Sweet as Honey (The Seven Sisters) - By Caitlyn Robertson Page 0,32

a cup of coffee for you, lucky bastard.”

Koro? Dex rose, surprised, and walked through the station to the front desk to see Cam Summers standing in the doorway, looking up at the pink and red begonia in the baskets hanging to either side of the building.

Dex opened the safety door and walked across the empty waiting room. Honey’s father had never come to see him at the station before. “Hey, what are you doing here? Is Honey okay?”

Cam turned. He held a takeaway cardboard cup in his hand and offered it to Dex. “She’s fine—far as I know. Brought you a coffee.”

“Thanks.” Dex took it and sipped it. Piping hot latte, just what the doctor ordered. “Great, I appreciate it.”

Cam looked back out at the baskets. “Got a minute?”

“Sure.” Dex’s stomach rumbled nervously as he followed his father-in-law-to-be out of the station and across the neatly tended lawns to a quiet spot. Cam was a big guy, several inches taller than him, and built like a cart horse, although you’d never have guessed it from his temperament. He was a gentle giant and Dex had never seen him lose his temper, although Honey had told him she’d once watched him put his fist through a wall after arguing with Marama.

They stood for a moment in companionable silence. Cam closed his eyes and Dex did the same. The March sun—hanging onto late summer by its fingernails—warmed his face, and the smell of the begonias made him think of evenings by the pool with Honey and her family, and walking with her by the river under the light of the moon.

Hopefully, he had many, many such evenings to come after they were married. If only he didn’t have this guilt sitting in his stomach like stodgy food, he would have thought himself the happiest man on earth.

He opened his eyes as a shadow fell across his face. Clouds bunched together over the sun, threatening rain. He’d checked the weather every day that week, trying to see if Saturday would be clear. So far the weathermen had promised sunshine. He hoped they were right—he wanted it to be perfect for Honey.

“So how’s things?” Cam asked.

Dex glanced across at him. “Okay I guess. A bit nervous.”

“That’s to be expected.” Cam turned his stormy-blue eyes on Dex. “You still want to marry my daughter then?”

“Of course. More than anything.”

“So I’m not to think anything of the fact that you were seen kissing another woman in plain view of State Highway Ten?”

Dex’s heart seemed to shudder to a stop.

For a long, long moment, the two men stared at each other, Cam’s gaze hard, searching, Dex’s presumably radiating the horror he felt inside.

“I don’t know what to say,” Dex said eventually, his voice little more than a whisper. “I’d say it didn’t mean anything, but I know that’s no excuse.”

Cam said nothing, just studied him thoughtfully.

Dex’s chest tightened at the thought that Cam was going to go home and tell Honey, and it was going to make her cry.

Cam frowned and he let out a long, frustrated sigh. He glanced over his shoulder, then pulled Dex around the corner, out of sight of the front desk.

Dex’s chest heaved as he struggled to control his emotions. He’d ruined it—he’d ruined everything. He was so fucking stupid.

“Calm down, son,” Cam said. “I’m not going to tell her.”

Dex glanced up at him, confused and disbelieving.

“But you’re going to have to explain to me what happened,” Cam said.

Dex pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, then ran his hands through his hair. “It was Cathryn,” he said hoarsely, the words tumbling out like marbles from a bag, hard and cold. “She turned up outside the school after I’d been there to do my careers talk. I panicked—I thought someone might see her, or see us talking, so I told her to get in the car. She said she just wanted to say hi and could we go for a coffee or something. I didn’t know what to do with her. I drove out to the café on State Highway Ten and bought her a coffee, but as soon as I’d done it, I couldn’t drink mine. I felt like I’d swallowed a billiard ball.”

“What did she want?” Cam asked.

“I don’t know. I still don’t know. She said she came here to visit a cousin, but she knew I was getting married. I think she might have come here to stop the wedding.” Surprisingly, Dex felt relieved to have told