Page 107 of Love in Tune

‘Is this your roundabout way of telling me you think I’m making the wrong decision, Billy?’

Hal lifted the port to his lips and let the comforting heat fill his mouth.

‘I’m old, Hal. You get to this age, you know what matters.’

‘And what’s that?’

Billy huffed. ‘People. Hanging on to the ones who make you happy.’

Hal slid his cup onto the table. ‘You make it sound so simple.’

The creaking sound told Hal that Billy had reclined his chair.

‘That’s because it is simple, son. It’s easy as pie. You figure out who makes you happy, and then you work your backside off to make them happy too.’

‘We’re too different, Billy.’ Hal sighed, his heart heavy. ‘Honey … she’s kind, and soft, and she laughs more than anyone I’ve ever known.’

‘Not anymore she doesn’t,’ Billy said, not pulling any punches.

‘She will.’

‘Have you lost your mind as well as your eyesight, lad?’ Billy said brusquely. ‘It’s not obligatory to go through life bloody miserable, and you’re not doing her some huge favour by denying yourself, and her, the chance to be happy.’

Hal wasn’t offended by Billy’s words. He needed to hear them. He’d been living in suspended animation ever since he’d walked out on Honey over a week earlier, knowing he should go away, yet doing nothing to make it happen. He couldn’t live forever in Billy’s potting shed, but he wasn’t sure he could live forever without Honey either.

Billy cleared his throat. ‘You’ve wallowed long enough, son. It’s time to sink or swim.’

‘What if she sinks with me, Billy?’

‘She won’t, Hal. She’s your life jacket.’

CHAPTER FORTY

‘Billy’s throwing a Halloween party?’ Honey said a few days later, pulling a pained face at Mimi. Anything that included the wordpartywas strictly off the menu at the moment. She couldn’t go to parties. Parties suggested fun and gaiety, and that was hard when you’d had your heart amputated less than three weeks ago. She was lucky to be breathing.

‘It’s only for an hour when the shop closes,’ Mimi said. ‘Humour him, or else we’ll never hear the end of it.’

Lucille appeared with a cobweb lace black dress in her hands from fresh stock that she was sorting through in the back room.

‘You could wear this,’ she said, shaking it out.

‘Please don’t tell me it’s fancy dress,’ Honey groaned.

‘Not exactly, although Billy did say he fancied dressing up as Dick Turpin,’ Mimi said.

Honey looked down at her jeans and pink t-shirt. She wasn’t dressed for an OAP Halloween party, but then who ever was? She was supposed to be meeting Nell and Tash after work to go see a suitably gruesome slasher movie, it was a valid excuse to say no. Or else it would have been, had her mobile not pinged beside the till as she opened her mouth. Glancing at it quickly, she saw the rain check message from Tash, and then almost instantly a second one from Nell. Terrific.

‘One hour and then I’m going home,’ Honey grouched. ‘You better pass me that dress.’

Honey locked the shop at five o’clock and found herself being frogmarched across the wet grass sandwiched between Lucille and Mimi, two unlikely witches in scarlet and black striped tights and tall hats.

‘One hour,’ Honey reminded them, yanking the black lace dress down to a more decent length and inadvertently revealing more cleavage. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked, twisting her head as they steered her down the side of the home rather than through the front doors.

‘To the party,’ Mimi said.

‘A garden party? It’s almost November,’ Honey said, wishing hard that she was already on the bus home.

‘It’s not in the garden,’ Lucille laughed, squeezing her arm and tugging her along in the darkness.

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