1944 [n.h]

Chapter six

I wasn't sure how a month had passed by the silently since Niall had arrived in the village. But it had. And I could no longer picture spending my days without him. We were inseparable near enough, I spent more time with him than I did Ruth. He was my best friend.

Spending time with Niall was the only thing I looked forward to when I woke up each morning, whether it would be him coming in to the bakery or me sneaking out to go places with him, we saw each other every single day and I couldn't have wished for anything better. Niall and I talked endlessly about anything under the sun, the first and the last things that popped in to our heads. I knew everything and he knew everything too.

I followed Niall everywhere and did anything he asked, and he did the same for me. As I said, we were inseparable. And yet somehow, my mother still hadn't heard of our friendship, nor had any of her gossip pals. Niall and I were a secret and it was amazing. He would come in to the bakery, even if it was full, and we'd pretend to be complete strangers. It was fun, exciting, and rebellious.

"So Nathan then, is he better looking than me?" Niall turned to me with a smirk as I rolled my eyes and shoved him slightly, but he didn't budge. Amongst one of our deeper talks, I'd told Niall about my brothers best friend Nathan, who was currently fighting alongside Archie. Ever since I was younger, my family had been edging me towards Nathan, apparently everybody had it planned, I was supposed to marry him and be happy about it.

Which of course, I wasn't.

"Nathan is nothing more than my brother's friend." I mumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and glancing to the side of me at him to see his pouting face. "And he is much more handsome than you." I teased as Niall stuck out his bottom lip and frowned like a child, shaking his head in protest.

"Brothers best friend, bet you're secretly engaged to him or something." Niall scoffed as I stopped walking through the field and turned to him wide eyed.

"Niall Horan I certainly am not!" I scolded and slapped his arm lightly as he chuckled in amusement at my act of self-defence. "I wouldn't want to be engaged to any man at this age, I don't want to follow the status quo." I murmured and started walking again as Niall caught up with me, his hand wrapping around my arm and twirling me around to face him as I playfully glared at him.

"So you wouldn't say yes if I asked you to marry me right now?" Niall asked with a sly smirk as he slowly got down teasingly on one knee as I laughed and shook my head, taking a step away from him, I couldn't stop the blush creeping up on my cheeks as he stayed down on one knee, pretending to hold a ring box in his hands.

"Niall, I wouldn't say yes even if you were asking me ten, perhaps twenty years from now!" I laughed and tugged on the hem of my dress as Niall gasped and clutched his hand over his chest, falling back on his ankles and groaning as if in immense pain and distress, causing my face to light up in amusement.

"That's it Lilly, you've finally killed me." He spoke dramatically as I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him with an amused crooked smile on my face. "Guess you're going to have to marry Nick now, I won't be here to disallow it." He shouted as I walked away from him laughing. "I won't be here to protect you!" He called as I shook my head to myself. Nialls antics always teased me and left me questioning what my real feelings for him were and most of the times I had to battle with myself to remind myself that he was nothing more than a friend.

"Nathan!" I corrected him, thinking he was too far back to even hear me as I gasped, a hand wrapping around my arm and pulling me backwards as I stumbled back, landing with a thump amongst the long grass on top of Niall. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, trapping me, my chest pressed against his, as I lay still wheezing from laughter unable to move.