The Piano Man Project Page 0,63

women, and she was one of the many reasons he’d needed to slam that door so tight. Could he open the door just enough to let Honey in as a temporary guest without being crushed by the stuff that would try to force its way out of there? The weight of rejection, the heartache, the crush of having it pushed down his throat that he was no longer man enough to be a husband or a father? He was broken. Broken eyes, broken heart.

He pressed his lips against her forehead. ‘Go to bed, Honey.’

She nodded, a tiny movement. ‘You promise you’ll think about what I’ve said?’

He mirrored her actions, the same small nod. ‘Bed.’

It was only as he closed his door that he put his hand down and discovered his dark glasses lying on the hall table. They were his armour, yet he hadn’t given one single thought to them all evening.

CHAPTER TWENTY

‘Do you think you could come with me?’ Lucille whispered the next morning, twisting her string of bright blue glass beads around her fingers and looking beseechingly at Honey. Glancing towards Mimi, who was chatting to a customer across the shop floor, Honey struggled for an answer that didn’t compromise her neutral position between the two sisters. It was bad enough that she knew of Lucille’s clandestine meeting with her brother at all, let alone tagging along as well.

‘Lucille, don’t you think it would be better if you told Mimi? If you wait until afterwards it’s going to be ten times harder to tell her. She might even want to come with you.’

‘She wouldn’t. She won’t even talk about him with me. I’ve tried, Honeysuckle, but it’s up to her. She can’t stop me from meeting him.’ Lucille fired a nervous glance towards her sister, who was now engrossed in teaching a nervous-looking student how to tie a Windsor knot for an upcoming job interview.

‘I know that. I just think you’re setting yourself up for an argument by keeping secrets.’

‘I’ll tell her as soon as I’ve been,’ Lucille promised. ‘I just want to meet my brother. How can that be wrong?’

It wasn’t wrong, and Honey could completely understand why Lucille felt she needed to do this, with or without her sister’s approval. The letter from the adoption agency had opened the lid on a can of worms that couldn’t just be closed again without action, and in some ways it reminded Honey of the proposition she’d put to Hal last night. Lucille was asking for help because she needed answers, and in her own way that was what Honey needed too. It was all becoming quite exhausting. Maybe if she helped Lucille, and Hal helped her, they could all move on and get back to business as usual.

‘You absolutely promise you’ll tell Mimi as soon as we get back?’

Lucille beamed. ‘I promise. Thank you, Honey, you’re a poppet.’

Glancing across at Mimi, Honey didn’t feel like a poppet. She felt compromised, and she tried not to wonder if she’d made Hal feel the same way last night.

Later that afternoon Honey glanced around the busy shopping street, trying to pick Nell out in the crowd. She’d received a strange text earlier, an SOS of sorts. Emergency. Meet me by that sex store on the High Street at 4pm. Tell you later. Nell. xx

Honey had to double-check the sender; she wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if it had been from Tash, but from Nell it seemed entirely out of character.

‘There you are.’ Nell appeared at her side, neat and efficient in her teacher’s attire. ‘Thanks a million, Honey, I didn’t fancy going in on my own, I might see someone I know. This way I can say I’m with you.’

Honey rolled her eyes. ‘Thanks a lot. I have a reputation too you know.’

‘Not with the school gate mafia you don’t. Trust me, one whiff of scandal and I’ll be in the head’s office.’ Honey glanced at the St Trinian’s-clad model in the sex shop window behind Nell and tried not to laugh.

‘What are we here for anyway?’

‘It’s my turn,’ Nell said, leaning in.

‘Your turn to what?’

‘To buy something new,’ Nell tilted her head towards the store. ‘From in here. For our … collection.’

‘Ohh. I see.’ Honey wasn’t certain she wanted in on helping Nell choose their next sex toy, but … ‘Come on then. Let’s go in. Do you think we’re going to need to go behind the curtain?’

Nell’s eyes flickered around as they went inside, already viewing the shelves with