Page 60 of Lovewell Lane

“Goodnight,” I repeated before heading out and walking back to my house. Where I was safe and sound from any unwanted thoughts about Derek. At least, that was what I hoped.

20

Derek

“Slick will be home in a few hours,” Calliope read from her phone.

It was spring break, so I was graced with my youngest siblings being in town. Jack was back at home with Tessa. He looked exhausted from driving down from Atlanta, and working at the bar seven days a week had aged him by about ten years, so I decided he needed a day with his best friend. Calliope decided to come out with us to do a food delivery to a farmer’s market a couple of hours away.

Sam put down another box of broccoli into the truck and wiped his forehead off with the bottom of his shirt. I grabbed two more to load onto the truck while Calli put down her phone and picked up her clipboard again. Any time she brought out a clipboard, it meant the rest of us were going to be put to work.

“Okay, so, we have strawberry jelly, blueberry jelly, blackberry jelly, peach jelly, pickles, pickled peaches, one flavor of every cider, peach ice cream, and strawberry ice cream.” She took in a deep breath and double-checked her list. “Any other processed goods we want to bring to the Festival?”

I continued carrying boxes and looked over at her. “That should be all, we’ll have baskets of flowers and then fresh produce on top of everything.”

“Margo will take care of baked goods, right? Are we supplying her with our produce?” Calli asked.

“We already do, yeah,” Sam answered. “We should probably discuss at the town hall how many tickets have been sold, so we can make a more accurate estimate for how much to bring. I’m sure Margo will be wondering the same.”

I let out a sigh. Margo should be at her diner right now. Probably cleaning up after the lunch rush. Our new routine was killing me.

On mornings that I worked at the store, we would wave to each other as I walked in. Every lunch I’d walk over, and she’d wordlessly make me try some new sandwich combination she was working on. She always got home at eight o’clock and would leave a bag at the back door filled with whatever baked goods they didn’t sell and a small note with messy handwriting labeled ‘From: Fairies’ for Tessa.

Then, minutes later, we would go out for our nightly farm chores, and Tessa would make sure to invite Margo to join us. Most nights, she accepted the invitation, and we both spent that time interacting with Tessa and not much with each other.

The ball was in her court.

I made it clear that if we were going to continue this relationship, it was on her terms. And I only wanted it if she was all in. With our power dynamic, there was no shot in hell I was going to push myself on her. I had no interest in being some creep asking her to date me for rent money.

And she seemed to not be interested. At least, in that aspect of our relationship. Which I told myself was fine. As many times as I needed to. Which was a lot.

I was losing my fucking mind.

The few interactions we had every day placated me enough to not act like a complete moron. If she was just right out ignoring me, I’m sure I would’ve broken and resorted to leavingher flowers, standing outside her window with a boombox, or writing her love letters. Hell, I was already close to doing those things.

But I was a man of my word, and despite the constant thinking of her, I wouldn’t push her to give me any answers. Not yet, anyway.

“You forgot to close the cab, loverboy,” Sam teased. He slammed the back of the truck closed while smirking at me.

Calli, always the nosey little sister, stood glaring at us suspiciously by the passenger side door. “Loverboy?”

“Anytime anyone mentions Margo’s name he zones out like this,” Sam said. He waved his palm back and forth in front of my face, only for me to catch it and squeeze his hand as hard as I could. “Fuck, ease up, I’m only joking.”

He wasn’t joking, and we both knew it.

I dropped his hand and walked around to the driver’s side door. One of our field workers injured his knee and still wanted to work today, so we had him cover the farm store. I was especially irritable because that meant I missed out on seeing Margo all fucking day.

My siblings were the ones who wanted to do a delivery together. If it was just Sam, I would’ve said no, but I loved my baby sister and wanted to hear all about how her college life was going.

So, we all piled in the truck. And I resolved myself not to think about Margo.

-

“Daddy,” Tessa yelled. She jumped down from the couch— where she and Jack were watching Spongebob, to run into my arms.

“Hey, honey. You and Jack have fun?”

She grabbed my hand and dragged me to the dining room table. “I drew you a picture.”

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