to meet mine. It was clear that he wasn’t exactly as welcoming as the rest of the group. Heseemed like he didn’t even really want to be there and unfortunately for him, I enjoyed arguing with grown men.
“Not that tough,” I said, “just not really that interesting.”
Todd stiffened, and Jensen laughed, turning his head into my hair to cover the sound but the warning to leave it alone never came from him like I had expected it too.
“Are you serious?” Todd’s glare deepened and he sat up a little more. It was almost surprising how much life he suddenly had in him.
“Well your games last two hours and a half hours? Sometimes longer and a lot of the time the defense is so strong that it’s just two hours of pitching. In rugby it's a matter of seconds before something happens and it’s never just a one off, we run that field for eighty minutes straight.” I said.
“You’re glorified soccer players,” Todd argued. "And don't you play sevens. You play for fourteen minutes." I'd give him that win, but I wasn't backing down.
“Our pitch is bigger than a soccer field,” I countered with a smile and everyone at the table waited with small laughter and smiles for Todd’s rebuttal. “Just admit that rugby is the better sport,” I said.
“Never,” Todd was quick to respond to that, “because it’s not. It’s a sport where the main objective is to hurt the other guy, there's no tact to it. No skill.”
I leaned forward on the table, and Jensen’s grip on my thigh tightened gently.
“So you’re saying anyone could play it?” I asked.
“A toddler could play rugby,” Todd said, taking back the rest of his drink. Everyone watched as he slammed his empty glass down. “It’s not that hard.”
“What’s the average age of a college baseball player?” I asked, but the question was directed at Ella who just laughed.
