Chapter 28

It doesn't feel like it takes as long to get to the farm this time. I tell myself it's just because I know where I'm going, so the path doesn't seem as endless as before. But I know, deep down, it's because of Jake.

I don't know why I'm desperate to hide the fact that I like him. I wanted a friend, and he's offering to be that, and I should accept it with gratitude. But after losing Mum and Dad, and then everyone I knew and loved in London... it's not so easy to let a new person in. I guess part of me is afraid I'll lose them, too. And the other, way more cynical, side of me is also questioning just why Jake is so eager to be my friend. If he's hoping it'll 'pay off for him to show the pretty new girl around town, then he's going to be sorely disappointed.

I shake my head against the thought as we step out of the cover of trees, and into the open field that surrounds the old outbuilding. This field is as far as I've traveled into the farmland, but the structure before me is a