Sunflowers (Jerry Baynard x Reader/OC)

10 - Town Ride

Vivian's POV.

Constant eye contact, intimidation, physical touch. Why were these things suddenly something I craved? For the most part of my life, I thought I would be the last to ever... want such things. But now... something was happening to me. I came to work for the Cuthberts nearly half a year ago. I was completely devoted and committed to my work and nothing else. Not even the annoying, french, barn boy. But that same barn boy had started... making me feel so many things. Things I couldn't quite describe.

Now every time he laid his eyes upon me with that irritatingly attractive little smirk, my heart picked up, I shivered, my knees went weak, my cheeks flushed, he was driving me to insanity.

And after last week... after he almost kissed me! My feelings and thoughts were all over the place. And now, for the first time since... our very intimate interaction, we were alone.

As we made our way to town in the carriage to go run errands for Marilla, we stayed in complete silence. The only audible noise being the carriage's wheels rocking on the pebbled ground.

Jerry held onto the reins as he steered the horse through the pathway. I occasionally snuck a subtle glance at him, but turned away, figuring that I was staring too much.

My mind wondered to when he told me how he liked my hair down. And without thinking, I reached up to my hair that was pinned up and pulled out the clip, letting my hair fall down.

"You really like sunflowers, don't you?" He suddenly asked. I stared ahead at the road in confusion as to where the question had even come from.

"What?"

"The clip." He told me as he pointed at the sunflower clip in my hand. I glanced over at him again, my eyes finding my tie around his wrist which he had taken from me last week, an identical sunflower charm attached to it just like on my clip.

"They're my favourite flowers." I responded. He nodded, before turning back to the road ahead. He seemed focused on the task at hand, as if nothing in particular was going on inside his head. Which made me wonder if I'd been the only one who had been continuously thinking back to the day last week. If I was the only one who couldn't stop going back to that moment. If he thought it didn't mean anything. Or even worse, if he forgot it'd even happened.

"So..." I said, not really knowing what to say. "Last week was full of surprises."

"Surprises?" He asked as he ran a hand through his hair. I swallowed in agitation as I tried to find the right words.

"Well, you know..." I rubbed my hands together in a manner to release my nerves, but they only grew.

He chuckled. The sound of the low rumble of his voice making my stomach tingle. "Something you trying to tell me?"

"Something you trying to tell me?" I shot back.

He smoothly looked down at me, a familiar smirk plastered on his face as he leaned back on his seat. "Maybe I am." He said as he swiftly snatched my sunflower clip out of my hand before placing it in his pocket. Stealing another one of my hair accessories yet again.

"Excuse me? Give that back."

"Maybe my favourite flowers are sunflowers too." He shrugged, giving me another amused look. I looked away, fearing he might see the redness rushing to my face.

I sighed, my gaze turned away from him. "Jerry." My tone turned serious. "We should talk."

"We should." He added. "So how has your day been-"

"Are we just going to pretend nothing happened?" I let out, feeling the tingles rise. I felt an unease in my body and my knee began to shake up and down in agitation. I heard him sigh, but I didn't dare look at him as we stayed in silence for what felt like hours. He cleared his throat and the silence struck again. I felt like I'd struck a sensitive subject. Something we were both trying to avoid talking about. But I wanted to tell him. I wanted to speak my mind, let him know that... I had been thinking about it. That I'd been thinking about him. I opened my mouth to speak, but I was cut off when I heard his voice.

He grabbed tighter onto the reins of the horse. I finally looked back at him. This time, the roles had switched and he was the one who did not dare look at me. He cleared his throat. "Vivian." he said aloud, but no other words followed. The tension in the air was so tense, I swear I could taste it.

"You were going to kiss me, Jerry." I finally said, getting a surge of courage.

"Yes! I- I know. I just..." He trailed off, his grip on the reins tightening even further. The horse sensed his tension, its ears flicking back nervously. I held my breath, waiting for him to continue, to explain, to say something. But the words seemed stuck in his throat, and he remained silent, his jaw clenched.

"Just?" I scoffed.

"It's complicated."

"Complicated?" I asked. I didn't want to go rogue on him yet. Even though my short temper was slowly rising. But I didn't want him to see how much I actually was starting to... not depise him. So I played it cool. "What does that mean exactly."

He took in a deep breath. "Look." Oh, God. That word was never followed by something good. "Let me be honest with you." Lord help me. "I'm sorry that happened."

I stared ahead of myself. "You're sorry?" I didn't quite know what else to say. My hands were tight fists and my shoulders tensed up. "What... um, why are you sorry?"

"It... it was stupid of me... we work together. It's a whole situation. Plus, you don't like me." He shook his head as his eyes remained away from mine. "Right?" He asked.

I cleared my throat and silenced myself for a few seconds. What were to happen if I told him that I did in fact not hate him as he thought I did. Well... we would not be finding out. "Right." I nodded.