That Summer Night

Part Four

2008

“Belden residence,” a male voice greeted, when Honey made the call to her in-laws.

“Oh, hello,” she answered. She almost said ‘Dad,’ but the word stuck in her throat, so close to her own father’s passing. “It’s Honey.”

Peter greeted her warmly and they spent a few minutes exchanging news.

“There’s actually a reason for my call,” she admitted, at length. “And I’m sorry to be dredging up things that are probably better forgotten, but there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“To do with the Wellington girl’s child?” he guessed.

“Only tangentially.” She took a breath. “It’s more to do with the party – Knut’s birthday at Crabapple Farm. We’ve discussed this particular point and neither Brian nor I can quite remember properly. Did some things disappear that night?”

She heard him sigh. For a long moment, he didn’t answer.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay,” she back-tracked. “I meant to say that first, only I forgot.”

“No. It’s fine.” For a moment, he paused. “Yes, it’s true that a number of items were… taken that night.”

“Stolen?”

“Possibly.” Again, he sighed. “I didn’t pursue the matter, for reasons which seemed more than adequate at the time.”

“But you got the things back, somehow.”

“I got most of the things back,” he clarified. “I spent every weekend for a couple of months trawling through second-hand stores. I located just about everything. One piece I didn’t want to pay the asking price and I let it go. One thing, I never found.”

“If you’d reported them stolen–” She broke off. “But you suspected a family member.”

“I wasn’t sure.” He paused again. “A couple of the store owners gave me a description of the seller. At least one of them commented on my resemblance to him.”

“And was it Knut?” she asked, then held her breath for an answer.

“I don’t know. From the description, I think it was either him or Brian. But I’ve always suspected Knut.”

She let out the held breath in a long, slow stream. “Brian thought I was imagining things. And I don’t suppose that’s proof of my theory of why he wanted the money, but it’s suggestive that he did want money.”

“The last conversation I ever had with Harold, I asked him if Knut was okay,” Peter remembered, his voice a little softer. “He got quite offended – which made me believe that Knut had a serious problem of some kind. And then, when he caused the scene at the funeral, I was even more certain. But I’ve never known what it was.”

“I think I’m about to find out,” Honey answered. “And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Sometimes, the past needs to be dealt with,” her father-in-law answered. “Maybe this is one of those times.”

1981

Honey’s heart thudded in her chest as she waited. She had been dreading this moment for a long time, now. Years, if she was truly honest with herself. In the time since Sally’s accusation, on that October day back in 1975, not talking to Brian had become a habit. The raw pain had faded into the occasional dull ache and wistful thought of what might have been, but it had been easier to maintain the status quo than to do anything about changing it.

And now Trixie had forced a reconciliation. Because not being part of Jim and Trixie’s upcoming wedding was not an option that Honey was willing to consider. So, here she waited, in the living room of the spacious apartment she shared with Trixie.

Someone knocked on the door and she sprang to her feet to answer it. She closed her eyes for a moment, hand outstretched, took a calming breath and opened it.

Brian stood on the threshold, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, a look of wary expectation on his handsome face. The breath rushed out of Honey’s lungs.

“Come in,” she managed to say, a moment later than she should have. “Please. Take a seat. Make yourself at home.”

He entered with hardly a word and selected a seat. Honey sat down opposite him and nervously offered him refreshments, which he politely refused. A silence fell between them.

“I don’t know where to start,” she admitted, at last. “And I have no idea of what to say to you, or how much you even want to hear from me, but I promised Trixie that I’d do this, and I will do this, because there’s too much at stake to not do it, if you see what I mean?”

He nodded. “I couldn’t miss my only sister’s wedding, either. Which is why I was willing to intrude on you like this.”

Honey shook her head. “I think we should have had this talk a long time ago, but I just didn’t know how to go back from saying I never wanted to see you ever, ever again.”

“I’m sorry for how I handled that situation.” He looked down. “I shouldn’t have said you were crazy to believe Sally. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that her story was believable, despite it not being true.”

“I think I only believed her because I saw her flirting with you.”

He looked up, startled. “When did you see that?”

“I saw you through Trixie’s window,” she explained. “Not long after the cake was cut, we went upstairs, but I went back to look for Sally, to make sure she was okay, but I couldn’t find her, only when I got back upstairs, I saw her through the window. She put her hand on your chest and you let her do it.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t ever see Sally outside. In fact, I thought she left about that time.”

“You’re saying I’m making this up?” she asked, hearing the shrill note in her own voice, but unable to stop it.

“No, of course not.” He remained calm and thoughtful. “I just don’t understand how that could be when I don’t remember anything of the kind. And I had a girlfriend. I wouldn’t have just let her touch me.”

Honey’s stomach dropped. “You’re right. You wouldn’t have.”

His brow creased. “And I don’t think I was even there at the time. I seem to remember… didn’t I drive Uncle Harold into town around then?”

“I don’t know. Did you?”

He nodded. “He was going to drive himself, but Dad told him he’d had too much to drink and that I’d take him. We were probably away for an hour, though it seemed longer at the time.”

“Where did you go?”

“Just a house somewhere. I don’t know who lived there. I waited in the car.”

She considered this for a moment. “And this was when?”

“At the end of the speeches,” he answered, almost at once. “I was standing near Dad and Uncle Harold and it was the first thing that Uncle Harold said when they finished.”

Honey stared at him. “But it can’t possibly have been even half an hour later that I saw…” Her eyes widened. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that! And right after Trixie and Di thought that she was me!”

He shook his head, bewildered. “What are you talking about?”

“They thought they saw me through the window,” she hurried to explain. “And then I gave them a fright by coming up behind them. And then I looked out the window and saw who they were looking at and it was Sally and she put her hand on someone’s chest and I thought it was you. And until today, I’ve never told anyone what I saw just then.”

His expression showed that he still did not understand. “How could they think that Sally was you?”

“It was dark outside,” she reminded him. “Her dress was the same shape as mine – it was yellow and mine was orange; not all that different. Her hair was about the same length and her figure was about the same, too. They weren’t close enough to see details; not in the dark.”

“And you couldn’t see details of the man she was touching,” he added, “but somehow thought it was me.”

She nodded. “When actually, it was your cousin who everyone always said was enough like you to be a brother.”

“Knut.” He looked away, frowning. “You could be right. But wouldn’t you have noticed that he was wearing glasses?”

“Was he wearing glasses? In the dark? Mightn’t he have decided to take them off?” She made a helpless gesture. “And at that distance, would I have noticed if he was, or he wasn’t? Unless there was a light to reflect off the lenses?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “And I don’t know why I’m trying to convince you it wasn’t him.”

She laughed. “I don’t know that, either. But let’s just assume that what I saw didn’t mean what I thought it meant when I saw it.”

“That would be a step in the right direction.” A small worry line formed between his eyebrows before he spoke again. “So, does this mean that we might go back to being friends?”

She smiled. “I’d like that.”

2008

“He did take the things,” Honey announced to her husband as he arrived home from work. “At least, I think we can be reasonably sure that he did.”

He frowned. “Who took what things?”

She let out a breath. “Knut.”

Brian’s expression cleared. “You called Moms and Dad.”

She nodded. “It was almost exactly like I guessed.”

“But surely there isn’t proof that it was actually Knut,” he replied, as they walked through to the kitchen together.

“Well, it was either him or you, and I think you’d know about it if you’d done it.”

He pulled off his glasses and began to methodically clean the lenses. “I see.”

“And I also think I know what we should do next,” she went on. “Because the pieces that are missing are pieces that I don’t think we can find any other way.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?”

She looked away. “I don’t think anyone actually likes this situation.”

“That’s not what I said,” he answered, with a faint smile.

“I’m thinking that we’re going to do the thing that you say every year that you’ll do, but never get around to.”

He sat down at the kitchen table and set his glasses down in front of himself. “That doesn’t sound like what I have in mind when I say that.”

Honey sat down opposite him with a bump. “I know. But I also feel that it’s time to clear the air and I think the only way we can really do that is in person – and all together.”

“You don’t think it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie?” He put his glasses back on, possibly so that he could see her expression more clearly. “Because both Cap and Hallie have made it perfectly clear that they don’t want to discuss the matter.”

“The matter they don’t want to discuss is not exactly the same as the matter I want to discuss,” Honey answered. “And anyway, I talked to Trixie again and she agrees with me.”

His expression became wary. “What has she been digging up now?”

Honey shrugged. “Not much else. She knows where Knut is. She’s identified all four of his ex-wives and his current wife. She thinks she knows nearly the whole story.” She bit her lip. “And she thinks that neither of us – and by us, I mean you and me – are going to like it.”

He closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “I’ve been of that opinion all along, which is why we chose never to dig too deeply.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what she means. Because I think all of us are convinced now that neither of your uncles was involved.”

“That doesn’t mean that the answer is going to be comfortable,” he replied. “Even if we accept that it was either Knut or Cap–”

“I think we’ve both accepted, now, that it was Knut,” she interrupted. “Because, even if we aren’t as close to Cap as we are to Mart, we’ve been in touch with him for all this time and he’s never given us any reason to think it was him.”

Her husband just looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. “Yes, I am inclined to think it was Knut. In fact, that was the first idea I had, once I saw the child, and the one that I’ve come back to, over and over again.”

Honey nodded agreement. “Which makes me wonder exactly what it could be that Trixie is so convinced that we wouldn’t like.”

His eyes lost focus as he considered the question deeply. At length, he shook his head once, but did not speak.

“What are you thinking?” Honey asked.

He looked at her intently for a moment. “I was considering the likely effects of drinking large amounts of alcohol while taking the more likely kinds of prescription painkillers available at the time.”

“You think that might be a factor?”

He shrugged. “Possibly. But excessive alcohol on its own would be enough to dull perception and lower inhibitions.”

She frowned, not understanding where he was going with this. “What else?”

“Uncle Harold’s funeral.” His brow creased and she saw a hint of his distress. “There has always been something that bothered me about Knut’s expression that day, but I’ve never been able to pin down what it was. Now, I think I know what it was: he looked guilty.”

“Guilty?” she repeated, mind racing as she tried to piece things together.

Brian nodded. “I could be projecting the interpretation onto the memory. I might just be inventing evidence to support my own theory.”

“Then you have a theory on why he felt guilty,” she deduced.

Again, he nodded. “What if, in his impaired state of judgement, Knut took a course of action which when sober he would never take?”

She sighed under her breath at his reticence. “That’s certainly credible so far. Is there more to this theory, or is that it?”

A fleeting smile crossed Brian’s face. “Yes, of course there’s more. I’m wondering if it was a case of mistaken identity. What if Knut didn’t realise he’d been with Sally? What if he thought he’d been with you?”

Honey gasped as more of the pieces dropped into place.

1981

In the few days before Jim and Trixie’s wedding, all of the Bob-Whites descended on Sleepyside. Honey divided her nights between her old room in Manor House and the spare bed in Trixie’s room. She and Trixie spent their days racing around on last-minute errands and their evenings on long, sprawling conversations filled with laughter. Sometimes Diana joined them. One night, both Brian and Mart braved entering Trixie’s room for half an hour or so.

The last afternoon before the big day, Honey found herself at a loose end. Jim and Trixie had gone off somewhere by themselves, while everyone else she might have spent time with seemed to have some sort of task that needed completion. But the weather was beautiful and she decided to take a walk.

She wandered familiar paths, letting her mind drift to whatever subject it chose, not dwelling on anything in particular and not really noticing where she was headed. Without meaning to, she wandered through the orchard and into the back yard of Crabapple Farm. And there she noticed a couple of visitors.

“Sally!” she exclaimed, without thinking through what would happen next.

The other woman glanced in her direction and then called to the small boy with her. “Go and sit in the car, please, Brian.”

He obediently ran off, around the corner of the house. Honey didn’t even see his face.

“What do you want?” Sally demanded, once she was sure he was out of earshot.

Honey shook her head. “I don’t even know. Just to say hello, really.”

The other woman looked down. “Goodbye would be more appropriate.”

“What do you mean?”

Their eyes met and Honey saw regret and sadness. “That’s why I’m here. You won’t be hearing from me again. Brian can have his perfect life, without the threat of his bastard turning up at any moment. I’m finished with him.”

Honey tried so hard to keep the shock off her face, but knew that she had not succeeded.

“You don’t need to pass on the message,” Sally continued. “I’ve told him already.”

“I’m really sorry that things have turned out this way,” Honey told her, still trying to process what she had just heard. “And I hope that you’ll be okay.”

Sally’s hard expression softened a little. “I’ve got my son. We’ll be just fine.”

Honey nodded, utterly unable to think of anything else to say. She stood rooted to the spot as Sally disappeared around the same corner of the house. Moments later, she heard a car’s engine start. She listened until it faded away into the distance.

Then, before she had time to walk away, Brian emerged from the house and began walking straight towards her. On the surface, his neutral expression gave nothing away, but she could see the undercurrents of distress.

“You spoke to her?” he asked, once they were close together.

Honey nodded. “She said something horrible. I’m just glad her little boy wasn’t listening when she said it.”

He scrubbed a hand across his face. “I was going to take a walk. I need to clear my head.”

“Do you mind if I join you?” she asked. “Or would you rather be alone?”

“I’d rather you came with me,” he answered and they fell into step.

For a minute or two, they did not speak, but Brian at last broke the silence.

“She said I have a perfect life without her,” he commented, looking at the trees that surrounded them. “It doesn’t seem perfect to me. In fact, the last few years have seemed rather desolate.”

Honey shivered, in spite of the warm day. “I’ve sometimes felt that way, too.”

He stopped walking and turned to her. “Do you think she meant it? That she’s really not coming back? That she’s really going to let me have my life back?”

Honey hesitated. “I think so. I hope so. In fact, I hope that will be the best thing for her and her son, as well as for you.”

“For us?” He gently took her hand. “Do you think, one day, there might be an us again?”

She looked up into his eyes and smiled. “Yes. And that day might even be today.”

The tension fell away from him and joy sprang up in his eyes. The next thing she knew, they were kissing and everything that had been wrong suddenly became right. Sally’s accusation faded away into obscurity. What Sally said didn’t matter any more.

2008

“I’m really not sure about this,” Brian muttered, as he locked the car and dropped the keys into his pocket. “I wish I hadn’t agreed to it.”

Honey paused to cast him a reassuring look. “I’m sure it’s what we all need. And anyway, it’s too late to back out now.”

He nodded rather gloomily and followed her into the hotel whose private meeting room they had hired to serve as a central location. Honey did all the talking and he continued to trail after her, deep in his own private musings, as the man from the desk led them to the room. After reassuring herself that everything was ready, she left Brian there and went to wait for their guests in the lobby.

Trixie and Mart arrived first – unsurprisingly, since she had given them a time fifteen minutes earlier than that she gave to Brian’s cousins. After a long debate, they had decided to limit the meeting to those most directly involved – Brian and Honey, Mart, Trixie, Cap and Hallie. An invitation extended to Knut via his siblings had been refused.

“Are they here, yet?” Trixie demanded, by way of a greeting.

Honey shook her head. “Not yet. I’ve left Brian in the room. It’s down this way.”

They walked together to the doorway, where Mart entered and the two women remained outside.

“I’m so worried about this, Trixie,” Honey confided after the door closed behind him. “What if Brian is right and this is a terrible idea?”

Trixie let out a heavy sigh. “He’ll never say, ‘I told you so,’ but we’ll know he’s thinking it.”

They began to stroll back to the lobby.

“The trouble is,” Honey continued, “I’m not sure which would be worse: to continue not knowing, or to finally know.”

Trixie grabbed her arm to squeeze it and they stopped for a moment. “I don’t think knowing is going to make anything worse, really. Because our relationship with Knut has been non-existent ever since Uncle Harold’s funeral. We can’t make that worse. But I don’t want to argue with Cap or Hallie.”

“No. Neither do I.” Honey took a breath and began walking again. “I just want to settle this thing, once and for all.”

“Maybe we should say that right up front, when they get here. We’re here to make peace.”

The hotel’s outside door opened just as they arrived in the foyer and her other two guests stepped inside. Both stopped short where they were and both their faces held apprehension.

“Cap! Hallie!” Honey greeted, striding forward. “It’s so good to see you again, after all this time.”

“It’s certainly been a while,” Cap agreed stiffly.

Hallie held herself a little distant from the group. “We’re a little early.”

“It’s fine. Come this way. We’ve got a private meeting room all ready and waiting,” Honey continued, feeling nervous still and babbling a little as a result. “I hope it will help us to clear the air permanently. I feel like there’s been a shadow over us for far too long, now.”

Hallie nodded, but her expression remained wary.

They entered the meeting room, Trixie closed the door and Honey offered everyone coffee. The group mingled rather awkwardly for a few minutes while she served them, then they found seats at the table in the middle of the room.

“We don’t actually have anything to say about that woman’s allegation,” Cap stated, before anyone else could speak. He glared at Brian. “And we definitely have nothing to say about the accusation you made at Dad’s funeral.”

“I never made the accusation,” Brian told him, in a quiet voice. “But I believe I know why Knut pretended that I did.”

Cap and Hallie shared a look.

“We know about the problem Knut had with prescription painkillers,” Trixie added. “And we know that he eventually beat the addiction.”

Brian cleared his throat. “And I can only guess on this matter, but I strongly suspect that his doctor failed to tell him that he shouldn’t be drinking alcohol while he took them.”

“We don’t blame him for what happened.” Honey looked from Cap to Hallie and back again. “His judgement might have been a lot more impaired than he thought it was. On the night of the party, I mean.”

Cap laid a hand across his eyes. “You have no idea how hard it’s been to be in the middle of this, all these years. To be deflecting you away from him. To be wondering exactly what it was he did.”

Trixie shrugged. “From what we can make out, he probably took some painkillers and got drunk. Then, when Sally came on to him… nature took its course. He probably didn’t even realise who it was he’d been with. And I doubt that he had any idea at the time that she had a baby by him. She didn’t even realise that it was his. She was drunk enough that she thought she’d maybe been with Brian.”

Hallie shook her head. “That doesn’t completely explain his attitude to you.”

“Well, that would be the other thing,” Honey answered. “The thing he did the next morning.”

“Quite likely while still under the influence,” Brian added hastily. “And I want to assure you that my parents very deliberately took no action at the time that would create a legal problem. The matter is well and truly settled.”

“What did he do?” Hallie asked, shaking her head a little.

Trixie picked up the story. “Well, he kind of stole some things from our house and sold them. To pay for his drugs, we think. But it’s okay, really. Moms and Dad have known all along that it was him and they’ve never held a grudge and neither do we.”

Hallie’s forehead bumped against the table. “For this we have been protecting him, all these years?” she muttered, almost inaudibly. “I’m going to wring his neck.”

Cap still frowned. “So, you’re saying that Knut pretended that you’d said something abominable at Dad’s funeral to cover up his crime?”

Honey shook her head. “He must have known, by then, that he’d gotten away with the stealing. He was covering up the addiction. Brian was doing pre-med. He could have noticed at any time.”

“And again, this is just a guess, but perhaps he felt guilty about what he’d done.” Brian sighed softly. “Every time I think of the argument we had at the funeral, I think I saw guilt in his face.”

“Excuse me a minute,” Hallie asked, pushing her chair back roughly and almost stumbling to the door.

The others stared in the direction she had disappeared for a moment or two, then Brian cleared his throat again.

“I also understand that it’s a sensitive topic and that you don’t want to talk about it, but I think it’s right you know that I’ve answered Brian Wellington’s medical questions as best I could,” he told Cap. “I want to stress that I have not shared any conclusions I’ve drawn about inherited conditions which might exist in your branch of the family with anyone, not even Honey. I only gave him some advice on which tests I thought would be most likely to yield a diagnosis for his baby.”

“Baby?” Cap repeated, blankly.

Brian nodded. “That’s all this was ever about, as far as he’s concerned. He wanted help deciding how to find out what’s wrong with his baby without having to pay for dozens of different tests. Family medical history can help in that respect.”

Cap swore softly. “I didn’t know that. Knut always thought–”

He broke off as the door opened and Knut himself stepped into the room with Hallie a step behind him. Something about his lined face and greying hair made him seem years older than any of those present. He silently regarded them all for several moments before Honey rose with a smile on her face.

“Come in, Knut,” she invited. “Please, take a seat. Can I get you something to drink?”

He shook his head and took the seat closest to the door. Hallie returned to the place she had vacated and so did Honey.

“Hallie says you know the whole damned story.” Knut’s voice rasped and he failed to meet any of their eyes. “But apparently, you’re all ready to forgive and forget.”

“Well, of course we are,” Trixie practically exploded. “You’re family. And everything has worked out for the best – for us, at least. I don’t know enough about your life to know if it’s true for you.”

He twisted the wedding ring on his finger, a wry smile twisting his lips. “If you’d asked me ten years ago, I’d have probably sworn at you. But now? Well, things aren’t too bad, now.”

“I’m glad,” Honey told him. “And while it was all very confusing at the time, we think we understand, now.”

“There’s a kid, Gramps,” Cap added, causing his brother to stare at him in confusion. “Your unacknowledged first-born wasn’t after the money. He just wanted help for his sick kid.”

“In fact, he wants the exact thing that Mom made us promise never to tell,” Knut deduced.

Hallie reached out and grabbed her eldest brother’s hand. “Maybe we’ll just have to break the promise. She was so sick when she made us make it… Was she even thinking straight?”

Once more, Brian cleared him throat. He slid a folded paper across the table to Knut. “If it helps, that’s my short-list of possible conditions. If it’s on there…”

“I won’t have to break any promise,” Knut concluded. He picked up the paper and read it, nodding. “Thank you, Brian. You’ve handled this whole situation the way that it should have been handled. While I…”

“Don’t think of it that way. Please,” Honey asked of him. “Just let us all make peace and put it behind ourselves.”

Brian stood up and held his hand out for Knut to shake. After a flicker of disbelief, his face settled into a soft smile and he returned the grip firmly.

“I’m sorry, Brian… everyone.” He dropped his cousin’s hand and looked each one of them in the eyes. “I’m sorry for the way I behaved at the party and for the way I made the problems I caused that night last all these years. And I’m especially sorry for punching you, Brian.”

“Forgiven. Long ago,” Brian answered.

“Ugh! I feel exhausted,” Hallie commented, after they had all had a chance to shake hands with everyone else. “I don’t like this kind of reunion at all. But we should have the other kind soon, with all our spouses and kids and lots of food.”

“I was hoping you’d feel that way,” Honey answered. “And I’d love to invite you all over. If that’s okay.”

“I’d like that very much.” Knut smiled at her, then glanced at his siblings. “I think we all would.”

“Let’s order some lunch and we can discuss the details while we eat,” Trixie suggested, as she changed seats to be next to Hallie. “I’m so relieved we’ve got this all straightened out. And nothing was as bad as I’d been imagining all these years.”

“Not as bad?” Knut asked, looking incredulous.

Honey shook her head. “There’s nothing that we discussed today that we can’t get past. And I think, now, we will.”

After a pause, Knut nodded and a slight tension in the room released. In that moment, Honey knew that the worst was behind them. It would take work to rebuild these relationships, but they would take the trouble. It would be worth it.

1981

Trixie’s childhood bedroom door barely closed before she pounced on her best friend.

“Don’t think you can pretend that nothing’s happened.”

Honey’s brow creased. “I wasn’t going to pretend anything and especially not that.”

“And don’t think you can get away with not telling me all about it, either.”

The frown deepened. “But I wasn’t going to not tell you; I just hadn’t had a chance yet, what with everyone talking and everything – not that that would be a bad thing, which it isn’t, but it just didn’t give me an opportunity to do any telling, which I fully intended to do, only I just haven’t, yet.”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “You have an opportunity right now and you’re not using it.”

“That’s because–” Honey broke off. “Actually, never mind why that is. You’re absolutely right and something has happened, but I’m not sure I really even need to tell you because I’m pretty sure you’ve already figured out that Brian and I are back together.”

“Yes, but how?”

A dreamy smile sprang up on Honey’s face. “We kissed. A lot.”

Once more, Trixie rolled her eyes. “I meant the bit before that!”

The smile faded. “Sally was here.”

Trixie’s face twisted in confusion. “How did that help?”

Honey looked away. “Because now she’s saying that she’s not ever coming back. And anyway, I don’t believe her any more when she says that Brian is her son’s father. I should never have believed her. Believing her was the worst mistake I ever made – maybe the worst mistake I will ever make. And I wish I could go back and tell myself not to, but I can’t.”

Her best friend’s expression turned wry. “And here, I was thinking it was because I forced the two of you to talk.”

“I helped. It really did. In fact, this couldn’t have happened if we hadn’t talked first, and I hadn’t had time to really think things through. Which makes me kind of wish you’d gotten married three or four years sooner, so that we wouldn’t have wasted so much time, but I understand why you didn’t.”

Trixie only shook her head.

“But I’m glad you and Jim are getting married now,” Honey continued. “Tomorrow, we get to be sisters-in-law, just like we’ve wanted for so long. And maybe, one day, if things go well, we might possibly be double sisters-in-law.”

Trixie pulled her into a hug. “That would be wonderful. But even if things don’t work out with Brian, you’ll always be a sister to me.”

“And you will to me, too,” Honey answered, then burst into tears. “I don’t deserve to be this lucky.”

“Yes, you do, Hon,” Trixie assured her. “You really do.”

2008

“What an exhausting day,” Honey almost moaned as she dropped into bed in their hotel room. “I’m glad we finally cleared the air, but I’m even more glad that it’s over and we shouldn’t have to do that ever again – at least, I certainly hope not.”

Brian slid between the covers next to her and draped an arm across her waist. “You were right. It was the right thing to do, all of us meeting together. I wish we’d done it years ago. It might not have been quite so traumatic.”

Honey snuggled in, shaking her head against his shoulder. “It was going to be traumatic no matter when we did it. And I doubt we could have done it before, because none of us were ready.”

He considered this in silence for a few moments, they she felt him sigh. “Probably not. We might have cleared up parts of it, but the whole picture wouldn’t have been available.”

They lapsed into silence, each busy with their own thoughts.

“Do you ever wonder what would have happened if that night never existed?” Honey wondered, in a soft voice. “Or if it had gone differently? Like, maybe, if I wasn’t wearing a dress really similar to Sally’s. Because then we wouldn’t have been mistaken for each other.”

“We can’t know,” he answered, just as softly. “As much as I wanted to erase those five miserable years while they were happening, I have no way of predicting what effect that would have had. You might have gotten sick of me abandoning you in favour of my studies and gone off with someone else.”

“I never would have done that!”

“That’s easy to say now, but you can’t know for sure,” he replied, then changed the subject. “I never did get a chance to tell you how much I liked that orange dress. Do you still have it? It would still fit, I think.”

Honey almost snorted with laughter. “Even if I did still have it, I don’t think I want to wear it now. It’s thirty-three years out of fashion. And I’m thirty-three years too old for it.”

“You’re just as slim and beautiful now as you were then.”

“I think, maybe, you need new glasses,” she teased. “Or a better memory.”

He shook his head. “I’m glad that my memories aren’t a hundred percent accurate. When I see photos of us back then, we look impossibly young and naïve. I’m happy not to remember that part.”

“I suppose so,” she answered. “And I suppose, if you think of it that way, I can be glad for that night because it eventually brought us to where we are now. I’m glad that I have you and that I learned to trust you.”

“I’m very glad of that, too.” He pulled her closer. “Thank you for persisting with the task of setting these things to rest – even when I tried to discourage you with my scepticism.”

“Did you? I don’t remember that.”

“Now who’s got a selective memory?” he replied, in a lighter tone.

“I know you, by now,” she pointed out, smiling into his chest. “And that makes all the difference.”

The End