Let It Be (Butler, Vermont #6) - Marie Force Page 0,12
in the eyes of the most fearless, free-spirted woman he’d ever met. He couldn’t bear to think he’d made her cry, so he put his arm around her and drew her into his embrace. “Tell me.”
“You’re going to England. We’re not going to even talk about anything other than that.”
“Why not?”
“Because! It’s your dream. It’s what you’ve wanted your whole life, and you’re this close to getting it. There’s no way in hell I’m going to be the reason you don’t go to England.”
“What if my dream has changed?”
She pulled back from him, shaking her head. “A dream you’ve had all your life doesn’t change in seven weeks.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
“England isn’t going anywhere,” he said.
“I’m not going to discuss this further. You have a plan for your life, and it’s one you were happy with.”
“Until I met you and discovered a whole new possibility.”
She crossed her arms, her pose and expression defiant. “And what’s that?”
“You and me, maybe a couple of kids, as many dogs as we can handle, a house in the country and decades together.”
“You… That… Stop it right now, Lincoln Abbott.”
She took off, and again he followed, taking her by the arm to stop her from getting away. All of a sudden, it had become essential to him that she not get away. “What if I tell Oxford I’m not coming this year?”
“That’s not happening. I refuse to be the reason you give up your dream.”
He tipped her chin up and kissed her. “I love you.”
“What? You do not love me! We’ve had fun. That’s all this is. Fun.”
“That’s how it started out, but it’s way more than that for me now. I love you, and I’m going to keep telling you that until you believe me. I want to be wherever you are, even if that means living in a small town in Vermont.”
“I’m not listening to this anymore.” Molly stormed off toward the blanket, grabbed her coverup, towel and bag and headed for where they’d parked the bikes they’d borrowed from Joseph and Keisha. She’d already taken off toward camp by the time Lincoln jumped on the other bike to follow her.
Back at camp, which was deserted on the one day the volunteers took for themselves, she went directly to her tent and zipped it closed, even though it was broiling and would be unbearable with the tent sealed off.
He decided to give her some space, to take a shower and figure out his next move.
Molly sat inside the roasting cocoon of her tent and tried to get herself together. How could he love her? He barely knew her.
Except that wasn’t exactly true. She’d told him things about herself that no one else knew, such as how much she wanted to be a mother and how little interest she had in her family’s business. In this day and age, a woman was supposed to want a career of her own, but all she wanted was a family. And her sister, Hannah, felt the same way, leaving both of them in a bad spot as the youngest children of Elmer and Sarah Stillman, proprietors of the Green Mountain Country Store. Their older siblings already had lives and homes of their own elsewhere, so it had fallen to her and Hannah to inherit the business.
Molly and her sister had frequently talked about what they were going to do after college when they’d face a come-to-Jesus moment on the business their grandparents had started decades ago.
They didn’t want it.
Their father couldn’t wait to bring his girls into the business.
Her plan was to give the business a few years so she could say she tried before she hopefully got married and had a family. The one thing she knew for certain is that she’d never disappoint her beloved father by not showing up to work at the store when she got home. Regardless of what she wanted or didn’t want, she loved him too much to let him down.
A man with dreams of spending a year in England followed by his own family obligations didn’t fit into her plans. Even if she liked him more than she’d ever liked anyone since she lost her beloved Andrew while still in high school.
Okay, so maybe she loved Linc a little bit, too.
Or maybe she loved him a lot and couldn’t imagine life without him after working and living side by side for weeks. And that made her feel guilty because she’d promised herself she’d never love anyone the way she’d loved