Page 52 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
My back was thoroughly up as I stared at him defiantly while Dylan looked on, evidently still stunned that his brother had shown up like this.
‘I’m Willow Connor, this is my farm, and you are?’ I asked icily, even though of course I had worked it out.
‘Nate Henderson,’ he replied shortly. He turned back to his brother. ‘We need to talk.’
‘I told you on the phone, I’m not coming home yet,’ Dylan replied, not making any moves to leave me.
I raised an eyebrow. The last I’d heard was Dylan had practically promised his brother the keys to my farm.
‘And I told you, this is getting ridiculous now. You work for me, not her,’ Nate said, jerking his head in my direction. The way he said ‘her’ made it clear exactly how he felt about that.
I glanced around. Nate was speaking loudly and we were in earshot of a few families. I didn’t want this to spoil opening day. ‘Follow me. Now!’ I told them both firmly. I marched off and heard them both trail after me.
I led them into the farmhouse and spun round to face them. It was annoying that they both were so much taller than me. I put my hands on my hips and refused to be intimidated, though. This was my home.
‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you two but this is the first day my pumpkin patch is open and I don’t want either of you to ruin things for me. So, work out whatever your problem is in here alone and leave my farm out of it.’
‘Your farm is the problem!’ Nate snapped back at me.
‘I thought you were desperate to get your hands on it,’ I pointed out.
‘Dylan made a good pitch for this land,’ Nate said. ‘But when he said he needed to stay here to persuade you and your father to sell to us, I was uneasy. Usually, people bite our hands off to make the kind of money you could make with this deal. But for some reason, my brother screwed it up and said he had to move in to persuade you. Of course, I quickly realised he was more interested in you than securing this land for us.’
‘I heard him telling you it was practically a done deal,’ I said, glancing at Dylan, unsure what was real any more.
‘I was trying to get him to leave me alone,’ Dylan said, looking embarrassed. ‘I felt terrible you heard me saying those things. They weren’t true. I just wanted to get him off my back and let me stay here longer.’
Nate let out a loud sigh. ‘I knew it was a mistake to give you a job,’ he muttered.
‘So, if it was a lie…’ I kept my eyes on Dylan; his brother was just pissing me off now.
‘I wanted to stay; I wanted to help this place… I want the pumpkin patch to be successful. As soon as we kissed, I didn’t want you to have to sell to us. I’ve been telling Nate the deal is almost done while I tried to work on getting us land nearby instead,’ Dylan confessed.
‘Bloody hell,’ Nate said, shaking his head. ‘Why do you always fuck up?’
My mouth dropped open in shock as Dylan turned to face his brother.
‘That’s it. I’ve had enough of all your snide comments,’ Dylan told him. ‘I’m tired, Nate. Of trying to prove myself to you. Of trying to get you to respect me, see me as your equal, and basically, treat me like your brother. You think you’re better than me. But why? Because you’ve done exactly what Dad has told you to do all your life?’
‘I’m successful,’ Nate replied coldly. ‘And don’t forget I gave you this job because you needed one. You couldn’t cut it as a lawyer, or at anything else, could you? So, I had to step in.’
‘Actually, I only agreed to work with you because you and Dad wouldn’t stop going on at me about it, and I thought maybe if we did work together, there might be a chance that we could grow closer, actually be brothers again. But you’ve treated me like I’m beneath you since I started. I had a vain hope that me finding a good deal in this area, which you’ve always wanted, might change things. Looks like that won’t ever happen.’
‘You haven’t found me the deal though, have you? For some reason, you’ve given up on the idea. I suppose you’ve chosen her over your family.’ Nate shrugged. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be good enough. That’s the story of your life, little brother. Just not up to the job.’
‘You know what?’ Dylan said, keeping remarkably cool in the face of his brother being so rude. I was shocked by what was coming out of his mouth. I couldn’t even imagine talking to my dad like this. ‘You should go, Nate. We have a lot of work to do. And you don’t belong here.’
‘And you do?’ Nate scoffed. ‘Whatever. You’ll soon get bored; you always do.’ He turned to me again. ‘You’ll find out. My brother can’t stick at anything in life – jobs, relationships, even places to live. He always runs when things get tough or he realises he can’t handle something or it becomes too serious for him. He’ll get bored of this farm, and bored of you too. And then he’ll come running back to me and my father to bail him out like he’s done for the whole of his life.’
‘I need to get back to work,’ I said, not knowing whether his brother was saying things that were true or just being a dick. I didn’t like him but I also knew that when our pact was over, Dylan wouldn’t stick around. What reason would he have to? I shrugged to show I didn’t care despite the fact I had started to like having him back on the farm again. He’d left once before, though. I needed to remind myself it was only a matter of time until he left again. And he wouldn’t come back that time. ‘We made a deal that he’d stay for six weeks then I’d decide whether to sell or not. That’s all this was,’ I said as coolly and calmly as I could manage.
‘Willow—’ Dylan began but I really didn’t want to hear any promises that he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, keep.
‘I have to get back outside,’ I cut him off. ‘This is important to me. I think you should leave, Nate. It’s up to Dylan if he leaves with you or not. But I’m breaking our pact.’ I made for the door so that neither of them would keep me in here any longer. ‘I wouldn’t sell to either of you two. If the pumpkin patch doesn’t work out then I’ll find someone else who wants this land, even if we don’t make quite as much money as we would with you. This farm has been my home and work my whole life. I won’t give it to you.’
With that parting statement, I walked out of the door and towards the pumpkin patch.
And I didn’t look back.
