Sweet as Honey (Aster Valley 2)

I forced myself to keep facing Mikey and Pim. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even begin to apologize for not giving you the information you deserved to bring your assailant to justice. There are explanations for why I withheld the information, but they’re not excuses. There’s no excuse for what I did.”

Pim’s face was soft and paternal. He reached out a hand to hold one of mine. “You were scared, honey. Everyone here understands how awful that family has been to you. Of course we understand. But I appreciate you telling us now. I’d like to see him go to jail, if not for my own injury, then for all the pain he’s caused you over the years.”

It was too kind. His words brought tears to my eyes, and I willed them back inside. I wasn’t used to a kind and understanding paternal figure.

Chaya wasn’t as touched. She muttered into her mug. “You mean you didn’t tell a soul except your new boyfriend. And your pal Barney.”

I turned to her in confusion. “I never told Barney.”

She nodded and swallowed a sip of coffee. “You must’ve, because he mentioned it at the hospital. Said ‘It has to be them. Especially after the hit-and-runs.’ Runs, plural. Believe me, I noticed, and I was not pleased that you shared with him and not me.”

“But…” I thought back to when I would have told Barney about recognizing the truck at the hit-and-run. “No. No way. I did not tell him. Ever since that moment, I swore to myself I would take the secret to my grave. And I kept that promise until I told Sam yesterday afternoon.”

“Then how’d he know?”

I opened my mouth to explain but then closed it again. How did he know?

“Maybe you misheard him?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I know I didn’t because he muttered something under his breath about whether it was ‘hits-and-run’ like ‘attorneys-at-law’ or ‘hit-and-runs’ like ‘glad hands’ which I don’t understand at all.”

“It’s a model trains thing,” I muttered. “But…”

“Wait,” Mikey said. “Model trains. Wasn’t he at the model trains meet-up until after the fire was started? Wasn’t that his alibi?”

I nodded. “Well, that’s what he said. But in all the time I’ve known him, I’ve never known a model trains meeting to go past nine forty-five.”

Pim leaned closer. “What was his reaction after the December incident? Was he upset? Guilty? Worried?”

“Definitely worried and stressed, but I assumed he was worried for me because I was so upset about it myself. I remember telling him how scared I’d been,” I began. “When you guys pushed me and I heard the honking and squealing of tires… I was really shaken up afterward. He was supersweet. He made sure I wasn’t alone. He slept over in my guest room for several nights and made me breakfast. Then he’d stop by the shop every day just to say hi. We ended up spending so much time together, we were kind of dating, even though I kept telling him I didn’t want to be in a relationship.”

Mikey clasped his coffee mug between two hands. “But when I was first here in December, someone told us you two were dating, and that was before the hit-and-run.”

Pim nodded. “Probably me. We all thought you two were dating.”

“No,” Mikey said. “I think it was Winter. When he and Gentry came over for dinner.”

“Why? We were just friends before that. I volunteered as a reader at the library,” I explained.

Pim thought back before answering. “He told Lew Bristol, who told Bill at cards one night. It was Black Friday because Bill was bragging about the deal he’d gotten on an immersion blender that morning.”

Chaya cut in. “And I remember Mindy mentioning it around then, too. Remember, I asked you about it?”

I’d just assumed it was one of those funny, small-town rumors. But I never would have guessed it had come straight from the source. The lying source.

“But, why?” I asked, feeling like a fool.

Pim shrugged. “Tale as old as time, isn’t it? Lonely older man and a young, respectful cutie with good manners and a tight little bod.”

Bill cleared his throat loudly from behind him before setting a platter of muffins down and pinching Pim’s side. “Watch it, old man.”

Pim grinned at his husband. “I was watching it. I believe that’s what got me into trouble.”

Bill leaned down and kissed Pim gently on the lips while smoothing down an errant strand of hair. “You okay?” he murmured softly.

Pim nodded. They shared a beat of eye contact before Bill returned to the kitchen. Pim watched him walk away before turning back to the table and fanning his face. “Lordy, that man.”

Chaya was pissed. “Barney would have wanted to push Truman into needing him. Make him scared and lonely. Make him need an older man to look out for him. That asshole. I knew he wanted you barefoot and pregnant like a good little wifey.”