37. Avery

Ilearned a few things about my third Sunday morning when it came to staying at Honey Farms. The first being get up early or be awakened by a loud ass rooster screaming outside your window.

“What the heck is going on?!” Cameron asked as he emerged from Nathan’s bedroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

I stood in the kitchen, pouring myself a cup of coffee. “Morning, slugger.” I held the cup out toward him. “You drink coffee?”

“I do today,” he mumbled, taking the mug from me. He picked up the creamer on the countertop and poured some into his coffee. “What’s with the rooster?”

“It’s Sunday Funday on the Farm,” I explained. “Trust me, it’s not as annoying as it sounds. The Pierce family all heads out early as heck to get a round of baseball in on their diamond before going to the garden to pick out vegetables and such for a big brunch. The winner gets to relax as the loser gets to cooking.”

Cameron blankly stared at me before taking a sip of his coffee. “They do this every Sunday?”

“Every third.”

“And the rooster only crows on Sunday mornings at the ass crack of the morning?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s not a rooster,” I started. The back door opened, and in came Nathan, wearing his old baseball uniform. He tossed a ball up and down in his hand. “That’s Coach P.”

“Cock-a-doodle-doo!” Nathan shouted, walking over to Cameron. He patted him on the back with triple-shot of espresso type energy. “Are you ready for some baseball?”

“Uh, you can actually take me home—” Cameron started, but Nathan cut that off quickly.

“Nope. You slept over, which means you take part in Sunday festivities. We needed an extra player anyway. So you get to pick. Are you on Team K or Team P?” Nathan asked, gesturing between me and him. “Fair warning, I will be butthurt if you choose Coach K over me.”

Cameron snickered a little. “Sorry, Coach P. I gotta go with my original coach this go-round, seeing how she wasn’t cock-a-doodling in my ear at a crazy hour this morning.”

I beamed with pride over the fact that I was chosen over Nathan.

“Suck on that one, Nathan,” I said, smug as ever.

“Don’t get too cocky about it. You’ll both lose, which means you’ll be cooking a huge brunch for thirty people.”

“Thirty people?!” Cameron gasped. “You have that many people coming over for a baseball game?”

“Not just any game. It’s Sunday Funday on the farm! All my aunts, uncles, and cousins will be here for the game. You might want to go warm up for a while. Avery pulled a muscle during her first game because she didn’t know how seriously we took this sport.”

“Don’t let him get in your head, Cam. We got this one in the bag.”

“Uncle Nate! My dad is asking you if you have his lucky glove. He said he left it in your—” Priya came barging into the house and paused the moment she saw Cameron standing there. Her eyes widened as she froze in place. “You’re Cameron Fisher.”

He gave her the kind of smile that would’ve made any teenage girl go wild. “Yeah. Do I know you?”

“Oh, no. Gosh, no. Of course not. You’re Cameron Fisher, after all. I’m just me. I mean, Priya. I mean, I am me, I am Priya Pierce. I’m a sophomore. You’re a junior, so it’s not shocking that you don’t know me, but, well, I know you, and well.” Priya’s cheeks flushed with a red shade. “Well, I know I don’t know you, but I know of you. I mean, everyone knows who you are. You’re like…a big deal.”

Cameron raked his hand through his messy hair and gave her another of his golden boy smiles. One that was almost strong enough to get poor, shy Priya pregnant. He held a hand toward her. “It’s nice to meet you, Priya.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed as he darted his stare back and forth between the two teenagers. The energy in the space was strong and vibrant, sending Uncle Nathan into a panic. As Priya reached out to shake Cameron’s hand, Nathan stepped between them, stopping the connection from taking place.

“All right, that’s enough. Priya, here’s my keys. Go get your dad’s glove from my car. Cameron, go take a damn shower with your greasy-ass hair,” Nathan ordered.

“I like your hair,” Priya chimed in.

Cameron smiled bigger.

That kid deserved to smile. It also tickled me that Nathan was nearing a strong panic attack from the idea of his niece flirting with Cameron.

Nathan shoved Priya and Cameron away from each other, leaving me standing there sipping my coffee with a goofy grin. Nathan walked over to me and grumbled as he poured himself a mug of coffee.

“Can you believe that? What was that all about? All the googly eyes and stuff?” He grimaced as he sipped the black coffee. “That was highly inappropriate.”

“How so?” I laughed. “They are around the same age. I thought it was cute.”

“Cute?” he barked, rolling his eyes. “It’s not cute how Cameron tried to put his hands all over my poor, sweet baby niece. The girl’s hardly out of diapers, and here he is trying to hold her hand.”

“I hate to break it to you, but those aren’t diapers in Priya’s bathroom. They’re tampons.”

He pointed a stern finger my way. “Watch your words, Avery Kingsley. My niece is still a little girl.”

“Not so little. I think it’s sweet that she and Cameron had a moment there. I recall having the same kind of moments with a handsome boy when I was around her age, too.”

He narrowed his brows. “Are you talking about me?” he grumbled.

I lightly shoved his shoulder. “I’m talking about you.”

A bashful grin fell against his mouth. “Oh, well, I guess that wasn’t too bad of a thing.”

“It could’ve been worse.”

He set his mug down and stepped in front of me, boxing me in as my back pressed against the kitchen counter. His hands went on both sides of me, and he leaned in slowly. “I really want to kiss you right now,” he whispered.

“I can tell you a million reasons you shouldn’t,” I whispered back. “Especially with Cam here.”

“That’s fine, but I just need one reason I should, and that reason needs to be that you want to kiss me, too. So…do you want to kiss me, too?”

I bit my bottom lip. “You know I want to kiss you.”

“Can I?”

“Maybe.”

“Fast?”

“Fast.”

He pecked my lips quickly.

I sighed.

I wanted more.

“Again?” he asked.

I sighed, hearing the water turn on from Cameron’s shower. A sign that perhaps we were in the clear. “Again.”

He kissed me again, this time a little longer. He didn’t pull his lips away from mine this go-round. “Again?” he murmured as he pressed his body against mine more.

My hips arched toward him, feeling his good morning greeting sweeping against my leg. “Yes,” I sighed. “Again.”

This time, he parted my mouth with his tongue and kissed me deep and hard. His hands fell to my lower back, and he pressed his body against mine. I placed my coffee cup down, then wrapped my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. He lifted one of my legs and wrapped it around his waist before he smacked my behind, making me giggle against his mouth.

“Uh, Coach?”

Within seconds, Nathan dropped his hold on me, I shoved him away, and I turned my back toward Cameron, who was standing there in the kitchen archway, staring at us. I wiped my hand over my mouth as humiliation settled in.

Nathan cleared his throat. “Hey, yeah. What’s up? I thought you were showering.”

“I was about to hop in, but you’re out of body wash. I figured I’d ask,” Cameron explained. He pointed two fingers toward Nathan and me, a big grin on his face. “I knew you two were into each other!”

“We’re not!” I called out, still not turning to face him. “That was just, uh, I had something stuck in my teeth.”

“And Coach P was sucking it out?” Cameron sarcastically asked.

Nathan snickered, and I swatted his arm. “Don’t laugh!”

“You don’t have to explain it to me, Coach K,” Cameron said. “I already know about the birds and the bees. I think it’s good for you both. The team plays better when the two of you get along. Now that I know you both are banging, we’ll probably win the whole series,” Cameron joked.

“Hey! That’s enough. Body wash is under the bathroom sink. Get going,” Nathan ordered.

“Okay, thanks, Coach P. Oh, one more question. Is your niece Priya single?” he asked.

I giggled with my back still turned.

“Get out of here, Cameron!” Nathan shouted, hurrying Cameron off.

The moment he was gone, I turned around and raised both eyebrows and tossed my hands up in defeat. “That’s bad.”

“The fact that he’s asking about Pri? Yeah. That’s awful.”

“No.” I shook my head. “The fact that he saw us together like that.”

Nathan smirked as if he were unfazed by the fact that Cameron walked in on us tonguing the heck out of one another. “It’s fine. He’s not going to tell anyone.”

“Are you joking? He’s probably texting the whole team about how, quote, ‘Coach K and Coach P are banging’ unquote.”

“The fact that you said quote and unquote is adorable.”

I shoved his arm. “It’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not. But you’re sexy when you’re nervous. Your little nostrils flare and steam comes out of your ears.”

“You’re a pain in my ass.”

He narrowed his brows and smirked. “Is that in reference to what I did to your ass the other night, because?—”

I swatted his arm as a small chuckle fell from me. “Shut up! Gosh. I can’t stand you. At least you’ll be cooking me brunch today.”

“Don’t hold your breath. I got this in the bag.”

“That would be true if I didn’t have Cameron Fisher on my team.” I grabbed an apple from the basket on the counter and tossed it into the air before catching it. “Batter up, Coach.” I smirked before walking off to change into my uniform. As I walked away, I called out. “Stop looking at my butt, Nathan Pierce.”

“Can’t help it. There’s so much goodness to take in.”

“Shut up before I take off my shoe and throw it at you.”

“Don’t stop there,” he urged. “By all means, throw me your panties, too.”