Chapter 14
When I left the jeweller’s, I saw Dylan was outside of his car, leaning against it. The sun was bright against a clear, blue sky, and the town was busy as kids came out of school.
He held two takeaway coffee cups and squinted against the sun to watch me walk over.
‘Somehow, I thought you’d want the seasonal drink,’ he said, holding out one of the cups.
‘It’s a pumpkin spiced latte,’ he added, wrinkling his nose like the thought of it was unpleasant. He clearly didn’t have good taste.
‘It’s my go-to drink in autumn, thank you.’ I took it and had a sip, leaning next to him against the car and tilting my face up towards the sun, breathing in the fresh air.
‘How did it go?’ Dylan asked me then.
‘It depends on your perspective. They bought the necklace and they gave me even more than they quoted when I first reached out as the price of gold is so good. It’s worth a lot. They were really excited to have it. We have enough to get this patch going for sure, but I feel sad.’
‘Of course you do,’ Dylan said. ‘What do you want to do next?’
I let the sadness wash over me for a minute.
That was all I wanted to allow. I had no time to wallow.
I had to shake it off. The clock was ticking.
I needed to get this patch open for the start of October and show my dad I could make it successful enough to keep hold of the farm in six weeks’ time.
‘Go back to the farm and finish clearing the field then tonight, work on that spreadsheet. Get the ball rolling.’
‘Then that’s what we do.’ Dylan opened the door and climbed into the car so I walked round to the passenger side and got in beside him.
We set off back towards Birchbrook and I did feel fired up.
I had more money in the bank than I’d had since I could remember and I was ready to invest it into the farm.
It felt weird though to be planning how I was going to do that sat next to the man who wanted me to do the opposite.
This had felt like an almost fun challenge.
A way to push Dylan’s buttons after he pushed mine.
But now I was faced with six weeks with a man who had opened up to me about why this was important to him.
And I understood him. More than I wanted to.
I couldn’t let myself get sidetracked by his agenda.
I cleared my throat and decided to voice my concerns before either of us got in too deep with our hasty pact.
‘Are you sure about staying on the farm? I could do with your help, there’s no question about it, but we are on different sides.
You want me to sell; I want to stay. Maybe you should come back in six weeks instead. ’
‘Why the sudden change of mind?’ Dylan asked me. ‘I thought you wanted to use me for my business acumen and prove to me you can make a go of your idea? You’re backing down now?’
‘I never back down,’ I replied stubbornly.
‘That’s what I thought. Neither do I. So, we finish what we started, right?’
‘Fine with me,’ I retorted. ‘I can’t wait for you to admit that you lost the pact.’ I pulled out my phone. ‘I’m going to start looking up suppliers,’ I said, googling pumpkins for sale nearby . Something, I have to admit, I never thought I’d be doing.
‘We’ll see,’ Dylan said evenly. His lack of rising to my anger annoyed me further. It reminded me of how I told him he clearly wasn’t a passionate guy and for some reason, that made me feel even grumpier.
I didn’t speak for the rest of the car journey home but when we pulled up outside the farmhouse and Maple ran out to us, I watched as Dylan got out of his car and bent down to greet her almost as enthusiastically and my annoyance faded.
I turned away to hide my smile but I made eye contact with my dad, who had followed Maple back.
He gave me a curious look so I quickly adjusted my face and walked over to him, whistling for Maple to join me, which she did.
‘They gave me a great price, Dad,’ I said. ‘But it was really hard.’
‘I know it was,’ he said softly. ‘What’s he up to?’
We both turned to watch as Dylan walked away from us. ‘I’m going to carry on mowing while it’s still light,’ Dylan called back.
I reached down to pat Maple. She had taken to Dylan more than I thought she would, and for a city boy, he seemed happy to be around her. ‘I hope I’m doing the right thing,’ I said, watching Dylan taking off his jacket and starting up the mower.
‘I hope so too, love,’ Dad replied.
* * *
‘I ache in places I didn’t even know I had,’ Dylan declared when he opened the door to me.
He’d insisted I come to the cottage to work on the spreadsheet as he had a much better laptop than the old computer we had in the farmhouse.
Dad had made dinner for the three of us.
Dylan protested that he didn’t need to be included in our meals but Dad said he’d been doing free labour all day so the least we could do was feed him, and he was glad of the male company.
I rolled my eyes but I could see Dad enjoyed cooking for us and having Dylan to chat to while we ate.
Dylan was better company than I would have thought when he wasn’t talking business, which Dad kept steering him away from, and me if I mentioned the pumpkin patch.
He seemed to want the dinner table to be neutral so we both gave in and ended up having a nice time talking about all sorts of things from sport to films to the travelling Dylan had done when he was younger.
But now as we walked into the cottage, it was back to business.
We’d left Dad watching a film in his armchair with Maple on his feet keeping an eye on things as she always did.
I carried a bottle of wine and two glasses into the cottage as it felt like it would be needed if I was going to spend an evening with figures.
Not my strong point, I had to admit. I would much rather be outside fixing a fence.
Dylan, of course, was in his element and brought his laptop, phone and a notebook to the round, pine table in the open-plan kitchen/living area.
I spotted an old candle on the side and lit it, the delicious smell of pumpkin spice taking over the room quickly. This was surprisingly cosy.
‘I’m impressed you almost cleared all the grass,’ I told him as he sat down, wincing as he did so.
‘Maybe you should have a bath to help the aches,’ I added, then my cheeks flushed involuntarily.
I sat down too and quickly poured us both some wine to avoid catching his eye.
‘I think we can get it all cleared by tomorrow; you really have saved me so much work.’
‘I kind of enjoyed it – being outside, just thinking about the task in hand. It meant I wasn’t worrying about anything else,’ he said, opening up his laptop.
I nodded. ‘That’s how I feel. I’ve always loved that about doing this job. It’s bloody hard work but it’s so rewarding.’
‘I can see that now. Beats my office job, I reckon. Okay, here’s a spreadsheet we can use.’
We spent the next hour going over figures and drinking wine.
I had to admit that Dylan’s input was invaluable and if I started daydreaming up things for the patch, he pulled me back on track.
We couldn’t input costs yet, but with estimates it was tight and was dependent on either charging an entry fee or charging a lot for pumpkins.
I needed to think about that, and if I was going to turn a profit, try to get what I needed as cheaply as possible.
‘My brain hurts,’ I declared, leaning back in my chair as the night ticked on. I also felt a little bit tipsy after sharing the bottle of wine with Dylan. ‘I haven’t studied like this since university. You’re a hard taskmaster, Mr Henderson.’
Dylan was taking a sip from his wine as I said that and he spluttered, just managing not to spit it all out. ‘Willow,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘What?’ I questioned, wondering why he looked so shocked.
I replayed in my mind what I had said. Then I blushed all over again.
‘Oh.’ I guessed it had come out as a little bit suggestive.
I stood up quickly. ‘I better go to bed,’ I said.
‘Alone!’ I added quickly, half-knocking the chair over as I scrambled to jump away from the table and him.
Dylan started laughing then. ‘Tonight made a change from you bossing me around,’ he said with that twinkle back in his eye. That twinkle could be dangerous, I decided.
I backed away further. ‘I’ll send those supplier emails tomorrow and we can finish clearing the field, okay?’ I said, turning away from his eyes.
‘Sleep well,’ he called after me as I hurried out of the cottage, torn between embarrassment and attraction which was bad with a capital B. I couldn’t start feeling attracted to the man who was trying to take my farm away from me.
The cold air hit me once I was outside and wandered back to the farmhouse, taking deep breaths. I sobered up quickly and thankfully, the idea of being attracted to Dylan soon evaporated. I was just lonely and I needed to pull myself together.
The problem was, as I went inside and up to my bed, flashes of Dylan’s eyes as he laughed kept coming back to me.