Page 96 of Still Love You

"I'll tie your hands up so you can't."

"That sounds fun."

He watches me a moment to see if I'm kidding. I'm not. I'd try most anything with Silas. I trust him completely, more than anyone else.

"You're trouble," he says, kissing a ticklish spot on my neck.

"Stop!" I yell, laughing.

He shifts onto his back and I sit up and straddle him. He reaches up and strokes my hair, then runs the back of his hand along my cheek. "I love you."

I smile. "I love you too."

"Come here."

I lower my body over his chest, and he wraps his arms over me and kisses my head.

"Silas?"

"Yeah." He strokes my hair.

"Please don't leave again."

"Willow, you're the one who's leaving, not me."

"I'm just going to college. I'm talking about you, going overseas again. Even if this...if this doesn't work out...don't go over there again. It's too far away and it's too dangerous. I worried about you constantly when you were there."

"You did?"

"I didn't know where you were and I kept having dreams of you getting hurt and nobody ever knowing what happened and...just please don't go there again."

"I won't. I'm staying here with you."

"But what about in the fall? What are we going to do when I go back to school?"

He kisses my head again. "Let's not think about that right now. We can talk about it later."

Silas doesn't worry about the future, but I do, and uncertainty about the future is one of my greatest fears. I'm not even sure why. It's not like my parents are that way. They don't plan for anything, not even the future of their business. And it seems to work for them. The farm is doing well and they always seem to have plenty of money, even enough to send me to a very expensive college.

I push off his chest. "I'm starving. Let's get something to eat."

"Like go out? There's nothing open at two in the morning."

"Then we'll eat here."

"What are we going to eat? Kale chips and yogurt?"

I laugh. "We might have some other stuff. Let's go check." I get out of bed and grab his t-shirt and slip it on. I love wearing his t-shirts. They're really soft and they smell like him.

"I'm keeping this," I tell him as he puts his jeans on.

"You're going to start doing that again?" He says that because I used to always steal his t-shirts. "I don't have that many shirts, Willow."

"Then you'll just have to walk around shirtless." I plaster my hands against his muscular chest and smile at him. "I wouldn't mind that."

He chuckles. "I wouldn't mind if you walked around shirtless too."

"Nice try, but I'm keeping it on." I take his hand. "Come on. Let's find some food."

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