Page 5 of Honey, I'm Home

I know I should be grateful I even have a place to stay, for free no less, and the thought that Arbor of all people seems to have accidentally built my dream home, and I have to give it to somebody else and live in the same town as it, knowing how lovely it is?

I feel like throwing a tantrum. Obviously, I’m an adult and can’t do that, so I do the next best thing and I… sprint back to the office, sans shoes. I take back alleys and avoid roads so that the truck I’m sure Arbor is riding in won’t be able to find me and call me on my weird behavior, relieved when I get to the real estate office and he’s nowhere to be seen.

But then again, neither is my purse, or my phone, or the keys to the building…because I’m a fucking dumbass and left them on the counter at Arbor’s house.

Chapter 3

Hawthorne

Sweet lucky stars, it’s my lucky fuckin’ day.

Picture this: there I am, buzzing around my favorite patch of wildflowers and doing the best damn pollinating you’ve ever gosh darn seen, when the most beautiful apparition appears before my very insect eyes.

I thought I was prepared to see Aster in the flesh again after so long, only getting by on the creepy but well-meant photos that Arbor took and shared with us, but when that beautiful goddess of a woman waltzed out the back door and stood on my very own grass, it was more than a shock.

The guys warned me to be careful with her, that she might spook easily and that we needed to ease her into all this, but I happen to think differently. Personally, I think we need to go full steam ahead and fucking make it happen.

I don’t know what exactly Arbor told her to get her to come and tour her new house, probably went with the guise of needing her to help us sell it; I have very few doubts he’s going to take that ruse way too far, but if it gets us the girl, that’s fine.

She had to be wondering why the house looks like a stalker went and looked at her inspo boards and built a house from it, but we have studied each and every addition she pinned so in depth that I’m pretty sure we know Aster better than Aster knows Aster. Is it still considered stalking if we’re destined to be together?

It took me a bit to calm down and shift from all the excitement, but when I get inside, it’s to find a very sad, very forlorn Arbor sitting on a bar stool at the beautiful white quartz waterfall countertop with a glass of iced tea. Sweetened with honey, of course.

“Where’d she go?”

“Oh Hawthorne, I messed it all up but good. I thought she’d love it! She was so upset…”

I put myself in her shoes and go to the front door, towing my love buddy with me. “Walk me through exactly what happened. I want to hear word for word what you said, and what she did, where she went, what her face did, and how you reacted.”

Luckily, Arbor’s got an excellent memory, and what he couldn’t quite remember he guessed well enough, until we put together our best estimate of why she was upset.

I stand with my hands on my hips, surveying everything again until I’m confident in my assessment. “Clearly, she was upset that we went with the eggshell finish on the dining room wall when we painted it aubergine, not satin. You know she wanted satin. This is a disaster! We need to repaint it right away.”

I’m ready to go hop in the truck and drive to the hardware store when I spot some very interesting artifacts. “What do we have here?”

Arbor looks perplexed. “Huh. She must have been more upset than we thought? You sure it wasn’t because the light bulb we put in the lamp in the living room was more blue light leaning than yellow? Of course she’d prefer yellow, bees are yellow and she must have a natural inclination to love anything that might remind her of us, subconsciously or not.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I tell him as I stop in front of the entryway mirror to tidy up my hair. “It couldn’t have been the lamp; although, it could have been the fact that you went with beige throw pillows on the couch instead of the olive ones that Dev wanted. We’re fucking awful at this. We’ll fix it though, don’t worry. I’m going to run these things over to her, you just go chill in the hive, okay? When Dev is done with whatever he’s working on, go ahead and fill him in too. Maybe he’ll have better insight.”

I’m so excited to see our girl that doesn’t know she’s ours yet that my hands tingle the entire way to see her. I’m practically vibrating in my seat, anxious to see how she reacts to me when it’s been so many years since she saw me while conscious; it could literally go any direction.

When I pull up to the real estate office Aster’s taking over, and my heart drops to see her looking so dejected, curled in on herself as she sits against the side of the building, no doubt trying to hide.

She wipes her eyes when she catches me, and if my eyes are not mistaken, her entire bosom heaves at the sight. Oh, she totally wants me.

I pull the truck parallel to the curb to block any nosy passersby from seeing her so vulnerable and roll down my window. “Hey there, stranger. Forget something?”

I hop out and pass her her effects and wait for her to be so happy to have them returned that she, I don’t know, proposes to me or something? That seems like a very reasonable outcome.

“Hawthorne— oh my gods, how are you? Shit, you look good. What are you doing here?”

She looks like she really wants a hug, so I just go for it. She’s stiff in my arms for a moment, but when I start sniffing her neck like an absolute dedicated non-creeper, she pats me on the back endearingly.

“Mmm, you always smell so good. I came to return your things to you, of course! I was out back when you were at the house.” I stare at her, refusing to blink, waiting for her to catch the hint and tell me what I want to know.

No dice.

“Oh. Um…okay?”