I’ve really got to hand it to Justin. He hasn’t slept all night and then had to deal with a rental car mix up and clearly he’s ready to just go to bed. But when he met my parents, he really turned on the charm. One minute we’re sitting in the car in the driveway and he’s yawning and scrubbing his hands over his face and the next minute, he’s hugging my mom and complimenting her on her lemonade and talking sports with my dad. I don’t know how he can turn himself on that quickly but it’s certainly an admirable quality. I’m sitting here in the kitchen, hardly keeping my eyes open, and he’s currently off outside with my dad going to look at the horses. We’ve been here a grand total of thirty minutes and already my dad’s putting him to work. That’s my family for you.

“I didn’t make lunch but I can whip up some sandwiches if you two are hungry,” my mom said, opening the fridge.

“Oh don’t worry about it, Mom. We stopped somewhere on our way from the airport.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be in bed?”

She waved me off. “I’ve been in bed the past four days. I can’t take another minute laying there.” She winked at me. “Besides, eating your father’s cooking is a worse fate than pneumonia itself.”

I laughed. “Maybe if you taught him to cook something…”

“Oh hush.”

My family is really traditional. Painfully traditional at times. My dad works outside on the farm all day and my mom takes care of all the cleaning and cooking and all that is domestic labor. A feminist would have a heyday with my family. Of course, I don’t mind too much. They raised me to be independent but when I’m back home, I find myself taking on my mom’s domestic role. And sometimes that’s a nice change.

“I’m making fried chicken for dinner. Will that be good with Justin?”

“He’ll love it. Are you going to make mashed potatoes too?”

“Of course. They’re your favorite.”

A smile spread across my face. I love coming home. “Perfect.”

She moved to the sink to wash her hands and looked out the window above the sink. “Oh, Phil has Justin on the tractor. I don’t think he understands that you two came down here for a vacation, not to work.”

I smiled. “I warned Justin that Dad was going to put him to work and he said he was tough enough for it.”

“Well that’s a man for you.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“He seems very nice. Just perfect for you.”

I smiled. “He’s really great, Mom. I mean, I’ve told you that before but now you can see for yourself.”

“He’s certainly different from Ben.”

“Yeah but that’s a good thing.” I crossed my arms on the table and laid my head down on them. “It’s going to be so nice being here and being just a normal couple. We don’t have to hide or anything.”

“That’s still going on?”

“There’s just no other way. Justin doesn’t want to ruin his friendship with Ben.”

“Well yes, but eventually it’s going to have to come out in the open.”

“And we both realize that. And I can wait for a bit longer.” I focused my eyes on my mom. “Do you not think I should?”

“I think that if you’re not bothered by it then that’s fine. You don’t want a friendship to be ruined if you can help it.”

I nodded and smiled a bit. That’s exactly what I needed to hear. My mom is the best to go to when you need advice. She helped me so much when I came here after Banff. She babied me and let me bitch and moan for a good four days but then she insisted that I get up and deal with Ben cheating on me and move on. I would not have been able to get over it as quickly as I did if it weren’t for all the advice she gave me.

“Eventually we’re going to tell everyone. Obviously we can’t keep it a secret forever.”

“Well I’m sure it will be nice to be down here where you can just be a normal couple.”

A smile spread across my face and I closed my eyes. “Exactly.”

* * *

My bed in LA is really amazing. It’s a queen size and the mattress is perfect. I splurged on 600 thread count sheets a while ago and it’s like heaven laying in them. And my duvet is so soft and fluffy and I have like a million pillows.

But as amazing as my bed is, nothing really beats being in my room in Ohio in my old bed. The bed frame may be creaky and the mattress lumpy but it’s absolutely perfect. The cotton sheets are soft from being washed so much and three mismatched quilts on top of me smell like home. I wish I could just somehow transfer this to LA.

Being farmers, my parents went to bed early and neither Justin nor I could stay up much longer than them. Flying takes a lot out of me and after eating a big dinner, my eyes were drooping. Justin hadn’t been much better. He was trying to be polite but it was obvious all he wanted to do was crash. My dad had worked him hard for the afternoon. I don’t think Justin minded though. He seemed to really be enjoying it when I had gone outside to get him and my dad for dinner.

As exhausted as I was, I couldn’t make myself fall asleep. The house is so quiet and I’m used to the sounds of LA nightlife lulling me to sleep. It always takes me a day or two to get used to the quiet out here

Letting out a yawn, I turned on my side and hugged a pillow to my chest. I closed my eyes as I thought about the next few days we had in Ohio. I was excited to be away from everyone we know and be able to go out in public and actually be a couple and not have to hide anything. It’s going to be a nice break.

I can tell this whole hiding thing is really beginning to stress Justin out. A couple nights before we left, we were all out to dinner and apparently his friend, Cory, called him out about the two of us. It completely freaked Justin out and he had been a bit on edge ever since. And not that I want him to be stressed out, but maybe this will just push him in the direction to make a decision about telling people about us. If Cory, who is more often than not, high as a kite, can figure it out, everyone else isn’t far behind.

The complete silence allowed me to hear the faint sound of someone moving around and then the door across the hallway open. I opened my eyes and a second passed before I heard my door creak open.

“Em? You awake?”

I rolled onto my back and saw Justin at the door. “Yeah.”

He entered my room, closing the door quietly behind him, and came over to my bed. I held up the covers for him and he crawled in, the bed squeaking, protesting at the extra weight.

I moved onto my side to face him. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

He pulled the pillow from in between us and used it to cushion his head. “I couldn’t sleep. It’s so quiet.”

I smiled. “I know. But I thought you would have passed out after helping my dad all afternoon.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

I reached up my hand and trailed one of my fingers down his stubbled jaw. “Are you just doing all this because you want my dad to like you?”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “No. I really like helping.” He paused for a moment. “Is it making him like me though?”

I let out a soft laugh. “He likes you. So does my mom. You’ve charmed them both.”

His smile turned satisfied. “Good. I didn’t want them to not want me around here.”

My hand dropped from his cheek to the small space in between us. “They’re glad you’re here.”

“So am I. I like how we can just be ourselves here.”

“Me too.”

It was quiet again and the silence rang between us. It’s really great to be here. It’s moments like this where nothing else seems to matter. It doesn’t matter that we’re hiding everything from all our friends. It doesn’t matter that we haven’t really gone on another actual date since the failed first attempt. It doesn’t even matter that I don’t think he’s given any thought to when and how we’re going to tell people about us. All those things would have bothered me back in LA but they just don’t seem to matter right now, while I’m with him. I guess that’s what love will do to you.

The thought entered my head so randomly and suddenly that it almost didn’t register for a minute. But when it did, simultaneously my heard skipped a beat, my stomach dropped, and a shiver went through my whole body. Was I actually in love with him? I knew I felt very strongly for him but was it love? This wasn’t how I felt with Ben or Jeremy Molowsky, my high school sweetheart. But that didn’t necessarily make it NOT love, did it?

“So what’s the game plan for tomorrow?”

He caught me a bit off guard when his question hit the quiet air. I blinked once. “Tomorrow?” I repeated. “I’m not exactly sure.”

With both Ben and Jeremy, my feelings had gradually grown stronger and stronger until I had been aware of it the entire time. But this was so sudden. So different.

“Your dad said something about helping him with something but we should go out and do something tomorrow night.”

I’m in the middle of having some kind of epiphany and he won’t shut up long enough to let me think and figure everything out. “Sure.”

A month was too soon, wasn’t it? Am I just excited about having him here along and it’s throwing my emotions every which way? I don’t want to mess anything up by saying something to him and not being sure. But why would I think it if it wasn’t true?

“I’m getting a bit tired. I think I’m gonna go back to bed.”

I love spending time with him but at this moment there was nothing I wanted more than to be alone with my thoughts and sort this all out. “Okay.”

He leaned forward and kissed me so softly that it caused me to melt into the bed and threads of warmth to seep through me. This was so right.

He crawled out from under the covers and then replaced them around me. I rolled onto my back and he leaned down to kiss my forehead. I love when he does that.

“See you in the morning.”

“Night,” I said softly after him. My eyes followed him as he went to the door and left my room and then I listened to him go back to his room.

It had been so quiet before that I had hardly been able to stand it. Now, with all these thoughts crowding my brain…I would give anything to have that deathly silence back.