Page 50 of Must Love Lavender and Little Lies
“Okay. Why don’t we find your family, and you can let them know you’re taking me home?”
“You want to go home?”
“I wantyouto go home, but since I won’t be able to convince you to do that…” If I could get Granik to walk with me, in the very least, I would be able to get him away from everything for a moment before he spiraled out before a crowd.
Granik looked confused.
“I saw the children with your mother there,” I said, gesturing to the games row. “Let them know you’re taking me home, and I will meet you at the festival gate.”
“All right. Sure. Right. I’ll take you home. My da can take the family back.”
“Good,” I said, then watched as he walked off.
I had no idea what was going on in Granik’s mind, but there were a few things I knew for sure. One, I needed to get Granik out of here. Two, Granik was in a panic. And three, that kiss…that wasnotGranik being silly. Tansy was right.
That kiss had come sweetly, naturally, and had been filled with love.
And just like our friendship, it had come easily.
And more than anything else, that sentiment confused, frightened, and thrilled me most of all.
CHAPTER 18
GRANIK
By the time I found Juniper, I was starting to feel like my mind was coming unhinged. I had always been steady, kept my circle small, and my head down while I focused on my farm. Juniper had been my grounding light in Moonshine Hollow. Now, everything was chaos. Part of the reason I’d left Mossy Bottom and my family was to find peace. I loved my family. There was no doubt of that, but every time I was around them, it was more than I could bear, and now Juniper had been swept up into it.
This has gone beyond just a lie to save my skin.
Now my family expected me to marry Juniperon Saturday.
And in this moment, I saw no way out.
And worse, or maybe better, I was starting to think…
“Granik,” Juniper said, a look of concern on her face.
“I found them,” I told her, having discovered my family watching the children dancing at the maypole. “They will stay a bit longer, then go home. They’re all having fun.”
“I’m glad.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, then offered her my arm, and we headed off away from the fairgrounds, taking a shortcut across a field toward Juniper’s cottage.
In an effort to pull myself together, I didn’t say anything as we walked. I just tried to breathe in the night air. But it didn’t work. A million thoughts circled my head all at once.
However, by the time we reached Juniper’s cottage, only one thought was beating loudly in my head…and it was thumping with the sound of a thousand hammers, like it had been trying to beat down the door of my mind for a very, very long time.
I loved Juniper.
I actually loved her, really, really loved her.
And worse yet, Iwantedto marry her.
But she…she saw me as a friend, her best friend. I was betraying everything between us by thinking like this, and now I had her wrapped up in a complete disaster.
“Do you want to come in?” she asked.
Without forming a real thought, I nodded.
