Thank you once again to everyone who has read this and to those who left a review too. I'm sure you know how much it means to me to read your comments.

On to the last chapter now. I've spent a lot of today (on and off), eaten a full pack of Jelly Babies (brain food) in the hope of getting this right, which I hope it is.

So onwards...

Chapter 3

As soon as the door slammed shut, Cal was on his feet. He glanced at Honey, who looked mortified, "Don't worry - I'll talk to him," he assured her as he dashed off after his brother.

"Ethan! Ethan, wait!" He shouted after his brother's retreating form, "It's not what you think!"

His brother stopped in his tracks, whipping round as Cal caught up, "It never is Caleb, is it?" the younger man almost growled.

Cal had to concede that he had never seen his normally mild mannered younger brother so angry before. He needed to diffuse this - fast. It would quickly escalate if not, "Ethan, please calm down and listen to me," he watched his brother carefully to see if he was making any headway.

"Calm down?!" Ethan ground out, "I was gone for all of five minutes and I come back to see you holding hands with my girlf...how could you?"

Ethan was breathing heavily, his hands clenching and unclenching. Cal knew that he had to tread carefully, "She's not your girlfriend though is she?"

Wrong thing to say, he thought to himself as it looked like his brother might actually burst.

"Ethan, I'm sorry, I didn't mean...this is ridiculous," Cal said, frustration building.

"Oh so I'm being ridiculous now am I?" Ethan began to turn away. He knew that he sounded like a petulant child, but Cal always seemed to manage to get a rise out of him. Before he could take another step however, strong hands gripped his shoulders and spun him around, "I was NOT holding hands with your girlfriend...well technically I was but not in the way you were thinking."

Although Ethan was still steaming, he didn't try to pull away, which Cal took to mean that he was ready to listen.

"Honey was really upset..."

Ethan's eyes immediately went wide, "She was? Oh...I..." Ethan stammered beginning to calm somewhat.

"Of course she was. Can you imagine how hard it was for her to ask you out?"

"She's so brave - I couldn't do it," Ethan commented.

"Erm we've kind of noticed that," Cal chuckled, slowly releasing his brother's shoulders as he saw a small smile grace the younger mans features.

"She couldn't understand why you used studying as an excuse for not going out for a drink with her," Cal stared at his brother intently, "She thought that you had gone off her," he thought he would throw that statement into the mix - it had the desired effect. Ethan looked shocked, then confused, shaking his head, his trademark reaction when trying to work things out in his head.

"Ethan," Cal continued, "Honey knows that you want to be a consultant and that you have to work hard to achieve that. She told me that she's excited for you to follow your dream and she would never jepodise that," he finished.

"But when I was talking to Lily..."

"Let me stop you there bro. I think Miss Lily has an agenda of her own, so don't put to much stock into what she says. Yes, you've got to decide what you want, but don't miss this chance Nibbles...It is possible to have both."

Ethan pondered Cal's words, "So that's why you were holding hands?"

Cal sighed as he ran a hand over his face, "I took hold of her hand to try to make her feel better - a gesture of comfort, that's all. Do you really think that I would make a move on someone that I knew how strongly you felt about them?"

"Honestly? Yes!" Ethan immediately felt guilty for saying it, but if nothing else, he was always honest.

"Oh, right, well I didn't!" snapped Cal, hurt that his brother would think such a thing.

Ethan visibly deflated, "I'm sorry Cal, truely I am. Why am I so useless with all this sort of stuff? I can't even say the right thing to you."

Cal's hurt look was soon replaced by a fond smile, "Unfortunately little brother, that's just the way you're wired," Cal told him.

Ethan let out a long, deep breath, "This is all so new to me. I've liked people before, as you know, but Honey...I don't know... when she walked into the pub earlier, my stomach was in knots...it was like..."

"She was the only woman in the room?" Cal finished.

Ethan's nodded, "Yes," he breathed, "That's exactly right. What's more, even though I heard the words coming out of my mouth, the last thing I wanted to do was study. I wanted to be with Honey - I WANT to be with Honey, it's just...why can't I just tell her that?"

A huge, genuine grin broke Cal's face as he put an arm around the younger man's shoulder, "So, the clueless wonder is not so clueless anymore," he stated happily.

Ethan offered him a shy smile, happy that he was able to talk to his brother and Cal actually listen to him and not ridicule him.

Suddenly, Cal pulled him a little closer, in a one armed hug, which made Ethan feel very comfortable, "Ok little brother, let's go through this one more time - she walked into the pub..."

"And it felt like she was the only woman in the room. She took my breath away Cal," Ethan told him honestly, "I really like her and I want to be with her - I just need to, how would you put it? Grow a pair and tell her," he chuckled.

Cal burst out laughing at Ethan's use of one of the phrases that he was prone to saying, "Actually little brother, you just did!"

He was still smiling as he spun his brother round on the spot to face a rather surprised looking Honey.

At that moment, Ethan wished that the ground would swallow him up, "Oh...Honey...I..." he stammered, turning more shades of pink/red than Cal knew existed. To be fair, Honey had turned almost as pink as her little car, "Did you mean it?" she asked tentatively as Cal removed his arm from around his brother's shoulders and stepped back.

Ethan took a step forward and gently took hold of her hands, turning them over then softly stroking them, "Every word," he breathed as he looked directly into her eyes.

Cal actually felt his own eyes begin to sting, so he decided to exit the scene, "Come in when you're ready - drinks are on me," he told them as they nodded their acknowledgement.

As Cal went to open the door to the pub, he turned round and saw the couple sat on Jeffs bench, holding hands, still smiling shyly at each other, yet deep in conversation, "Finally," Cal said to himself as he made his way to the bar.

Across the car park, however, another pair of eyes surveyed the happy scene in front of them. Their reaction was anything but happy...

Ok so I've put the last sentence in because I had an idea of maybe doing another story where we either get psycho Lily, either trying to discredit Ethan or get Honey the sack or maybe a psycho ex of Honey's (maybe from the club) who tries to take Honey away. What do you think? If you like the ideas maybe you could give me a few ideas to work with?

Thank you one and all for reading.

Until next time.