Sweet as Honey (The Seven Sisters) (12 page)

“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 someone. The panic had burrowed into his chest like an insect, and
for the first time his heart lightened at sharing the news.

“What is she going to do?” Cam said.

“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”

“Why did you kiss her?”

Fresh tears of frustration and anger filled
Dex’s eyes. He looked across the road to the supermarket, watching people
struggling to their cars with bags of heavy shopping. How could everything be
so normal when his world was falling apart?

“She taunted me,” he said, his voice low.
“I told her—by mistake—that Honey and I hadn’t slept together, and she started
going on about us, things we used to do… It made me angry. I left that life
behind and I thought I’d moved on, but she made me feel that some of the
darkness still remains inside me. She grabbed me and kissed me and, for one
second, I didn’t stop her.” He looked back at Cam, his eyes blurry. “It was
only a second, but I know it’s not an excuse, and I know I did wrong. I’ve
hated myself for it ever since.”

“You still love Honey?”

“Of course. I know I’ve screwed up. I love
her so much, Cam, it’s killing me to think I’ve hurt her…”

To his surprise, Cam reached out and rested
a hand briefly on his shoulder. “Calm down,” Cam said, sounding amused. “You
haven’t committed murder. Or even been unfaithful. You haven’t hurt Honey—yet.
And you won’t, because she’s not going to find out.”

Dex blew out a long, slow breath. “Okay.”

“At least I’m not going to tell her. And
neither will Koru. It was a friend of his who saw you and told him, you know.”

Dex closed his eyes. “Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed.”

“Is he angry?”

“He wanted to cut off your dick and stuff
it in your mouth. I managed to persuade him otherwise.” Cam continued to sound
amused.

Disappointment swept over Dex. His
shoulders sagged. He couldn’t believe Koru had seen him. “Why aren’t you going
to tell her?” he whispered.

Cam studied him thoughtfully. “Because
she’s had a hell of a time in the past, and this is the happiest I’ve seen her
in years. Because she’s crazy about you and, in spite of all this, I think
you’re crazy about her. And because I sincerely believe that, deep down, you’re
a good man, and you want to do well by her. I think you’ll be faithful to her,
and you’ll look after her.”

“I will,” Dex croaked.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll let Koru loose
on you.” Cam’s eyes glittered.

Dex looked at his feet, remembering Koru’s
tale of what he’d done to Ian Mc-Fucking-Idiot. “How mad is he?”

Cam sighed. “He’s angry. But the thing
is…we’ve all been there, Dex. You think you’re the only one who’s ever had an
unhealthy obsession with a girl? People can have a hold over us for all sorts
of reasons. Women are like sirens—they call out to your soul and there’s often
not a damn thing you can do about it—you go running whether you want to or
not.”

Was he talking about Marama or someone
else? Dex wasn’t sure.

“Do you want this girl?” Cam asked.

“No!” Dex spoke vehemently. “God, no.”

“And do you love Honey?”

“Yes. I swear it, Cam. With all my heart.”

 “Then let’s forget about it and
concentrate on the weekend. But Dex? If you see her again, I want you to come
and tell me.”

“I will, sir.”

“This woman is a worthless piece of trash
and I won’t have her ruining my girl’s wedding.”

“I understand.” Dex swallowed. Cam’s eyes
were hard and cold. He wouldn’t like to make an enemy of the man. He still
couldn’t believe Cam had been so understanding—he wouldn’t have been surprised if
Cam had phoned Honey immediately and told her, then got her brother to beat him
up. Talking of which… “What about Koru?”

“Koru thinks with his heart and not with
his head. But he’s been there too. He went out with a girl for a few years in England
who got her claws into him. He tried to break it off several times, but each
time she swore she couldn’t live without him…you know the drill.”

Dex nodded. Indeed he did. “What happened?”

“Much as the same as what happened to you,
I suspect—in the end he just walked out and told her to do her worst. In his
case, she carried it through, though—she took an overdose.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. One of those cry for help things, I
guess. She knew someone would be walking in the door any minute. I guess she
was lucky her mother didn’t decide to go to the shops first on her way home.
Anyway, suffice to say Koru knows what you’ve been through and understands what
kind of woman you’re dealing with. And he likes you. You’ve been good for
Honey. You’ve treated her well. Koru was deeply affected by what that man did
to his sister.” Clearly Cam couldn’t bring himself to say Ian’s name. “He
blames himself—as we all do—for not seeing it earlier. And he’s watched her
blossom with you.”

Dex looked at his feet, embarrassed and
ashamed. “I’m going to spend every day for the rest of my life making Honey
happy.”

“I know.”

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t want for
anything. She’s a beautiful girl and she deserves the world. I’ll make sure she
gets it.”

“I know, son.” Cam nodded, seemingly
satisfied. “Okay, I’d better get back to work.”

“I’ll see Koru later.”

“Yeah, well, don’t stress about it—he’s in
Whangarei today. He’ll be cool. You’re seeing Honey tonight, eh?”

“Yes. I’ll come around after six. She
should be home from the court by then.”

“All right. I might see you then.” Cam
walked off.

Dex watched him go, then leaned against the
side wall of the station and bent over, hands on his knees. He let out a long,
slow breath.
Shit
,
that was close
. Cam had every right to knock
his teeth down his throat and refuse to let him marry Honey. He couldn’t
believe he’d got away with it.

But of course he hadn’t. Because even
though Cam and now Koru knew what he’d done, Honey didn’t, and he’d have to
hide it from her for the rest of his life. It would be the price he’d have to
pay for having her.

He stood and studied the greying sky, his
spirits low. It was kind of Cam and Koru to support him, but how could he go on
like this? Lying to Honey, pretending everything was okay? Would there ever
come a time when the first thing he thought about when he woke up in the
morning wasn’t how he had betrayed her?

Honey stood by the front window, looking
down the drive. It was six thirty, and Dex was late.

Her stomach churned. She’d spoken to him
briefly after she returned from the courthouse, and once again he’d seemed
reluctant to visit her, but he’d finally agreed when she put her foot down and
told him she wanted to see him and they were going to have a conversation about
what was going on.

The worry that had been gnawing away at her
stomach started to work its way upward, filling her with a rising sense of
doom. He was having second thoughts about the wedding, she was sure of it now.
Why, she didn’t know. It didn’t really matter in the long run. What mattered was
that they got it sorted. She had to ask him if he wanted to call it off.
Because the last thing she needed was to be left at the altar.

She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead
against the window. What a hell of a day. That afternoon, the prosecuting
lawyer had called his other witnesses. It was a mixed bag and a sorry story. By
the end of it, Honey was pretty sure she knew what had happened.

No doubt there was some truth to James’s
story, and Sarah had probably been overly possessive and jealous of his time,
but she’d been driven to act like that because of the way he’d treated her, out
all hours, drinking, obviously having affairs, ignoring her half the time. When
he left, he had refused to give his key back and had probably told Sarah he
would be coming for his stuff but had refused to tell her when. She had almost
certainly known it was he when the door opened, and she had confronted him and
told him he couldn’t just walk into her house whenever he felt like it. He had
told her the flat was his and he’d do whatever he wanted. And she’d finally
lost her temper and flown at him.

Almost certainly she had intended to do wound
him.

And in Honey’s eyes, the bastard deserved
it.

Still, she wasn’t looking forward to making
the final decision the next morning. She knew in her heart that most of the
jury believed James because he’d been very convincing in painting Sarah as high
maintenance and himself as the innocent party who’d tried to do his best for
her. It was not going to be an easy ride, and a feeling of dread had descended
over her, which wasn’t helped by the impending conversation with her fiancé.

The sound of scrunching gravel filled the
air and she opened her eyes to see Dex’s car pull up in front of the house. At
that moment,
Stormwind
was empty—her father still at the shop with Missy
and Belle, Daisy in Auckland with Reuben, Koru God knew where with some blonde
or other, and Jasmine and Lily had gone to the cinema.

Dex got out of the car, and Honey watched
him close the door and then wait a minute, hands on hips, thinking. She put her
hand over her mouth. Was he planning to come in and tell her it was all over?

He turned and walked slowly to the door,
and she went into the kitchen and started filling the kettle, her hands
shaking. She heard him come into the house and listened for his footsteps on
the rimu floorboards as he rounded the corner.

“Hey you.” She finished filling the kettle,
placed it on its base and flipped the switch. “I’m making a cuppa. You want
one?”

She turned, and her breath caught in her
throat at the sight of him, as it always did. He wore cream chinos, his hands
jammed in the pockets, and a tight All Blacks rugby shirt. His hair was
ruffled, his bright blue eyes serious as he studied her, his brows drawn
together in a thoughtful frown. He was the handsomest man she’d ever met, and
she’d thought he was hers. Was that still the case?

She walked a few steps toward him and
stopped. “You look nice,” she managed, trying not to cry.

For the first time, he smiled, his lips
curving a little in one corner. “So do you.”

She glanced down at herself. She’d chosen
her outfit carefully—a long, light orange dress that brought out the warm tones
in her skin, and she’d undone more buttons than usual, leaving a few inches of
cleavage on show and a glimpse of her lacy bra visible above the bodice.

She looked back up at him. His smile gave
her courage. His eyes were still warm, and she had seen the way they lit up
when he first walked into the room and saw her.

She walked the final few steps up to him
and rested her hands on his chest. “I missed you,” she murmured, stroking her
fingers across the silky black material.

“I missed you too.” His husky voice made
the hairs rise on the back of her neck, but he didn’t take his hands out of his
pockets.

She raised one hand to cup his face and
looked into his eyes. He’d showered, and he smelled of clean male and
aftershave, and his cheek was smooth. She brushed her thumb across his lips,
then raised herself on tiptoe, leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.