Melodies of the Heart: A Pinewood Grove Sweet Romance (8 page)

Levi didn’t answer her, but he followed her outside and into the sun. She wanted to keep kissing him, more than anything she wanted to keep kissing him, but the way he made her feel was too intense for her to handle and she wasn’t quite ready for that.

There was little else but awkward silence as Kassidy led the way out of the haunted house attraction at the fair. Luckily there was no one hanging around the back exit when they emerged, and despite the few crowds that had run up to Levi when they’d first arrived, it didn’t appear that attendance was really that high.

“I figured there would be more people,” Levi said, breaking the strange quiet that had grown between them. “It’s such a beautiful day that I thought the place would be a zoo.”

“It gets a little lower every year,” Kassidy told him. “It used to be the biggest weekend of the year when I was a kid. We looked forward to it for months ahead of time. The carnival was always the unofficial start to summer, being so close to the end of the school year and all, though maybe I’m just looking back with rose colored glasses.”

“So what happened?” Levi asked as they strolled by the Ferris wheel.

“Same thing as everywhere,” Kassidy said with a gentle shrug of her shoulders. “A lot of kids would rather play video games and their parents just let them. Most of my friends only come for the nostalgia and don’t really spend any money while they’re here, which is why there are fewer vendors and food trucks each year.”

“That can’t be good for the carnival,” Levi said as he scanned his eyes over the games.

“Probably not,” Kassidy said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s only got a few years left before they stop coming here. Not worth it for such a small town.”

“How about I help them out and see if I can win you a prize?” Levi asked as they stopped at one of the games. It was one that Kassidy knew was rigged. Using an airsoft gun, the player needed to shoot out the star on a slip of paper ten feet away.

“That one’s rigged,” she warned him. All the guys she’d went to high school with had tried to beat that one at least once, but never did. The guns always fired crooked and made it impossible for anyone to hit their target.

“I still want to give it a try,” he told her. “Come on, cheer me on.”

“Fine,” she relented and they moved over to the booth where a carnie was more focused on his nap than on his game.

“How much?” Levi asked as he leaned his hip on the edge of the game.

“Five bucks gets you one loaded rifle,” the carnie said, yawning halfway through.

“Price has gone up,” Levi noted, but he grabbed a five dollar bill out of his pocket all the same and put it on the wooden lip of the booth.

“Shoot out the star, win the bear,” the carnie said, his barking game in serious need of practice.

Kassidy didn’t hold out much hope of bringing home one of the bears that hung off the awning of the game, but she cheered Levi on all the same. It was an exercise in futility, but he was having fun and she wasn’t going to take that away from him.

But when Levi started shooting, Kassidy realised how wrong she’d been.

The gun fired crooked and shot too many pellets in each burst, but it took Levi no time at all to adjust to accommodate it. Two quick shots and he had it down and then he easily cut out the red star in the center of the paper.

“Well I’ll be,” the carnie said as he rubbed his chin. “You, sir, have a knack for this. Pick a bear.”

“Your choice,” he told Kassidy, and she happily selected a sunshine yellow bear that had to be at least three feet tall and was softer than she’d imagined.

“How did you do that?” Kassidy asked as they walked away from the stall. “No one ever wins on that one.”

“I used to go airsoft shooting as a teen,” he told her. “We could never afford anything but hand me downs and rentals, so you got used to shooting cockeyed guns.”

“Well, I’m impressed,” she said as she snuggled the stuffed bear closer to her chest.

“That was the plan,” he told her as they walked through the carnival.

Kassidy pressed her face into the soft fur of the bear to hide the sigh of relief she breathed as things became more comfortable between them again. For the second time she’d pushed him away and she worried about how much damage that may have done.

When she lifted her head, thoughts of all too passionate kisses left her mind completely. She had bigger problems to worry about now – namely the fact that Paul Larson and some of his friends were only twenty feet away and walking toward her.

“Kassidy, hey,” he said as he approached. “Ah, and this must be the famous Levi Thayne.”

“You could say that,” Levi said, eyeing his obvious rival up.

“Um, yeah,” Kassidy confirmed. “Levi, this is Paul. We went to high school together.”

To her surprise, the two men shook hands. To anyone around them, it might have looked like a polite introduction, but the tension in the air sent a chill down Kassidy’s spine while she watched the two of them eye each other up.

“It must be weird spending time in a small town like this,” Paul said. “I mean, for a big rock star like you. I doubt this is really your speed.”

“I don’t know,” Levi said before he draped his arm over Kassidy’s shoulders. “I’m enjoying it so far. I think I’ll stick around for a while.”

Kassidy should have loved Levi’s arm around her shoulders, the weight of it should have been comforting but she knew it was some kind of alpha male display. She wanted Paul to go away and leave them alone, but she didn’t want Levi stooping to his level either.

“Anyway,” Paul said, directing his attention at Kassidy. “Kass, I was wondering about going to church with you tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, I’ll be there,” she told him. “I’m sure I’ll see you there.”

She was trying to be polite and not do anything that would make the tension even worse, but it quickly became obvious that Paul was looking to show up his rock star rival.

“You misunderstand,” he told her. “I was hoping to escort you.”

“Oh,” she said, though she’d known exactly what he’d meant from the get go. “I’m okay, thanks though.”

The fake, political smile that was plastered on Paul’s lips slipped and his calm demeanor cracked around the edges when she gave him her answer.

“What, you don’t expect him to take you, do you?” he scoffed at her when she rejected him.

“No, I don’t, Paul,” she told him, finding a strength in her voice that she didn’t know was there. “I’m a grown woman and I can escort myself, thank you.”

For a second, anger flashed over Paul’s face but he was quick to correct it. “Of course,” he said, turning on his charm again. “I didn’t mean to imply you aren’t. I’ll see you tomorrow. I hope you two have a lovely day here.”

Paul didn’t wait for her to reply. He simply turned and walked toward the alley of food trucks, his friends following close behind, and Kassidy let herself breathe a sigh of relief once he was out of earshot. Though this one she didn’t hide.

“Okay,” Levi said. “Who was that?”

Kassidy worried he would be upset, but when she looked up at him, she only found that sly smile that she was already growing to love.

“Ugh,” she groaned, and then she let herself groan again at the silliness of it. “Honestly? He’s an ex-boyfriend of mine. We dated for a little bit in high school.”

“I am not even a little bit surprised,” Levi said as they started walking again, but he kept his arm draped over her shoulders and it was finally starting to feel how it should.

“It was a long time ago. I broke it off near the end of senior year,” she told him. “Paul was
not
happy about it, though he swore up and down it was okay. His parents are loaded and he’s going to Yale for law or something and everyone thinks we make this great couple, no matter how hard I try to convince them that he and I are not meant to be together.”

“I assume your parents are in the same boat,” Levi noted.

“Of course,” Kassidy sighed. “They don’t see Paul as anything but this clean cut young man. They don’t see his arrogance, and they don’t see how little we have in common.”

“Clean cut, huh?” Levi joked. “I guess they can’t be too big of fans of me.”

“More honesty?” Kassidy asked. “Not really.”

“Again, not surprised,” Levi said but his smile slipped some.

“It’s not specifically you,” she assured him. “I think they see the musician thing as unstable, and someone like Paul is stiflingly stable. I’m pretty sure they’ll hate anyone I bring home that isn’t Paul. At first, at least.”

“Well is there anything I can do to impress them?” Levi asked, and she wasn’t sure if the question was genuine. Either way, she knew what the answer was, but she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to bring it up right then.

“I don’t know,” she lied. “If I figure it out I’ll let you know.”

She should have just said, “Come to church with me tomorrow,” but she couldn’t make herself do it. She’d even promised her parents that she would ask him, and yet actually forming the words was harder than she’d expected it to be.

Another time
, she told herself.
He said he’s not going anywhere for a while, just give him time.

It was a good plan, in theory, but she had no clue just how much time she may have before the real world caught up with them. She had no way to know when some record label people might show up and force him to go home.

Or when he might get bored of not being a rock star and take off on his own.

Instead, she tried to focus on enjoying the carnival. Thankfully, only a few people here and there kept coming up to Levi for pictures and for the most part they could just enjoy each other’s company.

“What do you want for lunch?” Levi asked as they made their way to the food trucks. Without saying it, they’d given Paul and his friends at least an hour before they went in that direction and Kassidy was happy to avoid them.

“How about grilled cheese?” Kassidy asked and she pointed at a red truck with a giant grilled cheese sandwich on top.

Levi offered no protests as they made their way over and with their food in hand, they went over to an open picnic table and sat down to enjoy it together.

“Good choice,” Levi told her between gooey bites of cheese. “There is a place in Memphis that serves them like this, absolute perfection.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to Memphis,” Kassidy laughed. “It seems like it would be fun.”

“It’s a great town,” Levi said. “Maybe I’ll take you sometime so you can see it for yourself.”

Excitement flashed within Kassidy, but she refused to let herself get swept up in it. It was easy to make promises to travel the world together, but she needed to get to know Levi better first. Trips could come later, she didn’t want to rush.

Instead, she changed the topic to what they wanted to do after the fair. She had let him know she had the whole day off, though she did need to get to Shady Pines by six to help out Mary Alice with bingo.

“She wants me to mow her lawn,” Levi said as he finished his sandwich. “I guess tonight is as good a night as any, and it won’t be so hot in the evening.”

“I warned you when you took a room there that she would want you to do work,” Kassidy laughed.

“I know,” Levi agreed. “And I don’t mind doing it. It’s kind of nice working with my hands again. It’s been a long time since anyone has even let me.”

With those words, Levi took Kassidy’s fingers in his. She wanted to kiss him then, she truly did, but she was scared of it, too. When he kissed her, she became someone else, someone she couldn’t trust, and instead she squeezed his hands and then released them once more.

“Come on,” she said with a put on smile. “Let’s go check out the shops. You can find the coolest stuff in some of them.”

She didn’t wait for his reply before she started walking away. Pushing him away was a dangerous game, but it felt a lot safer than the alternative.

For the first time in over a week, Levi opened the Instagram app on his phone. His band had an official page on the social media platform, though it was run by an assistant at their label, not the band themselves. Still, their manager had insisted that they each put the app on their phones so they could share pictures if they wanted, but no one ever really expected them to.

Levi never had before, but he did enjoy looking at the pictures that people posted on there. He sometimes found himself lost in the highly filtered images, scrolling through his feed until the app froze and he’d give up until he thought to go through it again.

But this time he wasn’t just aimlessly scrolling through images. A lot of people had taken his picture at the carnival and he was searching the hashtag of his own name, fearing the worst as he scrolled. If anyone mentioned where he was, it would be the end of hiding from his label.

By time he reached the photos of him at the carnival, he breathed a sigh of relief. There were pictures, of course there were, but at least none of them were geotagged with Pinewood Grove’s location. He didn’t know how he’d gotten that lucky, but he wasn’t going to second guess himself too much.

Instead, he started searching for other things on the app. He wondered if Kassidy had Instagram and if so, what kind of pictures she shared on it. A quick search of her name found her easily, but he debated going through her pictures.

They’re public
, he told himself while he worried he was invading her privacy.
There’s nothing wrong with looking at her public pictures.

She didn’t post often – the latest shot was from over a month ago – and most of it was baked goods from her family’s bakery, but the pictures made him smile as he scrolled through them all the same.

There were shots of her playing in the snows of the winter that had passed and even some older pictures of her at the beach. Every single shot of her was natural and with the warmest smile he’d ever known.

Just looking at the casual shots made him smile back at her, but the smile soon faded. It had been nearly two days since he’d talked to her, save the occasional text, and he was starting to worry he’d pushed her too far back in that laughable haunted house.

He couldn’t help himself, though. The moment his lips met hers, he wanted to have all of her. She was sweet and warm against him and he never wanted to let her go, but she’d made him do just that and he knew exactly why she’d done it.

She hadn’t said it with words, but he had figured it out quickly enough. It wasn’t just her fear of him leaving, a fear he couldn’t fault her for, but the fact that moving too quickly wasn’t her style and he respected her for that. He just couldn’t help himself when he had her in his arms.

A text notification cut through his thoughts and for once, he answered it.

“Where are you?” Dean’s message read. “There are pictures of you on Instagram at some fair.”

“I know,” Levi sent back. “I’m just taking a bit of a vacation.”

“Is this about some girl?” Dean replied immediately.

“No,” Levi replied, but he knew it was a lie. He wanted to get back to his roots and take some time off, but the longer he stayed in Pinewood Grove, the less he could deny that the reason he’d picked this town wasn’t the scenery. It was Kassidy.

He wasn’t in the mood to hash it out with Dean, not yet at least, and he knew what he really wanted to do. Kassidy would be at work, and that made it very easy for him to go and find her.

He also knew that she wouldn’t have much in the way of customers to keep her busy. In that moment, he worried for her and her family. Deeply worried for them. She always put on a smile and tried to act like things would all turn out okay, but he knew better. Their bakery was in serious trouble and there was nothing he could do to help that, but at least he could keep her company while she worked.

Quickly, Levi changed into the nicest pair of jeans that he’d brought with him and then a black t-shirt that Mary Alice had been nice enough to wash for him. Normally he didn’t really care what he wore. His fans seemed to love the ripped and faded look he normally wore, but for Kassidy, he wanted to be at least presentable.

In that same vein, he thought about shaving, but decided against it. He had worn his facial hair as a perpetual five o’clock stubble for years and something told him that she liked that as it was.

On his way out the door he thought about grabbing some flowers from Mary Alice’s garden to give to her, but he thought better of it. He’d already pushed Kassidy too hard, and he didn’t want to make it worse. Plus, the old woman would probably knock him upside the head for wrecking her garden.

He did want to make her happy, though. She was like no other woman he had ever met. Maybe it was because she was a bit harder for him to get. Women rarely pushed him away when he went to kiss them, but he knew it was more than that.

Levi also knew exactly what would make her happy, even if she wouldn’t ask him. He’d seen the look in her eye when that punk mentioned him taking her to church. She wanted him to be the one to escort her, but she wouldn’t ask him, and Levi silently thanked her for that.

When he was young, his grandmother had taken him to their local chapel every Sunday without fail. It had been so easy then, but after the life he’d led, he didn’t exactly think he would be welcomed anymore. He’d partied too hard, done too many things he regretted, and he doubted he belonged in church anymore.

The streets of Pinewood Grove were nearly empty as he made his way toward Main Street. For such a pretty town, it was such a disappointment that a big box store had done so much damage to the local businesses, and he hoped most people were away camping instead of at that store.

Main Street was lined with parking spots on either side of the wide stretch of road, but all too few of them were taken when he got there. Every shop he passed was open, but barely any of them had anyone looking around inside.

You do need some new clothes
, he told himself as he passed a clothing shop, and he made note to go in as soon as possible. There was a book store, and a record shop too. Both might have something to occupy his time better than just hiding away and trying to figure himself out.

Like its neighbors, the bakery was empty when he walked in. Even Kassidy was nowhere to be found, but when the little bell above the door chimed, she poked her head out of the back.

“Hey,” she greeted him, and that warm smile he was falling for was on her lips. “Looking for something to eat?

She had flour on her face, sweat on her brow, and her hair was tucked up in a hair net, but she took his breath away all the same. Hers was a natural, honest beauty that he never wanted to be apart from.

“Not really,” he said. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. Are you on your own?”

“Yeah,” she said as she wiped her forearm over her brow. “My parents had to run to the bank and then they were going to some of their suppliers for ingredients. Not that I mind, it gives me a chance to actually do some of the baking in the bakery that I’ll be running one day. They usually stick me on cash.”

“Cool,” he said with a light nod. “You want some help?”

The words surprised him as much as they did her when they came out of his mouth. He hadn’t walked in with the intention of helping her knead bread and bake cupcakes, but that was exactly what he was volunteering for.

Kassidy’s face lit up at his offer, and she told him, “Sure! I could get you to knead some bread for me, if you want.”

“Okay,” he agreed, again surprising himself. He kept thinking he would rescind his offer, that he would tell her he would probably just mess it up, but he actually did want to help her.

“Here,” Kassidy said as she handed him a hair net. “Put this on and then wash your hands.”

He did as he was told without protest or complaint and she even gave him an apron when they got into the kitchen.

“Just listen for the bell,” she told him as they moved over to where she’d been working on the loaves. “We do most of the mixing in the machine,” she told him with a nod of her head toward something that looked like a giant version of the stand mixer that had always sat on his grandmother’s counter. “The trick is doing the last of it by hand. Makes it rise better. It’s the warmth in your hands that does it.”

“Cool,” Levi said, though he didn’t know enough about bread to know what that meant.

“Just follow my lead,” she said with a light laugh and then began kneading the dough. He tried to imitate what she was doing, and she laughed at his attempts a few times, but after a while, he got the hang of it.

“You look so cute with flour on your face,” he told her and then kissed the powder off her cheek. Even with the white flour all over her, he could tell she was blushing and it made his heart beat just a little bit faster.

“So do you,” she told him, and before he could react, she tossed a sprinkle of flour on his face.

“Oh, I see how it is,” he laughed with her and then he wrapped an arm around her waist and used his free hand to literally powder her nose.

“This is not a fight you’ll win!” she gleefully warned him and soon there was a cup of flour in his formally dark hair.

Between light kisses and tosses of flour at each other, barely any bread was making it into the oven and worse, the kitchen soon became a mess. They both seemed to realise it at the same time, and Kassidy’s laughter became a sigh.

“My parents will flip,” she groaned, but she was still smiling.

“But it was fun,” he reminded her as he kissed her forehead.

“Yeah, but they’ll see this and give me some lecture like I’m a five year old,” she told him. “Plus we need those loaves for a special order.”

“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll clean, you bake.”

“You sure?” she asked, the worry leaving her face some.

“Definitely,” he told her. “Just tell me where the broom is. No one will ever know we did anything but knead bread.”

“Thanks,” she said. “It’s in the little closet behind the mixer.”

Once he found the broom, Levi began to sweep up the mess that they’d caused and Kassidy returned her focus to the bread, only stepping away when the little bell out front chimed.

He was just about to finish putting the last of the mess in the garbage when he realised just how domestic the whole scene was. Her baking, him cleaning, and what surprised him the most was how much it didn’t bother him. He never thought that a life in a small town would be what he wanted, but he was starting to realise that if he could do this every day with Kassidy and play music too, he might truly find the happiness that had eluded him for so long.