Author's note: The characters belong to Golden Books. The song I'd Love You To Want Me was performed by Lobo, a.k.a. Kent LaVoie.

[Warning: whine coming!] Something happened to the line spacing when I converted from Word to HTML, and I'm too dumb to fix it right! But I hope it's still legible!

Many, mucho thanks to Kyrie H. for her editorial expertise and invaluable moral support!

Jim Frayne sat amid the shadows inside the BWG clubhouse, trapped in his churning thoughts. The Manor House groundskeepers maintained the old clubhouse at Matthew Wheeler's orders, mainly for sentimental reasons, since it had been unused for years now. It had been an instinctive destination for Jim as he made his way blindly from the reception the Wheelers were hosting, following the christening of Honey and Brian’s second child.

He felt as if his mind was in a perpetual video loop, replaying the last thirty minutes of his life over and over. He’d helped his adoptive parents do the "meet and mingle" thing with their guests for a half-hour or so, until he was sure that all of the attendees had been ushered through to coo at the new arrival and descend upon the buffet table. Feeling that he’d done his duty as a son, brother and uncle, Jim had tried for several minutes to balance his own plate of hors d’oeuvres and his punch cup long enough to eat a bite. He’d just scored an empty chair and settled down to enjoy the Buffalo wings and other delectables that Celia and Miss Trask had ordered up for the occasion. Then he’d looked up, only to see Trixie Belden standing in the drawing room doorway, framed by the tall arrangements of yellow roses on either side of the door, her golden curls backlit by the afternoon sun.

"Hello, Jim."

"T-T-Trixie? Wh-What are you doing here?" he had stammered. Smooth, Frayne, he chastised himself. The answer to your prayers appears, and you ask her why she came!

She had glanced around the room as if to make sure that they were both viewing the same scene, then arched an eyebrow at him. "I heard a rumor that the new Baby Belden had finally made her appearance."

"Oh… right." He winced at the memory. From bad to worse, he thought. The screenwriter would have been fired by now.

"I didn’t think I was going to be able to come, but we wrapped up the debriefing and the others cut me loose. I didn’t even take time to change."

Jim had attempted to swallow the dry powder that his key lime cookie had turned into. The midnight-blue watered-silk suit Trixie wore was tailored to outline her figure perfectly, with the short skirt and three-inch heels increasing the beats-per-minute of his already racing heart. When did her legs get so long? he wondered.

Gulping his punch, he had managed to indicate Honey, Brian and the baby, surrounded by well-wishers at the other end of the long room. "I know they’ll be glad to see you."

Trixie had given him another one of those sardonic looks. "Well," she said pointedly, "I hope they will."

Jim groaned aloud as he recalled the faux pas. Why hadn’t the floor just opened up and swallowed him?

Trixie had turned and begun to make her way over to the corner where a crowd still surrounded the happy family. No one had noticed her yet. Except me. Talk to her, idiot!

"Trix?"

He hadn’t realized that he had spoken aloud until her spine straightened and she turned her head back toward him.

"Y-You look good, Trix."

Something shone briefly, deep within those incredibly blue eyes – something he almost didn’t recognize, because he had given up hope that he’d ever see it. And it came and went so quickly that he still wondered if he had seen it. Until she spoke again.

"So do you, Jim." Then she had turned and made her way through the throng. He had heard Honey’s squeal of delight as the two friends finally saw each other.

A wave of emotion had washed over him and, blindly setting down his plate and cup, he had rushed from the room. Not thinking, just riding on raw nerve endings, he had somehow ended up here at the clubhouse.

Jim shook his head and stood up, crossing over to the window where the curtains still hung that Honey had sewn so long ago. No, I must have imagined it. She doesn’t want me.

He sighed. Better get back before they come looking for me. Wiping away the solitary tear that had made its way past his defenses, Jim started toward the door, but hesitated as he heard the furious pounding of determined footsteps coming his way.

* * * * *

Trixie stood on the verandah outside the Manor House drawing room, gripping the railing so tightly that her knuckles were white. Luckily, the onslaught of friends and relatives that would normally have greeted her after a long trip was diverted today by the small but potent distraction of one Brianna Madeleine Belden. After the initial flurry of hugs and greetings by all and sundry, Trixie had dutifully paid her respects to the newest Queen of the Beldens and had withdrawn to the porch to be alone with her personal demons. Okay, Beatrix, she thought, invoking the hated name she only used when in self-lecture mode. He’s here. You’re here. What are you gonna do?

"Trixie?"

Trixie turned as her best friend joined her at the railing. "Hey! You shouldn’t be out here. You’re the guest of honor!"

"No, Brianna’s the guest of honor," Honey dotingly replied. "The proud grandparents are passing her around now, debating about whose side of the family she favors most. And Tom and Regan are subjecting themselves to the tyranny of her big brother Wheeler and his Teletubbie videos in the game room so he won’t feel left out. Nobody’ll miss me for a few minutes." Honey put her arm around Trixie’s shoulders and gave her a quick hug. "I’m so glad you’re here. But I have a feeling you didn’t come all this way just to greet the new arrival."

Trixie gave her a rueful smile as their mental telepathy was demonstrated once again. "You always could read me like a book, couldn’t you? Life would be a lot easier if your brother would develop the same talent."

Honey turned a serious look on her friend. "Trix, when are you going to tell him how you really feel?"

Trixie’s face crumpled. "Honey, how can I?" she whispered. "He’s put a life together without me. How can I just waltz in and tell him that I love him?"

The two friends gazed together in silence at the manicured Manor House grounds as Trixie fought to regain her composure, both of them recalling the events that had combined to bring them to their current circumstances. Through hard work and perseverance, the dreams of the teenaged Bob-Whites had been realized in large part over the intervening years.

Trixie’s ability to "attract mysteries like a magnet attracts nails" had not diminished as the BWGs got older. The Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency, which Trixie and Honey had started right out of college, never lacked for cases even in its early days. Trixie’s detective skills and Honey’s legendary tact and social connections were a very successful combination, and as its reputation grew, the Agency began to build a clientele which paid well for both service and discretion.

As Brian Belden completed his long-desired medical training, he secured a residency at the hospital in White Plains. Mart Belden had acquired a degree in agribusiness with a minor in education, and was managing a wholesale nursery and landscaping business in the area, while keeping his teacher's certification current. Both of the elder Belden siblings were still looking forward to working with Jim Frayne at the school he planned to establish for troubled boys.

The last two Bob-Whites to join the group had stayed closer to the "action" in New York City. Dan Mangan had completed Associate degrees in criminal justice and human services and then entered the New York City Police Academy. Dan was now a lieutenant with NYC's Finest, helping to run the "Police in Communities" program, which gave him a chance to work with the youth in the city's neighborhoods. With her degree in Art History, Diana Lynch had joined the Public Relations department of the Museum of Modern Art, and was also doing some theatre in her time off.

Jim Frayne had embarked on the most arduous educational journey of all the BWGs. Desiring to cover all bases in preparation for teaching and managing his school, Jim worked to obtain both an MBA and a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology after securing his bachelor's degree in elementary education.

On the romantic side, however, the teenagers' initial romantic attractions did not survive into adulthood as well as their vocational aspirations. Of them all, only Brian and Honey's relationship had grown and flourished unimpeded, and they had married shortly after Brian began his residency. A year into their marriage, they welcomed their first child, a son. It had seemed a natural progression that Honey spent more time at the Agency office, doing research and interviewing prospective clients, while Trixie assumed more of the "leg work," as they called the long investigative trips and consultations away from home.

Dan and Diana both enjoyed the singles life in the "big city," and showed no signs of wanting to settle down. Having gone out to Iowa State to pursue his love of agriculture, Mart had visited his Uncle Andrew's farm in Happy Valley fairly often. During these visits, he had renewed his acquaintance with Barb Hubbell, and the two had fallen in love, married, and returned to Sleepyside to settle down.

It was Jim and Trixie's relationship, or the lack thereof, that was a mystery to all observers. The two were obviously crazy about each other, but the timing never seemed to work out. Both of them seemed to always have a milestone they wanted to achieve before they could confess their true feelings to the other. Finishing college, setting up the Agency, finishing the doctorate, setting up the Frayne School … events always conspired to create alternating roadblocks between Jim and Trixie. Each of them were so determined NOT to be an impediment to the other's success that neither would give in to their common desire to be together. And this, of course, was driving all their friends and relations berserk.

Honey gently berated her friend. "Trix, you've got to tell him. Can't you see how this is eating both of you alive?"

"He's never said anything," Trixie snuffled from behind a tissue. "What if he doesn't want me?"

Silence ensued once more. One could hear the chirping of birds and the quiet pulse of water sprinklers as they began their late afternoon cycles. Or one could, in the thirty seconds just before Honey sucked in a deep breath.

"All right, THAT'S IT!"

Startled, Trixie looked up from wiping her nose to see one of Earth's rarest sights: Madeleine Grace "Honey" Wheeler Belden in the process of losing her temper.

"I have HAD IT with you two! Blame it on hormones or post-partum depression or baby blues or whatever you want! But I'm sick of my brother and my best friend moping around, trying to be textbook examples of how NOT to fall in love. I've heard of dysfunctional relationships before, but you two have raised 'em to an art form! You could be poster children for 'Pitiful R Us.' You both need to hang signs around your necks that say, 'I am a rock. I am too dumb to live.' You couldn't see what's right in front of you if you tripped and fell in it!"

Trixie gaped at Honey. "I - I - … You - you …"

"Oh, quit stuttering and come with me." Honey grabbed her flabbergasted friend by one wrist and started down off the porch. "We're going to get this settled right now."

"Wh-Where are we going?" Trixie managed to wheeze out as she was dragged willy-nilly to the path beyond the big curving driveway. Apropos of nothing, the thought flashed through her mind: I guess I don't have to worry about Honey regaining her strength from the delivery!

"We're going to the clubhouse," Honey stated matter-of-factly as she stalked down the hill with Trixie in tow. "That's where Jim always goes when he's feeling sorry for himself. And from the look on his face when he cut out of the drawing room, I'd say he's indulging in a MAJOR pity-party."

"Oh, no! We aren't… I can't …" Trixie began.

Honey came to an abrupt halt. Trixie's momentum carried her another couple of stumbling steps past her indignant friend, before she was drawn up short by Honey's unrelenting death-grip on her arm.

"Trixie Belden! Once and for all, do you love him or not?" Honey demanded.

"Of course I do! I always have, you know that," Trixie gulped. "But …"

"Then you CAN, and you ARE!" Honey took off down the path again, with Trixie in her wake like the tail of a comet, being dragged about by a power greater than its own. Arriving at the clubhouse door, Honey flung it open with her free hand and stormed through the opening, almost trampling her amazed brother.

Coming to a dead stop right beside Jim, Honey swung Trixie around to face him and announced, "Now!" Both Jim and Trixie stared at Honey as if she had become the four horsemen of the Apocalypse all rolled into one, with a cherry on top. Honey continued, in that certain tone of voice that only mothers of small children can develop. "I think both of you have something you want to say to each other."

Trixie stared at Jim. Jim stared at Trixie. Then both dropped their glances to the floor and stared at their feet, just like a pair of toddlers caught in flagrante delicto with the cookie jar. Honey rolled her eyes, totally exasperated.

"Okay, let's take it in words of one syllable. Jim, do you love Trixie?"

Jim's jaw dropped. This entire turn of events had caught him totally off-guard, and he couldn't have been more taken aback if his normally placid sister had turned and stabbed him in the heart. "Well, yes, but…"

Honey raised one finger and pointed it at him menacingly. "No buts! Just answer the question." Turning to Trixie, she continued, "Trixie, do you love Jim?"

Trixie stammered, "Uh … I …" Raising her eyes to meet Honey's determined glare, Trixie swallowed, then turned to Jim. "Yes. I do."

Jim's head snapped up and he turned to face Trixie, his green eyes alit with the dawning realization that Trixie reciprocated his unspoken feelings. He raised one big, gentle hand to cup Trixie's cheek and she leaned into his palm, soaking up the warmth of him. Jim pulled Trixie into an embrace that had been years in the making, and the need for any further discussion became superfluous.

Honey smiled in satisfaction. Dusting her palms together, she quietly retreated through the doorway and pulled it closed behind her. Making her way back to her own happy family, she reflected aloud, "If you want something done right, sometimes you just have to do it yourself."

.