Chapter 41
I sucked in a breath at what Dylan had just said.
It brought back that cold shock I’d felt when I’d heard him talking to his brother outside of the cottage.
I’d been so hurt that he had said those things about me after the great time we’d had together.
It had seemed so unlike the man I’d got to know but I had thought that he’d lied about who he was, that I’d got him all wrong. Now, I just wasn’t sure.
‘And you had no idea I was listening outside, and had heard every word.’
Dylan winced at the memory and looked away from me.
‘As soon as the words left my mouth, I bitterly regretted them. I hate lying, but also, I hated saying anything negative about you – about us. It was such a low moment for me. I’m so sorry, Willow.
I’ll never forget the look on your face.
’ He shuddered. ‘I just wanted Nate to leave me alone so I could be here with you. I should have told him how I really felt, though. I have now.’
‘You have?’
‘I told him I need a break. Until the end of the month. Until the end of our six-week pact. I made a promise to stay and that’s what I want to do. I need to figure out what I want in life. Would you let me stay, though? Despite the fact I was a complete dick and I hurt you?’
I hesitated. Surely this would just make it harder for him to leave?
‘I don’t know. The pact is done and dusted. I already told Nate, and my dad agreed with me, that there’s no way I’d let him get his hands on my farm.’
Dylan nodded. ‘I know. And I completely agree with you. You should be here, Willow. This is where you belong. I worked that out pretty quickly, even though I didn’t want to admit it to myself or you, and certainly not to Nate.
Would you ever be able to forgive me for the things I said to my brother? ’
‘I’m not sure,’ I said.
I thought for a minute. This weekend had been hard.
But I’d made it through. Dylan had finally stood up to his brother and he wanted to stay.
I knew I could still do it with his help.
We still had the rest of October to try to make this work and secure the farm for at least the next year. I didn’t want to do it without him.
Finally, I nodded. ‘Okay, Dylan. You can stay as we agreed until the end of October. I’m still not sure if I can make this all work out. And I could do with your help still. If it’s really what you want.’
Dylan reached for me and I let him take hold of one of my hands. His touch still felt good. He gazed into my eyes. ‘I really want to stay with you, Willow.’
My heart skipped. ‘You can stay,’ I whispered.
The look on his face was so happy, I returned his smile and I knew that whatever had happened, he was sincere about wanting to be here. And I was happy to have him here. I didn’t know what was going to come next for us or the farm, but I couldn’t wait to find out.
* * *
The rest of the week was a blur.
We threw ourselves into the pumpkin patch.
Now that Dylan had told his brother he was staying and working on the farm, he abandoned any pretence of doing work for Henderson Homes and seemed happy to pitch in with me and my dad, and Steve, on what needed to be done.
He still hunched himself over his laptop a lot though but that was because I asked him to.
He was so much better at dealing with the publicity and social media side of the business while I was happiest working on the patch and my dad liked dealing with greeting visitors and putting through payments.
We became a solid team of three somehow, with Steve helping too.
It was working better than I could have ever predicted.
Birchbrook got behind Pumpkin Hollow more each day.
Word did start to spread, especially after the local newspaper posted a positive review online and then in the physical edition later on.
Steve’s sister and her friends shared the patch on their social media, and Sabrina encouraged families from her school to come.
The two Pats did a great job of publicising it in their café too.
And Paul came by in the café van each afternoon to sell food and drink, and every day, the line for them grew longer.
By Thursday, I even saw him smile once, although he denied it.
But the best boost to the business came when Dylan’s old school friend Amy posted her content on her TikTok and Instagram. She had hundreds of thousands of followers and they all loved the pumpkin patch videos and photos. She tagged us and almost immediately, the ticket sales started to roll in.
‘I don’t care if she is an ex-girlfriend,’ I joked to Dylan when he showed me that we’d sold five hundred tickets the morning after she posted about the patch.
‘I told you – there’s never been anything between us. I think she still has a crush on Nate. Maybe she thought he’d be grateful for her help.’
‘Little does she know he hates this place. She’s going on a date with Steve so hopefully, she’ll forget all about Nate. I’ll call her tonight to say thank you.’
‘We should go to the pub to celebrate once we finish work for the day. If this rate of sales keeps going, we’re going to smash our target for ticket sales for the first week.’
‘You should, love,’ Dad said, overhearing as he helped a couple put their pumpkins into a wheelbarrow to carry over to their car. ‘You’ve worked so hard this week, and the weekend will be crazy based on these new ticket sales. Relax tonight; it’s Friday, after all!’
‘I suppose we could…’ I said, hesitating because although letting off some steam after the stressful week sounded really good, I wasn’t sure about being alone with Dylan and drinking. ‘I’ll see if Sabrina and Bradley might be able to get a babysitter and join us.’
Dad walked off to help the couple, leaving Dylan looking at me. He grinned. ‘Are you thinking safety in numbers or something?’ he asked, a definite flirty edge to his tone, as if he’d worked out my plan.
‘Dylan…’
‘I’m only teasing,’ he said quickly. ‘I know I don’t deserve a night out with you alone, as much as I want one.’ He waved at a family who were looking for help and hurried over to them.
His words left an impression. I liked him wanting to be alone with me. But I was scared to want the same thing after all we’d been through. I wanted to trust his feelings for me. But it was hard.
I pulled out my phone to ask Sabrina if she fancied meeting us at the pub. I wasn’t sure if I wanted her to say yes or no.