Texan Home- Innocence

Chapter Seven

Hank made it to the Ferris wheel in time to sit with Alison, all the while his mind was on Honey. How he would approach her tonight or ever for that matter. He returned Alison to her home and walked her to her door, 

"Listen, I had a good time." she said. 

"Good I'm glad." 

"I think that girl you follow, Elizabeth, she should be happy to have you around. I just hope you tell her how you feel about her." Alison said. 

She turned around to open her door but Hank stopped her stuttering from the statement. 

"W-what do you mean? Me and Honey are just friends." 

"Well I hope you don't think I'm out of place by saying this but any man that follows a girl on her date, leaves his own company to speak with her and gets that protective stance when he meets her boyfriend is either one of two things; he's either her father or he's in love with her. And since there's no way she can be your child... I'd say you're in love with her." Alison smiled and entered her house. 

Hank got back in his truck and sat in the driveway for a minute. Was that what Honey was talking about the whole time? Was he in love with her, was she in love with him? 

"Damn." he said to himself. 

He hadn't realized that he fell in love with her. He ignored it most of the time, he just made the excuse of looking out for her. That she was just a friend, he thought he needed that excuse so that he didn't try to go after her like all the other women he brought home. As he began to think about it though, he realized he did love Honey. He would never let anyone hurt her and he wanted her to himself. He used the age difference between them to control himself, although recently that excuse proved to be ineffective but he was always running from what he felt about her he couldn't understand what he was feeling for her. When he came home, Lizzie was already up in her room. Roy was in bed and the guys were cleaning up from watching a game on TV. Hank rushed passed them and ascended the stairs reaching the top and stopping at Honey's door. He was about to knock but thought to himself, what was he going to do and say when she opened that door. Even if he said he loved her, he had to control himself because they weren't married. He had to maintain a certain distance so that he couldn't smell her, so that he wouldn't be tempted to touch her. He took a deep breath, he just wanted to talk to her. He could easily sit on the floor or lean against a wall. He was willing to talk to her, he wasn't willing to take her innocence away from her. He inhaled sharply and knocked on the door. Honey had been in her room since she came back home from the festival. She was reading a romance novel with Herbie laying on her lap. She turned to the door for a second when she heard the knock and said, 

"Come in." 

She looked back to her novel and Hank walked into the room. Hank saw the novel and he tried to resist the urge to tease her. She turned and looked him up and down then turned back to her book. 

"Hey." she said slightly disinterested. 

"Can we talk?" Hank said. 

"What' re we doin' now?" she said sarcastically. 

Hank sighed, he closed the door behind him and walked over to her. He told himself to stay away from the bed so he stopped just about half way into the room. 

"I'm serious Honey." he said. 

Lizzie laughed, 

"Yeah so am I." 

"Could you put the book down?" 

"I could but will I is a whole different story." 

"Honey." He said desperately.