My sincerest apologies! For some reason fanfiction decided to only post the first sentence of my author's note, not the remaining 1, 200 words after it... For all those who reviewed, and for those who eventually pointed out what had happened, thanks. You guys are the best! I'll update again within the next few hours, I promise :)

"You're just mad because she was cute and made you feel like an ass."

He snorted slightly, watching as Cam plucked a few stray leaves off the stem of daisy. "I'm not mad. I'm just saying she could have been a bit nicer. I was only trying to help. 'I'm you're rival.' Yeah right. You should see her farm Cam, it's a wreck."

Cam chucked. "If you're not mad then why is this the fifth time you've brought it up in the past week?" He didn't bother replying and instead leant against the florist's table, his elbows creasing the table cloth. Cam smirked, beginning to wrap the flowers in tissue paper. "Maybe she's was just a bit offended by the fact that you basically called her ranch a sty?"

Ash shrugged. "Regardless. That's not how things work around here."

"And how exactly do things work around here again?"

He picked absentmindedly at his chin. "Well... If people are nice to you, you're nice back. And since she wasn't nice to me then... Then she owes it to me to be nice now."

Cam sighed at him, placing the bouquet aside. "And you don't think that maybe the reason she wasn't nice to you is because you basically called her farm a piece of crap and made her feel incapable of doing anything herself?"

He didn't bother replying, a quick glance over his shoulder revealing the girl in question striding towards them, her brown hair billowing out behind her and sending a swoop low into his belly. He crossed his arms and turned back to Cam, huffing slightly.

"What's this?" The boy in question was smirking at him. "Don't want to try and make amends?"

"I didn't even do anything wrong!'

Cam chuckled dryly, before calling out. "Hey, Lillian!"

She had been placing a piece of paper into her bag and jumped at his voice, the paper in question slipping between her fingers and flying on the breeze towards the two boys, colliding rather awkwardly with his back. He glared hard at Cam as he smirked in a satisfied sort of way, his fingers nearly crushing Lillian's request form as he made a sudden grab for it, his politeness outweighing his desire to see it blow away.

"Hey Cam... Ash." She sent Cam a warm smile that somehow didn't reach his direction as she approached the booth, taking the paper from his hands reluctantly. "...Thanks for grabbing that for me."

"My pleasure." He could hear the sarcasm in his voice before he awkwardly cleared his throat, trying to keep his temper.

She raised an eyebrow at him and apparently decided against saying anything rude back. "Yeah.. anyway. It's actually a good thing I came over here." She continued, turning her attention to Cam. "I'm actually fulfilling a request for Rutger and he wanted three bouquets of red carnations. Think you can handle it?" She grinned at Cam as she handed over the gold.

"Of course."

They fell into an uneasy silence as Cam set to work on the bouquets, Lillian's eyes remained firmly fixed on the table cloth. "So," He struck up, shifting his weight against the table. He absolutely hated awkward silences. "Uh, how's the farm?"

"Fine." She kept her tone cool, her emerald eyes staring at the purple pattern on the table.

Cam's eyes flashed up to him momentarily, the look on his face clearly reading, Be Nice. He cleared his throat, trying to keep his tone light. "Nothing is giving you trouble?"

"Nope, everything is fine."

He could feel his tone slipping into sarcasm. "Really?"

"It's fine Ash." She snapped, turning her head to glare at him so quickly that her hair nearly whipped him across the face. "Thanks for the flowers, Cam." She said half-heartedly at the florist, beginning to fill her arms with flowers.

Prompted by a glare from Cam he grabbed her last bouquet, trying to smile at her. "That's too much for you to carry... how about I help you?"

She snatched the flowers back from him, her face icy. "I can handle it Ash. Do you really think I'm so incompetent that I can't even handle a bundle of carnations?" She turned on her heel and stalked away from him, not bothering to thank Cam again for the flowers.

"What the hell is her problem?" He sighed, wanting to rip his hat off in frustration. "I'm a nice guy. I was being nice, right?"

Behind him Cam chuckled. "Ash, usually if you have to point out that you're a nice guy... You're not a nice guy."

And yet that fact that he and Lillian didn't get along proved to be as popular a topic as any in Bluebell. She hadn't even been in town for a week, and already he was getting sick of all the talk about her. He hated himself for it, but couldn't stand the fact that she didn't like him; regardless of the fact that he wasn't too fond of her himself, it irked his very core that she had been the one to dislike him first.

The fact the a certain rivalry was growing between the two farmers was providing a source of gossip the likes the town hadn't seen since Georgia and Brady's arrival- he could hardly leave the house without people stopping and offering him words of encouragement or asking for his thoughts on the matter.

"She's from the city, you know." Laney had told him, while refilling his cup of warm milk one rainy day at the cafe. "Maybe they just do things differently there. Like to be more independent and secretive about their work."

Georgia had cornered him on his way to the square last Monday, saying. "You know, she could just be trying to keep up this act to get free feed from ya'll. Trying to make your mother feel embarrassed for what her son is doing."

According to Cam, however, he had a right to feel embarrassed. "You've kind of been a bit of an ass to her. You've implied in about a thousand different ways that you think she doesn't stand a chance at turning that farm around. And don't forget what Cheryl did."

The low-point of the whole fiasco had occurred a few days earlier when Cheryl had rather obviously attempted to shove a cricket down the bodice of Lillian's dress, and when caught proceeded to announce to the whole of a square that her brother had been right to call her stupid (which for the record, he had not done- at least, in so many words) and that she was unwelcome in the town and in their shop.

"I don't mean to be that big of an ass though." He sighed, scratching at the back of his head. "It's like whenever she comes around I lose my head."

"Chalk it up to bad timing." Cam shrugged. "You know, Harmony Day is coming up. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to get her something small? Like a peace offering?"

He snorted loudly. "Please. If I can't get her to accept help repainting the barn how on earth am I going to get her to accept something as stupid as a cake?"

Once again, apologies for not noticing earlier about the slip up. Thank you for continuing to support this story! Read and Review Please!