“This is nice,” he said as he sat down inside the covered gazebo and waited for her to join him.
“Yeah,” Kassidy said as she sat beside him, though she made sure to leave some distance between them. Her need for space was caused by her own insecurities, but it did not go unnoticed by Levi.
“Okay, you need to tell me what’s up,” he said when she stayed painfully quiet, her eyes refusing to meet his as they sat together.
“Nothing,” she insisted, though she kept her gaze straight forward.
“Please don’t lie to me,” he said, the hurt obvious on his face when she made herself look at him.
“It’s honestly nothing,” she tried again. “I’m just being paranoid about some stuff.”
“Paranoid about what?” he asked.
“About...” she began with a sigh. “About you leaving town.”
“I see,” Levi murmured. “What brought this on?”
“My friends,” she said honestly. “They were just trying to make sure I wasn’t being stupid about us, but they got me thinking about things and truthfully I just let those things snowball in my head and the next thing I knew, I was freaking out about you leaving again and it only gets worse the more I think about it.”
Getting it all out was like having a weight lifted off her shoulders, but now she had to worry about what his response would be. Her greatest fear was him telling her that yes, he did plan on leaving.
“Will if help if I told you I don’t want to go anywhere?” he asked.
“A little,” she told him. At least it was something.
“Kassidy, I can’t promise I’ll never leave town,” he told her. “But I can tell you I’ll always come back. I don’t think the rock star life is for me, not anymore, at least. I’m sure at some point I’ll have to go somewhere to get things sorted out, but only to do that. Then I’d come back.”
“You mean it?” she asked, trying not to get her hopes up but finding it way too hard not to.
“Of course,” Levi said and his hand found hers again and he squeezed it tightly.
Outside the gazebo, the rain was starting to fall and Kassidy let her head rest on his shoulder. He wanted to be with her, just like she wanted to be with him, and she let herself enjoy the moment until a crack of thunder startled her.
“I think we’re stuck here for a bit,” Levi laughed as the rain started to fall harder outside. They could run back, but not without getting soaked to the bone and risking lightning strikes in the heavily treed park.
“I don’t mind,” Kassidy told him as her eyes met his. She knew what she wanted then, and instead of waiting for him to kiss her, she leaned up and pressed her lips to his.
He let her lead this time, and never pushed her farther than she was comfortable with. His fingers stayed locked with hers while their kiss deepened and the thunder and rain rumbled all around them.
It was perfect, exactly what she’d dreamed of, and when she let her lips leave his, Kassidy whispered exactly how she was feeling.
“I love you.”
The words summed up every single emotion she’d been feeling since nearly the moment he rode into town. All her worries were caused by it, and all her happiness too. Saying it out loud was like breathing for the very first time.
But Levi didn’t say it back.
“Love...?” he mumbled as his fingers released hers.
“Is that okay?” she asked, her chin quivering as she looked at him.
“No, I mean yes,” he said, stumbling over his words. “I’m happy to hear it, please don’t think I feel otherwise.”
“But...” Kassidy said, forcing her voice to remain calm and steady. “You don’t feel the same?”
“It’s not that,” Levi said. “I care about you, more than I’ve cared about anyone in a really, really long time. I hope that much is obvious.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. He did make that pretty clear to her.
“I just, God, I just don’t think I can say those words,” he told her. “Not because of you, but because of me. I’m scared to let myself say it, I won’t lie to you about that.”
“Why?” she asked. She had been so certain that he would say it back, but now she wasn’t sure what to do at all.
“Because I haven’t been the kind of person I want to be,” he said. “Not for a very long time. I don’t think... Kass, I don’t think I deserve love, not right now. I need to work on myself and fix my issues before I can get there.
“But,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean I won’t get there. And I won’t lie, being with you has made me happier than anything has in years. Kissing you is like playing a sold out stadium for the very first time. I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve you, and that’s the problem. I worry I don’t deserve you.”
“But you do,” she insisted. “Levi, you’re a good person. You might not think so, but I see it. If you can’t say those words right now, that’s okay. I understand. I’m just happy you were honest with me instead of telling me something just because I wanted to hear it.”
“You sure?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said and she kissed his cheek. It was the truth, and she meant it completely. She loved him, there was no denying that. He might not be able to let himself feel the same way, not yet, but for now she was happy loving him while they waited out the storm together.
Chapter Fifteen
The hard, incessant beeping of the alarm on her phone brought Kassidy out of the deep sleep she’d been enjoying. Her dreams had been happy ones – ones of kissing Levi over and over again, of him promising to come back to Pinewood Grove if even he did have to leave at some point.
And the best part was, they weren’t entirely dreams. It had happened, but during her sleep, her mind had replayed them over and over again. She got to relive telling him she loved him, and having him kiss her fingertips when the rain had let up and they’d run home together.
But that had only been a few short hours ago and she needed to get down to the bakery and get to work. Her alarm told her she was already half an hour late, and she knew she was in for trouble. She’d promised to be back early, and she’d lied about where she’d gone.
But it had all been worth it to spend such a magical night with Levi. The rain and thunder had only made it better and she didn’t care that she’d come home soaked and out of breath. It had been perfect.
Or at least nearly perfect.
He hadn’t said the words she’d longed to hear, but he’d been honest with her, at least. One day he would be able to say, “I love you,” to her, and she had to be patient and wait for it. They were not words that should be rushed or said because it was expected of him.
His kisses said more than his words needed to. Each time she remembered kissing him under the gazebo, her lips tingled and her belly fluttered. It was love, it had to be, and he would tell her that one day and they would fall into each other’s arms and be happy.
She didn’t have time to stay in that fantasy for long. Her parents would be expecting her downstairs for work, and she was already late. After she pulled on some track pants and a t-shirt, she raced downstairs and stepped into the bakery, but instead of the hum of the mixer, she heard voices.
“You need to go to the bank and get an extension,” her mother’s voice filled the bakery.
“They turned us down when we were there a week ago,” her dad shot back, his voice loaded with deep anger and resentment. “They aren’t going to change their minds now.”
“But we can’t pay the bill right now,” her mother said, and Kassidy’s joy turned sour in her mouth. She’d been so occupied with her feelings about Levi that she’d nearly forgotten just how slow the bakery had been lately.
“What about the cake for the Miller wedding?” her dad was asking. “They put the deposit on it three days ago. That should cover something.”
“Yes,” her mother said. “It paid the electricity bill. Now we need to make a payment on the loan.”
; What loan? Kassidy wondered to herself. They’d never mentioned it to her. Her parents always made a point to tell her not to go into debt or take loans. They owned the building the store was in, along with the apartment upstairs, which was more debt they were avoiding, but now they had a loan and worse, they couldn’t pay it.
“Well, you can take it out of the savings account,” her dad said.
“What savings account?” her mother said, her voice strained and thin. “We emptied that six months ago.”
Six months? Kassidy fretted. It was worse than she’d imagined.
“Well we need to make more money,” her dad said, though he didn’t offer a way to do that.
“What do you want me to do?” her mother shot back. “Give baskets of bread to Kassidy and have her go around selling them door to door?”
“You know she won’t do that,” her dad argued. “She doesn’t care about this place anymore.”
“Yes she does,” her mother came to her defence.
“You’re blind,” her dad told her. “She isn’t going to want to take over this place and its lack of business now that she’s dating some rock star. She’ll be too busy taking off to La-La Land with him to run this place. Maybe we should... God, maybe we should throw in the towel.”
“It’s just a fling,” her mother said, and that hurt just as bad as what her dad had said. “It’s normal for a girl her age. Just you wait, that boy will go back to Los Angeles and she’ll remember Paul is around and he’ll take care of her. His family has money and she won’t need to worry about selling much to keep the lights on.”
“You’re being foolish,” her dad said. “I can’t deal with this – or you – right now.”
His words were meant to hurt. They weren’t even directed at Kassidy, and she knew it was stress talking, but they’d stabbed her right in the gut all the same. The people she cared about most were in trouble, but she had no idea how to help them.
“Dad,” she said as her father stormed out of the back, but he rushed right past her and out the door. She had no idea where he was going, and she didn’t follow him. Instead she went to check on her mother.
“Mom?” she asked as she stepped into the back, but her mother was standing there in a daze, her fingers not just on her lip, but in them while she gnawed at the tips of her fingernails.
“Mom, stop biting your nails,” Kassidy said, but her mother didn’t even hear her.
“I need to go lay down,” she said. “I’m not feeling well. Take care of the shop, okay, honey?”
“Okay mom,” Kassidy said and she waited for the little bell above the door to chime before she let herself react to what happened.
“Oh my gosh,” she mumbled, fighting the urge to cry. “Oh no, this is so bad.”
With no customers to occupy herself, and none of the machines up and running, Kassidy was at a loss for what to do with herself. She couldn’t leave. Someone had to stay in case of a customer coming in, and she paced the kitchen while she debated what to do.
While she paced, she started to tidy things as she worked. She hadn’t meant to clean, but suddenly that was what she was doing, putting things away, sorting old moulds, and throwing out stuff that had piled up.
But then she spotted them. Two moulds that were haphazardly tossed aside, but together they looked like two hearts, joined together.
“Cute,” she said aloud to herself. “Really cute.”
It was more than cute. It was serendipitous. With a little elbow grease, she got the moulds clean and then managed to stick them together. They’d once been for mini-cakes, usually to stick on the top of a wedding cake, but now Kassidy had a new idea.
She moved without thinking, heading to the fridge and getting the ingredients she would need. She’d made vanilla cupcakes so many times that she could do it in her sleep, and she began to mix the batter, but then she got creative.
There were some strawberries in the fridge, leftovers from the strawberry shortcake that Mrs. Duong had ordered a few days ago, and she threw them in a blender.
Bit by bit, her vision came together and she popped the concoction into the oven. Kassidy couldn’t be sure how it would turn out, but while it baked, she made up some simple buttercream frosting and waited.
“Well, it baked okay,” she said as she removed the newly baked, oversized cupcake out of the mould. It had come out a beautiful pink color, and with a bit of white icing on top, she finished it with a tiny strawberry just in time for the bell above the front door to chime.
“Coming!” she called, not sure whether she wanted it to be her parents or a customer more.
It wasn’t her parents, but two girls who couldn’t have been older than sixteen. They were wearing impossibly short shorts and t-shirts with the Fable Heart logo on them.
“Hello,” Kassidy greeted them, and it was only then that she realised she was still holding her double heart cupcake.
“Um, hey,” one of the girls said. “Do you guys sell those French macarons?”
“Sorry,” Kassidy said. “We don’t.”
They had sold them in the past, but they were so much work for very little return. Few people bought them, mostly because the price was so high, and then ShopMart started selling them too. Theirs were ordered in and stale by time they arrived, but people bought them all the same and Mrs. Olsen had decided they weren’t worth the trouble anymore.
“Crud,” the girl said and turned to leave, but before she reached the door her friend stopped her.
“Hey,” the second girl said as she came up to the counter. “What’s that?” she asked as she pointed at Kassidy’s food invention.
“Oh, it’s a little something I whipped up,” Kassidy said.
“How much?” the girl asked her. “It looks cool.”
“It’s not really for sale,” Kassidy said. She had no idea what to charge for the thing, and she had to be honest with herself and admit she wanted to be the one to eat it.
“Come on, I’ll give you ten bucks,” the girl said.
“You know what,” Kassidy told her. “It’s on the house.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Kassidy told them. Her parents would kill her if they learned she was giving stuff away for free, but she hoped the girls would tell their friends how awesome the bakery was and then they’d bring more people back next time.
“Cool,” the girls gushed and they reached up for their free treat. Without meaning to, each girl reached for it and to everyone’s surprise, the two halves split apart easily, right along the center.
“Oh wow,” Kassidy said when she realised her double cupcake had perfectly split into two.
“That’s amazing!” one of the girls said.
“So cute,” the other gushed, but Kassidy knew the gimmick wasn’t enough. She could only hope it tasted as good as it looked.
Kassidy watched with bated breath while the girls each bit into their half and she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw their faces light up.
“Strawberry,” the one girl said, her voice closer to a moan than anything else.
“So good,” the other said as she quickly stuffed the rest of the treat into her mouth.
“I have to show Daniel,” the first girl said. “I’ll take two more.”
“Sorry,” Kassidy told them. “That was the only one. It was, um, a prototype.”
“Really?” the girls asked.
“Yeah,” Kassidy said. “You guys got the very first one.”
“Well, make more,” one of them told her. “Seriously, get on that. That was the best thing I’ve ever eaten and it’s cute, too. If you make more, put a sign out or something. I’d buy a dozen.”
“Me too,” her friend said. “Everyone is going to love them.”
“Thanks,” Kassidy said as she watched them go. At first she’d been hoping that they’d buy something else, but now she had something even better. Her creation had been a hit, and somehow she just knew that part of the credi
t belonged to Levi.
She would never tell her parents, but it was her love for him that had inspired her to make the heart shaped treat. She couldn’t promise them it would be a hit, but by time they’d finally cooled off, she had a dozen of the double heart cupcakes in the display case, with a price of six dollars for one.
“They’re sweetheart cupcakes,” she explained to her mom. “I can do different flavors if you want, but these ones are strawberry vanilla and I promise they’re really good.”
“But it’s so big,” her mother said as she looked at the treats filling the display case.
“Because you share them,” Kassidy said. “You pull them apart and it makes two hearts. It’s cool, I promise.”
“Kass, I don’t know,” her mom fretted.
“Dear,” her dad stopped her. “I think we should be proud of Kassidy for this. Now, I don’t know if anyone will get it, but tomorrow when we open, I want a bunch of those in the window display. Think you can do that, kiddo?”
“Definitely,” Kassidy said. She didn’t care if that meant spending her Friday night baking, she’d make as many of the cupcakes as they had ingredients for. Come morning, she just knew they were going to have their best Saturday in a long time.
Chapter Sixteen
Humidity hung in the attic room and Levi let it sit on his skin like a fine film of sweat. He’d never minded the heat, but as May was coming to a close, it was the humidity that was starting to get to him.
The little room he was renting out was nothing like the hotels he’d spent the last six years in and out of. It certainly wasn’t anything like the mansion he’d bought in Malibu a couple years ago, the one he’d probably spent all of two weeks in since he’d bought it off some washed up actress.
And yet he was happy in the humid little room. It was more real to him than any place he’d stayed in since Fable Heart made it big and he had no intention of trading up any time soon.
Melodies of the Heart: A Pinewood Grove Sweet Romance Page 10