The Piano Man Project Page 0,83

who’d had to make the toughest one.

He didn’t blame her. Oh, he had. He’d railed against her, just as he’d railed against everyone else in his life. His friends, his family … all of them. They couldn’t possibly understand what he was going through, and it reached the point where their well-meant kindnesses felt patronising, Imogen’s most of all. She’d tried to accommodate the changes that forced their way through their life together, the broom that swept away the flash, materialistic lifestyle and left the brass tacks of a broken man behind. It wasn’t her fault; she’d fallen for one person, one life, and overnight she’d been presented with someone completely different. It was debatable whether she’d left him or he’d left her in the end; it had become bitterly apparent that they weren’t going to make it.

‘Hal … I’m sorry,’ Honey said. ‘I shouldn’t have pried.’

‘So why did you? What does it matter?’

She was near enough for him to hear her shallow breathing and smell the familiar scent of her shampoo.

‘Honestly? I don’t even know.’ She sighed heavily. ‘Maybe it doesn’t matter at all, Hal. It’s just that sometimes I feel as if we know each other, and then I realise that we don’t really know each other at all.’

The forlorn note in her voice resonated with him.

‘Can I come in for coffee?’

She was too close not to touch. He stroked his fingers against the smoothness of her hair.

She didn’t reply to his question, just leaned her head against his hand a little.

‘It’s getting late,’ she said finally; softly. ‘I don’t think coffee’s a good idea.’

He knew he could push the point; that she’d probably change her mind if he asked her to, and in that moment, he wanted Honey to change her mind pretty badly. He didn’t want to think about driving fast cars anymore or how he should have been marrying Imogen next summer. He wanted to block it all out by pushing Honey down onto her mattress and losing himself in her curves. Her breathing wasn’t steady, and he could feel the warmth of her body a footstep away from him. Swallowing hard, he dipped his head, and he felt her slide her face sideways into his hand, moving away from his kiss just a fraction too slowly, letting his lips touch hers for the briefest hint before they settled on her cheek.

‘Goodnight Hal,’ she murmured close to his ear, letting him linger for a second before easing back. Accepting her decision with a sigh, he brushed his thumb longingly along the softness of her mouth and then turned away.

Honey cradled a mug of coffee in her hands, the heat from the steam warming her face in the dark lounge. Curled into the end of the sofa, she sat in the quiet room and tried to make some sense of the jumbled day.

She’d woken troubled, and Hal had turned her troubles into triumphs. Then the campaign to save the home had almost been derailed by Mimi and Lucille’s public disagreement. She’d taken steps to repair the damage over the course of the afternoon; she could only hope it was going to be enough.

And then there was Tash and Nell trying to push her towards some guy who sounded like Elvis, which was too random to even worry about amongst the bigger stuff she was trying to process. Like the fact Hal should have been getting married. He’d loved someone enough to ask them to marry him, and quite recently too. Was he still in love with her, whoever she was? Was that why he’d shut himself away? Was that why he pushed her away? But then, he hadn’t pushed her away this evening, had he?

If she’d have allowed him in, it wouldn’t have been for coffee. They’d have made for the bedroom, not the kitchen, and it would have no doubt been all of the things she’d hoped for the last time she’d invited him over her threshold. Turning him down tonight had been her heart’s decision, not her head’s. Her heart had said don’t. Don’t let him in. He’s too dark, too hard. He’s broken, and he’ll break you too.

Somehow, he’d cured her of her girl guide complex, her need to step in and make everything better.

Somehow he’d gone from being the man she thought she needed to the one man she couldn’t let close.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

With the new day came new resolutions. She’d concentrate her efforts on the things that were within her control, and