Irene owned a plot of land in the village. She used to grow corn on it, but in the past two years, a contractor from the neighboring village had come by, so she switched to growing strawberries instead.
It was now the season for planting seedlings. After the morning's commotion, Noelle had convinced Irene to rest at home and took over the planting work herself.
The task wasn't particularly strenuous, but bending over for long periods was exhausting. Noelle squatted down, but after a while, she started feeling dizzy. She closed her eyes, preparing to take a short break, when somebody suddenly yanked her up.
Hendrix frowned at her and asked, "What are you doing?"
Noelle was startled for a moment, then clumsily pushed his hand away. Only after taking several steps back to put a safe distance between them did she finally ask, "What are you doing here?"
Hendrix's frown deepened at her reaction. "Are you afraid of me?"
"No," Noelle quickly denied it. Her flustered expression made it seem like she was worried he might misunderstand or feel hurt. "It's just my mom doesn't want me to be around you. She'll get angry if she finds out about this."
Hendrix looked at her, then suddenly smiled and took a couple of steps closer to her. "Why? Does she think I'm a bad person?"
"Yes."
"But you know I'm not, right?" he said slowly. "Since you already know that, why listen to her?"
Noelle frowned slightly. It was as if she didn't understand the logic in his words, or perhaps she was just caught in some internal conflict.
"And if you don't tell her, how would she know?" Hendrix pressed.
"Wouldn't that be lying?"
"It's not lying. You're just not letting her know."
Noelle had no response to that.
Hendrix changed the subject. "What are you doing here?"
"Planting strawberries." At this, Noelle remembered her task and bent down to continue.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Sway and Slide of Love
Like how the story is progressing now but why is the author only releasing 3 chapters at a time? this is torture😩😩...
Woah chapters 41-45 is intense!! Good to see Noelle’s character who has come across as mostly detached actually express emotion....
I find Noelle’s character so frustrating, she comes across lacking any true emotion. The chapters where Rosie was missing was probably the most where we have seen some strong outward emotion shown. Dreading these next few chapters if she is going to do something drastic to “go find Seline” The author has taken us on a rollercoaster with these characters. The novel feels like it is at a stage now where they can come full circle....
A good change of pace and story in the last 10 chapters. Good to see the shift in Hendrix’s character (more patience) to win over Noelle and Rosie. Hope we start to see them warm up to him. Please no crazy twist where he loses them again. Have enjoyed this story and looking forward to its wrap up👨👩👧...
A good change of pace in the last 10 chapters. Also nice to see a shift in Hendrix’s character (more patience) to win Noelle and Rosie over. Hoping in these next few chapters we start to see Noelle and Rosie warm up to him. Please no crazy twist where he loses them again. Have enjoyed this story and looking forward to its wrap up 👨👩👧...
I have been in love with this novel but I don’t know how much patience I have to wait until the to finish line. Dear Author, can you atleast give us some idea about how long is this going to be or if there’s any turning point coming soon. And it would be great if you could upload at least 10 chapters at once. 5 chapters is making me more impatience with the anticipation of the further story of novel🙈...
I really hope there is a turning point in this story where Noelle starts to show some interest in Hendrix...