Page 30 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
‘This was just a distraction to you?’ he asked quietly then.
I turned to face him and I couldn’t ignore the hurt look in his eyes. ‘We just need to focus on the next few weeks, don’t we?’ I said in a slightly softer tone because it had been hot being with him. My body did want more. But I needed to think with my head instead. I wanted to save my farm and he wanted me to sell it. It couldn’t end well between us. Why set ourselves up to get even more hurt at the end of our pact? One of us had to lose. We should just forget tonight had happened, surely?
Dylan looked away from me. ‘I guess so. I’ll let you get some sleep. See you for breakfast.’ He picked up his coat from where I had slung it on the floor and left my room without a backward glance.
I let out a puff of air. Somehow, he had made me feel bad. But I knew I was right.
I walked into the en suite to get ready for bed and glanced at my reflection. My hair was loose and tousled, my lips were pink and puffy from Dylan’s lips and my cheeks were flushed.
When I thought back to the feeling of his touch, a small smile appeared on my face.
Then I bit my lip.
I had made the right decision, hadn’t I?
My phone alarm rang out early the next day, causing me to groan as I grabbed it from the bedside table. I’d had a restless night’s sleep after going over my conversation with Dylan for hours, like one of those songs you can’t get out of your head. I wished I could crawl under the duvet and hide from everything for a few days. That was impossible, though. I had my farm to save. Alongside the man who wanted me to sell it, but who had given me quite possibly the hottest night of my life. It was fucked up.
I climbed sleepily out of the bed and headed for a shower, hoping it would wake me up. I had important things to do today and this made me think that pushing Dylan away last night had been the right thing to do. He had already distracted me from the task in hand. I couldn’t let him do that again. Even if part of me wanted him to.
After my shower, I pulled on jeans with a cardigan along with my boots and put my hair back up into a bun, trying not to think about Dylan telling me to take it down last night. But flashbacks kept returning, even though I tried to bat them away. I grabbed my coat and bag so we could leave straight after breakfast, then I headed downstairs, wondering if I should have knocked on Dylan’s door but I decided I needed coffee before facing him.
The problem was, when I walked into the inn, Dylan was already sat at the booth we’d had the night before, a cup of coffee and a plate of food in front of him while he scrolled on his phone.
‘Having breakfast too?’ the landlord called over to me, causing Dylan to look up and see me before I could hide.
‘Um, yes,’ I said, walking over, knowing it was silly not to as we had to spend the rest of the day together, even though I was kind of dreading it. ‘Can I get a latte, please? And…’ I glanced at Dylan’s plate as I sat down. ‘That looks good,’ I added, seeing the eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes and pile of toast, thinking that was the fuel I desperately needed.
‘Just replying to some emails,’ Dylan said, barely looking in my direction. ‘My brother is firing work at me; I think he’s sceptical about how much I’m getting done while I’m staying with you. But I’m doing this meeting for him this morning, which he’s grateful for as it’s miles away from where he lives.’
There was a babbling edge to his conversation but it was preferable to an awkward silence.
My latte thankfully arrived and I took a long gulp from it before I spoke. ‘We have a busy morning ahead then we’ll be back at the farm. I mean, if you are still coming back there?’ I asked, wondering if he would cut and run after last night. I honestly wasn’t sure whether I wanted him to or not. It would make life a lot less complicated, but I couldn’t deny the fact I might miss him if he did.
‘We made a pact,’ Dylan said simply. He nodded as the waitress brought over my breakfast. ‘Eat up and we’ll get going.’ He went back to his phone and I looked down at my plate.
I hated this new-found tension between us. You would have thought the tension would have evaporated after our hot night together but somehow, it was worse now we’d decided that it was to be one night, and one night only.
24
Thankfully, I dropped Dylan off after breakfast so I was on my own for a couple of hours and didn’t have to think about him. I didn’t have to deal with him next to me in the car looking attractive but not speaking to me. I had no idea how our pumpkin-patch pact had turned into us ripping each other’s clothes off and then feeling completely awkward with each other but I was hoping that as time passed, we’d get over it and could go back to how we’d been before the sex. I’d rather have him as my enemy at this point – at least then, we’d talked and fired each other up. I had almost enjoyed arguing with him, I realised now that we were just exchanging bland thoughts about the weather and the traffic. I missed him pushing my buttons, which made me wonder what was wrong with me.
I drove to the next farm on my schedule. My dad had been friends with Brian for years and he’d been instantly agreeable to me coming to see him. His farm was up on a hill, and when I left my car and headed to the field where I could see him walking with his dog, herding his sheep, the biting wind brushed my cobwebs away.
‘Hi there,’ I called out, waving to get his attention. Sometimes, I wished we had more animals on the farm but I knew that would be even more work. I leaned on the fence to watch as he waved back. He whistled to his dog, and the sheep moved in a perfect circle towards the open gate in front of them.
‘Willow!’ Brian called, walking over once he’d closed the gate on the sheep, his dog following on his heels. ‘Wow, you look just like your mother,’ he said, giving me a smile that crinkled his eyes. He was grey now but walked effortlessly and I felt a pinch thinking of my dad, who was unable to do the same.
I gave him a tight hug. ‘Yeah, Dad tells me that.’ I didn’t mind, though; I liked knowing there was a piece left of her in me.
‘Let’s have a cuppa,’ he said, nodding towards his stone house. I followed him and his dog inside, out of the chilly breeze. It was small and cosy and warm inside and I sank into one of his worn armchairs with relief that I could relax for a little bit. I tried not to think about what Dylan was doing while I was here. Brian brought over two steaming mugs of tea and sat in the armchair opposite me while his dog curled up by his feet.
‘I regret not seeing your dad as much nowadays but I know he isn’t as mobile. Plus, it’s just me up here now – you know my son didn’t want the farm – so it’s hard for me to come to you as much as I used to.’ He sighed. ‘A real shame but I didn’t want to force my boy. I always said Adam lucked out having you as a daughter.’
I smiled as I sipped the tea. ‘Thanks, Brian. But I don’t know, it’s been more of a struggle for us recently than I would like. I’m trying to come up with ways we can make money outside of the spring/summer seasons. I’ll be honest, Dad has been talking of selling if we can’t.’
Brian shook his head. ‘Sad, very sad. But I get it. I think my son will sell once I’m gone, but I couldn’t leave. This place is like my other child. It’s part of me.’
‘That’s how I feel.’
