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My uncle heaved a heavy sigh at that and nodded.

“Drowned helping to save a couple kids whose idiot friends had either pushed or dared them to jump off the pier into the harbor. We were down there taking a stroll, walking off a decadent meal we’d just indulged in, when we heard them hollering.

He could swim, I couldn’t, so he went in after them while I raced to the nearest phone booth to dial 9-1-1.

Thinking back, that’s the only time in my life when I’d have been grateful to have a cell phone.

Someone else ran to a nearby hardware store, grabbed some rope, and lowered it down to them.

He managed to get the first kid tied on but lost hold of the second when the current swept him out again.

Dustin went back after him and managed to drag him back over by the pier, but by the time he got him secured to the rope, he was too exhausted to hang on to the pylons, and the current took him.

I got there just in time to see him swept away.

Probably would have died that day myself if the guys who’d been helping haul up the kids hadn’t piled on me to keep me from jumping in afterwards.

For a long time, I hated those bastards. ”

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling nothing but deep, profound sadness for him and terror at the thought of anything ever happening to my beloved Mistress.

“When fate gives you the one , you know it. I’ve always known he was the only one for me,” my uncle explained.

“Made it easy to keep my life simple and uncomplicated. Then you came along, Honey Bun, and I was thankful that the fates had given me someone else to love. I’m so proud of the woman you’ve become.

And now to hear that you and your Mistress are going to head out on the open road and go exploring, well that just makes me prouder.

I’m glad you’re not waiting until you’re old as dust like me to go out and have adventures.

You deserve to have some joy in your life.

I look forward to seeing the pictures of what you two get up to. ”

“I’ll share them on one condition.”

He chuckled at that, cocked his head, and studied me. “Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“You send us pictures of where you wind up and all the bands you see,” she said.

“I want to hear about what the vibe in the crowd was like and if they sounded as good as they do on the radio, and I’ll expect those photos to keep on coming after we get back.

I’m sure I can find plenty of places in the city to share with you, since my Mistress has rarely gone out exploring and I still haven’t had a chance to take her to the planetarium yet. ”

“Shocking,” he declared. “And a fair request. I have no intention of losing track of my favorite Honey Bun.”

I giggled at that while my Mistress raised an eyebrow at me. “Okay,” she said, looking between us. “I’ve been dying to ask how she got the nickname Honey Bun.”

“Easy,” he replied. “She could eat a box of them in one sitting and always managed to find them no matter where I hid them, and let me tell you, I got damned creative too. Was worried about giving her too much sugar since those teachers up at the school kept complaining about how she’d get bored in class and couldn’t sit still.

She loved them so much that I didn’t have the heart to stop buying them, ‘cause sometimes a honey bun, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of milk was all we had time for in the morning. Neither of us were morning people, and I worked the second shift, which meant we both slept through our alarms in the morning and wound up rushing around to get her to school on time. I wasn’t gonna send her on an empty stomach, either, and honey buns were easy to eat in the car, so I stocked up. ”

“And I knew it too,” I admitted. “He’d get really cagey about the hiding spots too and never put more than one box in the same place. This one time he stuck them up in the ceiling. We had one in the kitchen with sections. Oh, I forget what they’re called.”

“Drop ceilings,” he explained.

“Yes, those,” I said. “He tried hiding them up there. How unfair was that?”

“And I’m still waiting to hear how you got them down.”

“Probably the same way you got them up there. I stood on a chair to get on the counter and used the back of a spatula to poke at the tiles until the honey buns fell out.”

They both laughed at that, my uncle smacking a hand to his face while my Mistress shook her head.

“How did you figure out that they were up there in the first place?” My Mistress asked.

“Yeah, I’m still wondering about that myself,” my uncle added.

“Easy, Uncle Bruce,” I replied, grinning at him. “You left a footprint on the counter. I couldn’t see any other reason for you to be up there unless you were trying to hide something, so I stood where you stood, and voila .”

Another round of laughter ensued. That poor waitress, the timing always seemed to be just as she was reaching our table.

Like before, she just schooled her features, set our drinks on the table, and left without another word, leaving us to settle in and just enjoy our evening together catching up and sharing plans for the adventures to come.

Wanna hear more about Harper and Sonnet’s vacation? Maybe they even run into Uncle Bruce while on the road?

Coming soon – Harper and Sonnet do America!

Um, err, tour America? ??