Page 110 of Still Love You

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Willow

After dinner, Silas and I return to the farm and I make my list of ideas while Silas sits next to me, patiently waiting for me to finish but also offering up a few of his own ideas. By the time we're done, we can't keep our hands off each other. Clothes get ripped off, strewn all over the truck, and we do it. Twice. And then we go home.

That pattern repeats for the rest of the week. I'm sure our parents know what we're doing every night but they don't say anything. We usually get back so late that they're asleep by the time we get home.

It's now Saturday and I'm exhausted. Between working at the farm and getting everything ready for that vendor fair, it's been a tiring week. The fair was on Wednesday and I sold a little over half of my inventory, which I didn't think was great, but Diane only sold a third of what she brought and most of the other vendors sold even less than that. So I guess in comparison, my booth was a success. My mom brought the remaining products to the farmers' market today. If it sells out, I'm going to make more for next week.

It's after ten when I finally roll out of bed. I throw a sweatshirt over my tank and make my way to the kitchen. I take a box of cereal from the cupboard and the soy milk from the fridge. The doorbell rings as I'm pouring my cereal.

It can't be Silas. He's at class, and even if he wasn't, he'd just come in. He wouldn't ring the bell.

I open the door and see Trent there in a faded red polo shirt and khaki shorts, a baseball cap covering his short dark hair.

"Hey," he says. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah." I step aside. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you for a minute."

He walks in and I close the door. "About what?"

"Can we sit down?"

"Sure. Go wait in the living room. I'll put some shorts on." I'm in my skimpy pajama shorts so I go to my room and throw on my cut-off denim shorts. I don't bother putting on a bra because my oversized sweatshirt covers me up.

I return to the living room and plop down on the couch. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Silas." Trent's tone is serious. His expression is too. He's never serious.

"What about him?" I curl my feet under me on the couch.

"You need to stop dating him."

I raise my brows. "That's why you came over here? To tell me not to date him?" I sigh. "I don't know why you hate me so much, Trent, but this needs to end. I'm dating Silas, and we don't need your approval or your blessing. So just leave."

"I don't hate you. I just don't want you dating Silas."

"Why? Because you have someone better for him?"

"Anyone would be better than..." His voice trails off.

"Than ME? Is that what you said? Anyone would be better than me?" I huff. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're leading him on. Getting his hopes up. You're going to destroy him and you don't even seem to care."

A dull pain rattles my chest because part of me feels like he's right. Hurting Silas is a lingering fear I've had ever since he came back into my life and I can't seem to make it go away.

"I'm not going to hurt him," I say.

"Oh, really? So what happens at the end of August? What happens when you go back to school? Are you going to ignore him? Stop talking to him like you did last time?"

"No. And this is none of your business so you need to leave. I'm not listening to this."

"I'm not leaving until I've said what I need to say."

"Then hurry up and say it and get out."

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