Chapter Seven

 

It had been an entire week since Silas had arrived, and I was still floating on cloud nine. He worked around the farm while I was at work, helping my mom with chores, and finishing up projects I hadn’t had time to do myself.

“So, things with Silas are pretty good?” Kayla asked as she locked up the shop.

“They couldn’t be better,” I replied.

Every time I thought about how great things were going, I got a lump in my throat that I couldn’t swallow.

“Mom said he’s been really helpful,” she smiled.

I nodded.

I knew my mom missed having a man around the farm. Since Dad had passed, we’d had help, but never anyone long-term. She’d thought she could handle it all on her own, but as she grew older, the work grew harder.

“He finished my office,” I boasted. “Grandma’s old sign is on the wall overlooking my desk. It’s perfect. He’s perfect.” 

“You say that like that’s a bad thing,” she laughed.

“It is,” I groaned.

I knew everything being so perfect, him being so perfect, was just going to make it harder when he left. It was going to be even harder if he didn’t come back.

Kayla patted me on the back and offered up a warm smile. I knew she understood. We’d talked about my fears of getting too close to Silas. She couldn’t do anything, except comfort me. She knew my fears were legitimate.

Silas was in the greenhouse when I arrived home. “Hey, you,” I said, sneaking up behind him.

He turned, gripped me around the waist, and pulled me into his chest. “Damn, I’ve missed you,” he growled.

I giggled as he kissed my neck. His grip tightened around my waist and my feet left the ground as he lifted me onto the potting table.

“What have you been doing in here?” I asked, wrapping my arms loosely around his broad shoulders.

“Working on a scent for your men’s line,” he answered.

“Really?” I asked, shocked that he was taking such an interest in my work.

“Yeah,” he said proudly.

“What did you come up with?” I asked.

“Well. I like the lavender and mint. The citrus and melon isn’t bad either,” he said.

I stared into his eyes, watching them dance as he spoke.

My heart swelled in my chest. I knew I was falling for this man.

“Are you listening to me?” he laughed.

I wasn’t. He had been talking about the combinations he’d tried, and all I could do was stare into those beautifully mysterious eyes.

I leaned in, kissing him gently on the lips, letting my body fall into his and my mind fall blank of any doubt, worry, or fear.

His hands grew aggressive, sliding down the back of my shorts. “You’re gonna make my plants blush,” I teased.

He growled playfully, biting at my neck as he pulled me in closer. “I’m hungry.”

I giggled. “Well, let’s go make dinner,” I said, sliding from the table and into his arms.

Silas kept good on his promise to cook for me, preparing steaks, lasagna, and even a chicken parmesan that was so good I woke up in the middle of the night to eat the leftovers.

Tonight, he had shrimp on the counter and a package of fresh pasta. It was the dinner I’d made on our first video date. “You don’t have to cook. I just want you to show me how to make it,” he said sweetly.

Cooking with Silas was much more fun than cooking alone. “I could get used to this,” I said as we finished our meal, and cleared the table.

“That’s what I’m hoping for,” he grinned, leaning in to kiss my cheek.

“That’s just cruel. You’ll make me miserable when you leave,” I teased.

“I’ll be back,” he whispered in my ear.

“I hope so,” I admitted, kissing his neck softly.

“I need a shower,” he groaned, pulling at my waist.

“It’s all yours,” I replied.

“Come with me,” he insisted, sucking my earlobe into his mouth.

I giggled from the tickle, squirmed in his arms, and pulled away.

“I have to get some stuff packaged,” I apologized, shoving my bottom lip out to pout.

“Baby,” he groaned, grinding his body into mine.

I could feel the hardness in his jeans pressing into me. My body fell limp in his arms at the thought of him making love to me. “I can’t,” I argued, pulling back from the trance he was putting me into. “Even with your help tonight, I still won’t get it all done,” I explained.

“I understand,” he whispered, and left me with a gentle kiss on the lips.

I loaded the last plate into the dishwasher and grabbed my phone from the counter. Silas left his phone on the table, and as I moved toward it, it lit up.

My heart raced as I reached for it, opening the screen to see a beautiful blonde’s picture next to a text that simply read, “Hey, Lover.”

Her name was Brenda. The beautiful blonde woman that Silas was obviously seeing was named Brenda.

It felt like a vise had been placed on my heart, squeezing it so tightly that it was ready to burst. Who was she? Lover? They obviously were sleeping together. How could I’ve been so stupid?

I sat down on the couch, holding Silas’s phone in my hands. A part of me wanted to go through it, reading texts, checking e-mails, and looking at his saved pictures. But the other part, the rational part, said to stop.

I placed the phone on the coffee table and waited for the shower to stop. When the water shut off, my heart ached. How was I going to approach this?

Silas came out into the living room, a towel loosely wrapped around his chiseled waist. He leaned over, smelling of the mint shampoo I’d made, and kissed me on the neck.

“You okay, babe?” he asked after I didn’t react to his kiss.

“You missed a text,” I told him.

He walked around to the front of the couch and picked up his phone. His ass looked like two boulders shoved into that towel. Damn, he was hot. Stop it, Lucy. He’s a liar, a cheat. He’s not hot.

His face grew concerned when he read the text that came through while he was in the shower. “Who’s Brenda?” I asked calmly.

I was fighting back tears as I waited for his response.

“I dated her,” he said, taking the seat next to me.

“I didn’t mean to look at your phone. I didn’t snoop, even though that text made me want to. It just lit up,” I explained.

“It’s okay. I have nothing to hide from you, Lucy,” he said.

“She called you ‘lover.’ Are you still dating her?” I asked.

“No. I haven’t talked to her in a couple weeks,” he said.

The tears I fought to keep back fell from my eyes and down my cheeks. “A couple weeks ago?” I asked, realizing that was when we were supposedly dating.

“Yes,” he said softly.

“So, you were dating her when you met me?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “I swear I ended it when I found out how much I liked you, which was almost instantly.”

“If you ended it, why is she texting you, and calling you lover?” I demanded.

Silas wiped the tears streaming down my face. “I swear to you, I ended it. She wasn’t exactly stable. I should’ve ended it sooner, before I even met you, but I was lonely. I was stupid,” he said.

“You promise?” I asked.

“Yes. You can look on my phone if you want. I sent her texts two weeks ago telling her I met someone, and that we were done,” he insisted. “I have nothing to hide. I promise you that.”

Something about Silas made me believe him. He was an honorable man, not a liar or a cheat. It wasn’t my business what he was doing before me, and why should he have ended it with her just because we talked once or twice on the phone?

“I’m sorry,” I said, wiping the rest of my tears from my face.

“No. Don’t be. I’m sorry. I should’ve told you. It just wasn’t date talk, ya know?” he chuckled nervously. “We never got much time to talk, and I didn’t want to spend it talking about anyone else but us,” he added with a smile. He leaned over, kissing me on the cheek. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I didn’t mean to overreact,” I replied with a soft chuckle.

“So, what do you want, Lucy?”

I paused. I knew what I wanted. I wanted him. I wanted him to not leave, and to stay here forever. This last week was perfect, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.

My heart was attached. I’d fallen for this man. I still wasn’t sure I could handle the distance, not only for the nine months, but possibly for years if he decided to stay in the military. I couldn’t uproot my life, and he couldn’t uproot his. I had to face the possibility of this not having a future.

“I don’t know,” I lied.

I could see the disappointment in his eyes. I wanted to throw my arms around him and tell him that wasn’t the truth. I wanted to tell him what I really wanted, and that it was him, just him.